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00:00It's also a Tom E. Tuesday. Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston, joining us as he does each and every high noon on Tuesdays here on Jones & Keefe.
00:08Tommy Curran, how are we doing this week?
00:10What's up, you guys? I'm doing really good. Excited about the draft. Hi, Rich.
00:14Same. Well, we're very excited about the draft. I want to start with where I believe you're starting on Quick Slants tonight, if I'm not mistaken.
00:20I saw you put out a show poll earlier today. It's a 24-hour poll, Keefe, not a five-minute poll.
00:25So, how would you vote for the Patriots Hall of Fame? Adam Vinatieri, Logan Mankins, Julian Edelman.
00:32Do I even need to ask, Curran? I feel like this one, I mean, it would be an obvious vote for me. How did you vote in this?
00:41Yeah, it's an obvious vote for me, too. We need to put those three nominees out there, though, to give Vox Populity a chance to make their feelings known,
00:50because the Patriots fans are the ones who dictate who goes in. We just narrow the field.
00:54I would say Vinatieri has to be in. I think Edelman has an extremely credible case against Vinatieri,
01:02but I think you're really ignorant of the foundational level of the Patriots dynasty if you don't say,
01:09yeah, that's all well and good that he was instrumental in three Super Bowl runs and wide receivers, trump kickers to an extent,
01:16but what Adam did was exceptional.
01:17But Vrabel last week just said, without hesitation, Adam, and I actually spoke to Rodney Harrison this morning and asked him,
01:26and he didn't even let me finish. He said, Adam. And I think the most Patriots fans will say the same thing.
01:32Yeah, I think so, too, although I wonder if some of the younger demo will just say Edelman and all the big catches that he had
01:38in the unbelievable postseasons that he had, and just more top of mind, not that Adam Vinatieri is more good.
01:44A lot of trepidation. A lot of trepidation in the nomination meeting about that.
01:50Yeah.
01:50And to the point where it almost felt like people were reluctant to have Edelman on the ballot.
01:59I'm like, look, you can't just rig the system. You've got to put it out. It's a fan vote.
02:03Yeah. Well, you can. Kraft rigged the system for Parcells, right?
02:08Well, he put him in as a contributor. He didn't get elected by the fans.
02:12So it's kind of splitting hairs, but to an extent. He rigged it with Brady.
02:17Right, right, right.
02:17But I think that would have been a formality anyway.
02:19This did not occur to me. We'll get this from time to time. Twitch chat, text line, even phone calls.
02:25Should they rig it for Bill and just put Bill directly in?
02:28Some people are a little sensitive about that.
02:30Like, hey, if they're going to do it for Brady, and obviously they can put in Parcells as a contributor, what's the holdup on Bill?
02:37I think the holdup on Bill is his end date is a little bit more ambiguous than Brady's.
02:43You know, how long is he going to keep coaching?
02:44Does he want to continue to play footsie with the NFL and try to get back in,
02:48despite the fact that he says North Carolina is tremendous in the exact place they want to be,
02:53and they don't want NFL.
02:55He and Mike Lombardi do not want the NFL anymore, and all it's chaos.
02:58So until Bill gives him an end date, I'm sure if Bill gave an end date and said,
03:02yeah, I'm not coming back to the NFL, I wonder if they'd put him in, even if he was a college coach.
03:08And I wonder if they'd believe him if he said, I'm not coming back to the NFL.
03:12Yeah.
03:13Now, with you guys, I would vote for Vinatieri.
03:16I wouldn't be shocked, though, if the fans vote for Edelman.
03:18So let's say those two guys get in, one this year, one next year.
03:22How do you think the fans will respond to the guys that didn't win Super Bowls?
03:27Because so many of them have multiple rings.
03:30Then you have the great players like Logan Mankins, Wes Welker, and he wasn't here as long, but Randy Moss.
03:36Like, how do you think those guys are going to get viewed long term, and what kind of chances do they have?
03:40Well, Welker has been boxed out so far, and it's too bad, but it's the byproduct of being with the team that he was with.
03:52And I definitely think Mankins will probably have the edge over Welker.
03:55Say, for instance, I believe, and don't hold me to this, I think Gronk becomes eligible very soon, too,
04:02which he's going to get in before Mankins, if that's next year.
04:06And Mankins, I think, probably should get in before Welker.
04:12So I think Moss has already kind of been eclipsed to an extent, although it will be a blast to see him get in.
04:21But he was here for a very brief period, and it ended messily.
04:26They didn't win a title, as you pointed out, but it was one of the funnest until the very end years in Patriots history.
04:33Even that was kind of a different kind of fun.
04:35And his press conference at the end is pretty wild.
04:38That is a good point.
04:39He's Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Post.
04:40You can check him out tonight on Quick Slants, on WEI Afternoons, on Thursdays, and each and every Tuesday at high noon.
04:47Here on Jones and Keith, Shadur Sanders has a private workout with the Giants.
04:52Let's say, just for fun, that the draft goes Ward 1, which we expect, Hunter 2, which we expect.
04:58And let's say ownership is driving this pick at 3 with Shadur Sanders, this workout.
05:02They take him at 3.
05:04Abdul Carter's there at 4 for the Patriots.
05:06Is that a no-brainer pick?
05:08They run up to the podium and make the selection?
05:11Or is there more of a decision there?
05:12I think their brain would probably light up and be active in the fact that, okay, we've done nothing but stalk our team in this offseason with defense.
05:25We're about to do it again.
05:26He is one of the two best players available in this draft in terms of what most people consider the blue-chip players, he and Travis Hunter.
05:35But I still think you'd have that nagging thought of, is this exactly the kind of guy that we want to bring in?
05:41Because you've got four guys in Campbell, Tyler Warren, Ashton Jinty, and Jalen Walker, and I don't know enough about Mason Graham, but seemingly him too,
05:52who seem to be exactly what you want on your franchise, on your team, in your locker room for the next five to seven years.
06:02And I'm not saying that Abdul Carter is not that.
06:05We've gotten to the point now where guys, relative to when we were younger, and definitely when I was younger,
06:12the checkered histories that guys come out with in 2025 compared to 1995, it's nuts.
06:20This guy tweeted this a couple years ago.
06:22Before, he had this, he did that, he did this, he did that.
06:25Now guys, all they need to do is have the wrong facial expression, and teams are like, yeah, I'm out on him.
06:33But, so all that said, Abdul Carter has some questions about how much of a team player he is.
06:38Phil Perry did a good job yesterday on early edition talking about some of the sources he spoke to.
06:43He said, look, he's somebody who might not practice extremely hard during the week, and is a little bit more Abdul first than you might want.
06:53Do you have, for you, in this long lead up to the draft, a best case and a worst case scenario for next Thursday night?
07:00Whether it's a player, a position, whatever they walk away with.
07:04That's a great question.
07:05Yeah, I would say best case is trade down from four to like six, pick up someone else's first round pick.
07:15Again, I'm kind of still falling here.
07:17I'm not in front of a computer.
07:18But trading down, picking up extra artillery, still getting a Membu, a Campbell, a Warren, those three, and then having the artillery to move up and take somebody at a position that you didn't get.
07:34Whether that be moving up to take Lovelace from Michigan, the tight end, or Mason Taylor, the tight end from LSU, Jason Taylor's kid, or Connerly, the tackle, or even Josh Simmons, the tackle from Ohio State.
07:50If you have that artillery because you traded down and added picks and then can move back up, I think that's great.
07:56And I really think the Patriots need to be aggressive.
07:57I have quick slants tonight.
08:00Of the 28 players drafted from 2020 to 2023, only seven are still on the team.
08:07And of them, Kyle Duggar and Michael Nguyen are the only ones you'd call, and maybe far more, average to good.
08:16I mean, Ramondre.
08:18I mean, they don't have – and then from the last two drafts, you have four, literally four players.
08:22One from last year, Drake May, three from the year before, in White, Douglas, and Gonzalez, who you would call average to good, in Gonzalez's case, better than good.
08:36They just don't have a core.
08:38They cannot sit around and wait for the draft to come to them and say, is it our turn yet?
08:42Okay, here we go.
08:44Let's take this guy.
08:45They have to be aggressive.
08:46They need five players out of this draft.
08:48And that's not a joke, and that's not a pipe dream.
08:50They need five contributing players, or we're going to spend the rest of the decade looking at a team that bobs on the sea of mediocrity.
08:57Assuming they fill some needs at the draft, and you just laid out a good scenario.
09:01Maybe it's Campbell and – or Membu, rather, at 4, 5, 6 if they move down to a degree.
09:06Or if they miss out on the tackle there and get Warren or whomever, then they move back up in the first round to get Connerly or Simmons.
09:13They're checking that box at left tackle to make their offensive line better.
09:17They added Diggs.
09:17Maybe they get a receiver who can contribute later.
09:19If they're filling those holes, what should we expect out of this team this season?
09:24Like, what's a realistic expectation for this team this year?
09:29Taking into account the schedule, taking into account which is weak on paper, taking into account the improvement that will occur because of the experienced coaching staff and the seeming maturity level of the team.
09:46I still think it's appropriate to look at this as a hard 7 as the over-under.
09:558, set off the bottle rockets.
09:586, shrug.
09:595, that's horrible.
10:02Should the Patriots –
10:03Oh, go ahead.
10:04Oh, 3?
10:05No, do you agree?
10:06I mean, Robert's saying playoffs is a success.
10:09Well, no, so, yeah, that's higher than both Jones and I think, too.
10:13I think if they're – this is my take, and I'm going to stick with this all season.
10:17Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:17At the end of the year, when during any game on CBS, they throw up the graphic of the standings, and then they have the in the hunt category.
10:25I want to at least be in the hunt.
10:26I want to make that graphic.
10:27If not, then that sucks.
10:29But if you're in there, you're a couple games out with a couple games to play, and you need everything to break your way, but you still – fine.
10:35I'll take that 8-9 or whatever that ends up being.
10:39I don't want to be talking about the draft around Thanksgiving and December 1st.
10:43Right.
10:43Well, I mean, I don't totally rule it out, but they shouldn't.
10:47The schedule's weak.
10:48They should not be that bad.
10:49Like, to me, I don't want any worse than seven wins.
10:53And like you said, if we're talking six and five, that is – that's probably bad.
10:56It's not great.
10:58T.J. Watt is the latest player to have his name kind of tossed out there as maybe he's not happy with the club,
11:03and there could be a potential trade.
11:05Should the Patriots, or do they have any interest in T.J. Watt?
11:11I haven't heard any interest.
11:12I'm sure that they would, depending upon what the ask would be in terms of a trade.
11:17But I haven't asked about it specifically because it feels pipe dreamy, and I don't like to –
11:22I mean, I don't like to wait to pull it on some of the pipe dreams.
11:25It's a great question bullet.
11:29So I haven't spent a lot of time on it, but I don't think it's a horrible idea.
11:32But I just think it's a remote possibility.
11:36So same with Micah Parsons, who seems to be nearing resolution with the Cowboys.
11:43We've got Mike Vrabel, press conference today at 1 o'clock, pre-draft press conference.
11:49We're going to carry it live here on WEI.
11:52Well, let me start with this.
11:53I know Bill did this for years.
11:55Did Gerard do one of these last year?
11:56I don't recall.
11:58No, it was Wolf.
11:59So that's exactly what I want to get into.
12:01So Bill did it, but Bill was coach and head of personnel.
12:05We also got a lot of Nick.
12:06We also got a lot of Nick Casario, too.
12:08Okay, fair.
12:09So you don't think there's anything to read into that it's just Wolf – I'm sorry, just
12:12Rabel and not Wolf today?
12:14No, I do.
12:15I do.
12:16I absolutely do.
12:17And I think to read into it is the same things that you and I and Rich and most of the fan
12:23base have been reading into throughout the offseason.
12:26This is – Mike is the point of the spear.
12:29Why send Elliott out there to talk about prospects and the state of the team or anything else related
12:35to the direction when he is riding shotgun at best, perhaps in the backseat and giving
12:44directions as opposed to behind the wheel?
12:49I really, truly believe that it would – it probably wasn't even a consideration who's
12:56going to do the pre-draft press conference.
12:58Imagine Elliott saying, I'll do it.
13:00Yeah, we're good.
13:01Well, I mean, I guess, I mean, if he's on the payroll, you would think they'd go through
13:04the dog and pony show doing that, but they're not.
13:06I think that's interesting.
13:07I don't need you to give up any nuclear secrets.
13:10I know, you know, others on the beat could be listening.
13:13You don't have to give away any of your questions, but what do you want to hear out of Rabel
13:15today?
13:17Oh, that's okay.
13:20How aggressive will you be in seeking trades and moving around?
13:24How do you view rounds three through seven and just make them say again just how bad the
13:33drafts have been?
13:34That's always fun.
13:35All right, nice.
13:36We'll be listening when Mike Rabel hits the podium today at 1 o'clock.
13:40We'll be watching Quick Slants tonight with Tommy Curran, NBC Sports Boston.
13:43You can catch him on WEI afternoons on Thursdays.
13:46And of course, every Tuesday at high noon, it's Tommy Tuesday with Tom E. Curran.
13:51Tom, we appreciate the time.
13:52Thanks so much.
13:53All right, buddy.
13:54Thank you so much.
13:54Have a great week.
13:55Thank you, Tom.
13:56Tommy Curran joining us every Tuesday here on Jones and Key.