Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Review: Patriots’ Biggest Takeaways From Preseason Finale

Starting point is 00:00:00 From the first unit to the second unit to playing a lot in the final preseason game, the curious case of Keon White. That's where we start on this episode of Lockdown Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on podcast network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattels, born and raised in New England. also host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports talk show host veteran.

Starting point is 00:00:37 On today's episode, a surprisingly good night for one vet fighting for a job. And a former first round pick gets his butt-wooked. But first, Kean White plays a ton and we get some clarity at left guard and center. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen. And for being an everydayer, the Lockdown Patriots podcast, a proud partner. the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. The third preseason game matters. It matters for five, six, seven, maybe even as many as 10 guys on the roster.

Starting point is 00:01:12 Who's going to make it? Who's going to get cut? It might not be the most important game to watch as a fan, but the game ultimately matters. And during this game, between the Giants and the Patriots, which obviously ended up in the Giants' favor, shalacking the past, we learned we learned several things during this game and let's start with keon white at the beginning of camp keon white looked like he was going to have a breakout season like he was going to be one of the truly impactful defensive players in 2025 that the move from mayo and covington to

Starting point is 00:01:52 rabel and williams was the move that keon white needed and then all of a sudden the past couple of weeks, Keon White, his impact, it grew quiet, not many plays being made, more questions being asked. And then as we got ready for the third and final preseason game, we saw first Keon White starting to lose snaps at practice to Caleban Chase on on that first unit. And then we saw, during Tuesday's practice, Chase on completely leapfrog White. And it was Chase on the first unit, White on the second unit. Then you get into the third and final preseason game. And Keon White is not only dressed.

Starting point is 00:02:36 Keon White is dressed and he's playing. And Keon White not only played, but he played into late in the second quarter. He played a lot of snaps. And it's kind of an interesting decline for White. Because not only is it obvious, he's no longer going to be on that top defensive unit, we now start to wonder how far has he fallen? And it's a legitimate question. And when you're watching the game, he's playing late into the second quarter and he's

Starting point is 00:03:12 not making a ton of plays against the Giants' twos and threes. Now, earlier in the game, he had back-to-back snaps where he drew a holding penalty, and then he had a pressure. Later on in the second quarter, he had a pressure. he had a pressure or two but those plays came in bunches for most of his time in the first half that he played it wasn't like he was electric he didn't jump out through the television at you and that's what you want to see if a guy like white who was on the top defensive unit to start this camp if a guy like him is playing late into the second quarter you want to

Starting point is 00:03:51 see him jump out at you you want to walk away from the game saying okay We pushed him down the depth chart. We challenged him. We played him in the final preseason game. He showed up consistently. He made a bunch of plays. He made a statement. And I just don't feel like White made a statement with his playing time in this final

Starting point is 00:04:12 preseason game. And now we're wondering, how far has he fallen? How much is he going to play in the regular season? Week one, what are we looking at? Was the coaching staff testing Kian? on white's motor because we've talked about it white last year started unbelievably well and as the year went on he trailed off you start camp great as camp goes on he trails off was this a test of his tic-tok was it a test of his motor i don't know what it was but it was interesting in week

Starting point is 00:04:48 one against the raiders i have no idea if keon white's going to play and how much he's going to play we'll see. It feels like he needs a couple of great weeks of practice to get back into the good graces of this coaching staff. Another big takeaway that I had during the game, we've been talking about this battle at left guard and center. Jared Wilson, Ben Brown, Wilson, center, guard, same thing with Brown. Brown A natural center shifted to guard a few times, starting against Minnesota. So what was going to happen in this final preseason game? Both guys played, both guys started but what was compelling to me was that the expectation was those guys were going to flip-flop you thought maybe in the first series Wilson would play center or guard Brown would play

Starting point is 00:05:39 the other spot and then in the second series they would swap that is not what happened Jared Wilson exclusively at left guard and look we're talking about a rookie here I would have to imagine if Wilson was in the conversation to play center, he would have gotten at least a few snaps in the game. But he was playing left guard exclusively and Brown played center exclusively. Meanwhile, Garrett Bradbury, he wasn't dressed. He got the night off. And that should tell us all, as of right now, unless there's a big change in the final two weeks before the season kicks off, that should tell us that Garrett Bradbury is going to be your starting center. He is going to be your starting center. He was giving the night off along with

Starting point is 00:06:28 Owenu and Campbell and Moses. Those guys, they seem like they've got their spots locked down. Not a surprise with Moses or Owenu or Campbell. Bradbury is the fourth piece of that puzzle. So with Brown playing exclusively at center, you wonder, is that because the coaching staff wanted to give Wilson all the snaps at left guard to see if he could make a charge? They got enough tape on Ben Brown and what he did at left guard and they feel pretty decent about that and they wanted to see if Wilson could make a move against the Giants, or is it because they've made up their mind? Is it because they're actually going to play Wilson at left guard and it was a blip on the radar, had a couple of tough practices, tweaked something,

Starting point is 00:07:16 sat out that second joint practice against the Vikings, and then went out there in the Vikings game played well at center but now he's back at left guard so the shuffling continues but if you're just taking notes from the final preseason game you would walk away from the game believing Wilson is going to play left guard brown is going to play center and because bradbury didn't dress brown's going to be your backup center and maybe your top interior offensive line backup and wilson's going to get to start at left guard but we still got a couple of of weeks. So we don't know. But that's what happened during the game. And I found that intriguing, that they did not swap those two guys. Wilson stayed at guard, Brown stayed at center.

Starting point is 00:08:04 Let's talk about the young cornerbacks. It was going to be a big night for these young cornerbacks. They've gotten plenty of reps with Gonzalez being hurt with the hamstring, Carlton Davis, missing chunks of this camp. Then you had DJ James go out with the injury. This was an opportunity for Jordan Polk, for Miles Battle, for Kobe Minor. This was an opportunity for those guys to step up, and they had a terrible night. They had such a bad night that I would not be surprised that all of them end up not making a team. I mean, you could go through it, but it was bad. Jordan Polk, who made some nice plays over the past couple of weeks, had two holds.

Starting point is 00:08:52 One of the holding penalties on him took back a fumble from Jackson Dart, nice play by Gibbons to get the football out, but Polk gets the defensive holding, and, you know, the very next plays a disaster. So you go from a fumble, a turnover to giving up a touchdown, it's a mess. And you had a tight end touchdown, Dulcich touchdown against Miles Battle, Kobe minor got beat downfield a couple of times got away with it because Hyatt dropped a couple footballs but then Jalen Hyatt comes down with a touchdown catch against Kobe minor so nobody stood out battle wasn't very good poke wasn't very good minor wasn't very good and you walk

Starting point is 00:09:36 away feeling like all three of those guys probably not going to make the roster none of those guys after that performance. Alex Austin played, which was somewhat interesting, but with all the other injuries you have and you want to sit Davis, I think that was out of necessity for Alex Austin to play a few snaps. But the young corners struggled mightily. One vet didn't struggle. One vet shined with his job on the line,

Starting point is 00:10:08 while another remains a puzzle that we just can't solve. coming up as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is presented by Yahoo! Fantasy. It's the best time of the year NFL kickoff almost here, and that means fantasy football season is back in full swing. And this year, Yahoo Fantasy, turning things up with a fantasy football experience like never before. Whether you're a first timer with Yahoo Fantasy or actually making your one millionth league with Yahoo! Fantasy. You know what it's all about, or you will know what it's all about. Yahoo Fantasy

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Starting point is 00:11:17 Stay tuned for more killer announcements and start playing Yahoo Fantasy Football now at Yahoo!fantasy.com slash lockdown NFL. Having a good night in the final preseason game for some of these guys is the difference between keeping your job or landing on the practice squad. And for some guys, it's the difference between landing on the practice squad and going to find a 9-to-5 job in the next week or two.

Starting point is 00:11:49 This game's critical, critical for a number of players. You want to make plays. You want to limit mistakes. Let's talk about Kyle Dugger. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Dugger saved his job. I'm not sure he did. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Dugger had a fantastic night against a starting NFL offense. he didn't but what we're looking at is when you have the type of camp that dougar has had which

Starting point is 00:12:20 has been truly awful and against minnesota you're out there playing in the final snap of the freaking game you are barely hanging on barely hanging on to a roster spot at that point you have to try to accomplish something when you're given an opportunity. You've got to take some kind of step forward. You can't continue to fall back. And I thought in the game, Kyle Dugger, he took some of those steps forward. I thought in the final preseason game, Dugger played his best that we've seen him play during this camp, during the joint practices during the preseason games.

Starting point is 00:13:09 Dugger came into the second quarter. I thought he was very responsible in coverage, which is something that we haven't said an awful lot about Dugger, especially against vertical routes. Dugger was in the right spot at the right time over and over and over again. And frankly, I don't care who he's playing against. Because the most important thing is whether or not Dugger, Dugger is where he is supposed to be.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Is he getting burnt deep? Is he not paying attention? Is the focus not there? Does he let guys slip behind him and get behind that coverage? And he did not against the Giants. He did not allow that to happen. He was in the right spot at the right time against those vertical routes, which is a step forward for Dugger.

Starting point is 00:14:03 If you're Vrable, if you're Terrell Williams and you're watching him, you're saying to yourself, well, at least he played with some discipline. At least he showed responsibility on the back end, which is something we've been praying for him to show. And there were a number of vertical routes. I don't know if the Giants were trying to take advantage of Dugger. If you watch film, I'd imagine they were trying to. But Dugger held up. He held up.

Starting point is 00:14:28 He held steady. He was in the right spot. He had a past breakup. up. I also thought that he was, for the most part, terrific tackling. Now, I thought he took a bad angle at one point during the game. I thought there was another point where he looked like he was a missile and he missed the tackle. He just came flying in downhill and missed the tackle. And the ball carrier got like an additional five, six, seven yards after Dougher missed the tackle. But for the most part, I thought he was flying downhill making tackles.

Starting point is 00:15:00 you know the dougar that we saw going back a couple of years ago where he's he's screaming downhill and sticking guys just putting them in the dirt we saw at least two if not three of those types of hits from dougar so we saw the big hits downhill we saw him stay responsible and disciplined on vertical routes we saw him with a past breakup we saw him have an interception in the end zone now there was a miscommunication there but he's still there he's still in the spot to make the play keep the feet in get the interception i thought dougar looked engaged i thought he looked engaged and i thought he played with great energy i don't know if it's going to save his job or not but i will tell you this dougar did not lose his job like he could

Starting point is 00:15:52 have if he goes out there and plays like crap against the giants it's a fait accompli at that point we know what's going on he gone and he still might be gone but at least he showed the fight he showed the scrap and he showed that he can give you some responsible football while playing physical and violent so maybe he hangs on maybe he doesn't but i thought he fought for his job then we get to jvonne baker he is a mystery wrapped up in a rizzle in a riddle trying to figure out the puzzle. I mean, he is just good, bad, good, bad, good bad. And let's start with the offensive stuff, because offensively, as a wide receiver, Baker did not help himself out at all. He had a drop, and I'm not talking about the one that was thrown behind him by Woldridge.

Starting point is 00:16:42 I'm talking about the slant on the first third down that hit him in the breadbasket and he dropped it. Can't have a drop. You're trying to make the football team. You only have so many opportunities. And as a wide receiver, Baker had to make some plays to try to solidify himself on the 53. And he didn't. He had a drop. Not good enough. Not good enough given the situation. And then he made it worse. He had an offensive pass interference in the third quarter. Now, there was a high snap by Cole Strange, which threw the timing off on the play. So maybe Vrable doesn't dock him too many points for that OPI. But still, you have a drop, you have an OPI, He was a big fat zero on offense.

Starting point is 00:17:24 He did nothing. But there was some good. And I know it's not exciting, but the good was on special teams. And I thought he stood out once again on special teams. He drew a flag on the Giants early in this game on special teams as the gunner. And then again later, right after the drop, he showed a nice bounce back by getting in on the play as the gunner again on the punt, and he forced the fumble the muff by the punt returner because he blew up the block in front of him.

Starting point is 00:18:01 So there was the bad offensive stuff. There was the really good special team stuff. Is that going to be enough to keep his, you know, position on the roster? I'm not sold because Baker was out there in the fourth quarter, which tells me he is, he is slipping further and further away from having a spot on that 53 by week one. If you're playing in the fourth quarter of the final preseason game, your spot's in trouble. And he did not do enough offensively to protect himself. That's for sure.

Starting point is 00:18:40 If he makes this team, it's because of special teams. And then we get to Andy Baragallis, who, you know, he missed a 49-yarder. He made a 30-yarder. I still think, you know, Parker Romo is somebody that, uh, I think walked into this game with the edge. I thought Parker Romo had the edge going into the game. And I feel like Parker Romo still has the edge. And, you know, if, if you're the Patriots and you've spent three draft picks on kickers in recent years and none of them end up working out for you, now Borogallis, if he gets cut, he might get picked up by somebody else.

Starting point is 00:19:19 but using a sixth round pick on a kicker and then cutting him if that's what happens you know four months later that's not what you're looking for you draft a kicker in the sixth round because you're going to have that kicker on the team and maybe he ends up on the team because they use that pick on him but Parker Romo has been the better kicker he has been the better kicker and if I'm picking right now I'm going Romo over Borogales A former captain continues to set the example, and a few rookies stand out. That's next as we continue with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Starting point is 00:21:20 Now, of course, you're talking about the twos and threes. And guys, a lot of those guys are not going to be on the team, but you still want to see that. If you're Vrable, you're trying to set the example, you're trying to make sure that guys are playing through the whistle. You want to make sure that they are playing hard and physical and violent, as Terrell Williams would say, the effort is there, right?

Starting point is 00:21:38 The effort, the finish, playing smart. He had way too many penalties. The defense, especially late in this game, didn't show much finish. They were getting run over. I don't know if all the guys out there were showing maximum effort. So it was a down night overall for the program. Of course, you would rather see, you know, what you saw in games one and two. And overall, you walk away feeling like Vrable made some headway into reshaping things here.

Starting point is 00:22:08 But there's no doubt Vrable is. not going to be happy in the locker room. He's absolutely going to share with the guys that they fell well short of his expectations. But let's have some notable observations from a game that overall did not go according to the plan. I want to start with Gibral Peppers. Now, what was interesting was Peppers was dressed, and he played, and Peppers played four or five drives in the game. And I wonder if that's because he didn't play against Minnesota. Was this something that Peppers went to Rabel and said,

Starting point is 00:22:44 I want to play tonight? You know, I feel kind of out of rhythm. I didn't get reps against the Vikings and the second joint practice. And I didn't get reps in the second preseason game. So can I get a quarter, quarter and a half under my belt? So this might have been Peppers trying to get the engine revved because this is the last chance he'll have to play competitive football until week one. So I would not be surprised if that's why Peppers was out there.

Starting point is 00:23:11 and played as much as he did. Another reason why Peppers might have been out there is to get reps with Craig Woodson. Because Woodson has been pretty steady in camp. Looks like he's going to get snaps, if not significant snaps. And maybe because, again, Peppers missed that second joint practice

Starting point is 00:23:29 in the second preseason game. Maybe Terrell Williams and the secondary coaches wanted to have Woodson and Peppers out there together for, you know, four or five series so they can start to communicate and feel, you know, with the real bullets flying, so to speak, they could feel like they have some kind of chemistry. And Peppers is also a leader.

Starting point is 00:23:49 I mean, he's just a leader of men. And I'm not surprised that he would want to play in this game. He doesn't want to kick his feet up. So I wasn't in love with him being out there as much as he was. But I also understand because he missed last week, maybe he felt like he needed to round into shape. And that wasn't going to happen by standing on the sidelines. watching his teammates.

Starting point is 00:24:12 The backup offensive line. Some notes here. Cole Strange was at center. I'm pretty sure he was at center the entire night for his night. And it wasn't great. It wasn't great. I saw him get tossed on multiple occasions. There was the first and goal play from like inside the five after Woolridge went,

Starting point is 00:24:36 he went kind of helicopter style, not not totally Elway back in the day, but he, a little bit of a helicopter from Woldridge. And Cole Strange just gets abused, right at the snap, just abused, manhandled. And he's got to grab on for dear life, holding penalty back 10 yards. That's just a killer, you know, that's just a killer. There's good stuff, there's bad stuff, and there's stuff that loses you games, right? Like, you can't do that if you're strange. And then he had the aforementioned going back a segment or two

Starting point is 00:25:11 about the high snap on the screenplay that Baker ends up getting the OPI. So Strange didn't have a great night. And I don't think he makes this football team. Meanwhile, you have the battle between the swing tackles there with Marcus Bryant and Vedarian Lowe. Bryant started this game at right tackle. Lowe went in at left tackle. He was there for Campbell. And then they swapped, they switched, which I thought Wilson and Brown were going

Starting point is 00:25:38 to, as we mentioned earlier, but Bryant and Lowe did. Bryant then went from the right side to the left side, and then Lowe went from the left side to the right side. I still think, you know, Bryant and Citi So got beat on a twist play early in this game, but I still think Bryant has the upper hand right now being that top swing tackle, but let's not forget that Lowe missed a lot of time at the beginning of camp, and he still has a couple of weeks. So he's been sketchy at right tackle, Fadarian Lowe.

Starting point is 00:26:07 he had a really rough time at right tackle against Minnesota so I don't know if he is the prototypical swing Bryant might be if if Bryant shows that he's capable at right tackle he obviously played left tackle at Missouri with Armand Membu playing the right side so it looks like Bryant still has the edge there I don't think there's a huge gap between those two guys right now though uh city so from what I saw looked like he had a rough night again had a tough time with that twist play I believe he got called for a hold shortly after that. Caden Wallace was out there. I mean, he didn't make any obvious mistakes,

Starting point is 00:26:46 but I'm not sitting there watching Caden Wallace snap to snap to snap. Beggs the question if Wallace is actually going to be the backup left guard. Is Ben Brown the backup left guard? Is Jared Wilson the backup left guard? We still don't know, which is kind of bananas. If you go off of this game, I'd say Wilson's going to start at left guard. but that might be going too far. And of course, you've got, you know, cut down day coming.

Starting point is 00:27:11 So maybe the Patriots make a move after a team cuts an interior offensive lineman. Maybe they can make a trade for an interior offensive lineman. There have been a number of trades this week in the NFL. So maybe that's how they address it. Some rookies. I thought some rookies had impact in this game. I thought Joshua Farmer made some plays. And he's been someone who has been kind of quiet,

Starting point is 00:27:33 but quietly moving up the depth chart a little bit there. And I thought he had two or three pressures in this game. I thought that he had a good run stuff in this game. So Farmer is somebody who's interesting because he's a bigger guy. And Tonga's been great. You brought in Peco. Peco was behind Farmer in the game. So it looks like Farmer has that inside edge to be the backup to Tonga.

Starting point is 00:28:01 We'll see if that holds. but I thought he had a pretty good night. I thought Craig Woodson had a pretty good night. Again, no big time mistakes. I thought his coverage was good. Farmer and Swinson got a pressure on a second down, and Jackson Dart made a really nice throw. But Woodson's coverage was really good downfield.

Starting point is 00:28:19 So you had three rookies impact the same play. That was nice to see. So I don't think Woodson did anything to damage his position on this roster. I think he's going to get a lot of snaps. Swinson, quiet and ponder was pretty quiet they had a pressure or two but uh you know i look at farmer i look at watson tonight and say to myself well those are the guys those are the guys that uh that showed out jeremiah webb also had a good game another rookie i think he's worth the practice squad

Starting point is 00:28:51 spot he had a really good punt return he had a touchdown great throw from woldridge on a nice little bucket throw to web uh so i thought he had a good night and i I'll wrap it up with this. The questions on the defense remain for me. And the Patriots defense, they've consistently had issues with defending tight ends. And boy, was that a problem tonight. And I'm not just talking about, you know, oh, first team, second team. I'm talking about just from beginning to end of camp.

Starting point is 00:29:20 In every joint practice in the preseason game, they've had trouble covering tight ends that continued against the Giants. And then you had another gigantic screenplay for a touchdown from the Giants. The Patriots are having issues with defending tight ends and defending screens. And they've got to clean that up. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. And don't forget to help us out.

Starting point is 00:29:50 Hit that like button. Give us that thumbs up. Helps us with the algorithm. And don't forget to subscribe. Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen for being in every day. for your second listen. Check out Lockdown Fantasy Football with hosts Vinnie Iyer and Kate Magic. Find Lockdown Fantasy Football on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Review: Patriots’ Biggest Takeaways From Preseason Finale

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