Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Wednesday Wit with Sap: Patriots Pursuing Carr? Disenchanted Danny? — 2/3/2021

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

The New England Patriots have been linked to several high-profile quarterbacks to become their starter in 2021, whether via trade or free agency. Per a February 2nd report, they might be inquiring on the availability of Las Vegas Raiders’ signal-caller, Derek Carr. Joining host Mike D’Abate is columnist John Sapochetti. The duo discuss the plausibility of Carr’s landing in Foxboro, as well as the recent comments made by former Pats’ receiver Danny Amendola, as they relate to the “Patriot Way,” John also provides his thoughts on Super Bowl LV.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. EchelonGo to EchelonFit.com/LockedOn and try any Echelon Fitness equipment at home for 30 days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. You are now locked in to the Lockdown Patriots podcast. It is Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021, and it is time for some wisdom on this Wednesday with Sapochnetti here on your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Today's episode of Locked On Patriots is brought to you by Bilt Bar.

Go to BiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. Happy Hump Day, Patriots Nation, and thank you for joining me here on this early February Wednesday. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which of course is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And that means that your questions,

your comments, your feedback are always welcomed and very much encouraged. Share that feedback, send it to the internet by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC.

And while you're out there doing some Wednesday wandering through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Lockdown Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Pats fans, today we may be one day deeper into February, but we're also one day closer to this Sunday. February 7th, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers taking on the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl 55. And just as a reminder, the Locked On Podcast Network NFL channel has you covered with anything and everything you need when it comes to Sunday's big game.

As for us here on Locked On Patriots, we'll continue to give Super Bowl 55 its just due, but our primary focus is and will remain your New England Patriots. And even though the Pats may not be making headlines right now, there is still plenty to talk about here in Patriots Nation. A lot of that talk surrounds the quarterback position, and we'll continue our discussion today with some new developments that have yet another high-profile quarterback possibly being linked to New England. Also, Super Bowl time is a time for a lot of ex-NFLers and current NFLers

to make the media rounds. And one former beloved New England Patriot is making quite the media rounds lately, and causing quite the stir with some of his comments on quote-unquote the Patriot Way. Throughout the past few weeks, I've made my feelings quite clear on the Patriot Way. Who's responsible? I happen to think that both Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are equally responsible for that success, but I digress. I've also made my feelings quite clear on the Patriots' potential solving of their

quarterback conundrum in 2021. But today here on the pod, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to welcome a voice that isn't afraid to tell it like it is. My friend and colleague John Sappachetti joins me here today on Locked On Patriots, and John and I will discuss those comments made by former Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola. Is Danny just a bit sour toward Bill Belichick on the way things ended here in

New England, or does he have a point? We'll also talk about the Patriots' potential pursuit of new signal callers, including Derek Carr, on whom the Las Vegas Raiders might be taking phone calls. Could Carr be the option, or is the Raiders asking price simply too high? Finally, it being Super Bowl week, I'll get John's take on Sunday's upcoming big game, including what makes him most confident in both teams, and also what worries him the

most about both teams. Folks, as always, a fun, informative, and action-packed agenda on the pod today. John never holds back in his opinions, and I don't expect him to do so today. So sit back, settle in, and prepare to enjoy as I welcome in some Sapochnetti wisdom and counsel here on this Wednesday when the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Locked On listeners, get more of the sports news you need in less time with our new Locked On listeners, get more of the sports news you need in less time with our new Locked

On Today podcast. Peter Bukowski hosts Locked On Today, a daily podcast breaking down the biggest stories with analysis from our local experts. Start your day with all the sports news you need in under 20 minutes. Subscribe to Locked On Today wherever you get your podcasts. Pats fans, my guest today is one of the most highly respected journalists and columnists in our industry. You know his great work from publications such as The Lowell Sun,

Sentinel and Enterprise, formerly, of course, of the Boston Herald, just to name a few. He is currently a fellow columnist and colleague of mine at fullpresscoverage.com, and, of course, the host of the Get Off My Lawn podcast with Keegan and Sapp on Full Press Radio. It is my honor to welcome back here to Locked On Patriots, my good friend John Sappacchetti. John, welcome back to the pod, and thank you for joining me today here.

And what is Super Bowl week? It is Super Bowl week. I'm a little disheartened that my Green Bay Packers aren't playing. I thought this was going to be the year that they returned to the Super Bowl for the first time in a decade. But Aaron Rodgers got Brady, just like a lot of other quarterbacks over the years have been Brady, whether it was Peyton Manning or Patrick Mahomes or Jared Goff or pick anyone else. So it's the Buccaneers and Chiefs. And I think we look forward to that game. Yeah, I think we're definitely looking forward to

the game as well. And look, I say this with every bit of reverence to Aaron Rodgers, tremendous respect for he, the Green Bay Packers organization. I really, I do. I like that team. I like Rodgers as a quarterback, but the vast majority of the listeners here, John, are probably saying, you know what? I don't have too much sympathy that Aaron Rodgers was Brady because it does mean Tom is back in the big game looking for ring number seven. Even though he's not in New England, still a lot of the fan base, that heart beats for number 12, and it constantly will. Steve Balistrieri and I talked a little bit about that yesterday,

and old habits die hard. So when one of our own or one of our former own is in the Super Bowl, it's almost a foregone conclusion that they're going to garner some attention. But, John, we will get your thoughts on Super Bowl 55 as a game, both from the Chiefs' perspective and the Buccaneers' perspective in just a moment here today on the pod, folks. But first, we're going to continue our travels

through New England. And, John, I'm sure that you're keenly aware of the recent comments made by former Pats wide receiver Danny Amendola with regard to the Patriot way, specifically when it comes to Bill Belichick. And this caused quite a stir in New England among the Patriots fan base for the last couple of days. And for those of you who haven't heard yet about Danny's comments, folks, because I actually have yet to address these here on Locked On Patriots. On Monday, Danny had the following quote to say as a guest on FS1's First Things First. Quote, when you see the Patriot way in the dictionary,

it's going to have a picture of Tom Brady's next to it. None of those coaches threw any passes. None of those coaches caught any passes. None of those coaches made any tackles. They got guys in the right position because they watched a lot of film and they spent all their time at the facility. But Tom Brady is the Patriot way, and that's the reason why he's in the Super Bowl and the Patriots fan base even a few former Patriots weighed in as well someone that I've had the pleasure of interviewing on a few different occasions Matt White former Patriots offensive lineman and current Pats Hall of Famer had some interesting comments for Danny when it came to that to Danny's credit he dialed it back a little bit on Tuesday he clarified his stance

stating that he's not quote-unquote anti-Bill and that he really loved playing for the Patriots longtime coach as a coach. But he took issues with some of Belichick's negotiating tactics, stating that he had to negotiate with him three years in a row by himself, took pay cuts to help him put rings on his fingers were his actual words, and that it kind of wore on him the wrong way. And he did this yesterday again on FS1 with Colin Coward. John, so many people have weighed in on Danny's comments. What was your reaction?

And do you believe that they're either being embellished, being taken out of context, or is he really hitting the nail on the head here? Well, he said what he said. I mean, this was said on TV. We all got to hear it. I was watching First Things First when he was on on Monday, and I'm like, wow, Danny Amendola is throwing a haymaker at Bill Belichick. And there's some truth to that.

Now, when he talks about he had to negotiate or renegotiate his contract three times by himself, I'm not sure he's going with that. Doesn't he have an agent? And is it a situation where Belichick doesn't want to negotiate with agents that doesn't seem to be the right thing to do and and if that's the case of belichick uh you know i'm sure the players association is going to weigh in on that and say you know you have to have proper representation for your contract talks what amadola was saying there is that brady is the biggest reason the Patriots won six Super Bowls, went to three others, and I can buy into that. But I think Belichick set this culture when he got here in 2000,

and there were other players besides Tom Brady that bought into it and then put it forward, right? You can look at the defensive side of the ball, Willie McGinnis, Teddy Bruschi, Ted Johnson, I mean, Ty Law, Lawyer Malloy, all of these players who were actually drafted by Bill Parcells, who were still here when Belichick took over, they also put forth that Patriots culture. And then Tom Brady bought into it because he was one of the youngest, if not the youngest stars on that team.

He was actually drafted the same year as Matt Light. So they were two young guys that bought into the culture it's not as if it's only tom brady and i think that tom brady's leadership skills are his own but he also learned a lot from bill belichick and that's why as he goes to tampa after 19 years of the patriots he's able to reset the culture in tampa bay i think it's a lot more uh sophisticated than people are making this out to be where it's all brady or it's all Belichick and Amendola dislikes Belichick and loves Tom Brady. I think it's a little more complicated than that. I also think that Amendola is probably getting this message from Tom Brady. Tom Brady, we know, is very political, politically correct, I should say. He's not political at all. We don't know where he leans left right center or anything like that he's actually a cyborg right he only seems to be concerned with playing football and winning super bowls but with this i think he's very passive aggressive and he's got his minions that can do

his dirty work maybe a danny amandola or maybe a west welker whoever else who's played with tom over the years and i'm sure when uh julelman leaves the Patriots, he'll be on Team Tom without question. Right now, he's still probably like they're in a paycheck with the Patriots. And also Tom's dad, Tom Sr., who's been making the rounds the last week to 10 days, not been afraid to say that he loves the crafts, but he thinks that Bill Belichick's on the hot seat. So I think this is a really complicated thing. I can't wait for maybe 10 years down the road or 15 years down the road when we get to see the equivalent of the last dance. You know, we get to see what the Patriots

are all about for nearly 20 years with Belichick and Brady, because I think a lot of the secrets might come out. So I look at it as if Belichick came in here, set the culture, but then a lot of players bought into it, not just Tom Brady. And a lot of players bought into it not just Tom Brady and a lot of those players were on the defensive side of the ball so I think it's a little more complicated than people want to make it out to be a little more nuanced but oftentimes nuance doesn't work on talk radio you know pick a side and hammer home with it we see that in politics we see that in sports yeah and I think in a lot of ways what Danny's comments were was a player, and a player having admiration for a player that he looked up to. Look, there's no question about it.

There's a closeness between Tom Brady and Danny Amendola. Anyone who watched Tom vs. Time, you saw Danny in those videos. You saw Julian Edelman in those videos. Those guys were around Tom Brady. They're close to him. And Danny coming in here as a young player, buying into the quote-unquote Patriot way, Tom Brady was the guy that he was going to follow. He was looking at him saying, oh, he's a Super Bowl champ.

He's an MVP. That's the way I do it. That's the way I want to go to work. I want to emulate that guy right there. Ultimately, I think a player will side with that side, especially a player that's still active. There's also another side to that, too, and that Danny probably didn't appreciate maybe the way Bill Belichick negotiated some of his deals. He can be tough.

He's got a reputation as that. I don't know necessarily if there's anything about him preventing any type of, you know, agents or anything like that. I haven't heard anything that or accusations like that that have specifically targeted Bill. It's the first time I've ever really, you know, had something like that brought to my attention. I't think it can't happen mike right i mean that doesn't make any sense someone absolutely him to the players association of the commissioner's

office that that can't be the case where he says i'm going to negotiate this contract with you without an agent the player has to have representation if he wants to that's what but i didn't understand whatever the cryptic message message was by Danny Amendola, or maybe he just had a slip up and didn't really say what he meant. Or maybe he's not a real articulate guy either. I mean, I don't exactly think of Danny Amendola as a member of Mensa. So, you know, he may have just let something slip out and said, I had to negotiate on my own, which doesn't make any sense. So I'm reading into it quite a bit because, look, this is what we have to do when it comes to the Patriots with Brady, with Belichick. They're guarded.

They're obviously intriguing because they had this incredible run, and now there's a split up, and one guy's going to the Super Bowl on his home field, and the other guy is coming off a 7-9 season and has to reinvent that franchise and stockpile some talent on both sides of the ball going forward. So this is something that's going to continue on for several years because it is one of the two best debates in all of sports this century, right? Who's met more of the Patriots' successes?

Is it Brady, Belichick? The other debate is who's the GOAT in basketball? Is it LeBron or Michael Jordan? Those are the two biggest debates we have all the time on talk radio. Pick a side and hammer home with it. Absolutely. And you know what? I'm a big believer in the Aristotle quote and all my listeners right now are rolling their eyes because they've heard me say this thousands of times. Virtue lies in the middle, folks. And that's exactly how I think it is, especially when it comes to this. Bill and

Tom coming together, they created that Patriot way. And I think that's it. I think even with regard to Jordan and LeBron, I think you have to come to a middle ground and say they played in different eras. Each has their strengths. Each has their abilities to make that claim. And maybe that claim is a lot closer than people want to believe. And I think that's the case with Brady and Belichick as well. But with regard to Danny, you know, I agree. I don't think it was necessarily a shot of the bow at Bill Belichick or a shot into his heart. But I think there's some lingering resentment. And you heard it. You absolutely heard it in his voice yesterday.

But ultimately, I don't think it's going to do much to sway the argument about who's responsible for the Patriot way. I think ultimately it just may shed some light on maybe why Danny Amendola is not a New England Patriot anymore. And he saw the opportunity to maximize his ability, go elsewhere. He did it. And, you know, we would definitely still wish him the best. All the contributions that he made in a Patriots uniform to this organization and to this team should not be forgotten because of that comment. And I'm seeing a lot of that on social media. And, you know, just, again, try to remember that there are two sides to every story, folks. Well, John, the Patriot way, whatever it may be or who might be responsible for it, it's going to continue in 2021, one way or another.

And most of Patriots Nation thinks that it should be with a new quarterback. And, folks, we're going to talk about some of the outside options, including an interesting name that popped up yesterday. But there's a chance, John, even though there's a section of the fan base that is strongly opposed to this, that the Patriots might end up opting to bring back Cam Newton, if for no other reason than by default. I've been back and forth on this a number of times. I think that Cam had a bit of a disadvantage coming in this year with COVID eliminating OTAs, many camps, preseason games.

I think there's a chance he could have been better than the product that we saw this year on the field. Maybe another year to help rehabilitate that shoulder, get a little healthier, whatever. But there's a flip side to this as well, and I'd be lying if I ignored it. You watch film of Cam missing receivers, having difficulty picking up the blitz, holding on to the ball for way too long, most glaringly the inability to make some of his throws. In fact, John, we heard Rodney Harrison, a former Patriot, Patriots Hall of Famer, say earlier today that bringing back Cam would be, quote, the worst decision Bill Belichick could make. John, when it comes to the Patriots decision at quarterback, sticking solely on Cam Newton for just a moment, do you see any upside in bringing

Cam back to Foxborough, or would this be a last resort for Bill? It would have to be a last resort. I completely agree with Rodney Harris in there. The two virtues that Belichick has always talked about with his quarterbacks have been accuracy and taking care of the football and Cam Newton did neither this year look I like Cam Newton I think he's a great personality I think he's a great quarterback at Carolina till the injuries just caught up I like him he seems like a leader he's charismatic I think he could be phenomenal on TV I mean if ESPN is looking for an analyst a couple of years down the road, I could see Cam Newton being incredible at that.

He's articulate, again, charismatic, smart, has leadership qualities. I love all of that stuff with Cam Newton. He can't throw, and he doesn't take care of the football. Those are the two most important things for a quarterback. So I think it would be a major mistake to bring Cam Newton back. I mean, teams move off from quarterbacks quickly. We saw Arizona move off of Josh Rosen a year after drafting him number 10 overall. The Miami Dolphins made abandoned Tua after a year after making him the fifth pick in

the draft. I mean, teams move on from young quarterbacks quickly. What we saw from Cam Newton, what would lead you to believe that he should be back again? The Patriots have to upgrade that position. And it's also a situation they're in mike the rest of their roster is depleted they're an old team they had a lot of players opt out because of covid are we sure that those players are going to opt in this year you know whether it be dante hightower or patrick chung or marcus cannon i mean they may not come back this year they may say you know what? There's no Brady. There's no solution at quarterback.

What am I coming back for? I've made enough money. I can make money post-career, whether it's doing TV or anything else, because those guys are all smart, accomplished guys. Why come back? So people that say, well, there were nine players that opted out because of COVID. They're all going to come back.

I don't buy into that. The roster is depleted. I think you can make a case that after this draft, they probably have the worst roster in that division, maybe even worse than the New York Jets who have a bevy of draft choices and plenty of cap money to spend. So it's not just the quarterback. If it was a situation where you need to plug in a quarterback and become a contender again, then we can have that discussion. But they've got to address a lot of needs, Mike. They don't have anything at wide receiver. They have even less at tight end.

I think their front seven is not all that strong. Their secondary is good. But are they going to keep Stephon Gilmore? Are they going to move on from him? And a lot of that secondary is old. The McCourty twins are 32, 33 years old. So there's a lot of answers right now that the Patriots have to address because, quite frankly, Bill Belichick, the general manager, has had about five or six straight

less than impressive drafts. And it's caught up to him to the point now where the roster's just not all that good. Yeah, and I think a lot of people will look at this year and this offseason and say, well, it's going to be how the Patriots choose to pick the quarterback is going to be how this offseason is going to be remembered. What they do in 2021 is really going to be dependent on the decision that they make. I've said a couple of times that I believe this is an important offseason for Bill Belichick because the decision that is made, if you're going to go with a quarterback and you see someone that you feel

can be your franchise guy for the next five six seven years um and you don't go with him uh it could have serious repercussions on the flip side if you don't see anybody then do you kind of just roll the dice take your chances with what's out there fill the holes like you said and there are several holes this team is not simply one quarterback away from contending for a Super Bowl. I've said that many times here on these airwaves. So it's very difficult to determine exactly what direction they're going to go into. I think because of the fact that they are so many steps away from being a contending team, it's going to take them out of contention for a lot of those big name quarterbacks that you heard. It took us away from Matthew Stafford, guaranteed. Stafford said he

didn't want to come here for whatever reason, but I think the Patriots would have been reticent to go that extra mile even if he hadn't made that decree simply because I think that investing too much into a quarterback coming back without the right pieces around him was not going to improve the team all that much. You have to build the foundation before you can start to furnish the house, and I think that's exactly what they're going to be doing this year. But we talk a lot about the highest profile position in all of football for good reason, John, especially when there is as much uncertainty surrounding that position as there is with the New England Patriots. Folks, in just a moment, John Cepicetti and I will continue talking potential Patriot signal callers and whether

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Patriots fans, John Capochnetti joins me here today on the pod. And John, in the previous segment, we spoke a bit about the Pat's choice of quarterback and your feelings, my feelings on possibly bringing back Cam

Newton, what this decision in the offseason is going to mean for the Patriots long term. The likelihood of a new quarterback starting for the team in 2021 is pretty high even though there are some rumors creeping in about cam maybe coming back i think because of the default nature of the

way that seems it's becoming a popular narrative um we do know one name that is off the list matthew stafford who i mentioned in the previous segment he's no longer an option he'll be in los angeles deshaun watson i guess technically you could say he's still a name to discuss but if i'm being honest there's a 99.7 chance that he does not end up in new england um we hear names like dac prescott matt ryan there's really not much substance behind those because there's not any indication that either the cowboys or the falcons respectively are willing to deal them or what what their asking price is going to be. But yesterday, Las Vegas Review-Journal's Vincent Bonsignore, who's a journalist that's been around the block a little bit,

he's done his due diligence, reported that the Las Vegas Raiders might be fielding calls for Derek Carr. And the Raiders reporting asking price, John, would be two first round picks. And then the Raiders would then swap those along with two more first rounders for Deshaun Watson. John, we immediately started hearing reports that the Pats might be in on Derek Carr. But the asking price for me seems far too high in that two first round pick genre where I think that maybe you can make the argument that Carr might be in the same conversation with a guy like Stafford, maybe with a guy like Jimmy Garoppolo, who we hear a lot of rumors about. Do you think this is a possibility? And do you think the Patriots really should be in on these guys? If not Carr, maybe a guy like Garoppolo?

What are your thoughts on any potential veteran options that the Patriots might have available? They have to be in on the discussion, right? Because that's the only way you can get anything done. And supposedly they were in on Matt Stafford. But then Stafford, you know, told Lions management anywhere but the New England Patriots. And people got all upset about that. But just look at it from Matthew Stafford's point of view. He wanted to get out of Detroit to go to a team where he could win with well the lions as bad as they are have better

receivers and a better tight end than the patriots have right kenny galladay marvin jones are better than any patriot wide receivers and t.j hawkinson's better than any tight end the patriots have so actually if you went from the lions to the patriots you'd have less weapons than you had in detroit uh which is kind of staggering to think how to the Patriots, you'd have less weapons than you had in Detroit, which is kind of staggering to think how much the Patriots' lack of talent at wide receiver and tight end is viewed in the NFL. I was just going to say that. In the league, right? I mean, just look at wide receiver and tight end. They may have the worst units in the entire NFL, and that's kind of sad.

So any quarterback that comes here is going to have to try to elevate those players. Carr would be interesting because, again, talking with Cam Newton, what we talked about with Cam Newton is that he's not very accurate and he also turns the ball over too much. Carr is pretty accurate and takes care of the football pretty well. So that would be an upgrade. Now, as far as the two first round picks, the Patriots are picking 15th this year. If you get Derek Carr and you go 9-7 next year, then that pick is going to be high teens, low 20s, whatever the case may be. Not sure if he could sneak in the playoffs at 9-7. The AFC is, quite frankly, loaded at this point. But I'm going to go back to a quarterback that was traded four years ago.

When people say, well, two first-round picks is too much for a quarterback. Well, Sam Bradford was traded from the Philadelphia Eagles to the Minnesota Vikings just before the start of the 2016 season. Now, it was a unique situation because Minnesota had Teddy Bridgewater. They'd gone to the playoffs the year before, and Bridgewater suffered a near career-threatening injury in training camp. So the Vikings had to go get a quarterback. They went to the Eagles and traded a first and a fourth for Sam Bradford, who I think Derek Carr is better than Sam Bradford because he's a little more durable than Sam Bradford. Heck, you know,

Jimmy Garoppolo is more durable than Sam Bradford was, but that's what you have to give up to get a quarterback, a starting NFL quarterback. So the two first round picks would seem like a lot, but that's the going rate for these quarterbacks, right? I mean, we know Deshaun Watson's going to get way more than that once he hits the market and teams are going to fight over him because I quite frankly think Deshaun Watson's probably the second

most valuable commodity in the NFL right now behind only Patrick Mahomes because of his age. He's 25 and he's already an elite quarterback. I mean, obviously Brady, Rodgers, Russell Wilson, great quarterbacks, but they're, you know, 30, 30, 32, 37, and 43. So their value is not the same as Deshaun Watson's. But that's the going rate. So that may be what it takes for the Patriots to do that.

Maybe you swap some other draft picks along the way. Maybe the Raiders give you a third, you send them a fifth, wherever the case may be. The Patriots and Raiders should have a good working relationship. Mike Mayock is the general manager, although John Gruden runs the Raiders. Mayock and Belichick have a good relationship, so they could be ready, willing, and able to pull this off. I think the Raiders would be a good spot for Watson. The Raiders need a star, a megastar, and Deshaun Watson would be that player, and they have some nice offensive weapons there.

And Gruden is considered a quarterback guru, although I think that that sometimes gets blown out of proportion. You know, he never seems to be happy with any quarterback he has anyway. But I think that that is a possibility. But the Patriots have to get into this, and this may happen quicker than we think. I mean, I was shocked that that trade took place last weekend. You never see a trade happen the week before the Super Bowl.

Normally it happens when the league year starts, which is going to be March 17th, but it seems like teams are ready to go now. And the Patriots had better be ready to make a move because other teams are going to be looking to upgrade at that position yeah absolutely and I think that's one of the motivations to try to get a move like that in make a big splash right before the Super Bowl really put everyone else on notice especially for the Los Angeles Rams acquiring Matthew Stafford now all of a sudden they put the NFC on notice that's a big uh sign in the front yard of tom brady saying hey look you guys may have

won the nfc this year but we're coming for you and we got the stuff we got a younger quarterback things of that nature you're putting the league on notice i agree with you on car i would actually entertain the idea of car coming in and being the quarterback here in new england uh without any hesitation the guy definitely has the ability to be accurate, to make throws, to hold on to the football. I do believe that the asking price would have to come down if the Patriots were to seriously consider this. I know that it is kind of the going rate, but I just don't see the Patriots being able to do that. Not necessarily that the Patriots wouldn't be willing to give that up, but if they're looking for two first-rounders, I know other teams out there that can offer Las Vegas a better package for those first two rounders than the Patriots would.

You mentioned the synergy, maybe the difficulty, maybe the ability for the Patriots and the Raiders to work well with each other. That's a possibility as well. But ultimately, really, it's going to come down to what the Patriots value, how they're going to be able to value the price that they're going to pay for a new quarterback. I know a lot of people scoff at Jimmy Garoppolo and the most, you know, maybe optimism that I think fans had about him coming back tends to wane each day when you look at what San Francisco is going to do, how that it's going to shake out, what the Patriots would have to give up. You have to believe that a guy like Garoppolo would probably be worth more to the Patriots than he would any other franchise. He'd come in with knowledge of the offense. We know Bill Belichick likes him. We know New England likes him. Reportedly, I mean, they tried to hold on to him for as long as they could before dealing him to the Niners in 2017. But ultimately, does it make you a better football team in the long run?

Maybe you can make the argument for Jimmy. I don't know. I'm not completely as sold as I once was on that trade. But ultimately, the Patriots are going to do what they feel to be best. And we're going to continue to talk Patriots signal callers here, folks, until the Patriots make a decision as to who that signal caller in 2021 will be. But if there's one name that we crossed off the list, Matthew Stafford, because of inavailability, one name that you can definitely cross off the list as well is a quarterback that is playing this weekend. Well, actually, two. I mean, there's no chance Patrick Mahomes is coming to New England, folks. But that is Tom

Brady, former Patriots quarterback, obviously leading the Buccaneers into Raymond James Stadium, his home stadium, to take on Patrick and the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. It's Super Bowl week, John. So here on Locked On Patriots, I've been seeking the wisdom and counsel of my guests on this upcoming matchup. John, when you look at Sunday's game from both a Buccaneers standpoint and a Chiefs standpoint, what's the one thing that makes you feel most confident in either team? And what's the one thing that worries you the most about either team? The thing I'm confident in both teams, and these are two quarterbacks that any deficit is not too big for them to

overcome. I mean, we obviously Brady beat the Falcons in the Superbowl when he was down 28 to three late in the third quarter. We saw what Mahomes did last postseason, all three postseason games, his team trailed by double digits and ended up winning by double digits. And the recent AFC championship game down nine to nothing and yada,

yada, yada was 38ada, yada. It was 38-9 before you knew what happened. These are two guys that no matter what they do in the first quarter or the second quarter, they have a delete button, which not many quarterbacks have. My favorite quarterback we know is Aaron Rodgers. He doesn't have the delete button. I think he lets things linger a little bit too much.

If there's a mistake made in the first or second quarter, he sometimes lets it linger into the second half, and that may be his fatal flaw. Whereas with these two quarterbacks, and I'll throw one other in the history of football, John Elway, they just throw an interception. It's like they go back to the sideline, and it's like, whatever. From now on, I'm not going to throw an interception.

I mean, Brady's won two conference championship games in his career throwing three interceptions in each of those games. Threw three interceptions against the Chargers in the 2007 AFC championship game, won 21-12. And just two weeks ago he threw three interceptions against the Packers and won that game 31-26. So both of these quarterbacks can have bad moments and they're going to overcome it because

they just don't let that linger. And that's an incredible quality. So I think if either team is down by two scores, don't count them out because these quarterbacks are going to keep coming. And whether they play a bad first quarter or even a bad first half, they'll forget about it, move on and do what they have to do in the second half to try to win the game. So I'm very, very confident that both of these quarterbacks, no matter what, are just going to keep battling to the point where, you know, you may see a game where there's a lot of back and forth and a team takes a lead and then the other team comes back

and reclaims the lead. And it could be that type of game with these two great quarterbacks who are, what, 18 years difference in age, which is, you know, mind-blowing. Absolutely, without any question. And this is going to be an interesting game it's going to be an exciting game i happen to think this game is going to go down to the wire i really think this is going to be one that could come down to the last possession i think both of these teams have the ability to put points on the board uh both of them have the ability to contain the other as well defensively for as prolific as

both of these teams are offensively. I think there are definitely chances for either team to be able to find some defensive success against the others. So, John, it's going to be a fun week of the rest of the week. It's going to be a fun game. And I had a fun time talking football with you today, as I always do. Folks, John and I share the microphone every Tuesday on FPC Radio Live with our good mutual friend Ian Glendon, my co-host who actually will be joining me here on the Locked On Patriots Airwaves on Friday to preview Super Bowl 55. But we always enjoy talking ball together and talking sports and it's always a great time.

For the benefit of our new listeners, and we do have some new listeners this week, and we welcome each and every one of you, and thank you for joining us here on Locked On Patriots. John, where can they find your great work? Where can they follow you on social media? And please enlighten us as to what you have coming on the horizon from the great pen of John Cepicetti. Well, we've got all our stuff on fullpresscoverage.com, so that's where we're writing right now. I've been in some sort of sabbatical lately. I've got to start getting back to writing more.

I'm one of those people that will kind of go in lockdown for a period of time and may not write for a while, and then all of a sudden I start to do it a lot. So I'm hoping to get back to that. Obviously, I'm involved with three different podcasts on full press coverage. We've got Get Off My Lawn with Keegan and Sap. Tom's a noted columnist who's worked in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston. So we, you know, sometimes we'll chew the fat about yesteryear, which gives it kind of a different flavor.

We've got the Sap and Cat show, myself and Cat Cornetta. We do a lot of football, but once the season's over, we'll get into other things as well, and sometimes just lifestyle stuff because Cat has two young boys, and she writes for the Boston Globe and works in education as well. And then a new podcast we just launched a couple weeks ago, the Pick and Roll NBA podcast with jet and sap. Every five days we drop a new podcast and it's,

it's getting into heavy discussion about the NBA. So you can follow any of those podcasts here on full press coverage. And again, when my columns appear, Ian and everyone on social media will get them out there and you can follow me on Twitter at JohnSapp25. That's J-O-H-N-S-A-P and the number 25. Absolutely. And, folks, again, I can't recommend highly enough the podcasting

or the articles that John puts out, not simply because they were part of the Full Press family, but simply because they're just some of the best you'll hear or read anywhere. My friend, what can I say? Thank you so much for joining me here today. Stay safe, stay well. Enjoy the Super Bowl this weekend. We look forward to talking ball with you again

here on Locked on Patriots very soon. Thanks again, bud. Thank you, Mike. Patriots Nation, we are now over the hump in your work week. But fear not, because there is still plenty more news, notes, and analysis, seasoned with my occasional opinion, on your six-time Super Bowl champion still to come. So to ensure that you do not miss a single second of the action, download and subscribe

to the Locked On Patriots podcast on platforms such as Radio.com, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts, just make sure that you're staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Once again, my name is Mike DeBate. I thank John Cepicetti for his time, his insight, and his appearance on today's pod, but most of all, I thank you so much for listening

and for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Stay safe, stay well, always be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone.