How has training camp shifted your outlook of the Patriots?

Beasley Digital

Felger and Mazz get Greg Bedard's thoughts about the Patriots after seeing them in action for an entire month of training camp.  Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.  #patriots #nfl #football

Transcript

00:00what was your projection for the patriots win total so after the schedule came out that's when

00:05i did it and my preseason prediction uh was 11 and 6 with the caveat that i always i come out

00:12with my final prediction like right on the weekend of the first game version 1.0 yep okay so your

00:18initial after looking at the schedule was 11 wins for the patriots yeah that's a playoff team 11 and

00:23six contending with the bills that's good it's a nice season it's a great season okay you have yet

00:29to post your final revision on that because you said again the caveat being pending what i see at

00:34training camp i want preseason play out all the practices that we get to watch let me get as

00:39much information as possible information because facts matter and information matters yep data hard

00:45data so if you were to do it today and you haven't officially posted so i'm asking for a preview this

00:52is a soft open yep if you were to do it today sneak peek where would you be i would be around

01:00eight or nine wins for the patriots but dart bomb 11 wins to eight so you've gone from 11 to eight or

01:09nine wins yep why uh let's list them in order shall we please a couple a couple different reasons and

01:17i'm just calling up my my why do you call anything up just speak because i just you know he wants the

01:24ammo he wants the ammo at his fingertip okay well they haven't even played a game lesson you haven't

01:30with three losses this is great number one is there is absolutely zero depth on this team

01:38like if you're projecting like i did i'm projecting 11 wins that is everybody important

01:47and you know they basically everybody needs to be in the lineup everybody has to be out there they

01:53have to be out there for most if not all of the season because they are just razor thin almost across

02:00the board other than you know i'm not saying they're good at wide receiver but you could probably

02:05approximate performance from some of their depth guys like you know they could step in and do

02:10something cornerback i would say they have decent depth uh safety they have decent depth uh running

02:18back i like their their three guys but other than that they are completely razor thin i mean if the

02:24patriots lose like digs or hunter henry or morgan moses or michael wenu or will campbell or you know

02:34gonzalez would probably be you know a big one even though they have decent depth there

02:39spillane at linebacker he's like their only decent linebacker you know harold landry on the edge guys

02:46like that they lose any of those guys for an extended period of time they're pretty much screwed

02:53okay so again headline greg bedard after watching training camp assessing the team through this stage

02:59when he revises his win prediction for the patriots is going down by at least a couple games number one

03:04reason depth number two reason drake may so you know drake i think is uh is very talented

03:13i think that eventually things will click for him uh in this offense with josh mcdaniels i think josh

03:21mcdaniels once we get to the season will be able to scheme some things up hone in on what drake does well

03:29what he doesn't do well uh and will elevate him a little bit but you know i and we sort of talked

03:35about this last week and i know some people gasper uh didn't like my line of conversation on drake may

03:43but i i stand by it i mean it wasn't i wasn't taking anybody's talking points talking about like

03:48is drake may enough of a perfectionist and and some of that is my bias like i i just i like these guys

03:56who are maniacs at the quarterback position especially and i think you know you look at it

04:01and i think that anybody who is good in this league at quarterback goes to super bowls wins super

04:08bowls there's something maniacal about them i mean it's not just tom brady i know i used tom brady

04:13last week and i know that you know gasper like flinches whenever you mention tom brady

04:17in the in the same breath as anybody else i think he and murray uh spontaneously secrete like fluids just

04:24like like like reflexively when you mention yeah they get aroused but i mean you look at the guys

04:29i didn't say that i just said something oozes out there's just like a bodily reaction i know you

04:35didn't say it i said it it's like they're in heat but they whether it's patrick mahomes or joe burrow

04:44or josh allen you know peyton manning like any of these top quarterbacks to me like the you have to

04:53be a perfectionist like every every practice every game and like drake and i understand i said this last

04:58week he's 22 he hasn't played a lot of football he probably develops into this do i think josh allen

05:05was you know obsessed with his mechanics and things like that you know his first couple years in the

05:11league no but he got to that point and like every time i read about josh allen in the offseason he's

05:17basically honing in on every single weakness that i've seen with him i'm like holy cow this guy

05:21he gets it and you know drake may his where that came from last week was i did not like his reaction

05:29to the fumble and the post game against the commanders he kind of just shrugs like it's no big

05:35deal then after the vikings game he comes out there and you know phil asks him about are you

05:41too amped up i'm not going to change uh he's like we just missed a missed a couple plays like what are

05:48you talking about he played terrible last week like he should have been you know i want to see my

05:53quarterback be sort of red ass if if he didn't play well i want him to be upset about it at least a

06:01little bit i don't need to i don't need him to be matt jones but be a little irked and so i have

06:07questions about that with drake i'm sorry i'm sorry you write your email do you think his mechanics

06:13have progressed at all since he got here i don't think so they were they were not good against the

06:18vikings i mean he's just this is the same stuff that you heard him coming out of usc all the out of

06:24unc all the quarterback experts whether it's chris sims or you know greg cosell or whoever like

06:31they all said like you know he because his mechanics are so sloppy his feet you know some

06:36of his throwing motion is still wonky uh i don't like it but you know i guess i'm gonna have to get

06:43used to it but he misses like these bunny throws i mean that that throw to demario douglas was easy

06:48the first pass of the game to mac hollands was easy and he he's lucky mac hollands is like six foot four

06:55the pass to the sideline when he missed two open touchdown passes you know that was high to mac

07:00hollands if he's not six foot four he doesn't catch that and like i mean we're through two

07:05preseason games and you watch around the league i mean even caleb williams the other night

07:10look dynamite going up against the bills backups drake's faced the backups in both preseason games

07:17and what's he done he ran for a third down against the commanders ran for a touchdown both times

07:24i thought he had opportunities to throw the ball down the field and then his one play against the

07:29vikings was you know when he rolled out to his right and he missed two demario douglas and kyle

07:35williams who were open for possible touchdowns so you know i do think and from talking to people

07:43let me just say this internally they love drake man they think he's everything that they want that

07:49he processes fine he does it at a high rate he's doing everything they ask of him you know they love

07:55him um but i mean i you know i just look at it i i don't understand how he's good in these joint

08:04practices and he has been good and he doesn't play well in the preseason game i do think from watching

08:09drake i do think that there's a bit of um okay well i know this is a preseason game i know i'm going

08:16against the backups he sort of i don't know dials it back a little bit and also like the the practice

08:21yesterday was shells it was sort of jogged through a little bit competitive not really

08:28you know i don't think he was you know primed for that where i thought he was better today where it

08:35was ramped up a little bit more starters for starters like you know all that stuff so i do think

08:39because of his youth he sort of rides the wave a little bit and i don't love that but i think in

08:45time he's going to grow out of it so bottom line you don't think he's ready to carry the team

08:49elevate the team as a you know franchise premier quarterback does no as of like week one or week

08:55two no but my hope is that by you know mid-season and being in this system a bit more and being with

09:02mcdaniels i i hope that he gets there but you know we're all we're all hoping that it gets there i

09:09just i'm not ready to say that right now so it's hard for me to project like all of a sudden he's

09:13going to go from winning one nfl game to winning 11 i mean it's possible but i i would say it's

09:20unlikely at this point how how much of a variable is the fact that they have a new offense or new

09:26coordinator and a new head coach oh it's certainly a factor i mean you know caleb williams i mean not

09:32caleb williams um jayden daniels gets to go in year two with you know i i drake may would be in a much

09:38better spot if you know say they went with mike rabel instead of gerard mayo which we all knew

09:43they should have at the time uh he would be in a much better spot but i think long term this is the

09:49best thing for him because mcdaniels knows what he's doing and he's josh mcdaniels is not going to

09:55fly the coop um anytime soon if at all and so drake's going to have that play caller game planner

10:03relationship for a decade at least murray you've been making some noises over there go ahead yeah

10:09i mean if i was in charge of you know aggregating our videos that we put out on social media i mean

10:13i just take that portion of that clip and put headline bedard changes season prediction from 11

10:18wins to eight semi-colon quarterback might suck that's what i heard and look we got to give him

10:23a break because he's 22 years old and that's real young even though lamar jackson won his first mvp at

10:2722 but hey we got to give him time let's wait till november maybe he'll get the offense then

10:31oh my god wow so and you know now that i think of it as i because i asked greg the question about

10:38new coach new coordinator new coach new offense caleb williams has the same thing he sure does

10:44and he looked pretty good in the in the last game now again for like the first time right for like

10:51the first time like he he looks like he's getting better yeah okay i mean you know as far as i'm when

10:56i say for the first time not him running around like a jackass making plays out of his ass right

11:00talking about like behind the line of scrimmage as a passer on time on a dime that kind of thing

11:06i haven't seen much of that from caleb williams since he it's certainly since he got to chicago

11:09yes and one thing i would say about that is you know i know from watching mcdaniels in this offense

11:14over the years he put absolutely no scheme into you know what they've done on the field so far

11:21in the preseason games whereas i mean i don't know ben johnson but i don't think it would be

11:26considering what caleb williams has been dealing with as far as the media and it would not have

11:31surprised me if ben johnson didn't you know mix in some scheme place to sort of make his quarterback

11:36look good you know give him confidence where i don't think rabel and mcdaniels are concerned with

11:41that it's it's more of like you know let's just get through these games and keep working what's a

11:46bigger concern for you the offensive line or drake may boy that's a good question because i asked maz

11:52what's a bigger concern drake may are the receivers he said drake may i think i would agree

11:57with matt i think i think it would be drake may just because look and i understand where fans are

12:03coming from they're excited they think he's going to be great they see the athletic plays they see

12:07all of that and and i see it too but you know i'm more of a show me show me you're going to take care

12:13of the ball okay so show me you're going to do when i say a bigger problem drake may or the offensive

12:17line you you think about it yeah i mean i had to go through the offensive line i mean

12:22their center position scares me to death like i think they can figure out left guard at some point

12:28i think will campbell will be fine another guy that they absolutely love internally that i don't think

12:36the hysteria outside comes close to matching up what they think of his actual performance like for

12:42example you know the joint practice against the vikings um some of the context that was left

12:47out was that day you know he had his issues both days but especially the second day then against

12:54jonathan grenard they were running a lot of like second and third and long so like it's something

12:59kevin o'connell likes to do and so in that situation it's going to be rough and also will campbell's

13:04blocking jonathan grenard probably i don't know 100 plays over the course of two days and yeah he gave

13:11up some sacks that's like three games worth of pass blocks so you know in that context was it really

13:18that bad i you know i i think he's going to be okay i think they'll be able to figure it out i mean

13:24drake there's just a lot of unknown about drake because we saw him win one game last year

13:30we need to see i need i need more data to be like okay he's the guy coming off a one win and you

13:37haven't seen the jump yet obviously the games haven't started but based on what you've been

13:43able to see we haven't seen that next step yeah and the thing is is like i've been so impressed with

13:48him in the joint practices you know where they are using some schemes i mean you know rabel said it

13:54before the second practice in minnesota i said it after the first practice we basically said the same

13:58thing where i said the impressive thing to me about drake in those practices was he did not let

14:05the pressure what was going on the vikings defense some of the failures of the patriots offense it

14:10didn't bother him at all he just kept going down the field and he just seemed unflappable with what

14:16was going on around him and that was very impressive to me and that is a good sign that he he is going to

14:23take the next step this season for this team okay but to this point uh the big boy is

14:28downgrading the patriots from where he was in the offseason quarterback is one of the reasons

14:32we'll get into some of the other reasons and take your calls you want to weigh in

14:35six one seven seven seven i mean i think you guys are all nuts to think that drake may is a bigger

14:41problem than the line and the receivers like i disagree with that strongly i i think those two

14:45are bigger problems than the quarterback well i mean what with his interceptions and fumbles last year

14:50like he does that again yeah they're done i heard you say the other day demario douglas is their

14:54number one receiver or just might be their number one receiver uh you know going into week one yeah

15:00that's hideous that's not come on that's unfair hideous hideous hideous good little player he's a

15:06good little he's a good little player he's your number one target well they don't have one well

15:11that's my point that's why that's a bigger issue to me than the quarterback

15:14is

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