• 2 days ago
NBC Sports Boston's Tom E. Curran returns to the show to discuss how likely it is Jerod Mayo gets fired, whether Mike Vrabel would replace him and give advice to the Patriots down the stretch of the regular season.


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Transcript
00:00All right a little rare mid week treat Wednesday afternoon with a great Tommy current NBC sports
00:18boss and your friend in mind- Tom today the goal is simple and I appreciate you taking
00:24some time here today I want to get people's feet on the ground I think you can guess what
00:27I mean by that but we haven't talked about this what do I mean you think I think just
00:34because you sent me a rundown you mean okay the people who are blasted off with irritation
00:40and up in the clouds right now trying to tamp them back down in their lack of in their irritation
00:45and honestly what I have to find it as when I was talking to Phil Perry earlier today
00:49was alienation like fans and media both are feeling alienated from the team they grew to
00:57love because it's not what they recognize and there's dysfunction and instability that they
01:02have not witnessed and chose to ignore perhaps previously that is in their face every Sunday I
01:10think that's well put I would say too because I think the the notion of getting people's feet
01:14on the ground and calming them down some will hear is like oh let's just put a positive spin
01:19on it let's hug it out let's talk about all the good stuff that's not what we're here to do though
01:23but I think because you have a season like this playoffs are out of the picture it's been the
01:27same old story Drake good team bad Christian Gonzalez generally good as well the speculation
01:33kind of takes us off our feet what could be what might happen next how far away that is and I think
01:38there's a space for that obviously in TV and radio and all the different places you are and I visit
01:42sometimes but in getting people's feet on the ground I want to start with some hard reporting
01:46this was from Diana Rossini from The Athletic over the weekend about Gerard Mayo quote while
01:52there hasn't been a public vote of confidence for the head coach from the Kraft family Patriots
01:55leadership is standing by Mayo just as discussions about the next hiring cycle heat up team owner
02:01Robert Kraft has privately assured those close to him that he's committed to giving his first
02:06year head coach the time and resources he needs to grow into that role now that was before the
02:12Arizona game which has only inspired more speculation terrible performance all the stuff
02:16you just mentioned about being alienated and I think you and I agree it is highly unlikely Gerard
02:21is done after the season right yeah I would echo exactly what Diana said and amplify it by saying
02:27that the questions to Mayo posed I think are so far prior to last week's speculation and Sunday's
02:37result it was so far off the radar given everything that we knew about the landscape entering the year
02:43that I think it was unexpected to even have the conversation because it was it was expressed as
02:49he got to the first tee this is a breakfast ball okay I'm gonna hit another one after this and
02:55that's been the case and it's it's as if people wonder if the breakfast ball is going to be
03:00revoked before it's landed even though it looks like it's heading for the woods so to me that's
03:07why I think there's been hesitancy but I you know talking to people there was no flinching in the
03:12notion that Gerard would be back for a second and that's you know recent conversations as well
03:17yeah and look I I want to acknowledge that sometimes seismic events however unlikely are
03:23still very much worth discussing because if there's a hurricane headed for us anytime I want
03:27to know about it so I can board up my apartment or just get the hell out of town so even in the
03:31remote possibility that Gerard could be gone after the season to an extent there is an idea that this
03:36is worth discussing because that would be a seismic event a hand-picked coach who had been in the wings
03:41for four years whether he knew it or not and did obviously for the last one now fired suddenly
03:46after year one what happened what's going on but I would ask you this question because people like
03:51you and I reporters who are in the TV podcast space not the talk radio folks who can talk about
03:56whatever they want certainly do facts are no facts if we're giving this too much oxygen this whole
04:01notion as unlikely as it isn't how seismic it would be perhaps in terms of the level of
04:12urgency people feel look if he's not going to be removed the conversation does follow as to well
04:19should he be and I think basically if you're a fan you're a fanatic that's what it's short for
04:24and you're going to say yeah could be you're not going to go through a whole nuanced take
04:29but you have to follow all the breadcrumbs that landed the Patriots where they are right now where
04:33you're watching a product that's 3 and 11 and comes off a game in which they had singular
04:37mistakes that cost them the game again that were the same as they've been making and the head coach
04:42again had a difficult time at the podium making a comment that presented accurately the way he feels
04:48or presented control so yeah it's worth the conversation but when you follow the breadcrumbs
04:54why are they here because they had the greatest coach of all time and the greatest dynasty in the
04:58history of the sport following along they showed signs of life three years ago in 21 then they
05:04face planted in 22 they said you better friggin be better in 23 they weren't and they never wanted
05:10to fire the guy so when they fired him instead of taking a half minute instead of taking a sweeping
05:15look at their own organization they said you know what we're just going to pull this guy out of here
05:19and then we're going to look at everything and make a decision is that the right way to go about
05:23it i think in hindsight it certainly argues for they maybe should have vetted it more
05:28stridently but they didn't expect bill to face plant well once bill face planted they're there
05:33so are we giving it too much oxygen
05:38no because it i do think we need to revisit the why of it and too often people are not
05:43looking at the why of it so why was gerard mayo guaranteed the job because the patriots wanted
05:47continuity or why they want continuity because they never thought the bill would go 4 and 13 last year
05:52should they pull the plug should they have a football overlord did they fuck make a mistake
05:58i think all of those things are absolutely worth the conversation huh you can swear well there's
06:06the f and the u at least um they're worth a conversation but it's hard when it's sports
06:11for people to remain unemotional and there is a tendency at least within the media to oh so
06:1710 to 2 said this well i have to dial it up here 2 to 6 and 2 to 6 said that i'm gonna dial it up
06:23here and early edition said this after 2 to 6 let's dial it up some more and the next thing you
06:28know everything sucks and everything's an embarrassment right it's a negative feedback
06:32loop which again the starting point in all of this even if the football generally has become
06:36secondary to what gerard does or doesn't say at the podium is the football games like had they
06:41wanted arizona something i suggested i don't know if you and i were doing tv at the time is
06:45i can't shake it out of my brain that if they just win one game all of this goes away because
06:50that pulls the plug on whatever's underneath the mushroom cloud it puts everything back together
06:55you match bill's record from a year ago okay you have another upset win it's only now three games
07:00left it would be two if they somehow they won't upset the bills on sunday that hasn't been the
07:04case so the mushroom cloud glows not only because of the media aspect of it but also just because
07:09the football has been bad like that was as many people have put even mike reese an unacceptable
07:14performance um on sunday you mentioned alive and people overlooking that like is there anything
07:18in your opinion as we kind of survey the whole landscape it's kind of being overlooked or
07:22under discussed about this because there are a lot of smaller storylines details that i think
07:27could use more time or more oxygen i think what's being overlooked is the fact that the
07:36losses sometimes are not system-wide failures like i look at the arizona game and i first
07:40described it as um maddeningly irritating because it was the same stuff but somehow
07:48sparking optimism because it was the same guys you know vaderian low
07:53laden robinson and ben brown hijacked the patriots start
07:59had there not been a laden robinson hold the patriots were marching down the field doing fine
08:04um had it not been vaderian low who we've seen be guilty of this stuff before they might not
08:09have had to punt on the second drive had they not had a center that they plucked and god bless
08:13me he's done okay then they maybe they got that playoff on third down and drake may has a
08:17completion so it's individuals had kshaw booty not lateral to an arizona cardinal after he made
08:24a reception then maybe they go down had alex van pelt been aggressive when the team was down what
08:31was 23 to 16 or 30 to 16 at the time whatever it was and got drake may on the edge and they picked
08:38up that fourth down all of those things all those what-ifs and we've been what-iffing all year but
08:44what i'm trying to say is if you can fix it with those things i think that is flying under the
08:48radar that it is not 40 to nothing on a regular basis and that 11 of the friggin guys show me a
08:57guy on defense that you haven't seen play well peppers duggar gonzalez marcus jones jonathan
09:03jones i've seen jelani divide play well um i've seen wise far more jennings i've seen them all
09:11play well i've seen bentley play well he's not here i mean i've seen them all play well that's
09:16why i keep looking at the defense and going yeah it's more alarming than the offense because i've
09:20seen him do it i know ben brown can't i know vaderian can't i know davante jacobs can't so
09:27i i'm going on here and you want to keep it quick which i don't blame you it's always more
09:31listenable when you do but i'll let you jump in and fix me because i mean that tees me up
09:35perfectly because my answer you know you talk about the different storylines i've been alluding
09:39to this and alluding because i just don't have the hard reporting and i don't even know if it's
09:43available like staff changes are coming that's what happens with bad teams it's what happens
09:47when you have a new head coach with new assistants you learn how you work together how you are in the
09:51hard times there's just disagreements and you're running out the clock you're all doing your jobs
09:55but like that's what happens in the nfl staffs change every single year winning or losing but
09:59especially when you're rebuilding and losing in new and experienced defensively though is not
10:03where i expected that to happen like they brought on two new guys plus dante hightower okay drew
10:08wilkins outside linebackers coach and jerry montgomery the defensive line coach and i look
10:11at those positions and go this is falling apart like there is a system failure it's just not
10:17from the top down it's on the defensive side of the locker room it's in the defensive meetings
10:22into marcus covington our pal mike giardi has been all over more than i think most and i think
10:26fairly so has to answer for numbers like 30th by dvoa 30th in epa per play bottom five six
10:34in points per drive allowed and jarod obviously figures into that but i remember reporting very
10:38early like hey covington's running the meetings may will pop in and kind of do what bill says
10:43is like i envision the game going this way this is how we need to play but i'm gonna let you do
10:47your jobs and they're close and covington's been a good coach but the coaching the systemic failure
10:51to your point of like guys have played well in spurts and i know what they have a lot of those
10:55guys could start in other teams but they're all no doubt and it's the worst one of the worst
11:00defenses in the league they don't have any of that on offense to andrew think about how many guys
11:06could start elsewhere maybe hunter henry maybe demario douglas would be on a three receiver
11:10package stevenson might be better than drake you know all but 12 14 of the backs but but it's not
11:18an overwhelming you don't have anybody's like that guy's a layup all across the league and
11:24nobody on their offensive line except in when um none of their receivers perhaps so it's
11:30may certainly but you know what i'm saying it's like we've looked at this and we looked at the
11:33wide receiver group we've said for years none of those guys can start elsewhere on the defensive
11:37side you got a lot of guys who could play that's why i think it's not as dire as people imagine
11:42and it's pretty freaking dire 3 and 11 with um the buzzards circling and the roadkill continuing
11:47to be chewed on by you know the crows every single day it's yeah and the the dysfunction
11:55that is seeping is is significant um just because it it feeds on itself okay it's been a long
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13:45five dollar lineup price picks run your game right you uh you came on my first ever episode of this
13:50podcast it was a pod warming party and god bless you because this ended up making i think bst that
13:57night it was a story about joe judge at the time the receivers coach back in 2019 not getting along
14:02with a certain veteran who said you just don't know what you're talking about i bring that up to
14:06say a thank you again b i think you will probably hear similar stories come out after the season
14:12and i'll i'll leave it at that certain positions just need to be obvious and that again leads to
14:16changes but i'm more curious about the defense aside because i from your perspective no reporting
14:21on this what do you think mayo's stomach would be for we talk about the defense as being a bigger
14:27issue certainly with coaching and firing guys or it's hard to see hightower it's hard to see
14:32covington maybe the outside guys i just mentioned drew wilkins and jerry montgomery but like
14:36it's not like their positions have been the only bad positions this year
14:42so what would his stomach be for moving on from people who's reporting with those
14:45assistants he either played with coached with or been together for at least the last five six years
14:51um you know i i don't really have a feel for that i would say that he should be able to be
14:57cutthroat if he needs to be having been in business should enlighten him as to the ruthlessness that
15:04is necessary to succeed it's different in football because it is about relationships and it is about
15:11getting people to sacrifice for you and if you recruit somebody to coach for you and then say
15:15you sucked you're gone it does feed the opportunity for those guys in a very public
15:22profession to say you know what i get fired but you don't know what he's doing and then you have
15:27that going on so you have to tread carefully i think with the decisions that you make but you
15:32can't be hiring head coaches who are going to be sentimental if the team doesn't perform you just
15:37can't do it and if they did hire gerard and didn't vet that you will have the balls to fire somebody
15:42or demote them if they're not working out you're going to be able to do that and if he goes look
15:47look how many coaches head coaches have we seen go down with their coordinators or coaches i'm
15:52not firing that guy all right well your team stinks we're gonna have to do it now if the team
15:57is good and it's a 10 and 7 team and they say you're gonna fire your wide receivers coach and
16:04you're like i'm not doing that he wasn't bad this year that's different yeah everybody everybody
16:09and that includes gerard should be worried for their job over the last three games again i don't
16:17i'm fairly certain he's not going anywhere but that doesn't mean you have free reign
16:23to coach in any fashion you like or to put any product out there you like which he knows right
16:30and that's that's the interesting part to me too because you know sentimentality or relationships
16:35and he and covington shared agent and i was to go way back and covington was going to be the dc
16:39as soon as bill was gone like they go through the process and that happens but if you look at mayo
16:43you could certainly argue and i would be on this side as bad as it's been he got a raw deal if he's
16:48fired after year one alex van pelt he gets fired after year one regardless of whatever notes were
16:53taken or not taken up in the owner's box if he gets fired i think it's a raw deal you develop
16:57the rookie quarterback you establish some kind of culture you've been honest and open and a good
17:02representation at the podium for your offense you also have a lot less talent on offenses we just
17:05documented demarcus covington i don't think would be getting a raw deal it's been that bad bottom
17:09three in the league even if he's got the grace of a first year coordinator or head coach because we
17:15knew what this defense was last year and it's not a copy and paste but it's close enough like could
17:19we at least get to 20 is that too much to ask in these in these rankings the ironic thing about the
17:25van pelt v covington conversation is that they wanted covington coveted covington but they didn't
17:32want van pelt and the guy that they didn't want who was their literal 12th choice in van pelt
17:40is performing better than the guy that they settled on that settled on that they selected
17:44that they that they had pined to elevate so while on the face of it you look and say well how can
17:53you do that and i've said the same thing he's done the number one thing which was develop the
17:57quarterback the quarterback has an affinity for him he's been an adult in the room in so many
18:01ways yeah he you know gets stage fright when he gets into third and fourth and short with
18:07you know when he should be way more aggressive but everything else has been really really good
18:12especially with the chicken poop in front of him that he's trying to make some level of salad
18:17so to me i look at it and say he has done fine but if you hired him saying to yourself the whole time
18:26well if something better comes open it's like when you like i applied to colleges and i wanted
18:31to get into uh my brother was already at saint anselm right and at that time he didn't go
18:37applying all over the friggin country just applied you know what was close by my parents
18:41wanted me to go to the catholic college went to silver lake regional high school they go like to
18:44see you go to catholic college applied to fairfield didn't get it applied to marist and
18:48poughkeepsie new york i didn't like it applied to bridgewater state got in but i wanted to go i said
18:52all right i'll just go to saint azen if i don't like it after a year i'll i'll transfer someplace
18:57i liked it i stayed but i think that when you signed up for alex van pelt you were signing
19:02up for him the way i was signing up for saint ace i had a great friggin time i'm not gonna go
19:07i don't know if the patriots having a great friggin time or they think they can have some
19:10a better time over at marist yeah and look alex van pelt getting a raw deal is not a reason
19:15was that a good was that a stupid anecdote i thought i enjoyed it i didn't i didn't know
19:20you even had a brother so i was learning and smiling over here oh snake yeah snake
19:26let's have him on next time oh he'd be great good very very entertaining person but to the to the
19:33point of saint alex van pelt here uh to merge the two together like him getting a raw deal
19:38is not a reason not to fire someone in the nfl it happens every single year and you can make a good
19:41case to say hey look he did most of what we asked him to do we gave him nothing with which to work
19:46but if he developed drake may and we feel confident in that well then that's the time to move on also
19:52like josh mcdaniel's is still local or pick your favorite offensive coordinator who might be
19:56interested in coming here which is the other flip side of okay we moved on from alex van pelt who
20:00are you pulling here to work with potentially potentially a lame duck head coach that's a
20:04whole other problem but like okay drake may knows how to drop back from under center he knows how to
20:09keep his footwork and tie it to his reads when he's going through any kind of progression great
20:14he can now work in any kind of system i just think the the better case for firing one or both of the
20:21coordinators is clearly with comington and also just might be the harder sell internally for the
20:25people that have to pull the trigger yeah which is really the irony in all of it the guy who's
20:31done better is the guy they would have a harder time moving on excuse me the guy who's done worse
20:35is the guy that would be more wrenching for them to move on from the guy who's done worse excuse
20:40me better is the one um who people might be able to say yeah but you know what's he done i mean
20:46that's the interesting thing about van pelton that would be the um really the way it would be
20:54spun is he's done a great job developing developing him but who has he ever taken to the next level
21:00yes who has he ever worked with in playoff situations um who has he ever worked with
21:06that was developed from scratch into an nfl starter and performed at a high level and
21:11played in playoff games um and you look at say day ball with josh allen day ball is excused from
21:18his job in new york you look at josh with whether it be jimmy or you know he goes on and performs
21:25and plays in the super bowl for san francisco god damn plank um well the time he spent with
21:31brady he's coached in high leverage games so castle obviously yeah yeah yeah yeah you look
21:35at those and you say okay well yeah alex got us this far but we have to get over into the left
21:41lane now and start going 85 and i don't know if he can drive that fast so that would be your
21:47your fail safe if you wanted to do that yeah bottom line coaches and this is the old chris
21:51rock line about i think men in general only as faithful as your options so if there's a uh you
21:57know an eight nine out there's an offensive coordinator i think alex van pelton we can
22:00settle was probably a six or seven out of ten choice when it was made and i said this schematically
22:04like this the bones of this offense are old they're static they're like actual west coast
22:08stuff versus some of the motions and stuff that have evolved since then with the shanahan stuff
22:12but the drills behind it work it's just schematically it's not going to take you to
22:16the next level but they just need to get off of the ground they need to do the opposite of what
22:19we've been doing here we just make a leap as opposed to building people and put them on the
22:23ground all right i want to talk mike rabel here within a second because you were quoted yesterday
22:26on tv saying he is interested in the job but at first i want to take you back 10 years january
22:312015 i am standing in some 300 section of gillette stadium this is my last game attended
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23:51download game time today what time is it game time all right mike brabel i hope great dream
23:58thank you sir have a lot of um okay so here's a quote this is tweeted by nick cattle's yesterday
24:06your appearance on early edition which had been known to make some waves quote mike rabel would
24:10be interested in coaching the new england patriots i think he meaning rabel looks at
24:14the patriots and despite the warts says i'll go there what tommy can you tell us about that
24:25this began to germinate on sunday when albert brier after the game um started talking about
24:31okay if you're going to move on from gerard mayo this would be your one chance to get mike frable
24:35because he's available um there are openings around the nfl right now three of them he will
24:41be high on everyone's list so brier saying that and then again as we spoke about her on early
24:47edition he spoke about brable and whether or not he would pull the trigger and move on from
24:51mayo to brable i've known mike for a long long time i would say that we are friends respectfully
24:58professional friends and i know how he feels about this organization and always has felt about it
25:03and even when he was up here last year he expressed his interest i think in always being a part of it
25:08speaks of this team as a we probably the same way he does about ohio state
25:12so unless things have drastically changed
25:17in the recent past mike rabel would be certainly interested in coaching the new england patriots
25:23from what i know um that doesn't mean that he would be interested exclusively in them or
25:30above the bears jaguars or saints i just know that mike's affinity for the new england patriots over
25:36the years is such that i think he would have no compunctions about if there was an opportunity
25:41here to come and coach but again um that wasn't necessarily something that was told to me as in
25:49hey we're thinking of this would very well want to do it okay and that leads to my next question
25:55which is how significant is that you know it's significant enough if you're running a radio show
26:02and doing it for four hours and what would it look like who does b is oc and jump like
26:0610 miles down the road but we're not jumping anywhere our feet are on the ground as i said
26:10at the start of this podcast so as far as ownership does that matter to them that they've certainly at
26:18least heard that or known that that mike frabel's interested because then they of course have to ask
26:22themselves do i like what i have in my left hand with gerard may and what i know in the state of
26:25the franchise and what i believe in or do i like what i could reach out for being old number 50
26:30but good run with the titans still winning record do i want to be able to compare and contrast at
26:35the same time or do they bother to even reach out to mike it'll be interesting to find out i mean i
26:41think the significance of it is if you have the one candidate who would energize your fan base
26:51who has been a part of multiple super bowl wins who has had experience elsewhere who knows the
26:57nooks and crannies of coaching gm relationships in a way that unfortunately gerard just doesn't
27:03know yet then it has to appeal a great deal to you because you have love and respect for the guys
27:09in your freaking hall of fame so i think it would give you pause the same way it would give someone
27:14pause if i don't know you're it's the night before your wedding and you're standing there and there's
27:23the girl you've pined for forever just stand there and she doesn't you know am i doing the
27:28right thing here because i'm never gonna have another shot i didn't feel that way by the way
27:32i knew what i was doing and the night before my wedding was the oj chase um good yeah um but i
27:39think that that it would give them pause do we want to continue are we sure that this is what
27:44we want to do going forward with gerard because mike's going to go someplace else who else would
27:48there be other than mike variable patriots would have an affinity for can you name one guy
27:54not as much as mike and i think not in a way that like complicates their decision now that
28:00would for all the reasons you just mentioned like you say ben johnson okay everyone's favorite new
28:04hot shot coordinator what's he know about anything right it's theoretical i don't know ben i wouldn't
28:10know if he walked in the room but but you get these guys every single year and it's not to
28:14discount them sometimes john mcveigh sometimes it's kyle shanahan other times it's dave canal
28:19so actually hasn't been that bad in carolina but the point is mike fables a known commodity i've
28:24seen him do it i would bet he's better at it than he was in tennessee where he gets to an asd
28:28championship game and another year has the number one seed okay he came in here ended the dynasty
28:33on his terms those are tough teams he also knows how to pick offensive coordinators and i think
28:36that leads to the most interesting point about this is not only could mike come in and probably
28:41just kind of like bring the level up a little bit okay whatever your floor is with gerard it's going
28:46to be higher with mike but his network of coaching where i think that's killing the patriots right
28:52now where you look again the receivers tyler hughes wasn't good enough to be a receivers coach
28:56to washington last year he wasn't good enough to have a position coach under bill for three years
29:00here it's not an issue with mike fable who hired arthur smith and matt leflore and so it's not
29:04only just mike versus gerard it's one of the staffs that they can bring with them and their
29:09experience stuff that gerard just can't do right now because those only come with time right and
29:15it goes back to again if it was a clean slate last year and if the patriots hadn't unexpectedly
29:22gone 4 and 13 and if the timeline hadn't been moved up and if all things were equal what would
29:29the crafts have done last year did they feel indebted to gerard or um indebted isn't the right
29:37word or just felt uh we'll use indebted for lack of a better word did they feel that they were
29:44obligated to gerard because of what they had contractually point into his contract which was
29:49reportedly a 10 million dollar buyout if indeed he wasn't made the head coach you know bill was
29:55making 25 million dollars a year or so so you had to pay bill most likely at least a portion of that
30:0325 when you moved on from him if you had to pay gerard 10 to not coach then something to somebody
30:09else to coach then the tab was going to run up you still after a year or two going to be clear
30:16a bill clear of whatever payout there was to gerard and you would have the coach that you
30:20you know perhaps preferred to hire if everything was equal so again that's that's why when we
30:26realistically and objectively follow the breadcrumbs and see where they led to and people are
30:33there was more going on it wasn't that freaking easy it was the greatest coach of all time yeah
30:38and bravo was unexpectedly fired remember yeah right after the season no one saw bravo getting
30:44fired so it's um it is a very unique situation i think that he that that individual is available
30:55now and he won't be soon down the road yeah all right let's pivot back to patriots they have three
31:01games left um you had to sit down with gerard over the bi-week anyone who's not watched or listened
31:06to that i would highly encourage you to do so let's say you get to sit down again tomorrow just
31:1015 20 minutes over the phone in his office whatever it is he's asking you for advice okay
31:15how do i stabilize the ship smooth sailing uh smooth sail smoothly into the offseason your answer
31:23is what i would embrace the idea of a football overwood which i'm sure he never would but i
31:31talked to scott peoley about this on the pod and i thought it was really smart and it's really kind
31:35of my my thing today is mayo's new wolf is new covington's new van pelt's never been a play caller
31:45the patriots personnel has been so friggin bad their free agent signings have been so friggin bad
31:51that if the crafts want this group to work they haven't really indicated that they are adept and
31:58it might be because of inexperience but what the crafts need is to get somebody between them
32:03and the coaching staff and maybe mayo says look robert jonathan the camera was on you guys taking
32:10notes and i know that you guys don't come down here and say we have to draft a tackle
32:14whether we have to take will campbell whether we gotta start running more spread you don't do that
32:18but you do hold my feet to the fire afterwards so instead of coming to me or elliott why don't we add
32:24somebody who's got some friggin experience as a football overlord and he can audit elliott and he
32:31can audit me i welcome it and he can maybe work the network to help some of these assistant coaches
32:36and he can say that guy sucks i don't like his attitude move on from him phil perry and i had a
32:41long conversation about this he didn't agree with it i think that it's a unique situation if you
32:46look at bill belichick and say well that was a football over wouldn't they chased his ass out
32:49he was spread too thin he was trying to actually do the jobs of wolf and mayo and grow and whoever
32:57the offensive line coach is scott peters this person will be overseeing it does it work tom
33:02coffin got the jaguars in 2017 to the afc championship game should have been in the
33:07super bowl against the eagles yeah so i don't think it's a bad situation would i prescribe it
33:15in every one would i prescribe it to another coach no but i would say to gerard and i've totally morphed
33:20this question that you asked me into my own answer okay that's what we do it's where we have the
33:26space you and i can go as long as we want talk about whatever we want with phil on this uh i'm
33:33also a little bit surprised that you know maybe this is just scott's uh vocabulary leadings we
33:38didn't use the word czar we love the word czar when it's at the top the only time we use it
33:42overlord of like an entire football operation or some would say border um but i i would like to
33:48split the difference and go more consultant and like i think one example of this where it's not
33:53all-encompassing power but like mike holmgren did this for a while in cleveland that's an
33:56organization that needed a guy like mike holmgren okay a sounding board for ownership dry doesn't
34:01report to them elliot doesn't report to them but like that guy is there to be both the jim caldwell
34:06for the coaching staff and say ron wolfie was still around and interested for the scouting
34:11department because all that inexperience i think has fostered a lot of their issues this year which
34:15of course are cured with time but that's kind of the bitch of it you might not have that time
34:20to figure it out and to be able to grow and do this um what are you looking for these last
34:25three games besides winning and progress and like all the obvious stuff wish list
34:30no no not like this no no no i'm gonna do a wish list oh come on you just took the last
34:35question and ran with it give me like give me like a silent barometer or things that you think
34:40will be more telling besides the scoreboard and again the kind of performance on the field which
34:44is obvious mine would be body language i want to see how guys are reacting on the sideline in the
34:48locker room after yeah i think that's a great barometer and i think drake may's tone is a great
34:55indicator because you've got a guy who is like a puppy he's wiggling all over for weeks and then
35:02sunday's game was the first time i saw him a little bit downcast it's like wow we really do
35:05suck huh so that would be one thing that i will gauge i'll also gauge simple penalties can you
35:11stay at five or less in every game ideally you want to be two for ten but can you stay five or
35:16less in every game that that to me is is a good indication um run defense will be a great indicator
35:25i think andrew and i think you'll agree with that because we've talked about they have the players
35:30so sometimes when the run defense sucks it's not because you're not trying it's because you're
35:35trying to do it yourself and you're cheating the scheme and you're like peppers came up too fast
35:42he wanted to blow james connor up instead of breaking down getting there and you know
35:49a normal fashion and he was trying to just drill him and he got the wrong angle so those are three
35:56key things penalties body language of may and tone of may and um run defense yeah i'm gonna the run
36:06defense is a great point and not in the sense of you gotta stop the run to win the game but in the
36:10sense that you just hit on we're like that is a collective effort okay in the same way with
36:16pass protection like you need to all uh lean on each other's leverage or trust in those assignments
36:21and how long have we heard this year of like guys are being too selfish guys are out of their gaps
36:26we need to play more together over and over and over again i think that is honestly a little bit
36:30reflective of the culture which has a harder barometer right are guys laughing in the locker
36:34room some people like to do that reported on at once i don't think it was a huge deal but it
36:38happened and it had my attention body language is another barometer what are you saying to the
36:42media caisson booty still lighting up his coaching i'll be better if they cut all that crap out let's
36:48just call it crap the body language the post game quotes and the idea that they're not trying to do
36:52too much even if you're losing if you're losing together in the media and on the field that
36:58matters because right now i don't think they're doing that and that would be a sign as much as
37:01they want to talk about rallying around mail that they're actually doing it yeah and that allows us
37:06to be less fanatical strident emotional about trying to figure out what they should do going
37:14forward or whatever it's just again that that arizona game and the post post game the jacksonville
37:21game the houston game the niners game the jets game the first one um they all stick out like
37:29sore thumbs and that's a lot of freaking thumbs um see your doctor with that with that many thumbs
37:36it's arizona was your best chance to put your best foot forward and have people say well at
37:42least they showed up against arizona now you're trying to put your best foot forward against three
37:46teams that are hammering feet on a regular basis yeah all right appreciate your time here to
37:53wednesday uh for those who listen regularly we'll be back at the end of the week some preview stuff
37:57are normally uh scheduled podcasting content mailbag everything good and then i will have
38:02one episode next week which i'll remind you later on friday we'll have another guest in the meantime
38:06tommy kern no one better on ownership big picture decisions some perspective and a lot of fun with
38:10my guy hopefully see you uh over at your place here soon all right i'd love that andrew goodbye
38:17goodbye
38:39you

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