Is the Drake Maye hype out of control? Tom E. Curran joins the show | Jones & Keefe

Is the Drake Maye hype out of control? Tom E. Curran joins the show | Jones & Keefe

But not only is it a tears Tuesday, it is also a Tom E Tuesday. He joins us at high noon every Tuesday. Tommy Curran from NBC Sports Boston. He’s brought to you by your New England Chevy dealers. Together, let’s drive. Tommy Curran, what’s going on this week? Hey, how are my buddies doing today? Doing great. We’re doing very, very well. Uh you referred to the victory, Tom, on TV uh over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football as a double jump forward for the Pats. What did you mean by that? Well, it wasn’t just the moral victory that people hoped for, but it also was a concrete victory. And the way in which they landed it was not one in which they profited extremely from the things that Buffalo did wrong. For instance, the first fumble, they gave it right back. The Patriots had to grind for that win and they had to make plays down the stretch. And you know, when we talked last week, I talked about Drake May’s dark side where he still does have a propensity despite everything that he’s doing so well for making plays at inopportune times that you look at and say, “Why in God’s name would you do that?” And he needed to exercise those demons. They’re not gone forever. But on this night, you got concrete proof that he can go on the road against a good team and at the end of the game secure a win. And that to me is um like I said, a double jump forward. You can’t take it away. They’ve beaten a good team on the road. They didn’t come close to doing it. They didn’t put, you know, the fear of God into the Buffalo Bills. They beat them. So to me, concrete evidence that they don’t walk away and say, “Well, if this happened or if that happened, we would have won the game.” They won the game. So they now know whether it’s playing badly against Pittsburgh and saying, “We should have won.” whether it’s playing perfectly against Carolina and blowing them out and now to go on the road and not play perfectly but still play resiliently and smartly at the end and responsibly. That’s what Drake May was. That’s it’s they they planted their flag on a summit that I didn’t think that they would. Well, you know, and kind of in that same vein, I I was optimistic about Steph Diggs going into the season, but I’m not sure I knew he had that kind of game still in him. What What was your impression of Steph Diggs uh in the game on Sunday? Obviously, super motivated against his former team and then also if he can kind of keep that momentum going forward. I was optimistic, too. You know, I figured he’d be a 55 to 60 800 yard receiver for them. I didn’t think that he was going to approach, you know, 80 and a thousand and forget about the projections. But to me, I thought that a Josh McDaniels offense and May in his second year would be more distributed, if that’s even a word. Sure. Um, but he’s come to say, you know what, he’s really good and when the poop starts to hit the fan, I’m going to try and seek him out because he’s got a better understanding of where to go against defenses than anybody else. I mean, as he’s rolling out, and that was the only guy on that side of the field, but as he’s rolling out and directing Diggs, Diggs has the acumen to I mean, he ran a freaking infinity sign to get open. Awesome. Curling around. Yeah. And and May does have the ability to make that throw. I just think that that Diggs presence has lifted May’s confidence, too. May Diggs and Hunter Henry, those three together, I think the confidence level is, you know, re right now through the roof. Uh, this segus nicely into my next question. What do you think’s been a bigger difference for Drake May in year two? Is it the presence of Josh McDaniels or is it the presence of Steph Diggs? And I understand it’s probably a combination of the two, but if you had to lean one way or the other, which one is the bigger impact on Drake in year two? I think it’s McDaniels just because he’s given him the tools at the line of scrimmage and he’s given him the tools in practices and he’s given him the latitude to be himself. You remember after that first preseason game when he had the strip sack with Will Campbell near him and he tried to throw it at the last second, didn’t get out of his hand. Couple days later, we talked to McDaniels and we said, “How do you get that out of him where he’s trying to make a play when there’s no play to be made?” and he said, ‘Well, to me, I cannot reign him in because, and he referred back to a play that you guys might have been there for earlier in the week where he scrambled, scrambled, scrambled during training camp and found Deario Douglas downfield for, you know, a 50-yard game, similar kind of to the bigs throw the other night. And he said, “If I reign him in and say, don’t do those things, then I’m going to forfeit the opportunity for him to make big plays.” So, I think that McDaniel’s offense, the confidence that May has at the line of scrimmage and the latitude that McDaniels has given him, that May has earned, um, means that he can go ahead and say, you know what, I I see Diggs on this play. I’m going to Digs. Yeah, I’m going to Diggs again. Diggs is covered. I don’t care. He’s going to catch it. I’m going to him again. So, I think that they work in concert. Uh, what do you do with the backfield at this point? Antonio Gibson out for the season, unfortunately, with the ACL injury. uh Trayvon Henderson who was great during camp has not really shown much of it here in the regular season and then obviously Raandre Stevenson with yet another fumble. So Rabbel’s clearly sticking by Stevenson at least to this point. I don’t know how much of it in the game on Sunday was just because he was forced to versus he’s just going to keep trottting them out there. But it seems like what could have been a strength of the team is now probably the worst position group on offense uh just five weeks into the season. Yeah, it’s amazing. and you have your your lead back is semi unusable until he proves otherwise and what I thought was a 1A type lead back and Gibson is done. So now you’re down to a rookie and a half and I I think Trayvon Henderson is going to get more carries. I think that they will continue to entrust Stevenson. We’ve talked about it. We’ll talk about it again. These are preventable fumbles. I mean they they all happen when he’s going to the ground. They all happen in the last, you know, when he goes from 45 degrees to the ground to on it when the ball gets exposed and he doesn’t have it covered sufficiently. So, it’s it just seems so preventable that it should have been by now, but I guess you just keep working at it because you do need him. He is a good player and we saw it against Miami. So, you know, just keep banging your head against the wall until he gets it. Talking to Tommy E Curran on a Tommy Tuesday. You can check out his work at Tom Ecur on Twitter. You can uh read his stuff. NBC Sports Boston. See him all over NBC Sports Boston. Uh every Tuesday, Tom, we get to this week’s Drake take from Tommy E Curran. It’s presented by your New England Chevy dealers. Together, let’s drive. Uh what is Drake May right now in the NFL? Greg Olsen said he looked like he might be the best quarterback in the league. Uh metrics have him in the top five, top 10. What what is Drake May to you right now five weeks into year two? He really changed the geometry the other night or the math or whatever the even even the English around him because you can look at him now as I was trying to split hairs between is he a quarterback or is he a passer and I was saying he’s already a top 10 passer but the quarterbacking and the decision-m has to be better and his situational awareness but that’s coming. It’s amazing to look back at April of 2024 when Alex Vampelt was here and basically stripping it down to showing him how to come back from center to where he is now. It is absolutely remarkable his improvement. It was remarkable last year. So, I would say he’s certainly in the conversation of the top dozen quarterbacks and if Jaden Daniels was a top 10 quarterback last year based upon what he did, I I think May could end up certainly in that same conversation. he’s playing like one of the five best quarterbacks in the league. How do you think uh the view of the team has sort of changed as it relates to like, you know, playoffs or just expectations when you look at it five weeks in, Joe Burrow’s out for the year, uh Baltimore’s got a losing record, Kansas City has a losing record, and the Patriots just beat the lone unbeaten team on on Sunday night. Expectations now changing for for everybody? I just wrote a column. They could and they almost should in a vacuum be 10 and three by the time they get to their buy. The only team that they should lose to on paper in a vacuum is Tampa. They should be able to beat Atlanta at home. They should be able to take care of business against all those other teams, the Giants, the Titans, the Browns, the Jets. So yeah, I think that to me national perception is different. And when you look at the AFC in general, you have a newish head coach and a rookie quarterback last year in Bo Knicks in Denver. That team just beat Philadelphia on the road and it only had two narrow losses previously to good teams. But Colts with Daniel Jones, I mean, they’re they’re moving up. The Jaguars are four- one. They’re they’re uh their wins and and their loss have been fairly impressive losses, too. Close ones. So, I don’t know if it’s yet a changing of the guard, but I don’t know if Baltimore is going to resurrect itself or if Cincinnati can. So, I think the AFC East landscape is or is poised to change in one cell. Buffalo is still the best team with the best quarterback regardless of what happened Sunday, but I do think that the AFC landscape has drastically changed. You covered the Patriots dynasty up close. Uh you’re watching the Chiefs from afar like we are. Uh I don’t know what sort of challenges do you think they’re seeing here this season two and three start difficult loss last night and what do you expect out of the Chiefs and what you describe as a wide openen AFC? I think that the Chiefs will do what the Patriots did when they had early season struggles. They’ll just find it the way that they always have. um you know their talent level isn’t as strong obviously especially at the you know skill positions with Kelsey aging and you’re turning to Taekquin Borton as one of your main guys. Um but they’ll find it but you know Denver’s a good team. I mean it’s going to be a fight to win the division. So is Kansas City dropping down to a wild card situation now? Patriots really didn’t have to confront that during all their travails in September and October before they got themselves right. he was still going to win the division. So it it is different for Kansas City right now. Um were it not for a 99 yard interception return? You know, does the game end up differently if they touch down Trevor Lawrence on that last play when he scored? Does it turn out different? So it’s not panic. I wouldn’t think in Kansas City. They’ll probably there’s a level of it within their media and fan base, but I I would imagine they’ll they’ll be fine relatively. You know, I don’t know if uh if Bill Belch will be fine or I don’t know how much you watched the North Carolina Clemson game over the weekend didn’t go his way and it just seems to be really falling apart. Maybe even more so than I I certainly thought. I thought they’d be a little bit better than they were last year, they being North Carolina. But, uh it’s been a mess. They’ve gotten blown out a bunch of times and it doesn’t really look like things are are turning around. What what’s your prediction for the future there? Is this in your mind a one and done? That’s kind of what I think. I think I think they’re going to maybe like a mutual parting of the ways or something at the end of the year because this is not working out. Well, what’s apparent to me is he’s losing the parents and there’s a long story uh that I can share with you today. Bill hasn’t done any outreach to parent. It’s different. Look, you don’t have to talk to Tom Brady senior. you kind of do have to talk to the quarterback’s parents and let them know what you’re doing with their 18, 19, or 20-year-old in his future. And when you’re speaking openly about being a team that’s on the recruiting trail and spending time and this is a building year and it’s going to take a lot of years, parents and boosters and people with a stake and people who would otherwise maybe want to transfer in there are going to look at it and say, “That place is in disarray. My kid has a finite amount of time in college. Do I want to send them into chaos regardless of how many Super Bowl rings do Bellichic has? These guys don’t seem to know exactly what they want to do or what they’re doing. So, that to me is one of the biggest aspects of the job that Bill is probably confronting that he thought, well, we’ll win and I won’t have to worry about parents. And that to me is going to and they’re they’re emotional kids. is there’s a schism in the locker room from the report that I read today between the transfer portal guys who’ve come in and the guys who were there. So, it’s a divided locker room as well because there’s preferential treatment um that is being given in the eyes of some to the players that Bill brought in. So, it’s not a good spot. No, no, it’s not. The other piece to it as well beyond just what’s going on at UNCC and I don’t know that I I deep down truly believe in M. Jones or Taekwon Thornton. Uh I don’t but they are playing well. Like M. Jones goes to San Francisco. He’s winning games. Uh Taekquin Thornton looks like a an NFL receiver in Kansas City. So I don’t know. How do you square away some of those guys leaving the bad situation in New England and then thriving elsewhere? Well, in Taekquin Thornton’s case, I think a lot of it was Taekquin Thornton. Um, he just wasn’t a good player. He practiced well, he’d get on the field, he’d get hurt, he’d drop balls, and I think the wide receiver room in general was kind of a mess last year. So, and he kind of acknowledged that he didn’t play well and he didn’t deal well with the criticism. with Mack. He was exiled and, you know, he was put on an island while he was still on the team and nobody thought of him as perhaps being, you know, he’s to a level. If the Patriots had continued on and gone 10 and six, 11 and seven, and 23, and 24 under Bill, the Patriots would right now be confronting a situation where they would have to pay M. Jones owns 50 $60 million a year because that’s what he would have earned. And that would be a tough spot to be in. Um but I I don’t think that they’re regardless of how things went down. I’ve said a bunch of times I think that M. Jones will start and win a playoff game in this league more likely as a backup for some injured starter than him taking a team on his back for 17 games and leading it to the playoffs. But those don’t reflect well on him. The M. Jones situation in particular, and I thought the Sabin commentary last week was really fascinating where Sabin basically called out the misuse of M. Jones up here um on a broadcast. I thought that that was really eye opening um to hear Saden say it as well. But yeah, those are the things that don’t reflect well on Bill coming back to the NFL either. No, I think that’s fair. I’d tell Kendrick Bourne is another one, although I guess that’s that’s somewhat a reflection on this group here since they had him in camp uh this off seasonason. He’s Tommy Curran. Check out his work, Tommy Curran on Twitter. You can check out his latest on NBC Sports Boston. The door is a jar for the Patriots to make the playoff push in a wide open AFC. Tom, we appreciate it. Every Tommy Tuesday. We’ll talk to you next week. All right, guys. Thanks so much. Thanks, Tom. Tommy Curran every Tuesday at high noon here on Jones and Keith. The Mac Jones stuff. He mentioned the saving comments. Yeah, I mean that was a shot at Bill from one of Bill’s best buddies. Surprising. Yeah, it was because you would think he’d maybe go another way even though he might feel that way, but I thought he would defend Belch more than he did. Kind of buried him there. It is funny though that M. Jones and Taquan Thornton like the two guys probably legitimately went to the best places they could go. It’s true. You know, if you’re a receiver playing for Mahomes, if you’re a quarterback playing for Shanahan, you might lose the big game, but you’re gonna look good along the way, you know. So yeah, I don’t know how sustainable it is though for either one. Like I’m not like, “Oh man, those guy” because I think we all saw in real time like M. Jones at best was fine and with good coaching can be fine to good, but you know that he wasn’t it. He wasn’t going to be the guy that really changed the franchise. And then Taekwon Thornton, I think overall, was was just a boss. So I think Mack was one of those guys that was in bad situations in New England relative to coaching. Coaching coaching. Yeah. Who was his head coach? the whole time. Bill, now I’m sure what he really means is Patricia and Judge, but but where’s that come from? Who put those guys in charge? Exactly. Uh, so look, I um I think he’s probably right. Mac’s not going to keep the job over Perty. They just paid Party. Party’s going to get that job. I I would assume, but Max played well instead. Yeah. Yeah. But could Mack be the next Darnold, Daniel Jones, Mayfield? Like Mayfield had to bounce around a lot, you know? Could he be like that level of reclamation project? I I guess I wouldn’t totally rule that out. I don’t believe in him. I was never a fan. Not really a fan of his whole stick on top of it. But all those other guys are so much like more athletic and I think had a higher ceiling from the jump. Baker Mayfield was the number one overall pick in the draft. Daniel Jones was higher picked higher than the point is all those guys is also polar opposite from Matt. Say it again. Baker attitude is polar opposite. No, totally. But th those guys I guess my only point those guys just had to bounce around a ton before they go is another good one. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I guess now Gino’s also done it in a couple of spots, as has Donald, as has Mayfield. I wonder if M. Jones is more like Kyle Shanahan holding his hand and having success. Yeah, cuz I don’t think Brock Pury would be really good anywhere else. We’ll maybe we’ll know, maybe we won’t. I don’t know. But that that’s just sort of my guess is like he’s in the right spot. The only other thing cuz we brought up Taekquin Thornton. Do you see the play the 99 yard pick from Devin Lloyd? Thornton came flying I mean flying out of nowhere. He is fast. 15 yards behind Lloyd on the screen. I don’t even know where he started out on. Yeah. 15 yards back. The guy he catches Lloyd at the 10 and you’re like, “Oh my god, he’s going to knock this. It’s going to be like Demarcado. He’s going to knock this ball out. He’s What a great play by Taekwon Thornton. He runs all that way kind of tries to slap at the football. His teeny tiny wrist. He might have broke his wrist on the football trying to bend it out and then he just bounced off Lloyd. I’m like all the all this burning up the sideline to run this guy down in this great effort. He gave you nothing.” Yeah, exactly. DK not kills people when he’s out there doing it and he’s a bigger guy but my god he ran out of bounds the whole time. It was I mean he he was flying and then he’s like let me cause a fumble and it’s like or just take him down. You could have tackled him. He’s kind of bounced off him and just fell tag. We’re not playing tag. Got him. You’re it. He was he was moving though. Like I I finally saw what Macro was talking about about the speed. I’m watching the highlight now. I did like Patrick Mahomes tackle attempt. He’s going to fill down.

Is the Drake Maye hype out of control? Has the national perception of the Patriots changed? Tom E. Curran joined Adam Jones and Rich Keefe to talk all things Patriots.

#football #nfl #patriots #nflnews #nflopa #nflopaa #nflfootball #nflop #drakemaye #mikevrabel #stefondiggs #newenglandpatriots #footballnews #nflplayoffs

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