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00:00High noon, Jones and Keith here on WEI.
00:04The tiers are up on a tier Tuesday at Jones and Keith.
00:09Who are the best head coaching candidates?
00:11Who are the worst?
00:13They are up there now.
00:14Bill Belichick has his own tier.
00:16Josh McDaniels didn't fare too well.
00:18Go seek that out again at Jones and Keith.
00:21But it's not only a tier Tuesday.
00:22It's also a Tom E. Tuesday with Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston.
00:26He joins us every Tuesday at high noon.
00:28And he's brought to you by your New England Chevy dealers.
00:31Together, let's drive.
00:32And by Shaw's and Star Market.
00:34Shaw's and Star Market.
00:35Proud to be local since 1860.
00:38Tommy Curran, how are we doing this week?
00:40Tremendous.
00:41How are you, boys?
00:42Oh, we're doing great.
00:43Doing excellent.
00:43I know your feelings on the game last Sunday against the Chargers.
00:49It was sort of a prove-it moment with Drake May.
00:53And he proved it to you.
00:54Is that your feeling on the game coming out of it?
00:56Yeah, good summation.
01:00Because I think what you're looking for is, is the stage too big?
01:05Does the player make predictable mistakes, which I, and I'm sure everybody watching it figured there would be mistakes made?
01:12There were.
01:12But how does that impact him?
01:14Is he afraid to pull the trigger?
01:15Does he get in his own head?
01:17How long does it bother him?
01:18And I think that was the great takeaway from that game relative to May, is he still played like himself.
01:26He also still played like a second-year player on a couple of occasions.
01:30But he played like himself.
01:31And you can contrast that with Herbert.
01:33You can contrast that with Stroud.
01:35You can contrast that with Jalen Hurts, any number of players.
01:38I think that it was really good for them to get in the pool, jump in, get wet, come up, and say,
01:45Oh, okay, water's pretty good here.
01:47We're still comfy.
01:49You know, maybe not as comfy in the pocket when Will Campbell, Jared Wilson struggled a bit against the Chargers.
01:56How do you view them going into this game coming up where the defense even kicks up another notch against Houston?
02:04They're going to need a little more help.
02:07I really think Campbell, it's kind of a, don't make it too complicated.
02:12He didn't get overwhelmed that often during the season.
02:15And there were plenty of plays on which he executed well against power rushes, but against Khalil Mack, he got served on a couple of those.
02:23So I think that some of it has to do with him getting used to the playoff pressure against future Hall of Fame players and not overthinking it.
02:32I also think it has to do with the MCL.
02:35If this wasn't a team that was headed for the playoffs, I wonder if he would have continued on this season or would have had surgery and he would probably have been shut down for the year.
02:45So I think those two things are worth bearing in mind.
02:47But I wouldn't think that anything necessarily has to be done drastically with either player.
02:54It wasn't jailbreak after jailbreak after jailbreak.
02:58If Ben Brown lends a little more stability and the Patriots decide that at left guard, then I get it.
03:03He was coming off a concussion as well.
03:05So the one great equalizer I think about having Josh McDaniels there is he'll be able to look at that Houston front, which does get its pressure with four.
03:16They're not intense in terms of the number of pressures, but when they get them, it's chaotic.
03:22You know, they're middle of the pack in terms of pressure rate, but they're very good.
03:27Neil Hunter, obviously, and Will Anderson are two incredible pass rushers.
03:33So they're going to have to come up with a plan for it.
03:35If that means extra players devoted, then I think that they ought to go ahead and do that.
03:41But other side of the football, the Patriots really upped their blitz rate.
03:45I think they were around 26%, 27% during the regular season.
03:48They were at almost 50% in the game on Sunday night against the Chargers.
03:52Is that a one-off against a banged up and bad offensive line?
03:56Is it something they can continue doing?
03:59Or is that something that now that it's the postseason, we're going to see a different style of defense?
04:03I think it really depends on who you're going against.
04:06And I don't think that, you know, if Robert Spillane is explaining that Chargers players came up to him after the game
04:13and said, we had no idea what you were in, and you watched that performance from C.J. Stroud last night,
04:19which was five fumbles on some bad exchanges, two on just not being aware and not tucking the ball,
04:27a horrible pick.
04:28You want to speed him up, too.
04:30So I think that they would continue with that because of the opponent.
04:34Do you want to do that against Josh Allen?
04:35I don't know.
04:36So I'm not saying it would go just because it worked against the Chargers
04:40and might be used against Houston.
04:42You want to do that in every game going forward.
04:44But this feels like the kind of game in which you should be able to get an advantage.
04:48You're going to have an advantage, personnel-wise, at the quarterback position.
04:53Your quarterback is better than their quarterback.
04:55Their defense is better than your defense, but who's going to make the mistakes?
05:00And May has been not mistake-free, but at least it doesn't turn into a freaking plague
05:05since the third week of the season.
05:08Well, this has got to be the best defense Drake May has ever faced.
05:11I don't think that's a huge kind of leap on that one.
05:15But what is the best way for him to have success against Houston?
05:20You know, we saw against the Chargers, I mean, his running was a massive factor in the game.
05:26Watching Houston last night, watching Houston a little bit this season,
05:29what ways do you think Drake May could have success on Sunday?
05:33Throw downfield.
05:35They are going to, because of the way they play defense, it's going to be really interesting to watch
05:40because they want to press on the outside with Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr.
05:45And sure, you can absolutely press and play man on those guys.
05:50And if you want to do that, and the Patriots devote extra protection,
05:56if they end up beating that press, and Stingley's ridiculously good,
06:01but if they end up beating that press and there's no help over the top necessarily on one side or the other,
06:06we've seen them let up big plays.
06:08They are middle of the pack in terms of allowing plays of 20 or more yards this season.
06:13I think it was like 46.
06:14The Patriots had 69 throws of more than 20 yards, which was second in the league.
06:20They had, believe it or not, I think it was 16.
06:23It'll be on Tom Caron's Patriots Talk podcast later.
06:25I think it was 16 carries of 20 or more yards, which was third in the league.
06:30So I think this will be another game in which explosive plays are going to be the difference maker.
06:36And they actually, D'Amico Ryans coached alongside Salah, went with San Francisco.
06:43So they are another team that will place in that three deep zone,
06:46which is something that McDaniels has always been able to scheme something up as the day goes along against.
06:52Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston, every Tuesday here on Jones and Keefe.
06:58The big plays over the top is Tommy Curran's Drake Take, presented by your New England Chevy dealers.
07:04Together, let's drive.
07:06This is not to undercut their win, Tom, over the Chargers.
07:09Like, I think anybody focusing on the schedule and the easy teams they played, that should be out the window.
07:14Now that they beat an 11-win team with a really good defense on Sunday night.
07:19I'm curious, though, your thoughts on Justin Herbert, now 0-3 in the postseason and not a very good performance on Sunday.
07:26What do you think of Herbert?
07:28I don't think – I think he is – he fits the suit.
07:33He is Johnny Bravo.
07:34And as a result, people continue to say, oh, he's really good.
07:40It was a great – there's a guy named Ethan Strauss who has a great sub stack that I really enjoy.
07:46He's based out in San Francisco in media and football.
07:50And he had a theory about why Justin Herbert doesn't suffer the same scrutiny despite coming up short as some other players do.
07:58And he said it's because they have a transient fan base.
08:00They were in San Diego, which is not anybody's idea of a cutthroat fan base.
08:05And then they've since moved to Los Angeles and been there for seven years.
08:07They don't have a home fan base like New England, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Baltimore,
08:18where people are going to be calling for heads when things don't go well.
08:21So as a result, you only have the national media sitting there kind of scrutinizing Justin Herbert.
08:27And because he fits the suit, no one gets under the hood and looks at play after play the mistakes that he makes in these big games.
08:34And that was a really bad performance.
08:36You can't make a play – and Stroud had a couple last night too – but with the game on the line, you're on your own too.
08:43Just don't make things worse.
08:45And for Justin Herbert to take a half a step, be locked up, and still decide to try and fling it sideways was just bizarro behavior.
08:55Do you think last night marks the end of Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh and or Aaron Rodgers in the NFL?
09:04If Pittsburgh is serious about wanting to contend for Super Bowls, it can't look at the results of the last seven years and say,
09:16this is a guy who's going to bring us there because you can look at Pro Football Talk this morning.
09:23Michael David Smith did a good story on it, detailing the results of their last seven postseason appearances.
09:30And they get boat raced every single time.
09:34Look, in 2021 when the Patriots went 10-7 or 11-6, whatever they were,
09:40by the time they got into that game against Buffalo and got murdered 47-17,
09:47you realize that there's just so much difference.
09:50And the playoff consequences should be so much more magnified in terms of decision-making by a team.
09:57If you're serious about being a Super Bowl contender,
10:02you can't have the same measure when you're a bad team rebuilding.
10:05But if you're a top 12-16 team and you know that when you get to the playoffs,
10:12you're going to be outclassed every single time significantly,
10:16then you really should scrutinize it.
10:18As for Rodgers, it's not going to get any better.
10:21He's going to beat bad teams and he's going to lose to good ones because he can't move around enough.
10:26Yeah, I just got the vibe from listening to Aikman, too,
10:28that Aikman heard something in production meetings or whatever that Rodgers has done.
10:32Not to get ahead of ourselves, Tom, but if the Patriots beat the Houston Texans on Sunday,
10:38they're in the AFC title game, who should the Patriots be rooting for,
10:41the Broncos or the Bills on that other AFC matchup?
10:45I would say they should root for the Bills.
10:47Don't have to do a ton of prep on them.
10:49You'll get the game at home.
10:51You're going to get the best player in the league.
10:53But you don't want to go to Denver.
10:55You just don't want to go to Denver.
10:58Do you agree with me?
10:59So I was really close on that.
11:01I ultimately think I would rather avoid Josh Allen.
11:04This team has been so good on the road this year that I guess I'll take my chances there.
11:10I mean, it's a 51-49.
11:12It is.
11:12You're not close.
11:13Damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, boys.
11:16So I'm with Keith on this, though.
11:18I wouldn't want Allen coming in.
11:19He's never won a playoff road game before this past weekend.
11:22And then he goes to Denver and beats Denver, and he's one step away from his first Super Bowl.
11:26I just don't want to deal with that.
11:28But I'd agree with you, Tom.
11:29It's a coin flip.
11:30I mean, that's what's supposed to happen if you're going to be a guy who ends up in the conversation as one of the – and he could.
11:37He needs a better playoff resume.
11:39But if and when we look back on Josh Allen's career, this feels like it could be a – it shakes up as a capstone season, you know,
11:49where you go out and you don't have a good team, you win on the road, you win on the road.
11:56I mean, Jacksonville is so much better than Buffalo.
11:59And Trevor Lawrence didn't play terribly.
12:02They just got Josh Allen the same way the Patriots got Josh Allen.
12:05I mean, the Patriots' loss, again, they didn't have the ball.
12:10They failed defensively.
12:12But offensively, we had that conversation then.
12:15They didn't have the ball because Allen was just so relentless on third down, they couldn't get him off the frigging field.
12:20So he's a problem now.
12:23Eight openings right now in the NFL.
12:25It could be nine, I guess, if the Steelers end up moving on from Tomlin.
12:29We were looking at some of the candidates that are out there.
12:31I really don't think it's going to happen, Tom, but any chance that either Josh McDaniels or Bill Belichick
12:37even get an interview from any of these teams?
12:42I haven't heard – I'm guessing.
12:44Yeah, yeah.
12:45Just like you.
12:46I haven't heard that, especially on Josh.
12:51I have not heard that mentioned.
12:52I think with Bill, the reason I say especially Josh is I can't imagine Bill going through a process
12:57where he's, all right, we've got Jesse Minter coming in, and then Belichick's waiting outside.
13:01We'll talk to him in a minute.
13:02He will not submit to that.
13:06Yeah, I agree.
13:07Someone made that observation earlier this last season.
13:10I don't know if it was you that mentioned it to me, but they said, look, if Bill Belichick becomes the head coach,
13:17it will come out of nowhere.
13:18And it's probably because of that.
13:20Yeah, for sure.
13:20He already got shamed.
13:21Yep.
13:22Not shamed.
13:22He already got – it was humiliating for him, I'm sure.
13:25That was embarrassing.
13:26It was tough.
13:27We have seen Thomas Brown.
13:29Teams have reached out or are interested in interviewing Thomas Brown.
13:32Is that a guy they could lose off this staff?
13:34Like, even if it's not a head coaching job, like, could he take an offensive coordinator position somewhere next year, you think?
13:40Sure.
13:41I mean, all these guys are smart enough, whether it's Vrabel, McDaniels, Mayo.
13:46Well, as the season goes along, you do have to find your cohort of peers who will look at you and say, all right, if I get something, they're going to ask me who my staff is.
13:58Would you be that – would you consider doing that for me?
14:01So – and there's so many guys who want to elevate.
14:03I mean, there's freaking lottery tickets, these head coaching jobs.
14:07They're all guaranteed.
14:09You're going to be guaranteed, like, $60 million.
14:11We were actually just talking about this, Tom, before the show.
14:14Like, I was like, oh, man, if I was a coach, I'd want to get hired in Pittsburgh because you're guaranteed, like, a decade.
14:19And Keith's like –
14:20I don't know.
14:20It's really not that bad to be like Josh McDaniels out of football for a year playing pickleball and eating Chipotle.
14:26Yeah, it's not bad.
14:27Yeah.
14:29That's why – I mean, they are – I mean, Matt Patricia, they're like lottery tickets to get these jobs.
14:36So you'll do anything, say anything, be whoever the head coach wants you to be so that you can put yourself in position.
14:46I mean, look at how much – and that includes us in the media.
14:50But look how much Brady and Belichick and the Patriots organization's success created probably billions of dollars,
15:02not just locally for businesses, for the local economy, but for individuals who were somehow affiliated with the team.
15:11It goes back to Tom Ashworth who went and signed with Seattle in 2004 after they won a Super Bowl.
15:18And he was a spare part offensive lineman, and he went and made a crap ton of money.
15:23The presence of Brady and Belichick has just lifted all boats.
15:26So I've gone far afield, but it is remarkable when you think about it.
15:30Okay, he's Tommy Curran, joins us every Tuesday at High Noon.
15:33We call it a Tommy Tuesday.
15:35Check out his work at NBC Sports Boston.
15:38Keep an eye out for the Tom E. Curran Patriots Talk podcast, and follow him on Twitter at Tom E. Curran.
15:43Tom, as always, we appreciate the time.
15:45Thanks so much.
15:46Thanks, guys.
15:47Have a great week.
15:48Thank you, Tom.
15:48Tommy Curran joining us here, brought to you by your New England Chevy dealers and Shaw's and Star Market.
15:55Look, I think they are lottery tickets.
15:58This is a good way of putting it, because I just told Tom, and this is something we were
16:01talking about before the show.
16:03Keith, you're like, what do you think Mayo's doing right now?
16:05Like, honestly, maybe that's not a bad question for Tom, but like, whatever he wants.
16:08Mayo, it was like, I'm sure, ashamed of the job he did.
16:12Maybe he felt like he got a raw deal.
16:13Okay, but as long as you have like a thick skin and you have like good friends, who cares?
16:17But what's he doing in the meantime?
16:18Whatever he wants.
16:19I'm telling you.
16:20He could be in Cancun.
16:21And he's like, I'm going to leave Cancun.
16:22I'm going to go to Puerto Rico.
16:23I'm going to leave Puerto Rico.
16:23I'm going to go to Barbados.
16:24I read my Greece.
16:25Hey, Europe, go do whatever you want.
16:27I read my Greece, Greg, last week.
16:29And he was talking about Drake.
16:31The first time McDaniels and May met was a Zoom.
16:33Yeah.
16:34But the first time they met in person, May went and played pickleball with McDaniels
16:37because that's all McDaniels is doing for a year and a half.
16:39Why not?
16:40Just sitting around playing pickleball every day.
16:42No responsibilities.
16:42Well, it's incredible too.
16:44It paid millions and millions of dollars to just go walk down the street and play pickleball.
16:47It's sort of the other side of it where the NFL, I guess all sports have done this,
16:51but the NFL in particular has gone to hiring more and more really young coaches.
16:56You know, remember before I was like, oh my God, John Madden's so young.
16:59And it like broke everybody's brains because these guys are usually like 50, 60 when they're
17:02coaching.
17:03Now you can be a head coach for two years, fired, have three more years of 10 million coming
17:09in a year and you're 37.
17:12Do whatever you want.
17:13Yeah, it's pretty good.
17:14It's incredible.
17:15That is.
17:15So yeah, it's a little embarrassing.
17:16You're not going to go in the hall of fame.
17:18You're going to be, maybe you're a joke or maybe when you come back, you have to be a
17:20coordinator.
17:21Okay.
17:21It's a pretty good life.
17:22Plus let's not pretend who's, well, we're not getting embarrassed.
17:25Like, you know what I mean?
17:26Like, I mean, I've been, I've been embarrassed quite a bit in my life.
17:29So I would, I would like to take the trade Thursday night, I would like to take the trade
17:34of tens of millions of dollars.
17:36Yeah.
17:36Yeah.
17:36No, no shame in that.
17:38Every time I get the shower.
17:43Anywho.
17:43Yeah.
17:43Right.
17:44I thought Tom had some good insight on the game too.
17:46The X plays as of Rabel likes to call them.
17:48How about that?
17:48Check them deep.
17:48Could be, and we played the highlight from the first time Drake may played Houston.
17:53Kayshawn Booty.
17:53Great point.
17:54Could be a booty over game.
17:55So even better point over booty.
17:57So that to me is counterintuitive.
17:59You're like, oh, let's throw it deep against a just fearsome pass rush from Houston.
18:03How much time are you going to have?
18:04But that's interesting.
18:05And we can get more into that when we get to the matchup at 617-779-7937.
18:11We got a key for madness for you on the way about a half an hour from now at 1245.
18:14So stay tuned for it.
18:15Plus, right after trending with Billy Lanny, let's get into the latest on, well, a couple
18:20of players in concussion protocol.
18:22Christian Gonzalez and Nico Collins.
18:23That's next.
18:24Okay.
18:24And now you're in a couple of players in mounting.
18:26The One-Man.
18:29The One-Man
18:30The One-Man
18:38The One-Man
18:43The One-Man
18:43The One-Man
18:44The One-Man
18:45The One-Man
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