00:00What is the storyline this week?
00:01Does it continue to be the shoulder?
00:02It's going to be the shoulder.
00:03And then nobody's talking about the oblique
00:04because obviously Sam Darnold's played through that oblique already.
00:07But at the same time, I mean, it depends on who you want to listen to.
00:10I believe that Drake May hurt his shoulder during that Broncos win.
00:14But if you listen to Drake May, he said he's been battling this shoulder.
00:17You know, it's just wear and tear throughout the season.
00:19So if you want to say Sam Darnold's played through the oblique
00:22and you want to listen to Drake May,
00:23you could say Drake May's played through the shoulder as well.
00:25It hasn't been the best Drake May play we've ever seen.
00:27But at the same time, we've seen that he can get out there.
00:30Which quarterback has more pressure, Darnold or May?
00:32Oh, Drake May by a wide, wide mark.
00:35Nobody expects anything from Darnold.
00:37What are you talking about? What a horrible question.
00:39Yeah, but Drake May's the underdog here.
00:41It's all house money.
00:42Drake May, if the Patriots lose the Super Bowl
00:44and Drake May plays like he did last week against the Broncos,
00:47the story this offseason is that Drake disappeared in the playoffs.
00:50And that everybody was right that he played an easy schedule.
00:53He kind of puffed up his stats against the Jets twice a year
00:57and had a perfect passer rating against them.
00:59And then when he actually played legitimate playoff teams,
01:01he couldn't show up and couldn't play.
01:03This is why Shime is worried about the shoulder
01:04because I think he's trying to hedge his bets.
01:06He just wants to blame the shoulder injury as significant
01:09if Drake doesn't perform and loses.
01:11Kind of like before the year when Shime would only say 20 touchdowns was the peak.
01:15He was going to blame McDaniels come hell or high water.
01:17Don't you feel that way?
01:18Yeah.
01:19Shime's worried.
01:20Yeah, it is a way to sort of hedge your bets.
01:22Hedge your bets.
01:23But I do think, honestly, though, like Drake May, if he plays poorly and they lose,
01:29that will be the story this offseason.
01:31It won't be fair, but like if he gets the MVP Thursday night at the NFL Honors
01:34and then he has a done again in the Super Bowl, that is the story.
01:37Yeah, but he's already ahead of his whole quarterback class,
01:39including Jaden Daniels, who everybody anointed last year,
01:42made it further than Daniels did.
01:43He's ahead of Josh Allen.
01:45So how can you really rip Drake May even if he's putrid?
01:47It's because the national storyline is that it was a soft schedule,
01:49that he had an easy road to get there.
01:51I agree.
01:52I agree.
01:52I don't like that take at all, but that's going to be what everybody says.
01:55I feel like Darnold's the same way, though.
01:57If he plays terribly, then he'll be ripped as a fraud,
02:00and they took advantage of a Rams defense, which was not very good,
02:04and he led the league in picks.
02:07You can't use that on the Seahawks, though.
02:08Their schedule has been far tougher than the Patriots.
02:11But on Darnold, you can.
02:12You could do the large body of work and just say he had a good run,
02:16but when it came down to it, he wasn't good enough.
02:18It's like they had to play the Niners twice, a banged-up Niners team,
02:22obviously, you know, the radio waves, whatever was.
02:25On our weekend show, I brought up Darnold a couple –
02:27I said we were ranking the quarterbacks left.
02:29This was like in the wild card run.
02:30And I mentioned Darnold, and you yelled at me,
02:32and the text line was like, Darnold, you idiot.
02:34How would you put him in the top half?
02:35But he has looked good so far.
02:37But if he has one bad game, he goes back to that crop.
02:39You know what the secret to success, Courtney, in life is?
02:42Low expectations.
02:43And Sam Darnold has low expectations.
02:46I mean, George W. Bush wrote low expectations to the White House.
02:49Sam Darnold this weekend will be only the story
02:53if he leads the Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship.
02:57It is not going to be Drake May on Thursday.
03:00Is that the NFL Honors? Thursday?
03:01Thursday, not yet.
03:02He will be, I think, awarded the MVP.
03:05You do?
03:06Yeah.
03:06And so I think Stafford will be the player of the year or whatever,
03:10and May will be the MVP.
03:13And that leads in 40, 72 hours later,
03:16your 6.30 Eastern time in the Super Bowl.
03:19And if he plays the way he's been playing nationally,
03:21it will be that when he faced good competition,
03:24he peed down his leg.
03:25Yeah, I don't think so.
03:26I mean, even earlier in the year,
03:27you said he's already had a Brady in year number two.
03:30So if he's already had a Brady,
03:32and he's ahead of the rest of his own peers,
03:34I don't think people are going to be crushing May.
03:36They'll just maybe blame the shoulder
03:37or blame his supporting cast, which...
03:40But what's on the other side, Greg?
03:41I can't, because I think this is a good way to be optimistic.
03:45If he plays well as the MVP and they win,
03:47the rest of his career is made.
03:49Oh, man.
03:50Like, this winning early is so essential
03:51if you want to have one of those unbelievable careers.
03:53And if Drake May, at 23 years old,
03:57wins the NFL MVP, wins the Super Bowl MVP,
04:00and the Patriots go from 4-13 to 18-4,
04:04and they win the championship,
04:06it would be one of the great stories in Boston sports history.
04:08But even if they make it to, say,
04:11it ends on a last-second field goal by the Seahawks,
04:15and Drake had a great game,
04:17like, it's still...
04:18And he wins MVP.
04:19MVP, I don't necessarily know
04:21if everybody's going to be talking about
04:23strength of schedule after that.
04:25I think some will,
04:26the people that just hate the Patriots,
04:27but they lose all credibility there.
04:29Like, if Drake plays well,
04:31it's a different conversation,
04:32and they lose than if Drake is the reason that they lose.
04:35I think that the defense will be great,
04:37because...
04:37And I want to say one thing,
04:39the rally that we just talked about,
04:41everybody seemed loose.
04:42Everybody seemed excited.
04:43Mike Rabel seemed loose.
04:44Like, to me, somebody said to me yesterday,
04:46I think that the Pats are going to get blown out.
04:48I just don't feel that in my bones at all.
04:51That would be shocking.
04:52The defense is too good to get blown out.
04:53Right, that's what I said.
04:55But I think there are some people that believe
04:57that the Pats made it this far,
04:59and now they're going to get blown out in the Super Bowl.
05:00Because there was a conversation going on
05:02when this happened,
05:03where somebody said,
05:04I would have rather them lose to the Broncos
05:06than make it to the Super Bowl
05:07and get blown out.
05:08Favorite spice.
05:09That's Ben Volantake,
05:10where he's like,
05:11the Patriots shouldn't have gone to the Super Bowl
05:12because it's more successful if you get there
05:14and you don't win.
05:14Right.
05:15But I don't know what the big story is going to be this week
05:19nationally as it pertains to the Super Bowl.
05:22But locally, it's all about the shoulder.
05:25Where is it?
05:25How is it?
05:26I mean, we should really have Wiggy go
05:27and sneak in to the laundry cart.
05:30I'll order that.
05:30Yes, I'll get him on that.
05:32But it is unbelievable.
05:35But it is also,
05:36everybody says that Seahawks are going to have 80-20,
05:38the crowd in Santa Clara.
05:40It's not wrong to say the Patriots are set up
05:44for another dynasty.
05:47That is not egregious to say.
05:49You have the coach.
05:50You have the quarterback.
05:51Doesn't mean they will come through
05:53and follow through on that.
05:54But if you're a Pat Spade,
05:56if you're a New Englander,
05:56and you say that,
05:58we've got a dynasty in the making here.
06:01That is factually accurate.
06:03That shouldn't piss anybody off
06:04or make anybody uneasy.
06:05How is it factually accurate?
06:06You have the coach and the quarterback,
06:08the two toughest things in the NFL to put together.
06:11Well, you have to do this thing
06:12called winning the championship
06:13before you can start talking about a dynasty.
06:15No, you don't.
06:15You have 15 years now
06:17where you should win at least one,
06:19probably two,
06:20and if you get the third,
06:21you've got the dynasty.
06:22So it's all in place.
06:24All you have to do now is extend Drake.
06:26Our attention span as a society
06:28is in the absolute crapper
06:30because it used to be
06:32you couldn't even begin the dynasty talk
06:34until you won two out of three.
06:36And it really didn't start
06:37until the great Gil Santos said it
06:38after the Patriots beat the Eagles
06:40to win three out of four.
06:41And he said, yes, it's a dynasty.
06:42But you're not saying they're a dynasty.
06:43You just said that.
06:44No, I didn't.
06:45I said, listen,
06:46you're set up for a dynasty.
06:48So were the Eagles last year?
06:50Not if you don't believe
06:51their quarterback is legit.
06:52Young quarterback.
06:53You don't like either of those guys,
06:54their quarterback or their coach.
06:55Well, okay,
06:56but Jalen Hurts won a Super Bowl,
06:58was in another.
06:58Is Vrabel an elite coach?
07:00Yes.
07:01Is Drake May an elite quarterback?
07:02Yes.
07:03Shoulder, hopefully.
07:04What else do you need?
07:05You are set up.
07:05I agree with you,
07:06but will Kraft open up his checkbook?
07:08I think that he will,
07:09but that is the key for this.
07:11And I think that's why
07:12a lot of people have hesitation on,
07:13I mean, I'm with Curtis.
07:14You've got to win one
07:15before we start talking about a dynasty.
07:16No, you don't.
07:18You just,
07:18you accurately portray the situation
07:21as you have managed
07:22in seven years
07:23to rebuild this thing
07:24and put yourself
07:25in an awesome situation
07:26where for 10 or 15 years,
07:28you're set.
07:29You've got a million kicks
07:30at the can here,
07:31even if you don't win this Sunday.
07:33Okay, how many dynastic teams
07:35have there been
07:36in the history of the NFL?
07:38Eight?
07:39That's probably a lot.
07:40So five?
07:41Probably five.
07:41Okay, so something
07:42that's gone on five times
07:44in the history of the NFL,
07:45you're saying the Patriots
07:46are on the precipice of it.
07:47I know,
07:48but you've got a quarterback
07:48who's 23,
07:50who could be,
07:51I believe,
07:51the second youngest to win,
07:52second or third,
07:53Roethlisberger
07:54and maybe somebody else.
07:55I don't know
07:56who the other one
07:56would be in there.
07:57Right.
07:58And you've got a coach
07:58who is in his youth.
07:59He's not an old guy,
08:00not a young guy.
08:00And Roethlisberger's
08:01height to weight ratio,
08:02he was actually older
08:03than he was.
08:04I just think
08:05it's an unbelievable situation
08:06and I don't blame
08:07any Pats fan
08:08for sitting here
08:09looking very optimistically
08:10at the next decade plus
08:12and saying we're back
08:13and we're not going anywhere.
08:14Okay,
08:15if the Patriots lose,
08:16which I don't think they will,
08:17and next year
08:18they have the first place schedule
08:19and they go 10 and 7,
08:21it should be a playoff team.
08:22But that's not a dynasty.
08:23There's nowhere near a dynasty.
08:25Not yet,
08:26but you're set up.
08:27I mean,
08:27you have all the pieces in place.
08:29All you need now
08:30are the accoutrement.
08:32Accoutrement?
08:33They need a top receiver.
08:34They need to have
08:35better offensive linemen.
08:36They need to get,
08:37I mean,
08:37I love you, Ken,
08:38but...
08:39Are you with Bradford?
08:40You disagree vehemently.
08:41Let me know what you think.
08:41617.
08:42What did Bradford think
08:43of the World Baseball Classic?
08:44He brought that up quite a bit.
08:45Yeah.
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