- 2 months ago
Christopher Price joined Toucher & Hardy to preview the Patriots’ preseason game, noting most starters will sit while bubble players fight for roster spots. He explained why it makes sense to keep Drake Maye out, even though some argue he needs live reps. The crew also touched on the unsettled wide receiver group and the battle at left guard, while pointing out how preseason games can be the final chance for players chasing NFL dreams.
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK
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00:00All right, Chris, are starters going to play tonight?
00:04I think you're going to see maybe a couple of starters,
00:07but for the most part, the goal is there are two things here,
00:11the goal tonight.
00:11First of all, nobody gets hurt.
00:13And second of all, the guys who are on the bubble,
00:15there's a handful of guys, maybe 10, 12 guys,
00:18who are probably playing for five or six spots.
00:21And this is their last best chance to make their case
00:24to make this roster.
00:25But overall, I don't think we're going to see
00:27a whole lot of starters tonight.
00:28Is May going to play?
00:30No.
00:31Okay, let me ask you about that.
00:33If you were coach, would you play May?
00:35No.
00:35Okay, why?
00:36Other than not getting hurt.
00:38There's very little value.
00:40You know what you have with him.
00:41And the one thing, the one argument that I would make
00:46for playing Drake May is that he has not had much in-game work
00:51with some of the receivers at the back end of that depth chart,
00:54namely Efton Chisholm III.
00:56Chisholm has obviously done very well over the course of the spring,
00:59but he hasn't had any reps, at least in-game, with Drake May.
01:04So maybe you could make a case that some of those guys, again,
01:08you know, the Jack Westovers of the world,
01:12you know, the bubble guys, the back end of the roster guys
01:14haven't had much of a shot with May.
01:16But other than that, I don't think there's any reason
01:18to play him today.
01:18Okay, can I just make an argument to why you would play him?
01:23Yeah.
01:23I have two.
01:25One is he didn't have success last week.
01:28And two is you – I know that they have these, like, you know,
01:33scrimmages with other teams – joint practices with other teams.
01:38I can never think of the name of them.
01:39But joint practices with other teams.
01:40But you still can't hit the quarterback in those.
01:43Do you think there's any value of getting a guy out there –
01:48look, say he drops back seven times in the game,
01:53which is generally what they do, right?
01:54There's, like – they usually, like, seven or eight passes in a game
01:57if they play a couple series.
02:00Do you think that there's value of just being in and, you know,
02:05you have a week and a half until the next game
02:07and just getting in with the chance of being hit?
02:10Ideally, you're not getting hit.
02:12Maybe you just run stuff that he just dumps it off.
02:15But just – it's like facing live bullets.
02:17Or do you think that's overrated?
02:18Be honest.
02:19It just is a question that I have.
02:21Yeah, I think that's – I think there's something to that,
02:24but I think that's a little bit overrated because, again, you know,
02:26theoretically, like you said, you hope he doesn't get hit.
02:30You know, you keep your fingers crossed he doesn't get hit.
02:31But if he does get hit and he doesn't, you know, rolls the wrong way –
02:35look, we saw it last year as a rookie where he took a couple of shots
02:38and was out for a while.
02:39And so I think that he's better at that.
02:41I think he's better at protecting his body.
02:43I think he's grown when it comes to his work within the pocket
02:46and kind of sensing pressure and stuff.
02:48But I still wouldn't do it.
02:50Because I would take it – forget it.
02:53I'm arguing too much about it.
02:54But I would take it the Giants with the strength of their defensive line
02:56aren't playing any starters on the defensive line.
02:59I would have to imagine there's no way they do
03:01because that's the strength of the team, if I'm not mistaken, correct?
03:04Their defensive line –
03:05And look, we saw last week as well,
03:06and part of that was the lead-up to the joint practice is the Vikings
03:09didn't play any starters and others out of the ball.
03:11Right.
03:11And so I would just be like, don't run.
03:14Get – like, we're just going to run stuff where you're just getting rid of the ball.
03:18Maybe then it doesn't make sense.
03:19I guess I'm arguing against my own point.
03:22It's just –
03:23I just find it interesting that they have preseason games at all.
03:27Because there's –
03:28Christopher, this has just been interesting to me too.
03:30It's like Christian Gonzalez hasn't been practicing,
03:32and we ask people, you know, what do you think?
03:35And they're like, well, like he's kind of in bubble wrap right now,
03:37which I understand.
03:38It's Justin Jefferson with the Vikings.
03:40He strained his hamstring.
03:41He took four weeks off.
03:42And I understand that.
03:43Believe me, I completely understand that.
03:45And I wouldn't play him either.
03:46But then my argument, Chris, would be every time I see a guy of importance
03:51get hurt in camp, not in a game, but in camp,
03:55I'm like, then why is anyone playing that's good?
03:58Because if Christian Gonzalez doesn't have to play,
04:00there's guys that are, you know, as important to the team
04:03as Christian Gonzalez, not as good as him maybe,
04:05but guys that are as important, like why are they playing?
04:09Like there's defensive players you need.
04:11Why is like the tackle you just played, you just got in free agency.
04:16What's the kid's name from the Eagles?
04:18The big defensive tackle.
04:20Milton Williams.
04:21Like why is Milton Williams playing?
04:23You understand what I'm saying?
04:24If it's not necessarily a long guy, you got it.
04:26Part of it is the position.
04:28To be, you know, to have a high contact position,
04:31let's just call it that, offensive lineman, defensive lineman,
04:35you need to be able to kind of, you know, as they said before,
04:38kind of callous up a little bit and hit and get hit
04:41and go through that process.
04:42If you're Christian Gonzalez, you don't need to do all of that.
04:45You don't need to worry about all that.
04:46You know, you can just, you know, as long as you're in, you know,
04:50football shape, I guess for lack of a better term,
04:52you can get out there and you can do your job come week one.
04:55So, again, part of it's relying on the position.
04:59I think the same thing is true for wide receivers, guys who are on the boundary.
05:02You don't necessarily need all of those game reps to get kind of ready for the season.
05:08All right.
05:09Let's talk about the wide receivers a little bit because across the board,
05:12there are no short things.
05:13You're not sure how healthy Diggs is.
05:15You don't know about Booty, even though he's been good and Pop Douglas is fun.
05:19But, you know, I'm worried about guys like Kyle Williams,
05:22who took a big hit last week and we haven't seen him since.
05:26And Chisholm's a nice little story, but we haven't seen him since either.
05:30Yeah.
05:31This is, you're going to have six guys.
05:33You're going to have six wide receivers going to the regular season.
05:35This is, you know, where we are right now.
05:37Maybe with a possibility of a seventh, I don't think that's very likely,
05:42at least at this point.
05:43But Javon Baker is one of those guys who kind of, you know,
05:45the pendulum swings back and forth on him.
05:47And a lot of that has to do with his special teams value,
05:49kind of his burgeoning special teams value.
05:51But he's one of those guys who needs to play well tonight
05:54and in the next couple of days to guarantee a roster spot.
05:57You're going to have six guys.
05:58Diggs, Matt Collins, who I think is going to be pretty good,
06:01pretty important part of this offense.
06:03Pop Douglas, Kyle Williams, if he's healthy.
06:05And then you have Chisholm and Booty.
06:08And so that's where you are with that group.
06:12I think Diggs has looked good in practice,
06:14but he's no sure thing, to your point, come week one.
06:18Is Chisholm getting enough or getting reps with Drake May at practices?
06:23Because, you know, he's, you know, popped in the last game,
06:26but it was with, what's his name, Dobbs on the field with him.
06:30So are they getting some time to build some chemistry and some timing?
06:33That's the one thing, Hardy, about the Efton Chisholm story
06:37that kind of gives me a little bit of pause.
06:40And I kind of hinted at it before.
06:41I would love to be able to see him get reps.
06:44He's got some reps in the joint practices and a little bit in practice.
06:48But seeing Efton Chisholm run consistently with the ones,
06:52that's going to be the big question.
06:53We've seen a lot of guys pop in the summertime with the twos and the threes.
06:57But when they get to week one of the regular season,
07:00they're a little bit overwhelmed by the game speed.
07:02I think Chisholm has done very well with his opportunities so far.
07:06The two games we've seen him in, done excellent work, body strength,
07:11control, route running, all that.
07:13I just want to see him kind of take it to the next level
07:15by getting more and more reps with the ones.
07:18Yeah, I would like to see that too, especially, you know,
07:21as you rattle off the receivers.
07:24Diggs is by no means a sure thing that he's going to be able to,
07:28you know, go in there and contribute right away.
07:30And after that, it's just a lot of conversation.
07:33Just a bunch of guys.
07:34Just a bunch of guys.
07:35You don't know what you're going to get.
07:37I feel okay about Pop Douglas.
07:40But beyond that, yeah, let's get Chisholm some work with the ones
07:44and see if he's going to be able to contribute too.
07:46Because beyond Diggs, which is a question mark unto itself, who knows?
07:50Look, Hardy, I'll agree with you and I'll add this point.
07:54I think Hollins is going to be a really important part
07:56of what they want to get done offensively.
07:57Hollins is a big-body receiver who's really worked to impress
08:01over the course of the spring and the summer,
08:03not just on the field, off the field.
08:05He kind of replaces a lot of that, you know, relentless optimism
08:08that Kendrick Bourne brought to this team the last couple of years.
08:11And so I think he's going to be important to what they want to get done.
08:14I think he has shown himself to be a dependable target for Drake May.
08:18With the ones, he's also worked very well with Dobbs in the twos.
08:21I'm not saying he's going to the Pro Bowl this year,
08:24but I think he's going to open some eyes.
08:25Okay, and as the offensive line goes, is there anything to figure out tonight?
08:32They're all going to sit.
08:34Yeah, well, the left guard, Fred, is the position to kind of keep an eye on tonight.
08:39That's the one job that I think is still kind of up in the air.
08:42Can I ask you a question about that?
08:43When did that all swing?
08:45Because for a lot of camp, it was just like this kid, this rookie,
08:50is lighting it up.
08:52And that's at least what I was understanding about it.
08:54When did that all shift?
08:56Yeah, Jared Wilson, really the first couple of weeks of camp,
08:59showed himself to be an NFL-ready offensive lineman at that left guard spot.
09:03And we all kind of thought that that debate was over.
09:05He said he tweaked an ankle at some point.
09:09And so I don't know if that was just the coaching staff wanting to look at some other guys
09:14or that was a serious thing with him.
09:17But that's a position that really bears watching.
09:20It could go any number of ways.
09:22Ben Brown, Jared Wilson, or Cole Strange.
09:26Cole Strange is one of those handful of guys who's kind of a holdover from the Bebacheck era.
09:30You know, you put Anthony Jennings in that mix as well, and Bourne and Tavai,
09:34who's kind of fighting for a job at this point.
09:37So he's part of that conversation at left guard.
09:39That's the one you want to watch tonight.
09:41If you're looking at the offensive line, who gets the majority of reps there at that position?
09:45Okay.
09:46All right.
09:47Well, are you interested in tonight, or do you just want the season to start?
09:51No, I'm interested tonight.
09:53I'm actually, once I get off the, you know, once we finish here,
09:56I'm going to hop in the Madden Cruiser and drive down to North Jersey.
09:59So I'm all in tonight.
10:01I think it's important, too, Fred, when you look at this game,
10:04there are guys tonight who are going to be playing their last professional football.
10:08Right.
10:08Yeah, no, I get it.
10:09Yeah, they're going to be, they're going to go open a tire business or something,
10:13and they're going to put their jersey up on the wall,
10:15and they're going to say, I was in camp with Drake May for three weeks,
10:17and they're going to be able to dine out on that for, you know, the rest of their lives.
10:21So I want to make sure that, you know, I don't want to say we honor that,
10:26but we remember that, that these guys are playing some of the last football of their lives,
10:29and, you know, just kind of looking to start a new chapter of their life come Tuesday or Wednesday
10:34when cutdowns come.
10:36You know, it's funny, like, we all crap on those guys, like, oh, well, they're just these preseason guys,
10:41and it's like, well, yeah, but you were excited you made your high school team.
10:45Yes.
10:46You know, like, these guys did, were good enough in college to get a shot.
10:50Like, it's just weird to put in, when you have your own kids, it's, like, kind of weird to, like, go,
10:54like, oh, yeah, well, it's just a bunch of scrubs.
10:57Like, now it doesn't matter for the season, but, yeah, when you think of the accomplishment
11:01of, like, I actually played in a preseason NFL game, so that means you were one of the best,
11:07theoretically, one of the best college football players in the world.
11:12Yeah, and Chisholm said it the other day after, I think, the first game, he said,
11:15you know, we're the 1% of the 1%.
11:17Right, exactly.
11:18And so there's something to that, and, again, I want to make sure that I keep that in mind
11:21when it comes to covering tonight's game.
11:23Well, that's good.
11:24Well, that's nice of you.
11:25All right.
11:25Thank you, Christopher.
11:26We appreciate it, as always.
11:27For the latest from the Sports Hub, download at 98.5thesportshub.com.
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