Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Uprising: Vrabel's Youth Movement Rocks New England

Starting point is 00:00:00 It took us two days for Mike Vrabel to show us how he really feels about the 2025 draft class. That's where we start on this episode of Locked On 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 am your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, also host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and a sports talk show host, veteran. On today's episode, speaking of veteran, an important veteran is off to a hot start. Also, Coach Raible and Josh McDaniels focus on a Drake May weakness early in camp.

Starting point is 00:00:48 But first, the coaching staff is not being bashful using this 2025 draft class. We appreciate you joining the show making us your first listen and for being an everydayer the lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud part of the lockdown podcast network your team every day and today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, download the Game Time app, create an account use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. It's early, we're gonna put it out there. I'm gonna say this

Starting point is 00:01:18 for the next couple of weeks. It's early, we all understand it's early. Until you get to that joint practice in August early against Washington We all have to understand and acknowledge and even embrace This is the early portion of training camp But even though it's early even though we've only seen two days of practice. It's pretty clear There is a theme And the theme is that mike frable is giving the rookies a shot

Starting point is 00:01:44 He is giving them rookies a shot. He is giving them a legitimate chance at playing a big role on this team. Andrew Callahan from the Boston Herald writes, the Patriots have all four of their draft picks. Will Campbell, Henderson, Wilson, Williams, on the field with Drake May in team drills. All four of their top draft picks on the field with Drake May and team drills all four of their top draft picks on

Starting point is 00:02:06 the field with May in team drills and as Callahan wrote the future is coming up fast. It's coming up fast. And you want to talk about things happening quickly. How about Jared Wilson? Yes, he was a top 100 pick but he's also somebody who missed the off season phase of camp if you want to call it that he he wasn't really out there for OTAs. He wasn't out there for mandatory mini camp. He was dealing with some kind of injury issue. We wondered if he would be healthy to start camp. We wondered if he was healthy, how much he would get out there on the

Starting point is 00:02:39 field. We wondered would he be playing at center or would he be getting reps at left guard? All of those questions have been answered quickly. Because after two days of practice, Wilson's out there. He's out there a lot. And he's playing both spots. He is being given a golden opportunity to win a starting shot on that offensive line. A starting gig. Greg Bedard wrote this, Wilson continues to get some first team reps at both center and left guard. As it appears, he's competing at both spots

Starting point is 00:03:16 as the team assesses what's best for him and the roster. Two spots. Two spots means opportunity. Jared, we're gonna throw you at left guard. We're gonna Two spots means opportunity. Jared, we're gonna throw you out left guard. We're gonna throw you at center. Just keep playing football, young man. Just keep playing football. We're gonna throw you out there, do what you do best. And we will tell you where we want to fit you in. But we're

Starting point is 00:03:39 going to give you the shot, we're going to give you the chance we're going to give you the opportunity to win a starting job. We know you weren't there OTAs and mandatory mini camp you weren't doing much if anything at all. But day one training camp you're out there day two you're out there. Mark Daniels wrote this about Wilson it's been noteworthy that Wilson continues to rotate in at center and left guard during competitive team drills. He

Starting point is 00:04:04 missed most of the off season but the team wasted no time throwing him into the fire to start training camp and I absolutely freaking love it. Throw him immediately into the deep end of the pool and see what he can do, see what he can handle. If he can't handle it then you set him to the sideline, you talk to him for a little while, you slow it down, and then you get him back out there. And then you see with a little bit of slow progression what he does. But until he shows you that he's completely not ready, you know, until he shows his tuk-tuk way too many times against a defensive line. Throw him out there. Throw him in the

Starting point is 00:04:47 deep end. See if he can survive because frankly, the incumbents don't deserve the keys. Garrett Bradbury, nice veteran, trouble with past protection. Minnesota said thanks but no thanks, moved on from him. He signed a contract that was about $3 million. So you're not paying him a ton of money. He doesn't deserve the starting job. He's got to earn that job. He's got he's got to make sure that he keeps Jared Wilson away from him. Give him the Heisman pose. He's gonna try to do that. Cole Strange certainly doesn't deserve the keys handed to him at left guard.

Starting point is 00:05:25 Make him earn it. Whoever plays best wins the job. Now with that said, if Wilson ends up being the guy, Vrabel knows this, I know this, you know this, we all know this. You've got to be able to live with the mistakes because mistakes will happen. If you are going to play Wilson, especially at center, he only played one year at center Georgia. He started for one season at Georgia. So he is relatively new to the position because he played guard before that. And he doesn't have a ton of experience. So if you're going

Starting point is 00:05:58 to throw him out there into the fire, and he is ready week one, you got to live with some of the mistakes he is inevitably going to make. But you've got to look at the potential you got to look at his ceiling versus the strange ceiling the Bradbury ceiling. And you've got to make an evaluation whether or not this young man is ready truly ready to be shot out of a cannon week one at Gillette against Vegas. Let's go to another rookie. Trevion Henderson, noisier on day two, somewhat quiet day one, but he was noisier on day two. Evan Lazar wrote this, more active practice for Henderson,

Starting point is 00:06:36 caught a pass in the flat, and a hitch while flexed out wide from May. Henderson's speed is legit. Mike Giardi, he wrote a lot of Henderson touches today Including some where he lined up outside the numbers. Hmm So Henderson's not only getting a number of touches day two at camp McDaniel's is also lining him up outside the numbers and This just underscores the versatility of Henderson. You can put

Starting point is 00:07:08 him in the backfield. You can put him outside the numbers. You can line up inside, I do believe. And McDaniels is going to utilize that versatility, not only with Henderson, but I think he will also use the versatility with his other running backs. We have already read that, you know, McDaniel's at times he's had all three backs out there at once, Stevenson, Gibson, and Henderson. So he's going to utilize that versatility. He is going to line up these backs all over the place. And day two had an emphasis on the quick game Quick passing game and we all know Henderson is an explosive pass receiver. We all know about his pass protection So it makes sense if you're if you're focusing on the quick game Henderson's gonna be out there a decent amount and his long speed his long speed is is just unique

Starting point is 00:08:04 Especially on this roster. So Henderson's getting his chance. In Williams, we talked about Williams on yesterday's episode, the day one that Kyle Williams had now he did have a drop day two, a little bit more quiet on day two. That's expected. We're talking about rookies. We're talking early in camp. There's going to be some up and down for

Starting point is 00:08:25 most of them. But Wilson's getting his shot. Williams is getting his shot. Henderson is getting his shot. Will Campbell, we know he's locked in at left tackle. So when you look at the big picture of this, it's pretty easy to see what's going on. Mike Vrabel just wants the best players out there. He's talked about that before He doesn't care if you're a 10-year veteran or you're a rookie. He just wants the best guy out there He wants the best for the job And Vrabel's job is to get the players ready for these joint practices

Starting point is 00:09:02 Especially the young players you want to see how much these rookies can handle as you grow closer to that Washington commander's joint practice. You've got to get them ready for early August. You've got a couple of weeks. What can they handle? What can't they handle? So when you get to that joint practice against Washington in a couple of weeks, you know exactly how to utilize

Starting point is 00:09:25 your rookie class. It's just it's smart. And if the Patriots hit on this draft, it's just huge. We all felt really good. Many of us felt great about the draft. And I feel even better that Vrabel and this coaching staff, they are not afraid. They are not afraid of throwing these young guys out there and saying, give us your best and we'll figure it out as a coaching staff.

Starting point is 00:09:50 You love to see it. All right, so that's for the rookie class. But let's talk about a veteran, because a veteran is showing out early at one of the most critical positions, fulfilling a top need for 2025. That's next as we continue with today's episode of lockdown patriots, part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. We've all been there, logging on early waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you've been dying to see live music should be about making memories not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. That's where game time comes

Starting point is 00:10:28 in. Game time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever prices actually drop as it gets closer to showtime. And you can save up to 60% off with their killer last minute deals. ever wonder what your view will actually look like before you buy the tickets I do well game time app shows you a panoramic seat view So there are no surprises take the guesswork out of buying concert and show tickets with game time Download the game time app create an account use code

Starting point is 00:10:59 Lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code LO CK ED Oh and NFL for $20 off download the game time app today last-minute tickets lowest price guaranteed Harold Landry has turned heads For the first two days of training camp. He's looking mighty good early on in this camp for the Patriots. Give you a couple of write-ups from the local writers. Greg Bedar on Landry wrote, continues to show up with early pressure. Landry was Andrew Callahan's player of the day, day two at training camp. Here's what Callahan wrote, Tallade sack, rushing off each side of

Starting point is 00:11:48 the offensive line, giving him two on the day. Unquestionably, he's been the most productive pass rusher in camp. Whether Landry's hot start continues is of course unknowable. But he's shown shades of the burst in speed and practice that made him a pro bowler. Now the warning, the caveat, the disclaimer, they're not wearing pads, no pads, no pads on Landry, no pads on the offensive lineman. But let's talk about the positives because we go step by step, day by day. So let's take the positives and let's discuss Landry and what he's doing and what kind of impact he could have

Starting point is 00:12:30 individually and for the team if he truly is Going to experience some kind of Renaissance this season The Patriots What are their top priorities when you look up and down this roster is? Having some legit pass rush juice. You just don't have a lot of guys. Anthony Jennings doesn't bring the juice. You hope Swinson and Cheson can do that even if it's in a a substitutional kind of rotational situation. Keon White, obviously you're hoping that he gets going. We'll talk about him in

Starting point is 00:13:06 a couple of minutes. But if you have Landry, if Landry does look like the guy that he looked like in Tennessee when he played for Mike Vrabel and Terrell Williams, if he looks like that kind of Harold Landry, if he's got a little bit of extra juice, if he's motivated chip on the shoulder, not happy about how last season went. If you get that Landry in 2025, it would be such a huge step in the right direction for this defense and for this pass rush because the pass rush in 2024 was miserable. If you don't believe me, which I don't know why you wouldn't believe me because if you watch the team, you would know that their pass rush stunk

Starting point is 00:13:52 But let's give you some numbers to back that up the Patriots last year with 23rd and ESPN's pass rush win rate model They were 29th in pressure rate according to pro football reference. They were 21st in hurry rate There were 32nd in sack rate They were literally one of the worst pass rushing teams in the NFL in 2024 and if Landry can bring back the old vibes if he can get back to who he once was that would be huge for this football team if Landry is set then you have a lot less concern about your edge play because if Landry is out there then you have a lot less concern about your edge play. Because if Landry is out there and he's giving you that kind of production, and he's got that kind of motor, then now you look at the opposite side and you say, well, whenever

Starting point is 00:14:37 we need to have somebody out there opposite of Landry, we just need one more guy to pop. Maybe it's white, but if it's not white, maybe it's chase on if it's not chase on maybe it's Swinson If one edge is locked down there's a lot less concern and if this is going to be a Harold Landry Renaissance Let's talk about how the other guys are doing Because the other guys are showing up as well. If you have Landry settled and you can bank on him being productive and good, if not really good, then you're looking at Christian Barmore, Milton Williams and Keon white. So how are those other guys doing? Well, I'll tell you Andrew Callahan about day two of training camp wrote lots of

Starting point is 00:15:24 pressure from Milton Williams. Mark Daniels wrote about Christian Barmore. And Barmore, he wasn't out there in the team drills day two because he's trying to be handled about the blood clot situation. So the Patriots have a plan. And part of the plan is that he's going to kind of, you know, take a day here, take a day there to do some individual drills and, and not do everything. But Barmore spoke to the media. He said he's dropped his weight down to 305. He played at 325 two years ago. He said he's playing faster now. And we all know his talent level. Mike Giardi wrote after day two of practice,

Starting point is 00:16:08 Mike Giardi wrote after day two of practice, part of his good was Keon White's pass rush. And let's not forget, White was good on day one. So Williams causing lots of pressure, Barmore in the best shape of his career, and then you've got White who has had back to back good days to start training camp. And so I think that the worst case scenario, the worst case scenario is that you have to rotate on the opposite side of Landry. You've got to do some rotation, right? That's really the worst case scenario.

Starting point is 00:16:41 If these guys can pop, if these guys can go, because they're not going to play 95% of the snaps Especially Williams, especially bar more. It's just not gonna happen Williams might be around 70% Who knows what bar more will be at especially after last year? So you can't expect those guys to be playing 95% of the snaps You're gonna have some rotations going on on that defensive line, especially to keep them fresh with a week 14 by week some rotations going on on that defensive line, especially to keep them fresh with a week 14 by week. So you know, but if white and in in bar more and Williams and Landry are all

Starting point is 00:17:11 playing relatively well, then you just need one more dude. One more dude. One more dude on the edge one more dude on the inside maybe Kyrie's Tonga, who's going to be more of the run defender, but that's really all you need. And for Landry, I think it's reasonable to question whether or not last year was an anomaly. Because we know that he's been a pro bowler. We know that he's been highly productive during his NFL career We know that he was terrific for Vrabel and Williams and maybe last year

Starting point is 00:17:50 I'm not saying this a guarantee this only the first two days of camp and again, they're not wearing pads and Landry is a quick guy. He's got the advantage But Let's hypothetically say Landry continues to play well in camp, does well the joint practices, he ends up doing well in the preseason if he plays which I don't know how Vrabel is going to handle playing these guys during the preseason especially the veterans. I think the fact that you have not one but

Starting point is 00:18:21 two joint practices this year should make us lean towards they're not going to play a lot if at all during the preseason many of these guys. But if Landry gets to week one and all he's done is look really good during camp, then you could look back and say, hey man, 2024 was the anomaly. It was a different coaching staff. Maybe they did not utilize him as well as they could have or should have. Maybe he just didn't get along with certain coaches. Maybe he didn't see eye to eye from a football standpoint with some coaches. Maybe philosophically, they disagreed with how to handle certain situations. The scheme was different. In the NFL fit matters more than any other professional sports league fit matters in the NFL. And maybe it's just getting Landry back to being comfortable. We also could question the offensive line. But again, no pads, we're

Starting point is 00:19:20 not going to get too deep into that. You know, this could be some Landry, some offensive line, but we will give this time. We will see if Landry continues to look really good. We'll see if the offensive line plays better once they get the pads on. Mike Frabel and Josh McDaniels are not hiding from Drake May's weaknesses. That's coming up on today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is presented by Yahoo Fantasy. Fantasy football is back baby. Fire up group chat, get your draft boards ready and buckle up for a season filled with breakouts, busts

Starting point is 00:19:59 and all the overreactions we live for. You know what I'm talking about. It's all going down on Yahoo Fantasy. Budd every step of the way. Yahoo fantasy is dropping 28 years of fantasy greatness because Yahoo has been there every step of the way. Yahoo fantasy is dropping 28 big new features over 28 days, giving you more ways to play more ways to draft and more ways to win. It all begins on August 4. Write that down August 4. Stay tuned and get started by creating or joining a Yahoo fantasy football League at yahoo fantasy.com slash locked on NFL.

Starting point is 00:20:47 That's yahoo fantasy.com slash locked on NFL. And let's make this fantasy season the best one yet. On Thursday's episode, we talked about Drake may mastering the details. He's got all the raw potential, but he's going to master the details. And I find it fascinating that after the conversation that we had about the details, that the Patriots went out there on day two of training camp with an interesting, intriguing approach offensively. What was the approach? What were they doing? Andrew Callahan wrote the Boston Herald,

Starting point is 00:21:25 35% of May's completions were screens or swing passes. Focused on beating the blitz. Phil Perry from NBC Sports Boston. He posted, Ramondre Stevenson just told reporters that the focus today was picking up positive yards on first down, looking to avoid penalties and negative plays. Remember when Mike Vrabel talked about taking advantage of other teams' bad football, other teams' mistakes? Well, the way that you do that, or at least part of the way that you do that, is work on eliminating your own mistakes. You can't take advantage of a team's bad football that

Starting point is 00:22:07 you're playing if you yourself are playing bad football. It's just bad football versus bad football. It's a crap fest. But if you start eliminating some of your mistakes, if you start eliminating some of the bad trends, then you're not going to play as much if any bad football. And then you're in a spot to take advantage of the other teams bad football that they are playing. So avoid penalties, avoid negative plays. How many times last year do we see this team offensive line wise? How many times do we see penalties on first and second down? I feel like there were

Starting point is 00:22:43 like 755,000 of those things. First down, fall star. First down, hold. Second down, hold. Second down, fall star. It's like enough is enough. I'm gonna put my head through a wall. You want to work early in camp to eliminate those issues so you could be ready by week one to not shoot yourself in the foot over and over and over again. Those repeat offenders. You don't want to be a repeat offender and it's critical situational football. When you talk about a team after back to back four win seasons, it is absolutely critical

Starting point is 00:23:18 that you handle situational football the right way because that's something else that can hurt you if if you are playing bad football it means that you are not good at the details it means that you are struggling with situational football so it just makes sense to work on that stuff and to work on it early and often after 2023 and 2024 offensively you need all the work that you can get on the situational details. I'm talking about third down, I'm talking about fourth down, I'm talking about short distance, I'm talking about red zone, talking about first down.

Starting point is 00:23:57 Like day two of camp. Make sure you get positive yardage on first down. This all sounds so fundamental. It's also basic. A lot of it is obvious. If you get positive yards on first down, you get a better shot to get another first down. You get a better shot to get another first down, which means you're moving the football now. You start out on first down and you lose three or four yards, five yards, 10 yards. Disaster. So positive plays on first down.

Starting point is 00:24:31 Move the football. You don't need six, seven yards. You don't need chunks, just something positive. This also is about attacking one of Drake May's weaknesses. This also is about attacking one of Drake May's weaknesses. Greg Bedard wrote this about the offensive approach on day two. This wasn't one of those blitz periods where the offense didn't know what was coming and was left short-handed in pass protection. This felt very scripted and designed to get May to exercise his beating the blitz muscles. As pointed out, pay special attention to this. As pointed out in the FTN, which is for the numbers, pointed out in the for the numbers

Starting point is 00:25:14 almanac, quote, may can easily cut down on the sacks taken by checking down the ball more often. Drake may was 34th in the NFL last year in check down rate. And I know check downs, they have a bad reputation. But a lot of times it's just smart football. Take the check down. Remember I mentioned on yesterday's episode, taking a profit. That's the definition of throwing a check down get it out of your hands take the check down first down if a team blitzes you

Starting point is 00:25:52 something's going crazy there's some chaos in front of you it's first down in ten don't try to be a hero because if you're a hero or trying to be a hero you're gonna take a negative play so don't try to be the hero, you're going to take a negative play. So don't try to be the hero. So day two was all about, hey, first down. If something's being sent at you, and you're in trouble, get rid of the football live to see another day, pick up a couple of yards, screens, swings, the check downs. It may just did not take enough of the check downs last year. And this is Josh McDaniels placing some building blocks on the field. He is building this offense up. He's building Drake May up. These are the building blocks at the very beginning

Starting point is 00:26:44 because as you move deeper into the camp and you're going through the joint practices and even your own team's practices, there's going to be more things thrown at Drake May. And so this is just building on the basics, making sure he understands, hey, I got to get rid of the football. I got to take that check down. And then as more starts being thrown at him, he can feel a little bit more comfortable, it's gonna be a little bit more confident. And another point to be made. Check down swing passes screens, you know what that does that helps your offensive line. The quick game, get the football out of

Starting point is 00:27:24 your hands quickly helps your offensive line. The quick game, get the football out of your hands quickly, helps your offensive line in case they're struggling with pass protection. So attacking a Drake-May weakness. And here's the best news of all, May was good. May was good on day two. Mark Daniels wrote that he was 10 of 10 to start practice. Evan Lazar wrote, efficient start to practice for May, had a nice completion on an out to digs, found Henderson with room in the flat.

Starting point is 00:27:51 Mike Giardi posted May was efficient and had good ball placement. None of these throws were particularly hard to make, but Drake May was he was on schedule. He was efficient. He was finding those quick outlets. And maybe best of all, Badaw wrote there appeared to be an option route with digs against Christian Ellis and both the receiver and may had no issues executing it. That's a great sign. That's understanding the offense. If you're running option routes and you're on the same page already day two a training camp, that's a great sign as a fantastic sign. So may was good again, back to back. Good days for your quarterback stack.

Starting point is 00:28:33 Good days early stack those good days early because camps only going to get tougher, build that momentum when you can and be completely honed in on August 6th against the Washington commanders because by the second joint practice against Minnesota this entire program should be clicking so stack those good days and that's precisely what may has done 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 as well. And don't forget to help us out. Hit that like button, that thumbs up and subscribe to us on YouTube. The Lockdown NFL top 100 available on Lockdown sports today,

Starting point is 00:29:17 of course voted on by the NFL hosts here at Lockdown. Don't miss where your favorite players were ranked. Subscribe to Lockdown sports today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast Have a great weekend We're gonna see on Monday

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Uprising: Vrabel's Youth Movement Rocks New England

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.