00:00The Patriots just moments ago wrapped up joint practices day two in Minneapolis and we go to the Volkswagen Dealers Expert Hotline out to Minnesota to the aforementioned Evan Lazar. Evan, how are you doing, man?
00:12I'm doing great, Matt. How are you?
00:13Good. How'd the offensive line look today compared to yesterday?
00:17Yeah, today was a little bit of a humble pie, I think, for the Patriots, Matt.
00:22It wasn't that it was anything close to like that Eagles practice that we felt last year, but I do think that today Minnesota had the better of practice, probably on both sides of the ball, honestly.
00:35Offensive line, a couple of losses for Will Campbell against Jonathan Bernard.
00:39The practice did end well, though, for the Patriots' offense in those hurry-up one-minute drills Drake made through a sideline go ball to Keyshawn Booty about 40 yards out.
00:49That ended his one-minute drill with a touchdown, and then Joshua Dobbs led a touchdown drive as well.
00:54So, a good ending to the practice, but I thought for the bulk of practice, the Vikings' defense really controlled the day.
01:01Okay, Evan. So, Drake May, tell me how to feel here, because in the joint practices, it's been pretty, for the most part, celebrated.
01:12We've enjoyed some of the touchdowns, and he's throwing balls all over the yard, and it's looked good.
01:17In the non-joint practices, the in-stadium scrimmage for season ticket holders and the preseason game, although it was very limited, he hasn't looked quite as good, quite as smooth or dynamic.
01:28Which one do I believe? Are you concerned with what you've seen out of Drake May or encouraged with what you've seen?
01:34I'm overall encouraged by what I've seen, and I thought over the last couple days what I really liked about Drake May here in Minnesota is that he saw a really exotic defense from Brian Flores,
01:46and he seemed like he was able to see the field pretty well and decipher what Flores was throwing at him from a schematic perspective.
01:53So, that's a good sign, and I would also say, you know, today, Bob Douglas had a few drops on throws that were right on him by Drake May that maybe would have left us all feeling a little bit more positive about how the Patriots' offense looked if those passes had been completed.
02:07So, I wouldn't look at today's practice, some of the unevenness, as anything to do with Drake May.
02:14I thought that when they protected and guys got open down the field, he was putting the ball on them.
02:19Today, they had a little bit of issues with those first two things.
02:22Evan, am I to take from that comment that the offensive line was the biggest issue for the Patriots today?
02:28I would say over the course of the two days, the offensive line has had its hands full with the Vikings.
02:34Now, they have a good front.
02:35You have Dallas Turner on one side.
02:37You have Jonathan Grenard on the other side.
02:39You have Brian Flores scheming it up.
02:41So, it's a good pass rush, and it's a good pressure package that they were going against.
02:45Yesterday, I was really optimistic about what I saw because they were able to make big plays when they did get it blocked up.
02:52You know, I know everybody probably heard about some of them, like the Travion Henderson catch at the end of practice,
02:57where they were exchanging some haymakers with the Vikings.
03:00Today, I thought the coverage down the field for Minnesota was a little bit tighter, and the Patriots weren't creating as much separation.
03:06What did you see from Will Campbell the last two days?
03:09Some good and some bad from him as well, I would say.
03:12You know, Campbell today gave up some pressures to Grenard, who had a really nice day out here.
03:18But I thought in one-on-ones, he held his own against him, and he did a little bit better in some of the stunt stuff that they were doing in those drills,
03:26the two-on-twos, you know, interior stunts and tackle and twists and things like that, that were better, I would say, from Will Campbell today.
03:35Now, Ben Brown was at left guard instead of Jared Wilson.
03:39I don't know exactly what that is right now.
03:43I think there might be some sort of injury with Jared Wilson because he didn't participate in the practice at all,
03:48so maybe that's all it is.
03:50But it was a new left guard for Will Campbell, so that should be noted as well.
03:54All right, Evan, fill in the blank for me, and please elaborate if you're able to.
03:58Travion Henderson will be the best Patriots rookie since who?
04:02Oh, man, yeah, that's what I've really been thinking about, honestly, is, you know,
04:08I've been covering the team now as my eighth training camp,
04:11and I just can't think of a time that I am more optimistic about a rookie coming in as a skill player
04:17that I am about right now with Travion Henderson.
04:20I really think that he's a special talent, and their whole thing now is just usage
04:25and figuring out how to use him properly from an X's and O's standpoint
04:29and also how to really, you know, keep him fresh and keep him healthy
04:33and don't overuse him as well.
04:35To answer your question directly, I don't even know.
04:38I don't have a great answer to that right now because it's been that long
04:42since I really felt that this skill player is this dynamic for them.
04:45Like, you might need to go all the way back to, like, the Gronk draft, right?
04:50Like, it might be that far back since they've drafted somebody like this,
04:54and that's praise for Travion Henderson, honestly.
04:56Like, that's just how good he's been through these last couple of days
04:59and last couple of weeks, really.
05:01Okay.
05:01You know, obviously, the hype train is building up steam.
05:04It would be interesting to see, especially with what Drake May is going to be looking to do this year,
05:08a guy you can check it down to, obviously, if he can come up big.
05:11That would be enormous for the young quarterback.
05:13Let me just throw one more thing at you, Evan.
05:15Sort of a different type of question.
05:16But if I told you right now that in 2025, the offense of the Patriots was actually going to be better
05:23than the defense of the Patriots, would that excite you, or would that make you nervous?
05:28That would excite me because I think this whole thing with Mike Vrabel,
05:32as much as we talk a lot about culture and identity with Mike Vrabel, it's number 10, right?
05:38It's Drake May.
05:39If he has the offense pointed in the right direction and he's pointed in the right direction,
05:44I think they can figure out a lot of the other stuff.
05:46You see teams do that all the time.
05:48When the quarterback is playing well, you feel good about the entire thing.
05:52So if the offense is better than the defense, if you want to put it that way,
05:55I feel like overall that's a good takeaway about Drake May,
06:00and that's really the most important thing for this team right now.
06:02What did you see with Vrabel's involvement?
06:04We're talking with Evan Lazaro from Patriots.com on the Volkswagen Dealers Expert Hotline.
06:08What did you see with Vrabel's involvement over these two days of joint practices?
06:12I know yesterday he spent almost the entire day with the offense.
06:16Was that the same today?
06:17And what have you taken away from where he's devoting his time in these practices?
06:22Yeah, it's interesting.
06:24He was with the offense again for the entire day today,
06:26and that's definitely been notable to me.
06:29And I think that goes back to what we were just talking about with the franchise being Drake May,
06:34that his focus right now is pushing Drake May.
06:37And that is not just about his play and his execution play-to-play,
06:41but also the leadership stuff and some of the intangible things that we've captured on Forge and Foxborough
06:47and things like that that you see on all the behind-the-scenes stuff.
06:51So he's been with the offense basically the entire camp.
06:54Now maybe some of that is also his trust in Terrell Williams and the defensive staff,
06:59guys that have been with him and been in this system for a long period of time.
07:02He has mentioned that he wants to learn more about the Josh McDaniels offense.
07:07So a big part of it for him is also just seeing the Josh McDaniels offense in action
07:12so that he can coach it better.
07:13But I also think that it's also a lot about Drake May
07:17and wanting to have his hands all over Drake May's development.
07:21Evan, I know you need to run, but if I could, just one more before you go.
07:24How would you summarize these last two days of joint practices on the whole in Minnesota?
07:29And what should we expect, if anything, from the game this weekend in regards to starters playing?
07:35Yeah, yesterday I came out of his practice with a great feeling.
07:39I thought that they actually kind of won the day on day one,
07:42and I think Minnesota punched back pretty good here today.
07:46So maybe that's a hard way to put it.
07:49I don't know exactly who won the two days total.
07:53I think it was kind of a split-even matchup.
07:55And sometimes you see that when there's multiple days of joint practice
07:58where one team kind of takes it to the other on day one,
08:01and then the other team kind of wakes up and responds and has a better practice.
08:05So I'd say they kind of drew here in Minnesota.
08:08They won the first day and probably lost the second day.
08:11And I guess if you're the Patriots, you'll take that as a build.
08:14You know, we're building towards something here, and hopefully it would go from there.
08:18So on Saturday, though, I do kind of expect to maybe see a little bit of the starters to start the game,
08:25similarly to what we saw in week one of the preseason, just because of how things went here today.
08:31I think there's some stuff that they need to work on on both sides of the ball.
08:34So I wouldn't be surprised if you see some starters on Saturday.
08:37Evan, thanks a lot for the update.
08:38We appreciate it.
08:39We know you need to run.
08:40There are a million things that happen on these joint practice days.
08:42We really appreciate the update.
08:44Thanks, Evan.
08:45Anytime.
08:45Thanks for having me, guys.
08:46All right, sounds good.
08:47That's Evan Lazar joining us on the Volkswagen Dealers Expert Hotline.
08:50So not a good day for the Patriots.
08:52If you read some of the tweets coming out of Minneapolis today, decisive win for Minneapolis,
08:58for Minnesota on day two of joint practices after I think a lot of people felt the Patriots won yesterday.
