Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Unreal: New England Patriots Reclaim AFC East, Drake Maye Transforms Franchise

Starting point is 00:00:00 This season continues to get more unbelievable by the week. The Pats are back on the AFC East Mountaintop in 2025. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts network, your team every day. What's happening? your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, been covering the paths for the past 16 years, also the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, part of the lockdown podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:44 Now the number one, number one, sports podcast network, your team every day. On today's episode, in our third segment, we'll tell you how the youth of this roster stood out in a big way on the All-22 rewatch. second segment, sit back and relax while we lend historical perspective to a special Sunday by Drake May. But first, they did it. The Buffalo Bills, AFC East rain is officially over. It is done with OVA, if you want to spell it that way. The Buffalo Bills will not win the AFC East in 2025 because your New England Patriots are officially AFC East Division Champions for this year. Pretty amazing.

Starting point is 00:01:32 The first time that the Patriots finished first in the AFC East since 2019, it is a wonderful thing. And what a time to be alive truly. Who thought we would be here? Who thought we'd be talking about 13 and 3? Who thought we'd be talking about winning the AFC East? and enjoy this accomplishment because there's going to be some pushback. There's going to be people talking about the schedule and this and that.

Starting point is 00:01:58 It is not easy to win a division in football. It's as simple as that. It is not easy. And it is especially not easy to have the type of turnaround that the Patriots have had this season. I mean, I got to clear my eyes. I got to wipe them. I almost can't believe what I'm watching. This type of turnaround from four wins to 13 wins,

Starting point is 00:02:20 maybe 14 wins if you beat the Dolphins on Sunday with all the turnover that you had. I mean, this is an amazing turnaround. Pew thoughts when I was watching Josh Allen miss a wide open receiver in the end zone for a two-point conversion against the Eagles on Sunday. I had some thoughts streaming through my head. First thought is this. Winning the division strengthens the credibility of Mike Vrable and the coaching staff. As Phil Perry posted on Sunday, Mike Vrable made his goals very clear at his introductory press conference.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Win the division? Well, we can check that off. Host playoff games. Well, we can check that one off. Compete for championships. TBD. But to think about this, you won the division. You will host at least one playoff game.

Starting point is 00:03:13 To just think about that. to think about that idea in year one, which was supposed to be, I don't know if you'd say a full-on rebuild, but certainly a team that you knew it was going to take time to figure some things out. Now, what we didn't know was that the quote-unquote time was going to be a few months. And we would be sitting here right before New Year's Eve talking about the Patriots being AFC East champions. This strengthens the credibility of the man up top, Mike Vrable. It strengthens the credibility of Josh McDaniels and Todd Downing and Doug Marone and Thomas Brown and Zach Corp, all of these people, all of these people on the staff, Jeremy Springer. And so when you look at this and you say to yourself months ago when Mike Vrable is standing at the podium and he's talking about winning divisions and hosting playoff games, that was you could even call it a dream.

Starting point is 00:04:12 It was this belief. It was this belief that eventually we will get there. That's what Mike Vrable was selling. Eventually, we will get there as a franchise. And now that belief has turned into a reality. And that is just the trickle-down effect throughout the staff as well. These players now, they look at Mike Vrable, they say, hey, look, he told us that goal number one was winning the division.

Starting point is 00:04:40 People thought he was crazy. people on the outside would never believe that we could win the division this year. But he's been telling us since day one. He's had it up on the board since day one. We believe in our head coach and we believe in all of our assistant coaches and coordinators. Second thought that was spinning around in my head after watching Josh Allen miss a wide open receiver in the end zone for a two-point conversion if I didn't bring that up already. The education, the education for the young core of this roster when you talk about leadership. Is anybody mentioning Drake May's record now as a starting quarterback?

Starting point is 00:05:21 Remember, that was a game being played before 2025. I never got into that game and I'll tell you why. I don't get into that game with starting pitchers in Major League Baseball. Win loss record is not indicative of how a quarterback plays week in and week out. This is not in 1982. We don't have to go back to that and say, oh, well, because he only won one game in 2024, we don't know if he's going to be capable of winning games at the NFL level. Nobody knows if you're going to win NFL games at the NFL level until you actually play in those games.

Starting point is 00:05:54 But to sit there and look at the win-loss record and talk about Drake May and, you know, is he going to be a leader? What is his comportment? Is he competitive enough? All that stuff to me was a reach. Let's not kid ourselves. Last year's team stunk. Last year's coaching staff stunk out loud.

Starting point is 00:06:15 I'm not hearing any more about Drake May's record. Instead, I'm hearing about how Drake May carried this football team to what they are right now. Think about the amount of snaps that have been given to rookies and second year and third year players. on this team. And just just think about the youth of this football team and think about all those young players on this roster learning how to win a division, learning on how to go on the road and win. That's going to have impact on the 2026 class because whoever you draft in April, they're going to come in and they're going to be taught the Mike Vrable way. They're going to be taught what the young guys were taught this season. And it is going to become a breeding

Starting point is 00:07:03 ground. That's the dream. It becomes a breeding ground of great leaders, a great culture, and guys handing down advice to guys who are younger than them. This is how it grows. This is how the foundation grows and continues to grow until you are the ruler of the NFL. And obviously, that's the vision. My third and final thought that was swirling in my head when Josh Allen missed a wide open receiver in the end zone for a two-point conversion. Belief in the operation. Belief in the operation. What has been done from day one by Mike Vrable and others?

Starting point is 00:07:48 Belief in the operation, belief in the front office, belief in the ultimate plan. Making calculated additions via free agency. Working on the grading system before you get to the draft and making sure that your scouting department is all on the same page. The communication between Mike Vrable and John Stretch Stryker and Ryan Cowden and Elliot Wolf, that communication system working, a growing trust between Mike Vrable and the rest of this staff, whether it's the coaching staff or the front office staff. Everybody can look at each other now in that room and say, we made a lot of great decisions.

Starting point is 00:08:28 and we have reached the division championship before we thought we would get there. If you shot them with Truth Serum, they would tell you. We didn't think we'd win the AFC East in 2025, but they are there. And they can look around. They can look around to each other and say, let's take what we did right and let's continue to pound the things that we did right, moving into 2026, no matter how this football season ends, let's continue to build that belief in the building, build the belief in the operation, build the belief in the front office and the plan overall, build the belief in the coaching

Starting point is 00:09:07 staff. This should set the stage for the 2026 off season, which we will have plenty of time to discuss once the football is actually over. But when you get into that 2026 off season, And don't you think Mike Rabel's message that he's going to pitch to players, don't you think that message will be just a little bit more effective with the backdrop being these guys won the AFC East in year one? And maybe just maybe they do a little bit more than that. What a time to be alive. The New England Patriots 2025 AFC East champions.

Starting point is 00:09:53 If you go by one important analytic, Sunday was the best quarterbacked game since 2000. We'll have that and much more on Drake May's performance as we continue with today's Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's be real. No one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. That's where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll benefits and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team.

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Starting point is 00:11:47 thumbs up always helps us with that algorithm i love when you throw the comments in there as well i want your thoughts. You should all be celebrating the idea, at least for the next couple of days, until we get back into the football, and then we start really focusing on the playoff matchups and all that. Just take at least a day. Take 24 hours. Take 36 hours. And absorb AFCE's champions. I want your thoughts. Throw them in the comments. The likes, the comments, help us out in the YouTube world. And don't forget to subscribe as well. So the real time reaction that I have is always in the live post game show that we do, right? We watch the game together.

Starting point is 00:12:29 I jump on to YouTube. I do a live stream after the game is over. And I give you my real time reaction, how I feel about each guy and what they did and who stood out and who stood out in the right way, who stood out in the wrong way. And then on Monday morning, I get up and I rewatch the game on the all 22. And I give myself 24 hours. from the live post game, until I record the episode that comes out with the All-22 takeaways and notes, I give myself about 24 hours to re-watch it, research it, and respect it. That's what I do. And when you look at Drake May and what he did against the

Starting point is 00:13:12 Jets, on the All-22, I had him for like one negative decision, one minus play the entire game. Now, he might have had a second. It all depends how you feel the nine-yard scramble. He also had Stefan Diggs open on that play. So the easier play would have been hitting Stefan Diggs. Instead, he scrambles, but he gets nine yards. So it's not necessarily the best decision that he could have made. But when you get nine yards on a scramble, I'm not going to give him a minus, right?

Starting point is 00:13:41 It just doesn't make any sense to me. The third quarter sack, I know some people don't have a problem with it. I actually gave him a minus on that play, but who cares? It's one minus play out of, you know, two and a half quarters for all intents and purposes. He was tremendous from a decision-making standpoint against the Jets. Now, before I get into the context and really some historical information for you about what we actually saw on Sunday, I also want to give some proper context to what the conversation is likely going to be by people that I wouldn't necessarily call them haters, but those who might doubt how good Drake May truly was on Sunday, or those who

Starting point is 00:14:25 might say, well, he played against the Jets. The last time I checked, there have been a lot of NFL quarterbacks. There have been a lot of top NFL quarterbacks who have faced terrible defenses. There have been a lot of NFL quarterbacks. There have been a lot of top NFL quarterbacks that have played beaten down defenses, defenses that didn't want to show up, defenses that were embarrassing, defenses that humiliated themselves. Drake May is not the only quarterback in NFL history to face a terrible beaten down defense. So enough with the Jets noise. Nobody is saying the Jets are good.

Starting point is 00:15:10 Everybody knows the reality of that defense. We all saw it play out on Sunday. Nobody thought that the Jets were going to win that football. game. Aaron Glenn didn't think the Jets were going to win that football game. We all understand that. But let's also not be disingenuous and act as if that was the only bad defense a quarterback has ever faced. And it's not like quarterbacks are throwing up five touchdowns, zero picks, and two incompletions on a weekly basis against bad defenses. Sunday's performance frankly was either historical or knocking on the door of being historical.

Starting point is 00:15:52 I'm just going to run through some of this stuff, and I hope that you all can truly appreciate what I run through here. The Patriots Communications Department posted on Twitter, Drake May is the first player in history to have multiple games in a season with 200 plus passing yards, 2 plus passing touchdowns, and at least a 90% completion percentage. The first player in history to have multiple games with those stats. History.

Starting point is 00:16:23 Dante Kepalowitz Fleming, who is a senior researcher at Good Morning Football in the NFL network, he posted, Drake May is the first player in history to complete 90% of his passes while throwing for 250 yards in five touchdowns in a single game. Again, the first player in history. Seth Walder of ESPN, he posted that Drake May recorded a 99.8 QBR against the Jets. That is the highest QBR game in the metrics history. There's that word again, back to 2006.

Starting point is 00:17:03 Ben Solac of ESPN, he posted by next gen stats numbers, Drake May's game against the Jets was the second best game by dropback success rate in the last 10 years. It was also the second best game by EPA per dropback in the last 10 years. But wait, there's more. Greg Bedard, my buddy, known some other places as the wet blanket. He posted after Sunday's win. Drake May totaled plus 30.7 EPA on his dropbacks before he left the game. That is the best mark among any NFL quarterback this season.

Starting point is 00:17:41 Taylor Kiles from CL&S, my friend Taylor Kiles, he posted. Drake May is the only quarterback this season to complete 90% of his passes on at least 15 attempts, and he's done it twice. And by the way, if you're thinking about, oh, he's a checkdown Charlie. On Sunday, Drake May's 12.2 yards gained per pass attempt was the high. highest mark of his season. Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, over Tom Brady's 23-year career, he had one game with 20-plus pass attempts and fewer than three completions.

Starting point is 00:18:21 Drake May has already done that twice in 28 career starts. Brady played 23 years. Drake May has played barely over 23 games in the NFL. Now, not sold yet. Fine. One more note. Mike Sando of the Athletic wrote, Drake May's statistical line ranks first on a list of 13,687 quarterback performances since 2000, counting the playoffs. With more touchdown passes than incompletions, may average 1.28 EPA per pass the highest figure in True Media's data set, which dates to 2000, and includes those 13.5%. thousand six hundred and eighty-seven performances when quarterbacks participated in at least 20 pass plays.

Starting point is 00:19:12 You could talk to me about how bad the Jets defense is. I couldn't care less. What we saw from Drake May on Sunday, the eye test tells me, the rewatch tells me, what we saw Drake may do on Sunday was either historical in some aspects or he was knocking on the door of his. history. Hopefully you heard that for dramatic effect. I mean, it's just unbelievable. But let's go further. Let's remind everybody that Drake May accomplished everything that I just ran through. He did all of that against the Jets. Granted a bad Jets defense. But Drake May did all of that

Starting point is 00:19:56 without his number two receiver, without his number three receiver. He was throwing to Kyle Williams, who walked into Sunday with seven NFL catches under his belt. He was throwing the football to Efton Chisholm, who walked into Sunday with a zero catches in the NFL under his belt. He was playing with the second left tackle. He was playing with the second left guard. So backups on the left side. And he was on the road.

Starting point is 00:20:30 Not too shabby. not too shabby there was lots of good to take from the film including one relative unknown that popped our all 22 breakdown and takeaways next this is locked on patriots part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day this episode is brought you by prize picks whether you're starting a new routine or jumping into player projections for the first time trying something new can feel like a challenge. But with prize picks, it always feels good to be right. With high pressure football matchups every weekend, an elite hoops action almost every night, the action never slows down and prize picks lets you stay in control. Prize picks is the

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Starting point is 00:21:59 Don't forget to help out a podcast hosts, a brother, a fella, by liking and commenting and subscribe to YouTube as well. And full transparency, I'm going to tell you, the all 22 film I watched, I only watched three quarters of the game from Sunday. And it's pretty simple why I did that. The fourth quarter was a glorified preseason game. You had a bunch of backups out there. I'm not spending 25 minutes watching film of guys who are not going to play a meaningful

Starting point is 00:22:28 game as we get into the playoffs. I'm just not going to do it. Okay. I apologize to Joshua Dobbs and everybody else out there, but it is what it is, fellas. I got to watch other film as well. So I do have some takeaways, though. I've got a number of takeaways for all of you watching the first three quarters of that game against the Jets. Number one, the young guys stood out. Now, I know I mentioned the rookies during the live post game show. I mentioned Henderson, Trayvian Henderson, and Kyle Williams and Efton Chisham. But I want to really focus. focus on Efton Chisholm here. I go through the film and I give good plays a plus and I give bad plays a minus. It's kind of a very simple scoring system, a simple evaluation, learning it

Starting point is 00:23:13 from Greg Bedard. Others do this as well. I believe Evan Lazard does this. I had personally, I had Efton Chisholm for a plus five through the first three quarters. And yes, we can look at the chunk play where, you know, he beats man coverage. It's a zero. blitz. He gets open and he has that, you know, 30-yard catch, which is great. And we could look at the touchdown. The touchdown was certainly a very, very good play, a very good catch. But I want to focus on a couple of other things. Efton Chisholm, you know, one of the aspects of Mack Holland's game that we were wondering, can the Patriots find a way to replace? Was Mac Holland's ability as a run blocker? Now, Efton Chisholm is obviously not nearly as big as Matt.

Starting point is 00:23:58 Collins. But Efton Chisholm, he was asked to do some blocking on Sunday, and I thought he did a good job. I thought he was one of the reasons why that Trayvion Henderson reverse play went for 12 yards. He was on the perimeter along with fellow rookie Kyle Williams, who also did a good job blocking downfield. There were a couple of blocks that stood out to me for Efton Chisholm. There was also the play we are all focused on the touchdown and for all the right and obvious reasons but i will focus on another play it was the play before the touchdown it was a third and eight you might remember this it's third and eight and drake may hits remandre stevenson towards the left side of the football field remandre is wide open remandre stevenson wide open they convert on the

Starting point is 00:24:46 third and eight now why were they able to convert on the third and eight because effing chism because when you look back at that play, Efton Chisholm runs a picture perfect rub slash pick route within one yard of the line of scrimmage. Efton Chisham understood the assignment. He took out Ramadre Stevenson's guy and that freed up Ramadre Stevenson to easily convert that third name.

Starting point is 00:25:13 You convert the third Nate on the very next play. After Chisholm, touchdown. Back to back plays from your rookie, undrafted. free agent that stand out. I thought Efton Chisholm was pretty darn good on Sunday. So credit to him. Another young guy who stood out to me, and he continues to stand out, was Corey Dirton,

Starting point is 00:25:34 defensive lineman. I had him, again, when you look at the plus minus, I had him as a plus four. I thought he popped again. He had one or two pressures in this game. He had a couple of run stuffs. I also thought the fake punt, the first fake punt that actually worked. Corey Durdon almost blew that thing up. I mean, he was right there.

Starting point is 00:25:55 He was right there in the backfield. Another quarter of a second. It's probably a sack or a turnover, a disaster for the New York Jets. So I thought Corey Durning continues to play some good football, especially with Milton Williams being out and Karese Tonga being out.

Starting point is 00:26:11 Another interior defensive lineman that jumped out at me was Leonard Taylor the third. I had him for a plus three. He's another young guy. And, you know, you look at a run stuff on Brees Hall in the second quarter, got in the backfield, made a play. Then to end the third quarter, Leonard Taylor, the third had back-to-back plays against Brees Hall to end that third quarter. So I thought he played well. He is, if you're wondering, he was a 2024 UDFA that was signed by the Jets.

Starting point is 00:26:46 He played at Miami. And so if you think about the connections, if you think about the Patriots front office, who was at Miami before joining the Patriots, Alonzo Highsmith. Alonzo Highsmith was at Miami, pretty much as their general manager. He was at Miami when Leonard Taylor III was at Miami. So obviously, Alonzo Highsmith has a background with him, and I would imagine spoke highly of him. And you just think about this interior defensive. line depth that the Patriots have shown. Corey Dirden, Leonard Taylor the 3rd,

Starting point is 00:27:22 Kyrie's Tonga, Joshua Farmer before his injury, put him on IR. They've been able to roll guys in there, and it hasn't been perfect. And yes, you've missed Milton Williams because Milton Williams has been so terrific this season, but they have helped you. They have helped you.

Starting point is 00:27:38 Another player I want to give credit to is Anthony Jennings. Anthony Jennings was on the plus side as well for me against the Jets. And I did not think you had much of a drop off. You might have even had better play from Anthony Jennings than you've seen from Harold Landry, who in fairness to Harold Landry, as we know, he's been dealing with at least one injury, if not multiple injuries. And you sat Harold Landry down on Sunday. You made him inactive. You're giving him some extra rest before you get to the playoffs. I'd imagine he's going

Starting point is 00:28:06 to sit again this Sunday. Anthony Jennings, a guy who we thought might be cut, might be traded, was not really a part of the plan. He steps in. He steps up. And I thought he played well against the Jets. Incredible professionalism from Anthony Jennings all season long, and I thought he was good on Sunday. You had some really good games from the veterans as well. Look, there's not a lot of guys in the minus sheet, of course. I thought, you know, Chris Nellis had a little bit of a rough time defensively. He was much better on special teams, but focusing on the positives, Austin Hooper, I thought had a good day. Hunter Henry, I thought had a good day. Stefan Diggs, we covered him in the live post game. He had a good day. Morgan Moses, 34-year-old Morgan Moses, a week after getting dinged up

Starting point is 00:28:54 against the Baltimore Ravens. He's out there. I thought he played well against the Jets. The running backs, Ramandre Stevenson and Trevionn Henderson, both I thought were really, really good. I thought the offensive line overall was good. They were good in pass protection, and they got some good push in the run game. And Caleb on Chase on, I also thought had a nice little bounce back. He has not had the same impact later in the season as he had earlier in the season. But I thought Caleb on Chase on, he jumped off the film on a few plays. Obviously, the biggest one you will all remember was the screen pass to Breece Hall. It was set up, by the way, looking at the All-22.

Starting point is 00:29:33 Breece Hall might take that thing to the house if Calebon Chase-on doesn't jump up and bat the football down. So that was a big play by Caleb-on-Chayson. But overall, the film, what you would think? It was a lot of fun to watch. I mean, my goodness, what a, what a 24 to 36 hours, right? Steamroll the Jets, Drake May's historical performance. You'll win the AFC East, a bunch of good film to watch.

Starting point is 00:30:02 Happy holidays. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being in every day or reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel, hit that like button and subscribe. and if you're looking for a gift for someone, make it easy. Ask for the Everydayer Club. Add free episodes of this show, exclusive Discord, server access, and more. Subscriptions can be gifted through lockdownpatriots.supercast.com.

Starting point is 00:30:30 Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Unreal: New England Patriots Reclaim AFC East, Drake Maye Transforms Franchise

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