00:00It is NFL trade deadline day, and we will know by 4 p.m. this afternoon how far in on this season the New England Patriots are.
00:11And I, for one, as I said yesterday during my lead, I am begging them, pleading with them to be all in.
00:21Please do something of significance today.
00:25Can I say something, though, because I was thinking about it after we talked with Vrabel yesterday, and I do feel much different than I do after a Red Sox trade deadline where we say, okay, you know, Heimblum, Craig Breslow, like, they're not in it this year.
00:43Like, they're not in it because they didn't make any moves.
00:46Like, if the Patriots don't make any moves for the trade deadline, I don't necessarily sit back and say, yeah, they're not all in this year.
00:53I take it as Mike Vrabel feels like he can do it with the team he's got.
00:59I just, I wouldn't give up the way I do at a Red Sox trade deadline.
01:05Why?
01:05They're the same thing.
01:07I understand they're the same thing, but the teams are so vastly different.
01:10Well, no, the teams are, because if you look at the Red Sox trades or non-trades over the past several years.
01:16I'm saying talent on the teams are so vastly different.
01:19Well, I'm saying first half of the season, they both were in really good positions.
01:23I mean, the Red Sox were.
01:25Yeah.
01:26They weren't in great position.
01:28One season, they were 10 games above five.
01:29I'm talking about last season.
01:30Last season, weren't they pretty good at the deadline?
01:33Well, I think, Courtney, I'm not going to speak for you, but the Red Sox last season were never the number one team in the American League.
01:41Right.
01:41Right now, the Patriots are the number one team tied with, you know, depending on the tiebreaker, with the Colts and the Broncos.
01:49So that is different.
01:50If the Red Sox were leading the American League in wins at the trade deadline, as opposed to being in third place in the American League East, it may have been slightly different.
02:00I also, Curtis, you're 100% right.
02:02And thank you for explaining that better than I could have.
02:04But I just don't have that same feeling of they have to do something to prove to me that they're all in this season.
02:11I don't know why.
02:12It's just the way in which Mike Rabel speaks about it, I trust whatever decisions he wants to make.
02:18Yeah.
02:18I guess you'd have to tell me why they wouldn't be.
02:21And Mike Rabel was on this show yesterday.
02:24By the way, a couple dialogue setters, global dialogue setters during that interview yesterday, which we will get to at some point, I'm sure.
02:34But you'd have to tell me why they aren't in, because Mike Rabel was on this show yesterday saying he has zero concern about adding somebody, even if that somebody is a potential troublemaker, adding somebody to the locker room.
02:51He's not concerned about that.
02:52They have all the room in the world when it comes to the cap.
02:58And so you'd have to tell me, I understand what you're saying, but you'd have to tell me why they would not be all in.
03:06Why, if you can.
03:07Right.
03:08And again, yesterday on this show, Mike Rabel kind of couched it again with as long as he added in, as long as they can help in the future.
03:18Like, I mean, I understand the future, but you're not guaranteed a future and you are guaranteed this year that you are a playoff team and you are guaranteed at some point to run in.
03:31I mean, maybe not guaranteed.
03:33Here comes the jinx, but you may run into an injury issue.
03:36You are you're wondering what the situation is going to be for this week with booty.
03:42So and you don't have a ton of depth on the roster.
03:45I just think you have an opportunity that is right smack dab in front of you and you ought to invest in you ought to go.
03:55Well, the way I look at it, Courtney, is like this.
03:57Right.
03:57And this is where the way I compare it to the Red Sox at the trade deadline.
04:02You're competing for a playoff spot.
04:04You're not out of it.
04:05Right.
04:05Yeah, the Red Sox.
04:07I mean, the Patriots are in first place.
04:09The Red Sox weren't.
04:10But both teams are competing for a playoff spot and both teams first half of the season.
04:16You'd go, oh, this team has a chance to compete for a playoff spot.
04:20So my comparison to the Red Sox is if you're a playoff contender, why wouldn't you add to a team that could potentially put you over the hump and get you to the next level?
04:32And that's where I make the comparison.
04:34The Red Sox didn't add, and it kind of came back to bite them in the butt the, you know, past couple of seasons.
04:41And I'm not saying it's going to happen with the Patriots.
04:43I'm just saying when I look at this team, where they're going to be during the trade deadline, they're going to be a playoff contender.
04:49Yeah, they are.
04:50And if you look at the other playoff contenders, they're adding.
04:54I think the Eagles added.
04:55I saw.
04:57Did the Ravens add a D or did they trade a defensive lineman?
05:01No, I think they added one from Tennessee.
05:05Correct.
05:05They added Jones, Dearness Jones.
05:07Right.
05:08And so, granted, they might not be in the mix right now, but obviously their expectations are we'd like to be in the mix.
05:14But at the Red Sox trade deadline, when they don't do anything, the conversation we always have is this front office does not trust the team in front of them.
05:24They don't think that this team in front of them can make it all the way, so they're not making any moves.
05:28That's been the conversation we've been having.
05:30If there is no movement for the Patriots today at the trade deadline, I do not think Elliott Wolfe, Mike Vrabel, anybody else that has a say when it comes to trades that they could or couldn't make, don't believe in this team that they have in front of them.
05:46Oh, yeah.
05:46Okay.
05:47Right, but I don't think the Red Sox, not that they didn't believe.
05:52That's revisionist history.
05:53No, because I've always said this, if you're a playoff contender, whether it's the Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins, the Patriots, at the trade deadline, your job as an organization is, maybe you don't think that you can win a championship, but your job should be like, if we add a piece, will this help us in the postseason?
06:14So I don't, when I look at this team, does Vrabel and those guys believe that they can win?
06:19Yeah, absolutely.
06:21But you traded away a defensive end, and I'm talking about that position.
06:26Greg brought up Keyshawn Booty.
06:28We don't know what the injury is with his hamstring, so maybe that affects them, so maybe you need wide receiver help.
06:34I just wouldn't understand why you wouldn't make a move.
06:37My thing, though, is that the biggest difference between the Red Sox and the Patriots is that people trust Vrabel as the front-facing guy, and they don't trust the Red Sox as much.
06:46So what the Patriots are, whatever they do, there's such a feeling of genuine gratitude and support for the fact that Vrabel's the head coach and they're 7-2.
06:57I would also, but I think, Greg, like looking at the Red Sox trade deadline, it wasn't that they didn't get Joe Ryan, which would have been great.
07:03It was that they failed to get depth on a team that they knew was going to be young and potentially not the same at the end of the year, and that's what killed them.
07:13And the Patriots, you said it, they are thin, and they've been incredibly healthy, which is great, knock on wood.
07:20But you cannot think that that is going to extend deep into the season, especially with young guys in key spots.
07:27So why wouldn't you at least acquire guys?
07:31And the other thing, though, if they got Hendrickson, right, he's a pre-agent at the end of the year.
07:35So if Hendrickson plays great and you trade a second-round pick for him, then you can franchise him and get a pick back and trade him.
07:43Like, it's win-win.
07:44Yeah.
07:45Well, we will find out in 10 hours or less what their intention is.
07:52And speaking of the Red Sox, it would appear that Alex Bregman has officially opted out and we'll see what free agency looks like for him.
08:04So he must feel like he can make more than $40 million a year somewhere else.
08:11Yeah, we saw that one coming, right?
08:13Yeah, we saw it.
08:14Well, I don't know that I saw it coming.
08:16I mean, the man told me over and over again how much he loved it here.
08:19So did Kyrie.
08:21I understand.
08:22But I take these people at their word.
08:24Never take them at their word, Greg.
08:26Call me a naive fool.
08:29A naive fool?
08:30When they say, I love the city.
08:34I love mentoring the young guys.
08:36I love we were right there this last season.
08:40Maybe his wife doesn't like the Harvard program.
08:42It could be that.
08:43Maybe they don't like the clam chowder.
08:45That's been an issue in the past.
08:46I don't know.
08:47It's just, I mean.
08:49Everybody loves the city until they want more money.
08:51I'm fine with if you, as long as you're going to spend that $40 million elsewhere, like, you know, you name the player, whether it's Pete Alonso or whatever.
09:01As long as you're spending the money, then I'm okay with Alex Bregman not being back.
09:08But we can get to that this morning as well.
09:10Can we remove the Cohiba post on Instagram since he opted out?
09:15Yes.
09:16Well, thankfully, he only smoked half of the Cohiba.
09:19So that's half a Cohiba per year when it comes to the contract.
09:23Do you think he has a guy that gets rid of the cigar stench?
09:26I think he has a room.
09:28He probably has a beautiful room where there's a ventilation system and such in there, Curtis.
09:33Is the cigar worth the smell that stays on you for 12 hours?
09:37I don't know.
09:37Oh, yeah.
09:37Are you suggesting that Linda is in bed early watching Real Housewives of Los Angeles and John Henry and John comes to bed with a reeking of cigars?
09:49I don't think so.
09:51I highly doubt that goes on in that house.
09:52Takes a full shower.
09:53I highly doubt.
09:55And you're also saying something happens that I doubt, but I don't want to go down that road.
Be the first to comment