Julian Edelman on Mike Vrabel’s impact on New England Patriots | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd

Julian Edelman on Mike Vrabel’s impact on New England Patriots | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd

Welcome to the Herd’s official YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Coward podcast, all of our NFL instant reactions, and more football content. And with that, Julian Edelman is now joining us live. Julian, you had a you have a relationship with Mike Vrabel, who is a little bit like Harbaugh that he’s very intense. He’s kind of physically intimidating. How, you know, this was the worst defense in the league 20 games ago. Now it’s the best. How do certain coaches, forget the playbook, how do you change a culture like Harbaugh’s done? I think you lean on fundamentals. They be they’re fundamentally sound. Tackling, blocking. I remember Bellich always used to say, “This game comes down to two things. Blocking and tackling.” If if you can get those things tackle in the open field when you’re in a zone coverage, which you see a lot of teams miss those tackles that turn into 30 yard explosive plays, if you can get fundamentals down, not turn the ball over, not beat yourself with pre- snap penalties. Uh that’s how you change a culture right away. Not with all the talking, not with this, not it’s it’s with the actions that they they’re showing that they’re doing. I mean that what are they? They they’re I think zero in the turnover margin or they may be plus one in the turnover margin. They haven’t thrown any picks. They haven’t had many turnovers. They’re starting to get production out of their, you know, first round draft pick a couple years, Quinton Johnson, which is I think the huge difference maker. Um so they’ve looked very good and I think when when a coach comes in and establishes that if he wants to be a tough football team, tough football teams don’t beat themselves. You know, uh, if you go look at that last iteration of the Patriots with Gronk, you and Tom, Randy Moss was gone. You were not a big over-the-top offense. Um, and I watched Philadelphia and AJ Brown just doesn’t get looks. And my takeaway is that’s not who they are. Like your Patriot teams, it’s built on third down, efficient quarterback play. You don’t have the quarterback throwing 42 times. And I I almost feel like when you play the Eagles, it’s demoralizing because there is very little there. And if you go back to your New England teams, those last couple, the one that beat Atlanta, you were not an over-the-top offense. Philadelphia has got AJ Brown, but they don’t really throw it deep very often. when you when that’s not part of your offense, did you ever look at it as a weakness or did you look at it like, hey, 0 to 15 yards, we’re the best offense in the league. We just don’t throw it over that. Um, I think that’s a loaded question. Um, AJ Brown, if you take him out of the equation, then you condense the field. Then they don’t have to think about the deep target. Then the one time they do get that one matchup, that one-on-one matchup on the outside where he gets an explosion play that that that’s tough to do when you don’t have him out there. They’re kind of like a military man. They have air air support and they have land ground support. You know, right now they don’t have to use their air force. Uh that’s how they’re built because their team is built so well. They’re a complimentary football team and they do what’s best to win the game. They don’t really care about numbers, statistics, which was very similar to us. the ultimate statistic is the winning loss column. And you know, if they can have the mental toughness where guys can understand that role, they’re going to be unstoppable because there’s going to be a time where someone is taking out their run game. Someone’s keying out on Saquon and Jaylen and they may have a little new wrinkle and they’re going to have to lean on that pass game and win outside the numbers. And AJ Brown’s probably top five at doing that. So, there’s going to be a time where they’re going to need him. They just got to keep him happy. So I listen the Bengals don’t have a run game. The offense is very predicated on Joe Burl throwing the ball down the field. But I said there is a skill Eli Manning, Tom Brady, Mahomes in not getting hurt. It’s not all happens to Justin Fields by the way he gets banged up a lot. Brock Pury gets banged up a lot and I look at Joe Burrow and he is one of those guys he sits there for the last second and go back to Tom. Tom, if when you consider how long Tom played, I’m sure he was banged up from time to time. But one of the biggest injuries he ever suffered was ripping his hand before a game because it got caught in a helmet. I don’t remember Tom getting blindsided very often. Did Tom talk about and practice avoiding the sacks and avoiding injury? Well, those are the injuries that you knew about. Tom, I mean, Tom played through some stuff that he just wouldn’t, which I don’t know if that’s legal or not, but there was times where he had a broken foot, no one knew about it that he played with broken ribs. He just didn’t really publicize it. But I tell you one thing that Tom always did, he always thought about his body. He thought about that in his preparation. He had his little he had Alex Guerrero around him 24/7. So if he’s precon like he if he’s subconsciously thinking about this all the time it translates into your game there. You know when when Burrow got hurt you that that’s you kind of double back and you’re going in there’s people on the ground. I mean those are those are high-risk areas to be in. I don’t I think Tom just didn’t put himself in those situations unless it was like something he had to do. I think a lot of this also has to come down to how their team is constructed. Uh, everyone knows they got to throw the ball vertically to win. They don’t have a defense that’s going to get them turnovers. They have zero run game. So, there’s a builtup pressure for Joe Burrow to have to make plays. Uh, and and it’s something that we’ve seen him be able to do, but they haven’t been able to game win games and they haven’t been able to stay healthy. I think they have to fundamentally kind of change their team because this is what we’re we’re starting to see in his career is that he, you know, Joe’s getting hurt. Uh, how does Joe not get hurt? Hit him less. Give the ball to other people more. Get the ball out of his hands. So, I think they really have a fundamental problem with how their team’s made. I said when it comes to young quarterbacks, some of it is the eye test. I watch JJ McCarthy, he looks overwhelmed. I watch Caleb Williams and he’s more of an ad liber and Ben Johnson’s more on script and structure. Sometimes I look at stuff and go, “Oh, that doesn’t feel like it works.” When you look at Caleb and the Bears, obviously their defense stunk against Detroit, but I do feel like the coach has a system and he didn’t draft Caleb and Caleb doesn’t really work for the system. Josh and Tom, I mean, they were both get it out quick. I remember the Charger playoff game when Bose is like, “Dude, I I can’t even get to you. The ball’s out so fast.” I don’t know if Caleb is built to play like that. Is it possible he’s not? I think it’s way too early to tell. Uh we got to take in consideration this is his second system out of out of college in his second year. Uh we all know that Ben Johnson has a very verbal offense that is very operationdriven that you know has two plays in the play call and he’s missing these wide openen throws because his mind is racing. He’s not really comfortable quite yet with the operation of this offense. Look last year at Bo Nicks with his first year with Shawn Peyton. They look like a disaster the first couple weeks of the season, right? That’s because Shawn has, you know, a complex system. There’s a certain way of doing it things. You got to kind of beat the the the backyard football out of the young guys, which takes little time. And and we got to recalibrate that this is kind of Caleb’s rookie season. It’s a completely different offense schematically, verbiage, everything that he was going from last year, which was completely different what he was doing the year before. So, there’s times where this offense has looked competent. I I don’t I don’t remember any time last year the offense looking competent. So, that’s a plus. You know what I mean? They they’ve done better in certain situations. There’s been improvement. They just got to continue this and remember that he’s, you know, he’s going into his rookie year with this is a rookie year, you know, with a new offense. So, it’s going to take some time to get, you know, the the verbal communication in. I mean, Ben Johnson, I I guarantee probably gives two play calls every time you come in. You got to communicate the play. You got to communicate the personnel group. You got to get to the line of scrimmage. take a pre-nap read, get look at the front, look at the coverage, make sure all your guys are assigned, then go get the right play called according to what you’re seeing in the pre-nap read, which which can completely change in the postnap read. That’s a lot of stuff for a young guy, which you know that he’s getting taught that. So, you know, you can compare Caleb’s first time to all the other guys that Ben Johnson had for the first time. Jared Goff, Jared Goff was in the same system with with Shawn McVey, that’s the same verbiage as Ben Johnson’s stuff. So it’s not the same kind of comparison. He had, you know, three, four years under his belt in a similar system going to Ben Johnson who, you know, did that. So I think it’s a a combination of both Ben Johnson learning Caleb on what he does well and what he doesn’t do well and and trying to get those things out and and and Caleb trying to learn this system. I mean, it takes time. Yeah. Yeah. I I thought um I thought it was actually a big win for the Patriots. They got a special teams touchdown. Um, it was a it was a go back and forth game. They made a huge defensive play late. I still think they need juice on the outside. I think they’re kind of a limited offense, but I got to tell you when I watched it, Drake May didn’t make any mistakes, big special teams play, big defensive play. Like it this may not have been a big win for a for a Edelman Brady Gronk team, but Miamiy’s always been a tough spot. And I came out of that game and I thought, “Oh, that was an easy loss. You could have lost that game so easily.” I was kind of impressed with it. You I’m I was really impressed with it. It’s division opponent that has had continuity for a long time and even a bra a Brady Gronk Edelman team struggled playing in Miami in that heat in September and they went and got it done. They look like a better shaped team uh more fundamentally sound football team. If you look at some of their stats, what the first week on third down against the Raiders, they were four and 14 on third down. They were one for three in the red area. this last week. I think they’re seven for 12 in third down. They’re three for four in the red area. So, that’s improvement. They only punted twice. They had a couple pre- snap penalties that they got to get fixed, but that’ll come. They look like similar to what I was saying with the the Bears who didn’t have any competency the year before. They look like an offense that’s getting better, that’s learning each other. There’s guys making plays, and this is the early part of the year for everyone. So, you know, not anyone who hasn’t been together is going to look like they’re a pro football team, especially with the CBA and how these guys are supposed to practice. This is going to take some time on learning your team. There’s not really, it’s really hard for these guys to prepare for other teams. There’s not a lot of film to learn what these wrinkles are. Once these things start getting adjusted and settled, they’re going to be able to coach from these things and get better. So, you’re you’re already seeing improvement. They got a lot more to do, but it’s awesome to see that they got a divisional win. Yeah. By the way, again, early September, it’s a it can be hot. Northern teams going down to hot. We lost there a bunch. Yeah. Uh Julian, as always, uh games with names. New episode every Tuesday. He’s sitting in his studio now. Sunday’s on Fox NFL Kickoff. But I appreciate you stopping by. No problem. I’ll see you guys. All right.

Colin Cowherd is joined by New England Patriots legend Julian Edelman to discuss the NFL’s Week 2. They start with the Los Angeles Chargers and the impact Jim Harbaugh has had on them. Next they discuss whether Philadelphia Eagles should move off A.J. Brown so he can join an offense that would use him more. Is Joe Burrow partially to blame for another injury? How did Tom Brady and the New England Patriots avoid injuries that have plagued the Cincinnati Bengals? Is Caleb Williams just a bad fit for Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears? Under coach Mike Vrabel, how far can the New England Patriots go this season?

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