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00:00High noon, Jones and Keefe, W-E-E-I, taking you up until 2 o'clock.
00:05Red Sox back in action tonight.
00:07We'll get to them later on this hour.
00:10We'll also get you a key for madness at 1245.
00:13If you're looking for the tiers, they are up at Jones and Keefe.
00:17Pop it off.
00:18We teared off the Red Sox 2026 roster.
00:21I think it's another viral tweet.
00:23Although maybe they're just yelling at where we put Yoshida.
00:26That was a group effort, Keefe.
00:27I don't want to just be blamed for that.
00:30So go seek out the tiers at Jones and Keefe on Twitter and Instagram.
00:33But it is not just a tier Tuesday.
00:35It is also a Tom E. Tuesday.
00:38Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston, joining us here on Jones and Keefe.
00:41Hello, Tom.
00:43Hello, boys.
00:44Hello.
00:45How are we feeling about the Patriots?
00:49And this is something that we discussed last night, Keefe Bragg.
00:52I was on television last night.
00:54Big time stuff.
00:55With Tom E. Curran last night.
00:58You were good.
00:58I was very good.
00:59Thank you, Tom.
00:59And we were debating whether or not the Patriots should be the favorite in the division.
01:04They're currently behind the Buffalo Bills.
01:07Do you think the Patriots are getting their due when it comes to some of the forecasting in the AFC
01:10East?
01:12I think if they're taking into account when they do the odds, the difficulty of the schedule, then I think
01:19it's fair.
01:20I think that New England, you know, Buffalo didn't do drastic improvements in this offseason so far.
01:28You know, we added DJ Moore.
01:29I don't know how radical that's going to improve a wide receiver core that was relying on Brandon Cooks by
01:34the end of the season.
01:35Not that he's horrendous, but he's just a vagabond receiver.
01:39So, to me, I don't think that Buffalo is drastically improved offensively, although they have the best player in the
01:46league in Josh Allen.
01:48But defensively, they're a disaster.
01:49I think the Patriots have a better defense.
01:51I think that they are much more stable because they have a head coach who's the defending coach of the
01:57year, and Buffalo has Joe Brady.
01:59So, I think the Patriots could certainly be the favorites in the division.
02:02That's even before, as you pointed out last night, the addition of A.J. Brown, which I think would propel
02:08them.
02:08But what's sneaky about the Patriots is the number of depth issues they have at significant positions.
02:14Where do you think?
02:15Do you think they're getting jobbed as not being – and jobbed, who cares?
02:19As not being the favorite right now?
02:23No, I get it.
02:24I think a lot – especially a lot of these, like, oddsmakers will sort of lean on Josh Allen, Patrick
02:29Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and they kind of break any kind of tie.
02:32So, even if you think there are teams better than those teams, you're like, well, I don't want to get
02:36burned by Josh Allen or, like, the MVP of the league.
02:39So, I get it.
02:40And they at least did go out and get DJ Moore, and everybody knows the Patriots schedule is going to
02:44be a lot more difficult next year.
02:45So, I think it is pretty close.
02:47It might very well come down to those head-to-head games between the two.
02:50So, I think it makes sense.
02:51But A.J. Brown should tip the scales.
02:54Like, if and when that happens, I wouldn't be surprised if those odds change.
02:59How radical will it be if he does not come here?
03:02I mean, basically got a locker.
03:06I know.
03:07All set to go with the number 11 on it.
03:10And it would be – it would really change how I think about the draft.
03:14Because right now, Tom, I'm not real gung-ho about them needing a wide receiver.
03:17Right.
03:17I kind of assume A.J. Brown is coming here.
03:20But if he doesn't, I don't think they have enough in the room.
03:22And I'd flip to saying they need to take a receiver at 31 or they need to look at moving
03:26up into the 20s to try to go target someone.
03:29So, what is the plan if they don't have A.J. Brown?
03:34Well, that's the hard thing about having to wait until June 1st is, you know, if you think receiver is
03:39their number one need, which I don't.
03:41I'm a little bit more confident, I think, than you in the ability of McDaniels to slot those guys into
03:49their different spots and areas of need and to get them to mesh with May.
03:54But I would think that drafting a receiver in the first round, when you have significant edge issues, significant defensive
04:03line depth issues, tight end issues, offensive tackle issues, depth linebacker issues.
04:13This team, again, despite the outstanding performance in going 14-3 and 17-4 overall, it has a lot of
04:26places it needs to get deeper and better at the starting positions.
04:31So, it's hard for me to look at wide out and say that's the place they need to get when
04:37I feel so strongly about an offensive line, having been exposed in the biggest game against a very, very good
04:44team that was fully loaded, as opposed to the other playoff opponents, and say, yeah, you want to go and
04:50get a wide out.
04:51Do you think they do not have what will be their starting offensive line right now?
04:58Let's see, Jared Wilson's center, Jared Tucker guard, Campbell left, Unwenu.
05:05I think they have their starting offensive line.
05:07Yeah.
05:08I think you can go in with a straight face and say, this is our five.
05:11We feel good about these guys.
05:13Ben Brown is your depth guy, but certainly with Moses at the right tackle position, playing in a 35-year
05:20-old season, you saw some of his physical limitations as an advanced-aged guy.
05:25Against Seattle last year.
05:28So, if you're going to play in those games of huge import, you have to find on your two edges
05:32ways to make sure that Campbell gets better and you get help or reinforcements for the right tackle spot to
05:40be the offensive line you need to be against teams that can apply pressure with four.
05:45Yeah.
05:45I mean, I feel like all those guys are in jeopardy of missing games.
05:50I mean, Campbell and Wilson missed games last year.
05:52Vera Tucker missed all of last season.
05:54Moses, you sort of highlighted the age, but at least they have starters there.
05:58I like an edge rush to me is the obvious need.
06:01Is that still the number one need as we approach the draft?
06:06I think that's why best player available in this instance is good for them.
06:10It's a good issue to have because you have enough different spots.
06:14Say a tight end is sitting there who you didn't expect to be there.
06:17Maybe people would think that's ridiculous to take a tight end in the first round, but I think that would
06:23serve to, if you don't get A.J. Brown, help that position.
06:26It would also backstop Hunter Henry.
06:29And you've moved on from Austin Hooper, who was a useful, not critical player, but a very useful player.
06:35And Julian Hill has come in.
06:37He's more of a blocking tight end.
06:38They might want to expand his pass receiving, but I look at tight end.
06:41I look at interior defensive line.
06:43Christian Barmore is seemingly undoubtedly going to be here this year.
06:49But in 27 and 28, his numbers on his contract go up an immense amount, and there's no guaranteed salary
06:56there.
06:57So you're going to go into 2027, perhaps, with just Milton Williams as your defensive lineman.
07:04They lost Kairos Tonga.
07:05So I look at defensive line.
07:06If you have a really outstanding defensive lineman there, do you want to go with that position in the first
07:11round?
07:12And then, you know, interior offensive line, how long are you going to go with Mike and Wenu at that
07:18position?
07:18So they are in a good position and best player available because they have significant needs.
07:23You can go seek out Tom E. Curran's latest at NBC Sports Boston.
07:27He did a roster reset on the defensive line and the depth.
07:31You made that same point there about Barmore after Milton Williams.
07:35There's a lot they need on the interior defensive line.
07:38So go seek that out at Tommy Curran as well on Twitter.
07:41I don't know that corner is a need per se, Tom.
07:44And yet, it doesn't feel like negotiations are off to a roaring start between the Patriots and Christian Gonzalez.
07:52Do you think we're heading for a standoff?
07:56Yes.
07:57If they don't get anything done, I would imagine that Christian Gonzalez and his camp would say,
08:03yeah, we can't play for $4 million.
08:05We can't do that.
08:06We have to do something here.
08:09You look at Demarcus Lawrence in New York, he's 29.
08:12He signed a deal that is already obsolete, making about $20 million a year, I think.
08:17And the best defensive ends, right, defensive ends, are making $35, $40.
08:23So the exponential growth of the salary cap makes contracts obsolete so quickly
08:30that it's impossible for Christian Gonzalez, I think, to look at his value
08:37and then to go on the field and play for a fraction, a tenth, of what he could command
08:43in annual percentage per year on a deal.
08:48So there has to be a way for the Patriots and Gonzalez to somehow reconcile that.
08:54I really, you know, he had a hamstring last year that didn't seem, you know, dire,
09:00and then he was gone for more than a month.
09:05I'm not saying that that wasn't a significant hamstring injury,
09:10but we had conversations throughout the offseason last year saying,
09:14well, why isn't he on the field?
09:18So if I was Christian Gonzalez, you certainly have a case to make to say,
09:22I can't play for a tenth of my worth here.
09:25I know that it's early.
09:27I know that it would be easier to do it after my fourth year.
09:32But after my third year, I kind of think I need that.
09:34Is there a time, like, on the calendar that you feel like if it's not done by then,
09:39there's a problem?
09:40Because you look at all the other corners, like Derek Stingley, Sauce Gardner,
09:43Sertan, they all sign at different times.
09:45Because I think with A.J. Brown, for me, it's easy to look at.
09:48You're like, all right, you have the draft coming up,
09:49and then you have this June 1st date that everyone's talking about.
09:52So if something doesn't happen around one of those two dates, you're like,
09:54all right, maybe it's not happening.
09:56Whereas with Gonzalez, I mean, they could get this done tomorrow,
09:59or I guess they could do it right before week one starts and get them on the field.
10:03I wonder if there's one where it's like, all right,
10:04clearly something's off if it doesn't happen by a certain time.
10:08Yeah, it feels like it would be a training camp situation, an August situation.
10:14Especially, again, since, as I've mentioned before, he's coming back to the table early
10:18relative to what Trent McDuffie just did with going to San Francisco from Kansas City
10:25and getting a new deal that puts him at the top of the market.
10:28And we've talked about that before.
10:30McDuffie's an interior corner, plays a slot mostly.
10:33Gonzalez is an outside corner, there's a little more value in that
10:36for the kind of player you're going to be defending.
10:39So he could command more, but he's at the table a year earlier.
10:43So that, to me, is what they're going to have to wrestle with
10:46as they talk to Gonzalez about getting a deal done.
10:51Do you, and maybe this is out of left field, but, you know,
10:54with Robert Kraft at the center of this and the owners at odds with their refs,
10:59do you think we're gearing up for replacement refs this year, Tom?
11:03Yes.
11:04One million percent.
11:06Okay, but how can they go back?
11:07I thought I saw the latest was, like, the owners are willing to give them, like,
11:11a 6.5% pay increase.
11:13The refs are at, like, a 10% pay increase.
11:15Like, that seems like they're not that far apart.
11:19Like, I don't really get how we got back here after the embarrassment of a decade
11:23or whatever it was ago.
11:24Well, the refs are incompetent on a weekly basis, and it impacts the biggest games.
11:33There are as many referee and official blunders and an inability from the officials
11:41to articulate what they actually saw in pool reports.
11:45Well, and I apologize for jumping in, but, like, but these are, in theory,
11:50these are the best guys, so we're going to bring in even worse refs?
11:54Right.
11:55Exactly.
11:57However, the refs that are there now, I think the NFL's looking at it and saying,
12:02can we do much worse?
12:03Yes, you can, but when you look at these refs, what they are more interested in,
12:09the owners, is improving the officiating drastically and moving on from officials
12:19who don't perform, which, to me, is, you know, a lack of training,
12:24and I don't think that waving a wand to full-time officials is going to make guys
12:28necessarily better, which a lot of people point to.
12:32I mean, so these guys are going to give up whatever job it is they're doing,
12:36high school principal, financial analyst, whatever, and they're going to do it
12:39full-time, and they're going to drastically be better.
12:41You are what you are as an official, I would think, at some point.
12:45I mean, communication with the crew could be better,
12:47but that's the main sticking point for the owners.
12:49They want to be able to move on from crap officials, but they've done since,
12:54you know, 2010 to 12 or so, whenever Troy Vinson took over,
12:59they've worked so hard to turn over the officials and move individuals along
13:09that I just don't think that having the best officials on the field all the time
13:14has been the driving force behind the officiating decisions made,
13:17and the officials have a little fiefdom now,
13:20and they don't want to have people overseeing them and grading them
13:24and judging them and penalizing them and have the ability to be jettisoned
13:28if they stink, and that's kind of what has to happen.
13:32A roster note from today, the Patriots are going to cut Marte Mapu,
13:38another connection to Bill Belichick, I guess, that has gone from this team.
13:42Three years with the Pats, played for three different head coaches.
13:45I remember people being pretty excited about the third-round pick
13:48and sort of like what he could be, like,
13:50ah, he's either a big safety or a fast linebacker or whatever else.
13:54Never really worked out, though, with him.
13:57Maybe just not a good player, or do you think there was something
13:59they should have just picked a spot for him?
14:01Probably should have just picked a spot,
14:03but it's kind of a cautionary tale for the way we will in April in a month.
14:10Well, actually, no, it's the table now, Tom.
14:13In two or three weeks, look at the guys that they take in the third round
14:17and go, ah, people love this guy.
14:19He was his favorite player.
14:21You know, Kyle Williams was people's favorite player last year,
14:24and I'm not saying Kyle Williams isn't going to work out because I do like him,
14:27but before that it was Jalen Polk was every – wow, what a steal.
14:31He's a dog.
14:33And Mapu, same thing.
14:35There were many people who said favorite player.
14:37Wow, that's a steal in the third round.
14:38It's such an inexact science, and there's so much projecting that goes on.
14:43Then you get the player on the field, and it's hard to wait for him
14:46to find sometimes the right niche.
14:49And Mapu missed a lot of training camp last year with an injury,
14:54so he didn't find it.
14:56He's a great athlete.
14:58I'm sure he'd be useful someplace, but it's really such an inexact science,
15:04and it'll be interesting because in a few weeks we'll, you know,
15:07go over the moon like we did about Caden Wallace or Leighton Robinson and say,
15:11well, that guy could be a real fit, and then they're gone within two years,
15:15and those are third and fourth round picks.
15:17It's really – it's an exceptionally tough –
15:20Elliott Wolfe was an approve it year, I think, to many of us,
15:23even if he wasn't within the organization because they value his foresight
15:29and his way of – his philosophies and his grading systems.
15:35But he was an approve it year last year, and he absolutely just hit home run
15:40after home run.
15:41But that was after an abject disaster in 2024.
15:46And this year is going to be a lot harder.
15:47He's drafting at 31, he's drafting at the end of the round all the way through.
15:51So this will really test his mettle.
15:53Okay, he's Tommy Curran.
15:55Check him out at NBC Sports Boston.
15:57Follow him on Twitter at Tommy Curran.
15:59You can catch him every Tuesday at high noon here on Jones and Keefe.
16:03Tom, we appreciate the time.
16:04Thanks so much.
16:05All right, guys.
16:06Have a great week.
16:07Tommy Curran here on Jones and Keefe.
16:09You can catch him Thursdays as well on WEI Afternoons.
16:13Yeah, I would say the Mapu pick certainly didn't work out.
16:17Probably representative of some of Bill's I'm Smarter Than You approaches
16:21when it comes to him or Cole Strange, guys like this.
16:26I can find a small college guy.
16:28The Sacramento State guy in the third round.
16:30Exactly.
16:31That didn't work.
16:31So, you know, I mean, I think Scadaboo started at Sac State.
16:34Then he went to Arizona State.
16:36It turns out he was pretty good there.
16:37Yeah.
16:37Maybe don't project right from Sacramento State.
16:39Yeah.
16:41I disagree with Curran, though, on making the refs full time.
16:44Like, they have so much money the NFL has.
16:49It's like, don't you want the best versions of everything?
16:50Are athletes better when they focus on being athletes full time
16:53or were they better when they were, like, plumbers and firemen in the offseason?
16:56I think when they focus on the craft.
16:58It's funny because, like, and I know it's different and it's, like, CBS and Fox
17:02that pays it, but you're like, they invest so much money in the broadcast team
17:06where that really, at the end of the day, doesn't matter that much.
17:09If Tony Romo's doing the game or if Tom Brady's doing the game
17:11or Greg Olson's doing the game, I'm going to watch it.
17:13Or if some guy they pulled out of the crowd is doing the game, I'm going to watch it.
17:16But if the refs are so bad and, like, getting in the way
17:20and they're just worse and worse and worse,
17:22that's something you actually should invest money into.
17:24Not, like, all the other stuff that's around it.
17:26And I, again, the latest thing that I read, I don't even think they're that far apart.
17:30Yeah.
17:30They're, like, 3% apart on these built-in refs.
17:32They're not making them full time.
17:34These guys aren't going to be made full time.
17:35The owners are too cheap for that.
17:36They should just get the robots, which is what I want.
17:39But if they're, in the meantime, get the best you could possibly get.
17:41But, like, no, no, no.
17:42Let's go back to athletes working part-time jobs in the offseason,
17:46ripping SIGs all offseason.
17:47Are they better now that they're full time and it's a sustainable job
17:51and they can focus on it and work out all year round?
17:54Or are they better when they're distracted on their real-life job
17:57and then this is just a hobby on the weekends?
18:00Like, what do you think would make them better?
18:01I'm not yelling at Tom here.
18:02A little bit.
18:04No, if that's the way the owners are looking at it,
18:06like, I just, that's completely flawed logic.
18:08Isn't that how the refs are looking at it?
18:10Like, don't they want their part-time, like, real paying job?
18:14Well, I mean, they can do whatever they want.
18:15I mean, but they want this to be a full-time job with benefits
18:18and everything else and a representative salary.
18:20If they want to keep working and moonlighting on the side,
18:23I mean, I'm sure they're allowed to do that.
18:25But then that would be up to each individual ref.
18:27And I'm not sure they all have, like, super high-paying jobs outside of it.
18:31I think, like, you know, the ad hoculeys of the world,
18:33I think certainly did.
18:34I don't know that they all do.
18:35And I don't know that they would all want to keep working.
18:37Some of them probably would.
18:38But that would be an individual choice.
18:40It wouldn't be a necessity to have a second job
18:42based on the way these owners pay them.
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