- 7 minutes ago
A.J. Brown is starting to tear up Patriots training camp. The team’s other offseason WR acquisition, Romeo Doubs, has been quiet. The guys discuss whether this is worrisome or not.
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00:00All right, so, Ted, I'm going to play you a sound clip here that you are going to like,
00:04and it's not just because it stars Mike Giardi, who is, of course, a tall drink of water.
00:08It's because he is talking about a certain member of the Patriots
00:11and how he has been looking lately.
00:13Stiz, let it roll.
00:15Since the pads have come on, the best offensive player on the football team has been A.J. Brown.
00:21I think when, you know, maybe there's a ball here or there that you think,
00:24ah, in a game you want him to catch that, but we're not talking about drops.
00:28We're talking about the physical contested catch stuff.
00:31Most of the stuff, again, continues to be underneath.
00:33They have the slant down, May and Brown.
00:38And to me, some people will poo-poo that.
00:40I'm excited by that because I think that's in part where Brown shines
00:44because of the physicality, his ability to make tacklers miss and get yards after the catch.
00:50I think some of that yards after catch stuff was lost the last season or two
00:53with Jalen Hurts and some of the lack of accuracy
00:56and some of the unwillingness to throw the ball over the middle of the field
00:59and do that sorts of thing.
01:01May's not going to be shy about that, and I think Brown can eat off of that.
01:05Like, to me, I'm not going to be surprised when he turns a seven-yard slant
01:09into a 45-yard gain.
01:12You like that, Ted?
01:13From the beginning of the preseason, we weren't hearing much about A.J. Brown,
01:16and now once the pads come on, I guess the stars come out.
01:20A.J. Brown is killing it.
01:22You play football on pads, and I've always said a lot of guys that they do one-on-ones
01:27or they do seven-on-sevens without pads.
01:30It's like, yeah, that's not football, so this is the real football.
01:34And you know what?
01:36I get excited over slants because, you know what?
01:38On that fourth and one in that key situation where you've got to have it,
01:41and it's all about timing and subtleties, and it's a three-step boom,
01:46plant that back foot, throw.
01:47You want to make sure that, you know, that you are where you need to be
01:51if you're A.J. Brown.
01:52And so it doesn't – it might not seem like a – wow, they're complete in slants.
01:56Yeah, that shows that they're on the same page,
01:59and the timing is where it needs to be.
02:01And he's such a big body and strong at the point of attack
02:04that there's going to be a lot of first-down conversions off of a slant pass
02:08late in season one, and the season's on the line.
02:11And so that does get me excited.
02:13I'm not going to lie.
02:14And you know what?
02:14And, yeah, the pads are on.
02:15A.J.'s starting to show out.
02:18That speaks to the physical, you know, specimen and nature that he is.
02:22Can I complain about one thing?
02:24I know it's early, and, you know, we haven't seen any games or even, you know,
02:27Ted, you said that the practice next Tuesday is going to be maybe even more
02:30important than the first game.
02:32But Romeo Dobbs, they committed to, for four years, $80 million.
02:36We're hearing a lot about A.J. Brown.
02:37That's great.
02:38Hootie is apparently stealing the show.
02:41But you let Diggs go.
02:42He just signed today in Washington for one year, $12 million.
02:45He was your leader.
02:46That was the guy who was in the huddle bringing the team out.
02:49I know he had a lot of off-field stuff that maybe you were concerned about.
02:51But I have not heard Dobbs been talked about much.
02:54If he's like a bust or not as good as Diggs, aren't you going to regret not just
02:59keeping Diggs and getting A.J. Brown with him?
03:01Because that would have been a dynamite duo.
03:02Well, it's hard to sit there and say, well, I expect Romeo to pick up where Steph Diggs
03:07left off because Steph was your number one leading receiver.
03:09And Romeo is going to be expected to be your second leading receiver.
03:14And you know what?
03:15The off-the-field stuff that you just kind of casually step, you know.
03:21That witness was not – Rich, you remember that witness.
03:23He was not very –
03:25They don't need that.
03:26They don't need that on this team.
03:28And so that's – it's not as small of an issue.
03:30Coach had some issues too.
03:31So, you know, I mean, let's not – well, everybody, same standard here.
03:34It's a little different, the two situations.
03:37They're very different.
03:38But, you know, you need – you need – like, I don't think Steph Diggs was pulling
03:44coverage away from guys, A.J. Brown, Will, that should open up things more for Romeo
03:50Dobbs.
03:50And you know what?
03:51Just give me an under-the-radar, chill kind of receiver in Romeo Dobbs because you've
03:55got your alpha with A.J. Brown.
03:58So, you don't need him to be a Steph Diggs type.
04:01Okay.
04:01And I don't know if Steph Diggs and A.J. Brown would have worked well together.
04:04I don't know.
04:05You know?
04:05And I don't know if – because on the contract that Steph Diggs had with the Patriots was
04:11he was going to be owed $20 million.
04:13Right.
04:13I don't know if they felt comfortable going, hey, you know what?
04:16We want to chop $8 million off of it.
04:18And would you be okay with that?
04:20My guess is he probably wouldn't have been considering the impact he had on the team last
04:25year.
04:25And so, it's just easier to move on from him and to go get a guy like a Romeo Dobbs
04:31knowing
04:32that you're going to land the big fish in A.J. Brown.
04:35Was Ms. Adams a perfect witness?
04:37No.
04:39No.
04:39That was the best.
04:40She was – no, she was awful.
04:42Not very good at all.
04:43Ted, you were talking about how, like, when the pads come out, that's when the real football
04:46starts.
04:47You know what?
04:47You played in an era that is so different than what they do now at these practices.
04:51Like, when you were in the – like, when you played in the NFL, did you guys have Oklahoma
04:54drills still?
04:55Like, did you guys do Oklahoma drills?
04:58Man, no.
04:58No, but we had very physical practices.
05:01But the Oklahoma drill in the NFL, I'd be like, dude, what are we doing?
05:05Because there were teams who did that.
05:07That would be irresponsible.
05:08Wasn't there teams that did that during, like, when you played?
05:10Like, other teams that would do Oklahoma drills would seem wildly irresponsible?
05:13I would be shocked.
05:15But maybe – I mean, we did three-on-three drills, which are kind of like Oklahoma drills.
05:20But it's – you know, if you had a coach doing that, dude, then it's not a team with
05:25a lot of veterans.
05:26A lot of veterans would be like, no, we're not doing that.
05:29Are you kidding me?
05:30No.
05:31Yeah.
05:31I mean, but, dude, we had goal line period in our first practice of training camp.
05:37Like, it was a much more physical practice, even without the Oklahoma drills.
05:41You didn't need to have Oklahoma drills in the NFL to have a physical, demanding practice,
05:46you know?
05:47God, high school football was so irresponsible.
05:49Oh, so irresponsible.
05:51I mean, I just affected even the stuff that – listen, I was no star.
05:54I barely played.
05:55But, my God, they would have us – you know, not only would you do Oklahoma drills regularly,
06:00but then – do you remember, like, water breaks were few and far between?
06:04It was like you were a P-word if you, like, wanted water.
06:07Water break.
06:07And water used to be, like, a giant PVC pipe with holes in it that they would stick a hose
06:14into the end of, and you would stand over it and hope it would make it into your mouth,
06:18like – like, just sopping up this water that got shot up at you.
06:22The biggest difference is football – there used to be a time in which coaches would evaluate
06:29players based on who was still standing after five days.
06:33Yes.
06:34Like, literally, like, who was the tough – I want to see who my tough players are.
06:37Like, that was a Parcells thing.
06:39We were going to have two padded practices for the first four days.
06:42That's eight padded practices in a four-day span.
06:45And who's still standing, those are the guys I want to roll with.
06:49If you were injured, you were on a bike, you don't make the club in the tub,
06:53was a famous line from Phil Parcells.
06:54You would evaluate players on their toughness.
06:57That's why I love playing in the era I did because that was one of my better
07:01attributes was to – so you don't evaluate players on toughness anymore.
07:05You don't evaluate players on who's still standing after these long, arduous –
07:10it's, you know, guys don't pass their conditioning test.
07:13Oh, well.
07:14They go ride the bike, lose some weight, and then they get to run it again
07:17until they do pass it, which Parcells traded two – not traded,
07:21he cut two third-round draft picks in 1994 because they failed their conditioning test.
07:25Now, those – can you imagine a coach doing that?
07:28Those picks are too invaluable.
07:30They make too much money.
07:32They worry about injuries now.
07:34You know, I mean, we had four preseason games,
07:36and guys were playing into the fourth preseason game back when I played.
07:40So it's a completely different NFL than when I played.
07:44But you loved Parcells' approach, right?
07:46Like, so do you look back and think he was right to do that,
07:48or was he over the line?
07:50He was – for the time, he was fine.
07:52I thought it was – it was probably more than needed, I'll be honest with you.
07:56All right.
07:57And I compare him to – football coaches didn't want to change what they did.
08:03Everybody almost did the same thing until someone does it different
08:07and has success.
08:08And the coach that did do it different that had success was Bill Walsh.
08:12And Bill Walsh did not believe in let's beat the crap out of these guys
08:16until we see who's the toughest.
08:18It's like, no, we have a West Coast system.
08:20This is what we do.
08:21We're going to take the pads off, and it's not going to be as physical.
08:24We're going to save their – and then they started winning Super Bowls,
08:26and then coaches from the Bill Walsh tree, Ray Rhodes, Mike Holmgren, Pete Carroll,
08:32they started going and being head coaches,
08:34and they started bringing that attitude with them.
08:37And then slowly, surely, attitudes started changing around the NFL
08:42because they saw a different way of doing it and still having success
08:46as opposed to, you know, the old way, which was the beatings will continue
08:50until morale improves type of coaching.
08:52Ted, when you were coming up, did you ever –
08:55did your teams ever do Bull in the Ring by any chance?
08:58At the University of Colorado, yes.
09:00We did that.
09:00Oh, my God.
09:01Bull in the Ring.
09:02Ted, I'll let you describe it.
09:03Bull in the Ring was just the dumbest drill ever.
09:08Dumbest.
09:09But in college, you do – you know, you just play off a motion.
09:13You be in a circle.
09:14Everybody – the position groups, everyone's in a circle,
09:16and then one guy's in the middle, and we all start jumping in just in place,
09:21and the guy in the middle points somebody on the outside circle to come and ram them,
09:27and you just go hit each other, and then the guy that he picked,
09:31now he's the guy in the middle, and he jumps around, and he points to a guy,
09:34and then they go hit, and then the guy that got picked, he's now in the middle,
09:37and so on and so forth, and that's Bull in the Ring.
09:40Yeah, but it's funny.
09:42But you have a big collision, and when you point at each other,
09:45it's like, boom, that signals to go.
09:47Like a Gojira concert.
09:49There you go.
09:50Yeah.
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