00:00I don't know if Milliken played this on purpose because Christian Gonzalez is on ice or he's
00:07icing his hamstring or he needs to do that thing. Let's not give him that much credit.
00:13I used to say about Gilmore. It's called being a producer. Yeah, he's producing. He is. You know,
00:17I used to say about Gilmore when he was eligible for more money. Zoe loves this. He always brings
00:21it up. It would be nice if Zoe would join him. You take the stack of money and you put it right
00:26on the hamstring. It gets better. It's such a great cure. But Christian Gonzalez is not eligible
00:35for any sort of extension. But if he is protecting himself right now and doing what I think could be
00:41a business decision right now to protect himself, to be back at 100 percent, to get back to full
00:47health before taking the field, I don't blame him one bit. And I think that's maybe what it is. He
00:53doesn't want to. And maybe the team does not want him. And I think it's in the best interests of
00:57both. David Andrews hit on this. He said, what if you send a guy out there and he plays 12 plays
01:03and he re-injures his hamstring and he misses six more weeks, as opposed to you hold him out
01:08until week three or four and then he plays great the rest of the season, which is a better outcome.
01:14And I think obviously the latter is a better outcome. Get him back to full health. Get him out there
01:21for as many snaps as possible in 2025. It's going to serve the team well. And it's going to serve
01:27the player well in the long run. So there's something Rabel touched on yesterday. He said
01:32he looks for three things when, you know, bringing an injured player back to action. Can they do their
01:39job with confidence? Can they protect themselves? And will it make it any worse if you put them out
01:46in the field? So that ties to what you're saying. Beetle, I'm not into the conspiracy theories on this
01:54one with Gonzalez as much as I think he hurt the hamstring July 28th, covering a shallow crosser
02:01with Stefan Diggs in camp. And I think without putting a timeline on it, which they generally don't
02:09like to do, I think they felt like he would be within the range of being ready for the opener. And
02:15I don't know this for a fact, but my belief is that it hasn't gone according to what they
02:21thought it would be. I don't think there's any reason for that other than sometimes things don't
02:28go the way you forecast them to go. I don't think there's I don't think he's holding the line for
02:35with the contract in mind. I think he'd like to be out there. He's been with the team on both
02:40preseason road trips. If he wasn't, and other injured players were, I might start to say,
02:46what's going on here? I walked in the locker room yesterday and he was walking through. So it's I feel
02:52like he's very much with the team on, you know, around when we're around. So not just from being
02:58there. Nothing seems untoward, if that's the word to me, but I might be off. You don't think he's
03:03playing Sunday, do you? I would I would lean in the direction he isn't. But I will say that
03:08they're going to practice like he was obviously wasn't at practice yesterday. They're off today.
03:12They're going to practice again tomorrow. And listening to Mike Rabel this morning in a radio
03:18interview, you know, he sort of might have been off the cuff, but he mentioned hoping to get him
03:23back soon, maybe tomorrow or however he worded it. I don't have the exact wording, but the reference
03:28to the possibility caught my attention. So I'll just I guess I don't even want him out
03:34there Sunday. This is a fan. I don't want to play Sunday. He hasn't practiced. He hasn't
03:38enough reps. Week two. I think week one. That's it. It's out. You're already ruling it out.
03:44Ruled out. Yeah, I think it's yet. You got to build back up for that. For that point, you
03:49said, you know, play with confidence. Yeah, you can play with confidence after going out
03:53Wednesday, Thursday. I don't I don't want to do that. Let me let me let me present you.
03:59And then I love I probably agree with you. But let me give you alternative. You see what
04:04you think. What if what if I give him a package? Ten plays like, hey, I might need you on third
04:09down against now. Just so nothing. No, no. Shut him down. OK. No, he's not that type of
04:14I want him 100 percent healthy myself. That's fair. Just as a fan. I don't want him back at
04:1890 percent because of get him right from Miami. Right. You need. Listen, this team
04:24cannot be a good team if they lose him for eight weeks or they lose. You know, I mean,
04:30they just can't they can't afford an injury to their best players. Yeah. And he is certainly
04:34that. And that's all fair. I look at it like this. I this game. I don't want to say they
04:40have to have. It's the first game of the season. But obviously, you'd like to get off
04:43they have to have it start with a win. I'll say and and look, this is a tough
04:48offense, in my opinion, to defend coming in with Brock Bowers at tight end and Ashton
04:54Jenty at running back. And so I would just present the alternative viewpoint that if
04:59if Gonzalez starts to practice tomorrow, let's just put that as a possibility based
05:04on what we were just talking about. And you think you could get 10 to 15 plays out
05:08of him. Look, one of those plays might win you the game. That'll be my only pushback to
05:12what we're talking about. But I don't I don't disagree. I don't disagree.
05:16You ever see Brock Bowers in a T-shirt? No. Yeah. Very similar. So they're bringing
05:21him in next week to run around and be Brock Bowers like give a good look. I like
05:24that. Actually, they were that was it's interesting that you say that. So
05:29yesterday at practice, we were taking the media was out there and they had players
05:34in the actually regular Patriots jerseys, but in different numbers. And there was an
05:4089, which is actually a retired number for the Patriots. But it was Jack
05:44Westover who was playing the role of Brock Bowers. So if Westover can't fill the
05:50role, Timmy will small package 10 plays like you were talking about. Yeah, that's
05:55right. That's right. Um, well, this game could be called an important game in their
06:02schedule, couldn't it? You kind of just mentioned that a little bit, right? Is
06:06this, is this a really big game other than besides being the opener and game
06:10one of Mike Rabel? Is this an important game win loss wise? Yes. I feel like
06:15you don't win at home anymore. You got to start winning home games where it's
06:19like foot. I'd look at this and say it's a flip of the coin. You can't leave
06:23Gillette stadium in the negative side and a flip of a coin game with your home
06:27building. We got to start chalking wins up here. Yeah. And, and I would, I'd
06:31probably go maybe a little less than that for me. So just in the standpoint of
06:34probably I'd put what's the performance look like first. So you might lose a
06:39game, but if you put out a solid performance, you still coming back, you're
06:43going to Miami, get the Steelers here. And then the Panthers, like, I feel like
06:47there should be at least one win within that, you know, within that first month.
06:52So three of the first four are at home. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's why I say
06:57this is a chance for you to, yeah, that's why I don't, is that weird for me to be
07:01like, well, that this one's not that important. You got two more home games this
07:04month. Raiders to me though, are just like the perfect measuring stick team in
07:07terms of just an average football team in the NFL. I look at them and it's like
07:11coach. Yes. Different quarterback wins. I don't know, man. Competent quarterback,
07:15good head coach. Competent. That's what he is. Is he not? He's a competent
07:18quarterback. I think he's a competent quarterback. And, and I would say the
07:21other piece of this that if I'm the Patriots that I don't know, maybe concerns me
07:25a little bit, defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham came up from the Brian
07:29Flores, right under Flores because he was here in New England. And so we think
07:34about Minnesota, what, you know, I'm going to guess that Patrick Graham has
07:39talked to Brian Flores over the last couple of weeks. Hey, what'd you see in
07:43those joint practices? So I don't, I don't love that for the Patriots from that
07:47standpoint. Um, so loss, it's a tough matchup loss. Uh, you guys are just
07:58talking about what could their record be after five games? The fifth game being
08:03on the road, Buffalo Sunday night football, October 5th, what could their
08:06record be, you know, high end, low end? So, uh, and let's just, I'll just go
08:12through it. I would pick them to beat the Raiders as much as we were just
08:15talking. So that's one, no at Miami is always tough. So I'll go one, one, one,
08:19uh, home against the Steelers out with Rogers. I think that's a tough game.
08:24People might think I'm crazy, but I'll give them an L or one, two, one, two
08:28Panthers at home. I feel like that's a winner game. You should win two, two.
08:32And then I think at Buffalo on a Sunday nights, a tough spot. So two, three would
08:36be my, would be what, what I would guess, you know, like based on projecting it
08:43out, but could they win? Could they beat the Steelers at home? Could they beat
08:46Miami? Absolutely. Four, one, you know, or could they lose to the Raiders and
08:52lose to the, I don't think they could lose. They should not lose their first
08:55three games at home. So I think my low end would be one, four, one and four.
09:01One and four low end.
09:02Find a way to, find a way to be above the top.
09:04And two and three on the high end? Or three and two?
09:06No, I think I said four, one on the high end.
09:08Oh, sorry, four. Okay. So you think there's, I think they could roll through
09:11September. So you do think there is a wide range? Yeah, I do. And it speaks to
09:15sort of the unknown element of this team. I do. Don't be underwater. Don't be
09:18underwater when you get to that Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons part, because
09:23that's where you should be laying the wood. They've got to find two wins in
09:26there. They've got to find two wins. Coming out at two and two, and then you
09:31have the possibility to be six and two. Yeah. Wait, what? Come out of, come out of
09:37September, two and two, and you have six and two potentially in front of you. You
09:42think that, and that includes beating the Bills in Buffalo on Sunday night? No, no,
09:45I'm missing that one. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. I was like, whoa, wait. I skipped Buffalo.
09:48I went right to the tight end. Okay. All right. All right. So six and three. Six and
09:51three. Yeah. You could be two and three and then hit into a month where you could win
09:54four in a row. Yeah. But you're hinting at what could be a tough September for
10:00this team. It can be, yeah. I mean, I don't know. Pittsburgh's better than what
10:04you think. They got Ramsey and Aaron. I think, I don't know, I'm going to go with
10:11the other direction on that. I feel like when you get three of your first four
10:14games at home and the opponents, I think you should beat, you should beat the
10:19Raiders. Like if the Patriots are the team that we've been reporting on and
10:23seeing, like they should beat them. Yeah. At Miami, I think everyone would agree.
10:27That's always tough. It's a wild card. You could go down and beat them. Like they're,
10:31they're, they might be a vulnerable team, but for whatever reason, that place is
10:34always tough. You're going down to Miami. I am. You're going to party down. I am.
10:38Yeah. Be with you. See your folks, right? Let's go. Let's go. I'm going to continue
10:43on here. I'll get back to you on that. Home against Pittsburgh. I, I, I think that's
10:50tough. I think that's a tough game. But, and then, and I think home against the
10:55Panthers, like you should win that game. So I feel like two of the first three at home,
10:59I feel like it's fair to say you should win those games.
