00:00There is some concern this morning from Wiggy based on a little bit of speculation from the sub-stacker, Meggo,
00:08this morning.
00:09Yes, Carlos A. Lopez aggregated this from Greg Bedard's podcast.
00:16And he says the Patriots are, quote, mildly annoyed about the situation with Gabe Ockes, but they are, quote, not
00:23frustrated or upset with the rookie.
00:27How is it possible to be annoyed and not frustrated?
00:30Yeah, I don't know.
00:31He's just a little irked.
00:33Like, honestly, dude, you're not that smart.
00:35Like, how could you be annoyed and not frustrated?
00:38Well, he continues, I guess he says, quote, as long as the Patriots knew about his injuries, where we are
00:42right now should not be a surprise to anybody.
00:44He was going to miss the offseason to get right.
00:46My read on it is that the Patriots were just fine with it.
00:48They understood that.
00:49But isn't the question whether they knew that he needed this knee cleaning procedure or not?
00:54Yeah.
00:55I mean, I think that I don't want to speak for you, but your concern is the edge in general.
01:28Yes.
01:29So I'll pull it up.
01:30Right.
01:31And you lost Chason, who had seven and a half sacks, who was second on your team.
01:35You were a team that was at the bottom of the league when it came to sacks in general.
01:41And when you start to look at the sacks, we all love Milton Williams.
01:45We think he's a tremendous player.
01:46But a guy like him is generally going to have an interior guy, you know, unless he's an Aaron Donald.
01:51But he's going to have, you know, six, seven, unless he has a great season and he gets double digits.
01:55It's mostly his sacks.
01:56And we saw it as Patriots fans on what that looked like in the postseason against the Chargers, against the
02:04Texans, against the Denver Broncos, and ultimately against the Seattle Seahawks.
02:11Teams that were all to the top of the league when it came to sacks.
02:15And a lot of their sacks came from their edge guys.
02:18So my concern for this team is where is that coming from and why aren't you looking into one of
02:27those trades for a guy like Kayvon Thibodeau?
02:29I know Max Crosby was probably a dream because you went and got A.J. Brown.
02:33But, Megal, you brought up, was it Sweat, Josh Sweat in Chicago?
02:39Yes.
02:39Who was somebody who had 10 sacks last year.
02:41Like, why aren't you more actively trying to get one of those guys knowing that that's probably a major issue
02:49on your team?
02:50Draymond Jones split his time, by the way, in Tennessee and Baltimore last year.
02:54Had a total of seven sacks combined between the two stops.
02:56So there you go.
02:57And I think he's more of a guy who's there to play the run first, get after the quarterback second.
03:04That's why they moved on from Kayvon is because they felt like he couldn't play the run as good as
03:10Jones would be able to play.
03:11Is there a bigger concern for you than the offensive line if you had to list your concerns?
03:15Yes.
03:16Top of the list.
03:17The top of the list, and I had this all offseason long, was the wide receiver position and the edge
03:22position.
03:22And you answered the call when it came to the wide receiver position.
03:27Now, which arguably is one of the most important positions.
03:32And, you know, we know it's an all of football next to the quarterback because when you see how they
03:36pay these guys.
03:37But when you see how teams are able to win, Seattle, what did Seattle do to you in the Super
03:42Bowl last year?
03:43They abused Will Campbell.
03:44Yeah, they got after you.
03:45We talk about the Mahomes year when he lost to Brady.
03:48They got after him.
03:49It's all about being able to get after the quarterback consistently.
03:53And it might not always be about the sack numbers.
03:56We have Rabel talking about that all the time.
03:58But consistent pressure.
04:00But who's that guy on the edge?
04:03And if you're relying on Gabe Ackes, which I thought is a good draft pick, but not a good draft
04:11pick if he can't play because he's hurt.
04:14It's already bad at the season.
04:16It hasn't started.
04:17And, Sean, you're the college expert.
04:19But I think even in college, like, he wasn't coming out as like, oh, he's wanted to go get it
04:24type guys at the edge position, like putting up a whole bunch of sacks.
04:29No, he wasn't even in the top echelon of pass rushers.
04:31I think it was more of his ability to play the run and play the pass, you know, where they
04:37looked at him and go, oh, this kid could be a good player.
04:39But that's where my concern is.
04:41And I'm like, that should concern you that you don't have those questions answered or you're going into camp with
04:47your top three edge rushers.
04:52One's new, and two of them are dealing with knee injuries.
04:55But you're more worried about the edge than you are the offensive line?
04:58Yes.
04:58Of course.
04:59I mean, all regular season, the offensive line was almost perfectly fine.
05:02Yeah.
05:03I had no issues with the offensive line.
05:04It was just when they got hurt and they went into the playoffs that they were really bad.
05:06So you believe Will Campbell will be a solid left tackle this season?
05:10He was solid last year, yeah.
05:12That's what I'm asking.
05:13Yes.
05:13Okay.
05:13I had no, like, who did, we had no issues.
05:16And this is something that we talked about all the time.
05:18We had no issues.
05:19Until he got hurt.
05:20Until he got hurt.
05:21Or he faced good players.
05:23I mean, we had issues from time to time, but you put them mostly on Drake, where Drake had issues
05:29holding onto the football.
05:30And you didn't put any of that on the offensive line.
05:32I think at times it was on Will Campbell.
05:35But I put a little bit.
05:36Because he was hurried.
05:38Like, or pressured.
05:39A little bit on Will Campbell.
05:41But Shine will tell you, and I think he brought up some of the numbers last year when it came
05:45to, excuse me, his PFF grade against pass rushers.
05:52I think he was pretty good.
05:53Other than Miles Garrett, I mean, it's Miles Garrett.
05:56So, like, I give him a pass.
05:57You're a rookie.
05:58Miles Garrett is one of the best players in the NFL.
06:01He's going to abuse everybody.
06:03Well, he abused you far worse than the other tackles.
06:04Yeah, but he's a rookie, though.
06:05Like, you don't give him a pass.
06:07He said he was good all year.
06:08He was, except for Miles Garrett.
06:10Right.
06:10And then the Super Bowl.
06:12Well, that was part of the injury.
06:14I put the playoffs, or the playoff run, I want to say that's a large portion of the injury.
06:20Was his FCO torn or sprained?
06:24Did we ever get to the bottom line?
06:25You'd have to ask Sam Kennedy about, Dr. Kennedy about that.
06:28I don't think anybody looked at Will Campbell against Miles Garrett and goes, oh, he stinks.
06:32And I didn't love Will Campbell when they drafted him, but pre-injury, he was, like, serviceable plus.
06:37Like, he wasn't, he's not one of the top echelon tackles, but he was definitely not by any means awful.
06:42I would like to get it on the record on June 17th.
06:44My biggest concern is left tackle.
06:46Entering the season.
06:46What about right tackle?
06:47No, because I think that Morgan Moses can part the Red Sea.
06:51Okay.
06:52He was great last year.
06:53Morgan Moses was your best offensive lineman all year last year.
06:55And that's why I say, when you look at the offensive line prior to the Campbell injury,
07:00Moses was good.
07:01Awenu was good.
07:02Bradbury was good at center.
07:04Wilson and Campbell were good, but they were young rookies that were down.
07:09You expect...
07:10And Wilson was out of position.
07:11He is naturally a center, and now he's back at center.
07:13Right.
07:13And you expect rookies to have some issues.
07:17And, you know, when they're being asked, especially when it's the left tackle, you expect that.
07:21All right.
07:23Um...
07:23And then, I'll be right back.
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