- 11 hours ago
Boston Herald writer and PatsChat Podcast host Doug Kyed joined Rich, Ken, and Ted to talk about Patriots rookie camp, including the possibility of Will Campbell not being the starting tackle this season.
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00:00on with us right now uh a gentleman who uh really if it comes to the patriots has one of
00:04the best
00:05podcasts out there not only because i enjoy this gentleman but i enjoy his co-host mr michael
00:10hurley ted the hurley meister love him hurls my guy part of the ptsd crew that's right
00:16from the boston herald as well what's going on doug how's it going i'm doing all right yeah i'm
00:22glad that i'm a part of the mike hurley fan club with you guys i might be the president at
00:27this
00:27point i guess that's awesome doug well so you know what was the vibe down at camp with uh with
00:34mike
00:35vrabel and and ted makes a good point is that these are rookies so you don't really know or they
00:40don't
00:40really know what to expect in the first place whether there's a change in his attitude or who
00:44he is but how did he look to you and how did everything seem to go down regarding mike vrabel
00:48yesterday he seems pretty normal to me he seemed like his normal self um he was directing players
00:54like he always does he was hands-on with players out there um being his usual i don't know verbose
01:01demonstrative type self so i didn't i didn't notice a change from him at all and yeah obviously rookies
01:07aren't the best people to be asking about variable since they don't know that change but i also do
01:12think that any new player i think is what you worry about what their you know reaction to mike
01:19is going to be or or what their interpretation is because the guys who knew him last year
01:24they're going to stand beside him like they they know who he is they already love the guy i don't
01:29think you really have to worry about them it's all the new players that you're bringing in whether
01:32it's a veteran or a rookie i think they'll all say the right things um but those are the ones
01:37i think
01:37that you have to worry about a little bit more because it's like oh this is that guy that is
01:41in all
01:42the you know tabloids right now and on tmz and everything like that um but even with the new guys
01:47they're saying all the right things like dream on jones one of the new outside linebackers he was
01:51retweeting someone i think it was asante samuel or something like that same mind variable so
01:55thought that was a good sign you know um doug i'm curious you know because i think it was uh
02:00mike
02:01giardi that reported the second time that mike talked to the the team that it wasn't his message
02:05kind of didn't hit the same way the first time he spoke to the team and i just how are
02:10you hearing
02:11anything about just how how staffers or how people in the building or you know are looking at mike not
02:16just
02:16the rookies but just just the staffers there and coaches on the staff are are looking at mike is
02:22any have you heard any changes in that not not especially i think that obviously there's gonna
02:28be some sort of changes because he's he's dealing with all of this but not in a negative way i
02:33would
02:33say um and obviously players when they're talking to us they aren't going to give the the the full
02:39truth but you know at least from what they're saying they said that he's still the same guy and
02:44i think that that's somewhat unbelievable but from observing that practice and him really
02:50looking like the same coach that we saw for for last year and in training camp and and rookie
02:57minicamp and all that i think that he can return to his normal self now that he's back in kind
03:02of a
03:02coaching mode so what do you think is i mean has from from the the people you've spoken with and
03:08your
03:08time around the team there was a report that came out that the patriots are considering a
03:14contingency plan if for some reason another shoe drops like tomlin yeah and right and there was mike
03:19tomlin was one of the names and of course you've even heard if mike tomlin doesn't work out them
03:23just potentially bringing in josh mcdaniels being the head coach for a while what have you heard about
03:29any kind of contingency plan and and have you heard anything about whether there's any truth to that
03:34report uh no i i haven't heard if there's any truth to that report and it when it's like the
03:40daily mail of all places getting that i was even wondering about some of the wording in that report
03:45was very strange and almost kind of robotic from what i remember reading at the time so no i'm not
03:52sure
03:52what the you know about the the truth of that but i think that in any situation like this you
03:58would need
03:58some sort of contingency contingency plan it's good that they've got a former head coach like
04:04josh mcdaniels on staff um the tomlin thing just kind of made me laugh i think a little bit more
04:10than
04:10anything else because of of where it was coming from and i don't really have any uh anything against
04:16the daily mail but it was just such a random place for that report to pop up and it hasn't
04:21come
04:21out from anyone else since doug what were your takeaways from rookie manicamp anything stand out at all in
04:26like an interesting way this guy looks unbelievable out there and other not in pads and anything like
04:30that uh not really the the third string quarterback baron morton was better than i thought he would be
04:35he completed every pass um but these guys are out there no pads all that kind of stuff um he's
04:42not
04:42thrown to the best receivers but obviously also not uh covered by the best defensive backs out there
04:47but i think it's interesting and that tommy devito has never really been a backup before he's been
04:52elevated to that status because of other guys getting injured but there's a world in which
04:58baron morton could potentially beat out tommy devito for the second string role i don't anticipate that
05:02happening but it was a good first impression from him all right so can i just ask you that outside
05:07of
05:07camp stefan diggs what is the status with that did you see any kind of potential for him to be
05:13a
05:13member of the patriots again not a realistic one i think maybe if aj brown falls through and then
05:20maybe if he's still out there and someone gets hurt or something like that but he's getting older
05:26i know he's good coming off the acl but now another year older um i think that one way or
05:33the other
05:33he'll probably command more money than they're going to want to give him um at the same time there's a
05:38reason why he's still out there available it's not like there's other teams rushing to sign stefan diggs
05:43but if aj brown comes on the roster i just don't really feel like there's a spot for stefan diggs
05:49unless
05:49he's willing to be like the fourth or fifth wide receiver or something like that uh just position
05:53wise so i think he ultimately winds up going elsewhere i know patriots fans want him back but
05:59it doesn't feel like a realistic situation to me because did you see christian gonzalez is like
06:03publicly reaching out to stefan diggs trying to get him back okay oh that's a good sign for christian
06:08gonzalez wasn't the only one out there too i mean he was beloved by by teammates last year but
06:12once you reach that point of releasing the guy it's kind of hard to come back unless it's right away
06:18um and with the aj brown thing that's the biggest impediment to me right now has there ever been a
06:24witness on the stand at a trial less prepared than the woman who was accusing stefan diggs
06:30it's a very good question you would think that she would have had time uh to maybe prepare or get
06:35prepped a little bit better but uh yeah that went a lot smoother for stefan diggs than i expect it
06:41to
06:41uh yeah yeah no it sure did heck the lawyer's like you know what stef you don't have to say
06:46you
06:46don't you don't have to get on the stand you're good i think we got this her lawyer apologized at
06:52the end was was she a good witness no hey hey doug uh i saw that the the first rounder
07:00uh caleb
07:00lamu uh he took uh reps at uh left tackle so uh is that a precursor to maybe will campbell
07:06getting
07:06moved to right uh not immediately i think that i i believe the patriots when they say that will
07:12campbell is our left tackle i believe that heading into camp heading this season that is their
07:17expectation but for me personally at some point if the best starting five offensive linemen
07:23may includes lamu at left tackle and campbell at either guard or right tackle that's what i would do
07:30i don't think that you have to worry about guys feelings when it comes to protecting your
07:33you know billion dollar quarterback or whatever drake may be paid at some point so i think that
07:39in rookie minicamp you don't want to move these guys around lamu was most comfortable at left tackle
07:43crown of her most comfortable at right tackle but i think we see lamu move around more once the
07:48veterans come around especially someone in a mailbag brought up a good point morgan moses missed so much
07:53time in camp last year yeah just from a load management standpoint i think we actually see caleb
07:58loma get a decent amount of first team reps this summer at right tackle filling in for moses he
08:03doug just real quick he does look the part like his body his physique you go god that looks like
08:08a
08:08like comparatively speaking to will campbell i just feel like physically just looking at him
08:13doesn't he look the part for a left tackle he does and he does more than will campbell and i
08:17think that
08:18this summer will be a really good indication of of where he's at where campbell's at if campbell's
08:22improved or not um because you're absolutely right and he's just as athletic as will campbell
08:27last year at utah didn't allow a sack i think he only had eight pressures so this is a very
08:32good
08:32prospect uh and so there could at some point be a competition there for who's better to protect
08:38the blind side all right doug now ted has gone full drake may fanboy he has put him tier one
08:43and mahomes is not even his it is top tier where do you have drake may going into the year
08:48quarterback
08:48wise i think i think top tier um based on the fact he was an mvp candidate this year uh
08:55so will that
08:56continue this year with a harder schedule um with you know some different wide receivers we'll see
09:02i think we could see drake may take a slight step back this year if only just because some of
09:08the
09:08things that he was doing last year especially from a a deep ball perspective are probably a little bit
09:13unsustainable from year to year uh but yeah i would put him in the top tier and the the mahomes
09:17thing
09:18is interesting i mean mahomes has not put up elite quarterback stats for what four or five years now
09:24you are talking ted's language man go go buddy you can't throw the ball downfield i don't know
09:30where i put him i think that based on reputation probably still in the top tier but like even just
09:35looking at pass rating i know it's a basic stat but his pass rating has not been anywhere near the
09:40elite quarterback since i don't even know what it is 2020 2019 somewhere around there since he last
09:46had his his guy yeah hey uh real i'm curious because the gabe ackis the second rounder uh out of
09:54illinois people are like talking about him like he's like the best edge rusher out of the draft at
09:58least from the patriots perspective like just what were your initial thoughts of him how does what
10:03does he does he remind you of anybody when you saw him out there what what do you think about
10:08him
10:08and kind of how they're loving that that kid up yeah i think that from a personality standpoint he's
10:14perfect for mike rabel on this defense uh he was out there on saturday but didn't participate not
10:20sure exactly what's going on but huge guy and just talking to some of his former coaches seems like
10:26he's got the right approach like i was talking to joe kim who worked with the patriots for a number
10:30of
10:30years he got him out to atlanta working with justin houston got him on facetimes with matthew judon
10:35i think that those are two pretty good comps uh for gabe ackis maybe not like the speediest edge
10:41rusher might not get 15 sacks a year but he's going to do all the right things he's going to
10:46study he's
10:46going to work hard good athlete good size i think that even by the end of the year he could
10:51wind up
10:52being a starter for the patriots why are why are the pages getting crapped on right now like every
10:56power ranking what was the one that we read the other day they had him at 15 13 at 15
11:01like they're
11:02not in the top 10 and most of these i mean god knows power rankings everyone wants to know what
11:06kind of power they have so they mean they mean the world to me but why are they being disrespected
11:12throughout the nfl media right now i think the schedule plays a big part the fact that they play
11:18so many playoff teams the fact that they play so many different difficult divisions i mean they've
11:23got the afc west they've got the nfc north i think that plays a big role where these people don't
11:29want
11:29to be embarrassed that the patriots wind up finishing the season with 10 wins or 11 wins whatever
11:34it is but it is interesting where a team makes the super bowl they're the best team in the afc
11:39last year
11:40and then they're somewhere in the middle in a lot of these power rankings so i would put them higher
11:44i think that they've improved this off season i think that even if may stats aren't quite as good
11:49this year we'll see a little bit of a leap from him better offensive line defense is still in good
11:54shape so that would be my guess is that people just don't buy them because of last year's schedule but
11:59i mean they still beat the teams that were in front of them they still made it as far as
12:03they did and i
12:03would still put them in the the top five well doug kide has as i said the uh one of
12:08the best
12:08patriots podcast tim and michael hurley the great michael hurley on pat's chat also you can read him
12:14in the boston herald and he's all about the power rankings as well by the way i'll have you know
12:19this according to kalshi where you can bet on anything yeah four days ago they had mike vrabel
12:26as being the head coach of your new england patriots at 64 percent guess what it is now
12:31well is it somewhere around 80 now 78 it has gone up significantly in the last four days which
12:38obviously if you're a patriots fan is a breath of fresh air that sounds i don't want to go on
12:43a rant
12:44here or anything but i don't totally understand the the resigning the firing the everything that
12:49people are putting out there on twitter i don't even understand the tampering i'm not trying to be
12:54a homer in all of this but i just want someone to explain to me all this stuff in a
12:58rational way
12:59because i don't i truly don't understand so my only thing doug and the only way that i thought
13:03that he wouldn't start the season is if it was his own choice to step back and work on his
13:08family and
13:09and i also don't think that if he would have done that it would have been a permanent thing i
13:13think
13:14it would have been i'm going to take a few weeks off i'm going to come back in week five
13:18and then it
13:19would be like a hero's welcome that's the only scenario that i saw that happening i never bought the
13:24hole he was going to get fired because that's ridiculous my god it's if the nfl comes down on
13:29that there's a lot of fans that think he should be fired that's the crazy part a lot of fans
13:34okay
13:34something i think there's a lot of people who don't understand what's going on who's who are saying this
13:39is a double standard but they don't realize that the that diana russini literally did something that
13:45her job would told her specifically not to do whereas mike vrabel did not he just did something
13:50immoral to him possibly allegedly did something that could have been viewed as immoral to his
13:56family that's it one has to do with your job one does not but people who don't understand the
14:00situation are the ones saying well why does the woman lose her job they don't get what's going on
14:05so that's probably part of the reason why you're hearing that doug yeah and i also think that it's
14:11coming from a place of dishonesty from some of these people as well they just want to put things out
14:15there on twitter that they don't mean that they know we're going to get the impression so that's
14:19certainly what it is yeah yeah well maybe my maybe mike vrabel can pull a jaron duran and just get
14:24rid
14:24of his instagram and all the social media so he's not reading or hearing any of this stuff all right
14:28well uh yeah great stuff man thanks for coming out with us we really appreciate it absolutely time guys
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