Filling holes on the Patriots

0:00For years, Gone South has been a podcast about crime in the American South, but for our new season, we're widening the lens. Through deeply reported narrative-driven stories, we're digging into the myths, scandals, and power structures that still shape the South, and in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to Gone South Season 5, an Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. Final hour, Jones and Keith, W-E-E-I. White stripes are in the grab bag region, I believe. They are. They are. Sounds right. So we get to them tomorrow, bottom half of the region, before we're on to Round 2 on Wednesday. But that was Phil Perry discussing the wide receiver plan. I understand this frustration in that if the Patriots leave free agency and it's hard to give them too much leeway, like I'm not just going to sit here until the draft and say, well, I don't think it's going to get AJ Brown.

1:01Like at some point, you got to do something and I'll be more and more skeptical. But sitting here today, I think something's going to give before free agency starts tomorrow at four. I think AJ Brown is an eagle or a patriot. I'd call Howie Roseman's bluff. I've said that many times today, and I'd get into the Patriots. You know, Brear reported earlier today, he has a short list of teams he wants to go to the Patsar on it. Yeah. But at some point, you're going to have to say, what the hell are they doing at wide receiver? And you can't go into next year with booty, hollins, and Kyle Williams. I'll be for a pop and pop, I guess. He didn't mention pop when they were talking about the three receivers, but like, yeah, that's not good enough. Not even close. No. And those guys are better than I thought. You know, last year at this time, you're like, I mean, what is it going to, what's the receiver room going to look like? And you better get step digs to be healthy all year, and he was, but then even booty was a little bit better. Matt Collins, when he was playing was, was pretty good, but you know what he is. He's not a one or two. He might have a random game where he kind of pops off where he's a guy that I think Drake may is comfortable with. I think you need someone way more than that.

2:01Doesn't he feel like a guy, the more you throw to him, there's like diminishing returns. Yeah. I mean, his whole career's been this way. You're targeting him. He's useful. Yeah. Four or five times a game. Absolutely. Most four or five times a game, you're like, okay, he can make some plays. And he did in the Super Bowl and like, he made a bunch of plays this year. If he's seven, eight targets a game, I think that's not going to work for you. The one thing I don't like about this is before free agency or legal tampering or whatever began. And the last couple of weeks we're talking about this. It was a lot of Max Crosby, AJ Brown, both as Patriot interest, but also just like star players that could be traded as like these two guys are definitely going to be gone. They don't want to be on their teams. They're going to get moved. Well, Max Crosby gets traded before this week even starts. He's gone. And more of a trade return you're going to get from Max Crosby, so if you want to say it's more complicated or whatever, but it was two first round picks that a team had to be willing to give up. And they got that done before we even dug into free agency and all this other stuff. And now we're still, you know, it's day two, but man, has it a lot quieter than yesterday.

3:04Yesterday moves were flying off the board. I mean, it's like, we just saw Isaiah Pacheco, I think is the latest one going to the Lions. Do you want to call him there? Tails. So Twitch chat says to be two knuckles. You want to make him tails? No, I think they have a Montgomery still knuckles. He's just knuckles somewhere else. Yeah. He's 10. No, Pacheco runs angry. He's not. Pacheco runs real angry. That's true. I run more like a knuckles. By the way, Nick, I can get some fantasy shares of Pacheco. He's going to get hurt. I was way out on him and now there's a good spot for it. They need somebody to pick up the Montgomery carries there, not sure, but it's so quiet right now. No, is that was that Khalifa Raven's time with the Bears? I think those, those are like the moves today. So this is not happening? Not really anything going on. And that's the only reason why I'm like, well, A.G. around still there. And like the worst case scenario for the Eagles is they have a guy who's going to complain, but still be productive on their team and they keep him for another year, because I thought a year ago they might train him and they kept him. So but it's more than that. You think? Yeah, if you're the Eagles, isn't it more like not only is he going to complain, but

4:04like we can't get to where we want to go with him. And I know they just did it the year before. Awesome. But like didn't we think there was a chance they were going to trade him based on how he was performing in that postseason and reading books on the sideline lead up to the Superbow. I thought he was going to be gone. And they won the Superbowl and it went from like, so these guys can't get along. They should fire Cereani to him dumping Gatorade on him, winning the Superbowl, but I would say looking back on it, knowing what we know now. They were able to win in spite of his pounding because they were so good and so talented. I think last year it caught up to him and it's not going to work there. It doesn't mean AJ Brown can't work with the change of scenery. But if I'm the Eagles, I would say this isn't going to work here. We won and we were probably lucky to win the one we won. They did it on defense by shutting down the homes in that Superbowl until late. And that's not to say Brown didn't play well in the Superbowl he did. But that's probably how I would look at it now and be part of my calculus. Yeah. And I still want him here. And I think whoever gets him, you're getting a good player. I wouldn't want to run it back with him in Philly because I think there's a shelf life and it's over.

5:05So what do they do out wide receiver and what is their plan? Like on the one hand, you can say it's day two of free agency. They're doing nothing. Most of the league is doing nothing today. And yet the whole top 10, just going off the PFT 100. The whole top 10's gone except for Trey Hendrickson. You know, you want to get outside of that. Rashid Walker is still available. I don't think they're signing him to kick Campbell inside. No, especially with a very tucker. Kyler Murray. They're not going to be in on you know, Braden Smith is another offensive lineman. He's a right tackle. He's bringing him in. I doubt it. Leo Chanel. Like these are the top free agents that are out there and available. Then you get to the receivers. Joanne Jennings, Romeo Dobbs, guys like this that we went through. Debo, if you're interested, Tyree Chanel, Tyree Kill if you're interested. Okay. I take them. But like nobody's like going crazy. Got to survive. That's probably the fourth or fifth best free agent. Yeah. And he's number 20 overall on this list. Like, no, it's not a great list. Usually great, great, great players don't even get to free agency, right? They're too valuable. And they either get franchised or in some of these guys, I guess, did, right? Maybe George Pickens works out a new deal or maybe even Kyle Pitts works out a new deal.

6:08But or they side massive extensions ahead of time, right? Like Trent McDuffee's not going to be a free agent. I don't think Christian Gonzalez is going to be a free agent or at least not in his prime. You know, maybe at some point, he will be late in his career. But that's sort of like the grouping anyway. And when you take out all the quarterbacks, which you have no interest in, now you're kind of whittling down the top 20, which looks like really like 10 guys and not even all positions that you need. So no, I mean, look, I'm not really worried about that. As much as just how do you replace digs? What is the move out receiver? Because you got your edge rusher to replace chase and they had very similar years last year. And you probably are going to pay Dremont Jones less than chase and get. So if you can get the same production on less money, I wouldn't be overly worried about the money. But if you get more production on less money, great. And maybe that frees you up to get AJ Brown. I think you could argue viewer Tucker is an upgrade on Bradbury. And I know it's not one for one. Viewer Tucker is going to go to guard and Wilson's going to go to center, but like four out of your five alignment or back, viewer Tucker could be an upgrade on Bradbury. Yeah. So I don't think we know that definitively by any means fingers crossed situation.

7:09He basically never plays. I think it's a very intriguing signing because if it hits and he's healthy, I think you have a good player. Four years. But he's never, he's never healthy. Bedard was comparing him to Tony. You see that. Bedard's like if he's healthy, he's like a Tony type. Oh boy. Well, I mean, if he's healthy, then we'll have to wait and see what that looks like because he's played 43 games in his career. He's missed 25 wild. Yeah. I don't know. 25. I think so. I thought it was 43. 45 or something like that. Oh, no. No, he's been in the league for four years. Am I missing like a whole season? He's played. He's played 43 out of the possible 85 games. So whatever that is. Oh, I was just looking at the season that he played. My bad. He tore his Achilles. I think it was. Yeah. Before week one last year. The Vera Tucker Achilles document series is really good. I have now watched it from the start of the show. That's good. That's worth watching. If you haven't seen his Achilles document series, but yeah, he's 43. He's got 85. Oh, because he didn't play it all last season. I was just looking at 21 on. Okay. I take it back out at 17 more misses than I like this to from Jason over the get over the cap there.

8:10He has this tweet. He goes, I am shocked that a VT daily versus predator. I am shocked. He got three years 42 million and it's actually could be up to 48. Super talented player. But injury history has overshadowed his career. This either ends up a major steal for New England or a real bad one, I doubt there's any in between. So a big swing, evidently. And so I guess they must feel pretty confident about Wilson playing center and so they're looking for that as an upgrade, right? The page. I'm Susie Welch, the host of Becoming You, a podcast where I help you stop living by default and start living by design. Listen to Becoming You, wherever you get your podcasts. You'll move on from Bradbury if you don't think Wilson's better than him. And then you at least still do have Ben Brown back. I've had Ben Brown's pretty good when he had to play. So we're a scenario where Tucker misses games and Ben Brown's in. Reese tweeted out Ben Brown is like the super sub on the interior. You still need a swing tackle because they a lot of we mentioned this today. They lost the dairy and low to the Niners.

9:10So like you still need a swing tackle. But okay, I mean, I think you're pretty set on the old line. If you're a Tucker's a risk, but Brown could plug in there or he could plug in at center and you could shift Wilson back to guard. I think you're pretty set there. I think you could argue Dremond Jones is similar to Chasen and you're fine there. Maybe you still need another body there. But I think I'd be fine drafting one. I think you want to draft an edge player at 31. Then I feel like you're kind of really set there. Yeah. The wild card is receiver and you're running out of what I think are real receiver options. I like Jennings. I think he's a downgrade on digs. Nick thinks Dobbs could actually replicate what digs did a year ago. You're not totally slamming the door. I think he'll be better than what digs give you this year. You think you'll be a thousand receiver. I think he will be better than what digs will give you this season. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were saying what digs gave you last year. No, got it, got it, got it. What digs would give you this year in his age 33 season, got it. So he'd be better this year. You haven't totally slammed the door shut on a digs reunion. Yeah, I don't know how you could because all these other options are drawing up. And if you believe current that it's AJ Brown or bust, all right.

10:12What's the bust part look like? Is it just a draft pick? I think you could do both. You could bring back digs and use a first or second round pick on a guy. Now, I don't know how that all would work out with egos and everything else. But my guess is Mike Raible smooths that over. It talks to digs and it's like, look, we can't, we couldn't pay you at what that rate was. We still like you because notice both sides have said nice things still. This isn't like some other departures or like trade demands. Like digs did say farewell. He didn't know, but I'm saying like it wasn't like it wasn't that blood. It's like if you can't, it wasn't how Cardi B talks about him for God's sake. No, no, no. So I think the door slightly opened on that. Well, I wonder and I wondered this earlier. Is the official like, is that an official transaction or reported transaction? Like sometimes official till tomorrow, there's some saying. So like maybe they told them we plan on releasing you. And maybe he said, all right. Well, you know, see you later, New England, love the fans. It was great one year or whatever he put out. I don't know exactly what it was. I think they will anyway because they don't want to. They don't want that contract anymore.

11:14They might want the player enough, but not that contract. And then this like guarantees like, all right. There's nobody holding out. There's nothing like that. You don't own the money till Friday. So even if we, even if we get to four o'clock tomorrow and digs hasn't officially been released, you don't own the money until the third day of the league here. That's Friday. So you could play this out further and further and you could tell how he rose. And look, we haven't officially released the guy yet. And maybe they wind up getting back together on a new deal because digs doesn't. Have you heard one thing about a digs opportunity? I haven't. No, I think I saw was somebody updated their wide receiver free agent power rankings. And he was like third behind behind. I believe Dobbs and Jennings in one spot ahead of Debo Samuel. So like that's kind. And then Diary Hills somewhere on that list. So those are the guys that are available now that Pierce and Evans have both signed. So now the Patriots could definitely use a tight end. That's also something that a current brought up Austin Hooper left. They got officially left. You got a need at safety. I think you could definitely use another edge rusher. Yep, but I'd be fine with that being in the draft.

12:15And it's supposed to be you still have a bunch of picks coming up next month. So that's fine. So I feel like you did enough on the edge. I'd take another player for sure. But I think you did enough there. I think you've done enough on the old line. Maybe you need a swing tackle in there. Fine. I agree. They need a starting safety. I think Byrd is ticketed here. He played for forever for a long time in Tennessee. I'd be good. He was part of a good Bears defense last year. I think I think he'll wind up being here. We'll see if you got Byrd and AJ Brown. I'd be like a massive win of a season. Correct. And Byrd, I feel like is the kind of guy they could use on this team leader veteran. Yeah. Understands what it takes to play for Vrable. So yeah, I think that'd be right. A borderline home run of an off season with AJ Brown and Kevin Byrd, along with the other two signings they made right now. It's increased signings. I'm sorry for getting Reggie Gillian. I do. I actually meant to ask current about the fullback. I felt like I knew what he was going to say, though. Josh loves a fullback in the offensive blah blah blah. So I ended up not asking, but you're right. I do keep short changing the fullback. Johnson North Carolina on AJ Brown. Hello, John.

13:16Hello. John. I'm there. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All I was calling on about the age in Brown about why teachers haven't signed on yet. I was wondering, um, do you think management and Mike Vrable is talking about if we bring AJ in that what happened to Tennessee won't happen here. If it don't work out. All right. So no. So basically what happened in Tennessee is he got traded by the GM because the GM had more roster control or all roster control and Vrable didn't. Vrable told AJ Brown, I won't trade you or we won't trade you. And then he got traded. They didn't want to pay him. So no, I don't think that would happen. If they can't sign AJ Brown either, they have to trade him. And then if they give him a new deal, I think they know what they're getting into. Well, this is what I think part of the hold up with AJ Brown is he wants a new deal. I think I think his current deal actually is not terrible. Reese wrote about this over the weekend. His current deal is not terrible. It actually slots in pretty well with high end receivers, which is exactly why he doesn't like his deal. And he probably wants a new deal and you probably got to rip it up and pay him a new one.

14:18I think the biggest hold up and maybe this is just Patriots propaganda. I think the biggest hold up right now is the Eagles think they can get more form. And they're waiting for somebody to step up and get more form. And maybe they don't have that bidding war. Maybe it is just the Patriots right now. And they're like, well, we don't want to just hand them away because they just got DJ Morgo for a second. So they're like, all right, we're going to start with a first and then add to it. And if nobody else is doing that, the Patriots don't need to bid against themselves. And then they're kind of just chasing their tails. Because I think one of the things that could be a positive. And I know people have plenty of issues with the Patriots and free agency over the years. They don't spend money and back-to-back years certainly. If they haven't went out, they didn't get Pierce that they were linked to. They didn't get all these other guys. Are they like holding out some of that money for AJ Brown? And it's why they've been so quiet. Like that's a decent, that's a decent theory. It is. Shine's been talking about that. I think it's a good theory. But at some point, that's just going to be a sunken 30 million that are a waste of rather 30 million that you had dog geared for a player that you never got. Dangerous game. 617-797-793-7.

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