Drake Maye coming out of his shell for Patriots ahead of Buffalo Bills game | FNIA | NFL on NBC

Drake Maye coming out of his shell for Patriots ahead of Buffalo Bills game | FNIA | NFL on NBC

Let’s keep it in the division. The Patriots. The Patriots. Rodney, I want to play a clip because you were really adamant about Will Campbell and the pre-draft process. Don’t get caught up in Travis Hunter. Don’t get caught up in this, that, and the other. Take a tackle and Will Campbell. Let’s roll the clip. Here was Rodney. Rodney goes Will Campbell instead of Travis Hunter, which that’s something that’s been heavily debated. Real quick, can we talk about that real quick? Yes. If I’m Mike Brael, okay, it’s easy to go out and get Travis Hunter and and you know, and and now you try to decide, is he a wide receiver? Is he a corner? But when you go get Will Campbell, you know what he is. He’s your left tackle. He’s going to grow with um your young quarterback and he’s a he’s to me, he’s the best. Him and Calvin Banks are the two best left tackles in all of football. So, you get a young guy like that, you have your protection, and I I it’s it’s more about need at this point. You need offensive linemen. You need a guy that’s going to come in and set the tone for your locker room. And what better way to get a young stud like Will Campbell. Wow. I mean, what what a great take. But how many shirts does Rodney own? Is that that’s a safe shirt? Well, I do I do have to give Rodney his props. So, I disagreed on that. I’m always Let’s take the weapon. Let’s take the guy who can score points for us. But this was a good move for the Patriots and it could show up on Sunday night because this is the way you need to play Buffalo. You need to go after him and I think the mentality that Mike Vrabel has instituted there is paying off. Rod, yeah, he wanted Will Campbell wanted to be a Patriot. He wanted and I just felt like he was the right guy. He’s got a nastiness to him. He’s a finisher, you know, and and just from a athletic standpoint, they talk about his short arms and short arms. And I don’t know the difference between short and long arms, but at the end of the day, I I thought he was a really good player that wanted to be in New England, and I thought that he would be a great fit to to grow with Drake May, and it’s it’s been pretty solid thus far. Yep. Saw him on the old rookie team this week. didn’t allow a single pressure in that game last week. And so it’s just a game-changing thing. And we saw Joe Alt provide that kind of protection for Herbert as a young guy. And it changes the way he plays quarterback. He looked phenomenal. And then you saw Alt get hurt this past week and everything looked different. And so that’s the value of that. I see it nodding your head there, coach. Yeah. No, Justin Herbert looked like a different quarterback in the second half of that Giants game than we had seen in the first three weeks. And uh I think Drake May is playing with very very uh much confidence right now. Absolutely. Coach, you talk about Drake May and you starting to see him come out of his shell. Mike Vrabel wanted him to be more of a leader. And you start to see him, he’s doing the Cam Newton thing. He’s smiling. He’s laughing. He’s directing traffic. He’s bumping heads like Tom used to do with his guys. So I love the fact that he’s coming out of his shell. And when he’s when you come out of your shell as a quarterback, the players embrace that because especially with this dude, he’s a good kid. So when he comes out of his shell, the prayer the players embrace it. They want they want him to play well. They want him to do well. And man, it it’s it’s been fun to watch. So now the question is, can they hang with Buffalo? I mean, that’s that’s the next obvious question. You know, you play in that division, the rest of the team’s not great. Miami, they look a little bit better. The Jets, you know, they’re they’re struggling this year. Can you go hang with Buffalo? What do you think, Rody? Hang. Yeah, they can hang with them. And and the Patriots don’t have a lot of superstar players on the offensive side of the ball. Stefon Diggs probably being the biggest name, but they have two really good outstanding tight ends that are big. They have three really good running backs. Um, the offensive line has been playing solid. I think Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator, he’s done a really good job of doing a lot of the things that Drake May likes to do, moving the pocket, getting them outside the pocket and and allowing him to throw the ball down the field. And if if that’s not open, then Drake has been pretty smart. He’s dumping the ball off to a tight end or running back. So, I like where he’s headed, coach. Yeah. And I think they’ve got the perfect formula for this game. We were in Buffalo week one. We talked to the Baltimore Ravens. What’s your plan going to be? run the ball downhill at these guys. They’ve got some downhill runners. Braandre Stevenson, you know, hang on to the football, but you can power it. You can run against these guys. And then when you get them where they have to defend that now, you take some playaction shots. You go one-on-one, get digs there. Don’t put it all on the passing game. Don’t put it all on the pass protection, but you can I think they have a good formula to move the ball on these guys, Rod. And and defensively, I mean, Milton Williams, he looks as good as advertised. The secondary has kind of been a little up and down. Guys are starting to get healthy, but the Patriots and Mike, just the mindset of Mike Vrabel, they’re going to go in there. They’re going to compete. It’s it’s going to be a a lot more competitive than what people think. They’re not just going to blow the Patriots out. Now, it’s tough to stop Buffalo’s offense, but hey, if we’ve got the mindset, we’re going to shorten the game, long drives, possess the ball, and the other thing the Patriots have, special teams. Okay, we’ve seen special teams make a difference all through this first month. And um they’ve got the return game that is on fire right now. You can get a big play that way, too, and help your offense. It’s true. If you’re Bill’s mafia, man, it’s pretty sweet to have two prime time games at home in the first five weeks of the season. Obviously, that first one in week one, it looked like they might lose the Ravens by 10 points. And then the last three minutes or so of that game, the comeback, and what it’s been just to spark and spring this team into this 2025 season, beating Baltimore. And now here they are again with the Patriots. Rod, are you going to pick the Patriots? I mean, you’re you’re a little high on them, but are you high enough to pick them? Probably not. Probably not. I probably not. Who knows? When I get there, you know, the motion talking to some of the players and coaches and things like that, but at the end of the day, they got to be able to stop Josh Allen. And we seen last week Josh Allen completely take over the game. When he wants to take over the game, he takes over the game. And it’s it’s really difficult to stop him. The offensive line, they believe in him. He’s got a host of weapons. Keon Coleman has gotten a lot better from last year. He’s playing with um extreme confidence. So, I coach, I don’t know who you’re picking, but I would say right now I’m kind of leaning toward the Buffalo Bills, real talk. And no, no, logic tells you Buffalo, but let’s look at their home games. Opening night, they’re down. Should lose the game to Baltimore. Okay. last week. New Orleans is not a great team and they’re right there with a chance in the fourth quarter before, as Rodney says, Josh Allen takes over. But I think the Patriots have a better team than the Saints and the Saints had some chances. So, um I think logic tells you that Buffalo, but it’s it’s not going to be a blowout. It’s going to be there. I certainly didn’t have uh Dallas scoring 40 points on Green Bay last week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True. Josh Allen takes over games right now to me in a unique way. Like I I look at all the quarterbacks in the league. He is a little different to me right now. Like I feel like he’s the best player in the world. Would anybody a agree to disagree or agree to agree to that? Go ahead. 1%. I was just thinking that as you were talking about I said this guy’s the best player on the planet. Period. I just I hadn’t seen anything better than Josh Allen. two, three years ago, he is making plays, making those highlight reel plays, but then the bad turnover, the bad throw, he’s eliminated those. And as Rodney said, I think he’s a little more patient. I’m going to let my other guys do it until they really need me and then I’ll step up, but not turning the ball over with the ability to make those plays. I agree with you. Yep. He’s a problem. We’re gonna get to see a problem in person one more time. I can’t wait to see you guys in Buffalo. We are going back to New York and it’s that other part of New York. We’ll see you guys in Buffalo. No going in October and not not January. That’s true. It’s actually pretty sweet when you think about it. FNIA podcast, we are out. See you on the field in Buffalo. Great seeing you guys. [Music] Hi, I’m Mike Trico and thanks for watching. Make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from NBC Sports.

Jac Collinsworth, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison preview Sunday Night Football’s game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots, highlighting Will Campbell, Drake Maye and Buffalo’s run defense as keys. #NFL #FNIA #NBCSports
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Drake Maye coming out of his shell for Patriots ahead of Buffalo Bills game | FNIA | NFL on NBC
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