- 19 minutes ago
The A.J. Brown experiment in New England has been disastrous so far. Now, there’s speculation that he may miss the rest of the season. Considering Mike Vrabel is rumored to have been involved in acquiring the WR, Ted Johnson believes the head coach should take a step back from personnel moves for a bit. The guys discuss this and the other Pats injuries.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00There is some good and bad news on that front.
00:03Mike Vrabel, about an hour ago, came out and gave us the latest
00:06as to who's in and who's out on this Sunday.
00:08I would say that outside of Travian being out, I would say A.J. would be out.
00:13Hunter will probably be questionable.
00:16Marcus would be questionable.
00:18The rest of them would be questionable.
00:20Okay, so let's just first start with A.J. Brown being out.
00:25I think we all saw this coming.
00:26He didn't practice at all this week.
00:28I think we all kind of are sitting here fearing the worst
00:31and hoping for the best.
00:33By the way, can I just say, last night, both NBC shows
00:37led with the Schefter clip from ESPN that you mocked me and Arcand
00:40for calling significant.
00:41I still mock it.
00:42He said nothing.
00:43Well, maybe our editorial radar is off, or maybe yours is,
00:47but they dug in both shows, Teddy, dug in for multiple segments
00:52about whether A.J. will ever play again this season.
00:55Yeah, and no one knows the future on A.J. Brown.
01:00That was the big thing.
01:01It's like, what, do we have soothsayers working here?
01:03Of course nobody knows the future.
01:04I think your personal venom for Adam, which I agree,
01:08he's been not great with us, but that clip in the morning was different
01:11because at the end, he leads it very open-ended of like,
01:14we're not sure he's ever coming back this year.
01:16Nobody's sure.
01:17See, once again, he's saying nothing.
01:19But it's Schefter saying.
01:20We're not sure if he's ever going.
01:21How would, who could right now could say, like,
01:23actually with 100% certainty say he's coming back or he's not coming back?
01:27No one, because no one knows.
01:29Schefter says nothing with us.
01:30You would agree.
01:31Yeah, well, he says nothing with, he said nothing with them.
01:34But he said something there that he would not recklessly say with us,
01:38so it's something.
01:39Okay.
01:40It might be funny to play that clip one more time because I just,
01:43Schefter is so, and it's this year more than any other year,
01:47he just says words that don't mean anything.
01:50And he tries to make it sound bigger than it is.
01:53Like, he had this huge thing about, and this is a knee.
01:56Oh, and you know what?
01:57He does have a knee problem.
01:58That's the thing, if you remember, that kept the ramp,
02:01and he says all this stuff we already know.
02:03And he goes, and now his future is uncertain.
02:06Of course it's uncertain.
02:07Nobody knows what it is.
02:09He's playing.
02:10He's not playing.
02:10Well, that's a pretty big deal.
02:12I mean, you can't say a guy's future is uncertain as an insider
02:15if you know that it's certain.
02:17You know what I mean?
02:18So, like, if you, this is something.
02:21You're talking yourself into a pretzel.
02:22Can we play it again?
02:23Sure.
02:23We should play both of them.
02:25What he said to us.
02:26No, no, no, no, no, no.
02:26He said nothing.
02:27We agree.
02:27He said nothing with us.
02:28With us.
02:29Play the one that Ken's making a big deal about.
02:31This is on Get Up on his real job.
02:32And listen to the ending.
02:33I think it's distinctly possible.
02:35Look, let's go back to the offseason,
02:37when Philadelphia was shopping A.J. Brown.
02:39And they were talking to teams.
02:41One of the reasons that I believe there wasn't more interest was
02:45This has all been reported, by the way.
02:46This part.
02:46He had some questions about his knee.
02:48And, in fact, when there were advanced discussions for a trade with the Los Angeles Rams,
02:54that was, at one point, close to being completed before the Rams traded for Trent McDuffie and
02:59Miles Garrett, because if the trade for A.J. Brown had gone through, it would have changed
03:02the entire season.
03:03I think the Rams had some concerns about his knee.
03:07Well, the concerns that other teams have had have now manifested themselves in New England
03:12this season.
03:13Yes.
03:14It flared up over the last week.
03:15I don't know exactly what happened, but it's the knee again.
03:18I know it's his ankle and knee, but it's the knee.
03:20And the knee held him out last week.
03:22Yes.
03:22And the knee is threatening to hold him out this week.
03:25And it's a knee that I think raises some concerns as to how long he's going to keep
03:31playing here in New England and producing at a high level.
03:33Oh, some concerns.
03:35It raises some concerns.
03:37Stop leading the witness.
03:39Ted?
03:39Yeah.
03:40Ted, can I also just say you're...
03:41It's the teacher from the peanuts.
03:42Well, you guys both love Michael Hawley, and he believes this is something.
03:47He went on last night and was saying this means something from Schefter.
03:50He's saying he might not play again this year.
03:52I mean, yeah.
03:53That last sentence, his future is uncertain.
03:57Of course it is.
03:58But that is...
03:59Of course it is.
04:00Adam Schefter to say that.
04:01That is kind of crazy.
04:01Of course it's uncertain.
04:03Everyone knows it's uncertain, Ted.
04:05But the thing is, I will say, is that it is from someone that we all think is more informed
04:11than the rest of us, right?
04:12Than Adam Schefter.
04:14But he's not informed.
04:15The whole thing he said was that he's not informed.
04:18Well, he knew it was the needle.
04:19It raises a question as to whether...
04:21Okay, yeah.
04:21Do you know how many guys report stuff?
04:23Like, Adam Schefter might hear something, and then he reports it as...
04:26Like, he has firsthand knowledge of it.
04:29Like, he's not going to say, they're telling me that he might not have a future there.
04:33But maybe they have told him, and he's reporting it as his own opinion.
04:37I don't know.
04:38This is why we need Rossini back in the game.
04:40She'll get to the bottom of it.
04:41She's coming back pretty soon from what we hear.
04:43Like, next week?
04:45But, yeah.
04:46I was talking with Holly this morning, and we were talking about AJ Brown,
04:51and he doesn't think he's...
04:53He's not expecting him to come back and contribute at all this year.
04:56And I'm like, man.
04:57That's what Curtis said this morning.
04:58Get picked up by WIP.
05:00They're, like, rolling around, and it's schadenfreude style.
05:03They are tackling from start to finish.
05:05Yep.
05:05Yep.
05:05It is wild, Ted, because all of us in this room,
05:09when the Patriots were going after him this offseason,
05:12we were like, absolutely, you've got to do it.
05:14But I'm going to give all of us a little bit of grace
05:17in that we also didn't have access to his medical records,
05:20which is something the Patriots absolutely had.
05:24And I know that all these other teams had run away from it.
05:27I just think that when you spend a first-round draft pick,
05:31you've got to hit on it.
05:33It's different if it was, like, one that was the third or fourth round.
05:37You can afford to take that kind of a gamble.
05:40Like, man, if we get this, it's going to be a home run.
05:43But if we don't, it's going to sting.
05:44But a first-rounder, if they just ignored what everyone said
05:49and Stiz said it best because of his, A.J. Brown's relationship
05:53with Mike Vrabel, that maybe Mike Vrabel has this guy-itis.
05:57Like, I love this guy.
05:58This is my guy.
05:58Or my guy-itis.
05:59And they did something they typically don't do,
06:02is they didn't put any, like, qualifiers in the contract.
06:05It was, he basically has gotten full paid.
06:07His contract is paid, guaranteed.
06:10If he, you know, usually they'll put in bonuses or reduce it
06:14or just kind of change it so they have more protection.
06:17They have no protection in this contract.
06:19That is so unlike the Patriots.
06:22And you remember, this deal was kind of done, like,
06:24three months in advance.
06:25Yes.
06:26It was, and I just thought, well, what if something happens
06:29from you guys negotiated it three months ago till now?
06:32You know, who knows?
06:33He could hurt himself, and then you're buying damaged goods.
06:36And I just, I trusted the Patriots to know what the hell
06:39they were doing on this call.
06:40And I was favorable for this decision.
06:43But it's not looking good right now, guys.
06:45Some concerns as to how long he's going to keep playing here
06:48in New England.
06:49Oh, my God.
06:50So now, Ted, you know Vrabel.
06:52You trust Vrabel.
06:52I do, too.
06:53That's part of the reason I thought this was a good idea.
06:55He knows this player.
06:56But now, between this and Harold Landry,
06:58who hasn't even sniffed the field, like,
07:00you don't even hear his name anymore.
07:01Do you take the car keys away from him in terms of personnel moves
07:04for the next year or so?
07:05If you're Elliott Wolfe?
07:06It's hard not to.
07:07And can I add one more?
07:08I mean, I think, you know, Trayvon Henderson, Ohio State guy,
07:12that's, you know, that might be another guy that maybe was a Vrabel guy.
07:17So he's, you take the, you know what, you put him in timeout.
07:22Vrabes, you're going to go with timeout,
07:23and you're not going to have any say over any of the personnel decisions
07:27for a little bit until you prove that, you know,
07:30you're not going to fall in love with guys that has played for you in the past
07:35that might be, you know, in their decline in their careers.
07:38Well, does that scare you away from Derrick Henry then?
07:41Okay.
07:42So, yeah.
07:43Ooh, good question, Rich.
07:44Depending on...
07:45Which, again, I brought up early in the week.
07:47Can I say I was ahead of the game on this one?
07:48Well, in fairness, too, I mean, and you're right on this,
07:52that there was a rumor that he could come here.
07:54Well, I mean, you kind of started it,
07:55but now the Trayvon is going to be out indefinitely.
07:59Well, Ken, why would you...
08:01I'll ask you for it.
08:02Why do you think that would be a good deal to bring Derrick Henry in?
08:04Well, I think he's a good compliment for Ramondre, first of all.
08:08It'll take the load off.
08:09You need a significant back,
08:11because you can't trust Trayvon coming back the rest of the year now, right?
08:14Not with this.
08:14I mean, Rich, you know a lot about this particular thing he's dealing with.
08:18But don't you think that's a good one-two punch, that thunder and lightning?
08:21Well, if you're not going to get a receiver,
08:23then help Drake May in the run game, right?
08:27It's kind of like they would be a powerhouse running.
08:30I don't know Ramondre, where he is in yards after contact,
08:35but Derrick Henry's sixth in yards after contract.
08:37He's a bull.
08:38It's just like Ramondre.
08:39So these two battering rams,
08:41it was going to help the passing game, believe it or not.
08:43They'll bring guys into the box to stop the run,
08:46and that's what loosens things up for Drake in the passing game.
08:48So in a way, bringing on a Derrick Henry helps Drake May in the passing game.
08:52Well, by the way, good news is that Hunter Henry was seen at practice today,
08:57which is nice, as well as Marcus Jones.
09:00Obviously, no indication as to whether or not
09:01they're actually going to play on Sunday,
09:03but that's a good sign that, you know, Hunter Henry,
09:06this is not something you're going to have to worry about too much.
09:08It sounds like he's working his way back.