00:00Grable was more important than Drake May this year.
00:02He wins the award.
00:03Drake doesn't.
00:04I know it was close, but this turnaround, this amazing, Curtis,
00:07you described it as like the greatest turnaround in the history of Boston
00:10sports, and it may be.
00:122001 would be, I guess, the one pushback.
00:16Who was here this year that wasn't here last year?
00:18Mike Grable.
00:19Right.
00:19And the people that he brought in.
00:21Like before the season, when we were hearing about different players
00:24that were brought in, nobody was really jumping over the moon about anybody.
00:28And if anything, people were talking about the people he shipped out of town
00:32and why.
00:34What was his reasoning behind that?
00:35Now looking at it, like he had the forethought to make this locker room
00:40completely different in the right way.
00:41But Grable always says it's about the players.
00:43That's been a consistent theme of his.
00:44He doesn't want to take the credit.
00:45I mean, he had a nice speech last night.
00:47But if he's right, the player is always more important by a factor of 50.
00:52So why isn't Drake's performance more important than Grable's coaching?
00:55Because I view NFL coaching the way I view parenting.
00:57Like you can, I can only screw things up, but if you get out of the way
01:01and you allow people to develop at the rate that they're expected to
01:03and provide support that gets them on the right track, you have success.
01:06And last year, they, everybody was on an island because there was a vacuum.
01:12There was a lacking of any form of leadership.
01:14Grable arrived, got rid of headaches, brought in people that people
01:17perceived as a headache, got everybody to agree that this is about a team goal.
01:21And without that, they're not where they are.
01:23Mike Verbal.
01:24Yes, Mike Verbal, great night.
01:27Shyam, will you admit Verbal was more important than me?
01:30No.
01:31I think Mike Verbal was very, very important.
01:33But without the success of the quarterback, this team's not where they are.
01:36But I feel like they've won three playoff games without the success of a quarterback.
01:40I know, but they wouldn't have gotten to those playoff games without the quarterback.
01:43He did have the signature run to end the Denver game.
01:44Like, I was thinking the Globe did, like, a story about his most, his five best passes of the year.
01:50And, but I would put that play, the run, for the first down to seal the Denver game as,
01:54forget about a pass, it's not a pass, obviously, but the most memorable play of the season.
01:57I know it's recent.
01:58The booty catch against Houston, which NFL Films did that awesome job of slowing down.
02:03That run, and then I love the play earlier in the year where he's running after,
02:09was it Travion Henderson down the field?
02:11Even though he didn't block him, he was kind of running behind him.
02:14I forget what game that was.
02:14That was the Bills loss.
02:16Was that the Bills loss?
02:16Okay, so maybe it doesn't hold up because it's a loss.
02:19What other throws do you remember?
02:20Like, the Drake May plays of the year that stand out for him.
02:23Well, the touchdown pass to Hunter Henry against the Chargers.
02:25Also, not necessarily the throw, but him having the ability to realize that there was a second left on the clock,
02:33get to the sideline, slide, and that's when Rabel called the timeout.
02:37They missed that field goal, right?
02:38Did they miss that field goal?
02:39No.
02:40No, they got a chance, and I don't think it led the points.
02:44They missed the field goal.
02:44They missed the field goal after that.
02:45But anyway, it's just, it's awareness.
02:47It's something you remember.
02:48Shine, what are your favorite May plays of the year?
02:51So, I think my favorite plays of the year,
02:53the pass to Kyle Williams, I think that was the Tampa Bay game.
02:57He was kind of falling away.
02:59It was kind of a short route, but he took it for a big game after.
03:01Yeah, kind of threaded the needle, and he took it to the house.
03:04The Kayshaun Booty catch against the Texans is, like, the best one.
03:08I don't even know if that's close.
03:10Curtis mentioned the Chargers throw to Hunter Henry.
03:12I thought that was a tremendous throw.
03:14Let's see.
03:15The Romandre Stevenson, like, early in the year,
03:19that little wheel went out or whatever, where he led him perfectly down the sideline.
03:22Yeah, because he stepped up in the pocket to avoid the rusher
03:25and absolutely drained the ball.
03:27Okay, now, on the other side, for Vrabel,
03:28what would you say are his, like, the things that stand out the most about Vrabel?
03:32It's almost like it's hard to define.
03:34Obviously, the team and the building of it, but the tunnel,
03:37like, welcoming guys after the game in the tunnel and just his, like, authenticity.
03:42Yeah, that's great.
03:43But, like, Steph Diggs having enough, uh, what word am I looking for?
03:49Like, um...
03:49Patience?
03:50Patience.
03:50No, not patience, because he didn't need patience with him.
03:53No, it was, like, uh, the confidence in him to stick with him
03:58when everybody else was talking about how he was a headache and whatever else.
04:01That and sticking with Romandre Stevenson.
04:03Romandre Stevenson, to me, again, I've been on it all season.
04:06The fact that he stuck with him when everybody was saying,
04:08you gotta bench him, you gotta bench him, ship him out of town,
04:11and look where he is now.
04:12And I think that...
04:14You cannot overstate that, Courtney,
04:15because I remember those days when we would be watching the game,
04:18and our text thread would be blowing up, like, what the F is this guy still doing here?
04:22He's single-handedly costing you games.
04:24And I was so wrong.
04:26And what that meant...
04:28I asked Rabel about that, about how, like, you know,
04:30how he's connected to the players so quickly.
04:32And I said, you know, the play, the way in which you stood behind your words with Romandre
04:37is something that you cannot put a value on.
04:40Like, it's just the whole locker room saw a guy that was working his ass off,
04:44but fumbling, and they saw a head coach that stood in front of the media and said,
04:48yeah, he's gonna get another shot.
04:50I'm not gonna punish him just because he made a mistake.
04:52And look at where it led him.
04:54Oh, 7-7 for Texter.
04:56The digs throw in the first Bills game, the win,
04:58the stiff arm with two minutes to go from May.
05:01It wasn't even, like, a long pass.
05:02He had two digs throws in that game.
05:04It was the one rolling out along the sideline that digs kind of toe-tapped right down the sideline.
05:09And then the one you're talking about where he stiff-armed away the defender
05:12and then got the ball out to digs.
05:14Yeah.
05:14I mean, so many good plays.
05:15And then that other Kyle Williams touchdown where he absolutely dropped it in a bucket.
05:20I want to say it was, like, a 40-yard pass.
05:22But, Sean, you will admit, like, in 2001, like, long after,
05:25I mean, you're pitting, like, Vrabel against May.
05:27They're two different people.
05:28One's a coach, one's a player.
05:29It's kind of weird.
05:29It's an argument.
05:30But because Brady versus Belichick became such a long-standing argument in Boston sports, Curtis,
05:36it was always, like, Bill was more important early,
05:38and then Brady became more important later.
05:40Don't you think over time, we'll look back on this year,
05:43it was, like, it was Vrabel.
05:45It was the Vrabel effect that got it all going in the right direction.
05:48Yeah.
05:48But Chimes arguing May is more important.
05:50I think looking back on it, it'll be, like, they're equally important.
05:55Your quarterback was almost the MVP, and your coach was coach of the year.
05:59Like, I think both of those things mattered.
06:01I think they were both vastly important.
06:03Without either of them, this team is not anywhere close to a Super Bowl.
06:08Yeah.
06:09I would say this very simply.
06:10The quarterback position is most valuable in the sport.
06:13However, this year required the coach to come in, bring a semblance of order to the roster,
06:20get people going in one direction, and absent Mike Vrabel,
06:24if this is just Josh McDaniels, the head coach, they were not even sniffing the Super Bowl.
06:30I don't think anybody questions May.
06:32Like, universally, Vrabel is respected, and, like, everybody admits he's done an amazing job.
06:38May, because of the schedule, I guess there are some skeptics.
06:41Is that fair to say?
06:42Like, not many.
06:43I wouldn't even say this.
06:44The schedule began it, but it's been the three playoff performances.
06:46And the playoff performances.
06:47Like, he's maybe not as good as the schedule made him propped up to look in the regular season.
06:53Right.
06:53So, when you think about, back to our question yesterday, who has more to prove,
06:57that's where I think he has more to gain, maybe, than more to prove for a win on Sunday.
07:02Let us know what you think.
07:03I would be interested to know what players think.
07:05And while they all respect it, it's not a knock against Drake May.
07:08Like, they all respect him.
07:09But I think that they all consider Mike Vrabel to be the reason why they are where they are right now.
07:14Like, he was able to turn around the culture.
07:16He was able to get everybody on the same page.
07:18He was able to get guys to buy in.
07:21Well, what about McDaniels for May's growth, though?
07:22Do you give him a slice of that?
07:24But I don't even want to just talk about May.
07:25I want to talk about the defense.
07:26I want to talk about the team overall.
07:28Like, Mike Vrabel put a team together where ego was not important.
07:32And I think last season with Gerard, and this is not a knock against Gerard,
07:37it's just, for some reason, egos seemed to take place, to take a precedent over a team sport last year.
07:43I feel like Gerard Mayo talked a lot about leadership.
07:45Mike Vrabel just did it.
07:47Yeah.
07:48He certainly has.
07:49And he's got one more trick to, you know, pull out of the hat, so to speak, this weekend.
07:54Do you think he'll do anything crazy?
07:55So Mitch has this theory.
07:57We'll bring Mitch in from the Mituation Room.
07:59We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:00We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:00We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:01We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:02We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:03We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:04We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:05We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:06We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:07We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:08We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:09We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:10We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:11We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
08:12We'll bring you to the Mituation Room.
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