- 2 months ago
On Friday's edition of Felger and Mazz, Chris Gasper of the Boston Globe, joined the show. While previewing the Patriots season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders, Gasper explained how it's actually Josh McDaniels, and not Drake Maye, when it comes to the most important factor of the Patriots this season.
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00:00put any little subtle meaning into that into the what you just played yes i i do think there is
00:08some subtle meaning into that i i do it's i think it's still a work in progress in terms of trying
00:14to get drake may up to speed on the josh mcdaniels offense which is a great offense when it works
00:21because it gives the quarterback all these tools but it's also a complicated offense and you in
00:27order to be able to access all those tools you know it's great for the coordinator you can look
00:30at and say well here's an answer it's this it's this it's this it's this it's this but when you're
00:34the one out on the field that actually has to do it and you're 23 years old and young in your nfl
00:39career it's it's sort of asking a lot and and that's been my question from the jump is are they
00:44going to break this thing down and give it to him in bite-sized pieces or are they just going to say
00:48well we know this offense works so you have to get up to speed and what do you think it's going to be
00:52i think it's going to be this offense works you have to get up to speed and you think that's a
00:57mistake i do think that's a mistake yeah at this point in his career because there's no more valuable
01:04or important asset to the patriots than drake may and we all see the nfl you know it's pretty much
01:10half quarterback will travel i think even the eagles and that's probably the most talented roster
01:15in the nfl at least it was last year when they won but i think a lot of us can admit that we've
01:19underestimated jalen hurts that he's a better quarterback than we thought he was certainly
01:25there's a lot of stuff around him that helps him there's no question about it but they need drake
01:29may to become a quarterback that can elevate the talent around him and can make the guys better and
01:37that they can build around and in order to do that you have to make sure he's comfortable i i still think
01:42may is one of these quarterbacks that even though he's smart he's going to play more by feel
01:47more by instinct than be like a computer processor out there like a peyton manning or even a brady
01:53there's like a sense of arrogance to that that type of thinking like this is what we do you need
01:58to get it like they're misreading the situation potentially and that perhaps the student might
02:03just not be able to absorb that type of information now yeah a little bit i think all the best coaches
02:09at any level you adjust the system to the player to get the most out of the player instead of saying
02:14this system is ironclad this is what we do and you adjust to it and that's been my question from
02:19the beginning you know will they mold this thing to drake may or are they going to try and mold drake
02:24may to this thing okay i mean we do have a pretty good example of mcdaniels abandoning his system for
02:29the quarterback yep and that's cam newton i mean that yeah sure yeah that did happen yeah and matt
02:35castle to a degree well matt castle for sure the way they played early on yeah for sure was a total
02:40departure it was just a sideways city uh and i would even say mac jones i mean don't you think
02:45that there's reason to believe i mean they dumbed it down for mac jones they must have right they
02:49held his hand chris yeah i mean they did hold his hand but i mean i think his greatest attribute
02:53remember when he came out people said you know he's nfl ready he's already there cerebrally you know so i
02:59think when you look at yes did they put it on a brady platter for him no and i thought but i don't
03:05think that the hand holding was as much with him on the processing as it was not asking him to make
03:12throws or do things that physically he wasn't capable of doing i don't think they super dumbed
03:17it down for mac jones it was just let's not put him in a situation where he has to make a throw he
03:24can't really make and they did try and and i wouldn't say this isn't this is dumbing it down i think this
03:29is what you try and do for a lot of young quarterbacks they did try and put him sort of ahead of the sticks
03:33and not put him in third and longs and not put a lot on his plate in terms of asking him to carry
03:39the offense you know that that part of it i would say they they dumbed it down making no mistake though
03:44chris is sensing a subtle you know undercurrent verbal breadcrumbs maybe from both sides that this
03:48is going on uh drake may had a comment the other day that maybe you can read into a little bit jimmy do
03:53happen to have that if we could please yeah why is everything some sort of dig murray go ahead that's
04:00just how we talk go ahead yeah i think it's great to you'll have you know play caller in the corner
04:06who's you know played against this game in the super bowl and um i studied a lot i think that's
04:10with you know a lot of coordinators in this league he's played against them and seen them and um i think
04:14it's great to have that in the room and um you'll see what he's kind of getting on the same page with
04:19him as what you see in and try to catch up you know as as much as i can to his level i'm not going to
04:23get there but try to um just on both end our understanding of hey i think they're going to do this or
04:27hey this is what i think they're going to be in drake in the past in this offense not just mccain's
04:32but philip ryan the relationship between the quarterback and the play caller and the offensive
04:36coordinator there was a lot of give and take as far as input on what you guys wanted to do in that
04:42game plan are you at that point yet or is it more of a one-way street i think you know for right now
04:47um just trust him whatever he's got in and let him know what i like and and giving input here and
04:51there hey i like this i like that so okay oh excuse me that that first comment chris where he says i'm
04:56just try to catch up as much as possible and get on his level i'm sure that's the one that you
05:00uh highlighted yeah yeah no both of them actually because i think i i think it is you know the first
05:05one yes he's saying you know i'm trying to catch up to his left you know i'm i'm not going to get there
05:10which he's right he's not and and that's another one of those things i mean it's been so many of
05:15these little comments he makes that sort of say i'm not all the way there in this offense i'm not fully
05:21comfortable uh maybe lower your expectations a little for me in this offense he's just from
05:27almost from the jump like going back into the offseason program his very first press conference
05:32i would say there's some um you know diffidence from him lack of confidence in terms of feeling
05:38like he can get where they want with this offense and and that's understandable but if that's been going
05:44on publicly and at least i've picked up on it and people want to say i'm reading too much into it fine
05:50you know we'll see what happens maybe i'll be proven wrong but if if he's saying that publicly
05:55which i think he is or alluding to it publicly then wouldn't you think somewhere along the way
06:00they would break this up in a smaller pieces for him yes potentially and i i'd be more worried if i
06:07hadn't seen it already where i think they had to have done that with mac jones and they obviously did
06:12it with cam newton and this is where i sort of a break from you chris i think rabel's more important
06:17in this regard than josh mcdaniel's okay i think it's the head coach's purview if if if mcdaniel's
06:24is feeding uh may too much and may can't handle it or josh is asking too much it's up to rabel to see
06:32that and to go to mcdaniel's and say listen this isn't working let's do this because i just think
06:38ultimately may should be tied at the hip with rabel i don't want to let him off the hook not the
06:42offensive coordinator i mean you look back in tennessee mike vrabel in tennessee had a winning
06:46record with marcus mariotta he made the playoffs three straight years with ryan tannahill including
06:51a conference title game do we look back and go well that was matt lafleur that was arthur smith and
06:55that was todd downing no no i look back and say that was derrick henry which he does not have on
07:01this team i understand i just give the head coach the credit or the blame when it comes to developing the
07:05quarterback i do i don't know i mean look so so do you give sean mcdermott the credit for josh allen
07:11i know it's a good one uh maybe that was all day ball you know day ball came in and you made him
07:17what he is so i i would hate to think vrabel is just sean mcdermott i would hope that mike vrabel
07:22is better than sean mcdermott more of a complete head coach than sean mcdermott who can get to his
07:28starting quarterback and develop the starting quarterback if not in the technical part of it
07:33in the bigger picture part of it i've talked about this before yeah so i think he's ultimately on the
07:38hook to me drake may developing as a quarterback is on vrabel even more than josh mcdaniel yeah i
07:44just think with the trust that this organization at the highest level has in josh mcdaniel's and what
07:49he's done throughout the course of his career i think mcdaniel's might be the single most important
07:53person for the patriots this season his ability to connect with drake may to coax the most out of
08:00drake may to make sure that drake may doesn't backslide in year two the way mac jones did once josh left
08:06to go to the raiders and they had to bring in what they ended up bringing in with patricia and judge
08:11to try and elevate drake may the way that as i just referenced brian dayball did in buffalo with josh
08:17allen in year two to try and fix this offense which has really been woeful for three years in a row i mean
08:23last year they were dead last in the nfl in passing yards at 176.1 per game they were the only team
08:29that didn't top 180 passing yards but not even the bears with cable caleb williams out there
08:34chucking it everywhere and painting his nails even they were over 180 passing yards per game
08:40the patriots were the only team that didn't score more than 25 points in a game last year so there's
08:45a lot on josh you know i have a lot of respect for mike rabel and he's a very good coach but i don't
08:50think anybody's looked at him and said like he's bill belichick where he can coach it's this isn't
08:55going to be like bill belichick coaching quarterbacks in 2001 after dick rabine died and taking over
09:00for brady because i don't think that's fair for rabel that's i don't think that's a fair ask
09:05i don't think that's who he is as a coach i don't think there's really anybody out there
09:08who's a coach like that in the way that belichick was in his prime so a lot of this is on josh that's
09:14why they brought him in to fix this offense and elevate this thing and if they can't fix this
09:18offense they're not going anywhere chris we've touched on this in the past but initially there was
09:24some indication that the offense was going to be some sort of hybrid between the system mcdaniel's
09:31ran with brady and something newer did that ever happen and why not yeah technically i mean i haven't
09:39seen enough of them to to know but when you're the times i was at training camp and asking guys who've
09:45been in the josh mcdaniel's offense before new england like ramondre stevenson and hunter henry
09:51there was no indication from those guys when i asked direct questions that this was
09:55a markedly different offense than what he ran before i think there was some thought that he
10:00picked up some stuff at the college level and also that maybe when they brought in thomas brown as the
10:05passing game coordinator and ashton grant as the quarterbacks coach that those were guys that had
10:09more of a background in sort of the mcveigh or shanahan style of offenses and that they were going to
10:16integrate some of that stuff maybe they have you know i mean it's hard to tell in preseason
10:21it tends to be very vanilla game planning but it doesn't feel like they've created some hybrid
10:27it feels more like this is sort of the offense they ran before i will say quickly though it one
10:33thing that i do find heartening that i saw from josh was in the minnesota game and those two high
10:39throws that drake may had both of those throws where he was under center play action had to turn his back
10:44one of them was complete obviously one of them was not to demario douglas but then the rest of the
10:49time drake may was in the game he didn't attempt another pass that wasn't out of the shotgun
10:53and that's drake may coming up in high school and at north carolina that's clearly where he's most
10:59comfortable it's where most of these quarterbacks are most comfortable and they've spent the most time
11:03so that seemed like a good on-the-fly adjustment from josh
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