Post Going Out Cast - Pats Thoughts/New Woj

Bill Belichick's future with the New England Patriots is uncertain. There are rumors that he may leave the team after this season, and some speculate that he could join another team like the Chargers. However, there are also voices, like comedian Bill Burr, who believe that getting rid of Belichick would not be the best move for the Patriots. The team is currently facing challenges with their roster and quarterback situation, but many still recognize Belichick as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. The Patriots have not yet made a decision on their starting quarterback, with Mac Jones and Brian Hoyer both in the mix. The team's performance and future direction remain unclear. Very interesting times, I got a chance to go to a Robert Kraft party the night before the game and Kraft talked about it, it had been 10 years in the making to get the New England Patriots to be playing a football game in Germany. He emphasized how bad he wanted to win that game and when you watch it, you watch the way the New England Patriots played and you see the Matt Jones interception at the end of the game and then Billy Zappi coming in to finish that game, it kind of gives you a small snapshot of what the Patriots season has been like, I said it on the call when they showed Bill's face at the very end of that game, that's been their season in totality and this is something we haven't seen and it's not just the losses in New England, you think about it, JC Jackson wasn't on the trip because of whatever transpired, miscurfused different things, Jack Jones was just released, a draft pick from a year ago after he had multiple things happen while he's been a part of that organization. It's very fascinating to me because in the past, we watched Randy Moss do a press conference and say things and obviously Randy Moss is a Hall of Famer, he was traded right after that and the New England Patriots don't have the roster where like a JC Jackson can do things and they can just get rid of him because they need him to be out there and to be competing. When you ask is Bill Belichick, what's the future hold, I think obviously he finishes out the season, I don't think Robert Kraft is going to move on from Bill Belichick during the season but I do believe at the end of this season, I do think Bill moves on and I think he's coaching somewhere else. I don't see Bill retiring, I got a chance obviously to talk to him in a production meeting, he loves football, he's telling us old LT stories, he's talking about this team, ways to improve it, I don't see him just saying, you know what, it was a good run, I'm going to finish out this season, top five draft pick, we're not successful and I'm just going to walk into the sunset. I see him wanting to continue to coach. I do think in New England, they blow this thing up at the end of the season and whatever coach they go with, whether it's Gerard Mayo steps up and he takes over and he decides to blow this thing up, I do think at this point, you have to figure out because you look at this roster, there's not a ton of talent and we talked to Matt Jones the day before the game, Matt Jones has had three different offensive coordinators in his third year. He's not throwing to a bunch of first round talent on the outside. We compared him to Tua Tungavailoa who was an Alabama quarterback as well, Tua had multiple coordinators in his first three years, he gets Mike McDaniel back to back years, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Waddle and next thing you're talking about his name in an MVP conversation. I'm not saying that would be Matt Jones if he had that situation, but you do have to understand a quarterback with three different coordinators who won 10 games as his rookie year, that's not a recipe built for success. I think there's so many question marks around everything that's transpired in New England the last few years. You talk about the Patriot way, which everybody brings up and talking to the guys there and actually being in that building, the Patriot way is nothing more than the people that were in that building and them handling themselves and doing things as professionals. We don't have the right people in the building, coaches, players, everybody included, you get losses and every organization goes through that and now we're watching the New England Patriots go through it for the first time in a very long time. Well, there's certainly a lot to unpack there. Jason McCarty not having glowing words for where the Patriots are at, at the moment. Yeah, alright, let's just do levels or something. Alright, so we just heard from Jason McCarty there and clearly his thoughts are the fact that Bill has not done a great job with this roster. I feel like he was talking about the fact that this roster is in flux and it's interesting because he really talked about the fact that Bill's still going to be a great coach, right? And he doesn't see Bill Belichick being in New England next year. Now, there's been a lot of rumors coming out across a lot of Twitter accounts that say that Bill Belichick is going to move on to a different team. Now, the one that I've seen a lot of would be the Chargers, which I've always said makes a lot of sense to me, with Justin Herbert being a great quarterback, they have great talent on offense, and really the thing that's held them back has been coaching this whole time. If they could add a great defensive coach and then add some great pieces, they could be a team that immediately competes for a Super Bowl. Now, again, that's in a very tough division that has Patrick Mahomes sneaking around in it, but I do believe that if they come out with Bill Belichick next year, that's a team that's going to be dangerous immediately. But to me, once again, how do we feel about the fact that there are people that are talking about, oh, our team's going to improve so much with Bill Belichick. Why would we get rid of Bill Belichick if he is actually a really great coach and all these teams want him? I thought there was an interesting quote from Bill Burr. All right, so what do you think of what's happening with the Patriots and Belichick? That whole conversation about him, they're going to fire him, is just scuttlebutt that was invented by the local radio where they were just like, it's just a toy to talk about. In other words, the phone lines aren't lit up. And then it just catches fire and everybody's talking about this. Nobody's talking about who you're going to replace him with. The guy just coached a team for over 20 years. They were the team of the decade two decades in a row. Nobody has ever done that. The second is a little rough water for two seasons. It's like he has to go. He has to go. The whole league ripped off what he did. The whole league has studied him. He's the modern-day Paul Brown. Paul Brown is the only other guy that was that successful. Paul Brown was successful 40s, 50s, and into the 60s before he went upstairs and everything. So most Pat's fans I know are still basking in the glow. If you can remember back to what we were before he came there. I mean, it was horrible. Yeah, it's funny. Do I want to totally agree with Bill Burr? I don't know, but he is speaking I feel like for a good portion of Patriots fans where I don't know that getting rid of Bill is the best option for the team going forward. And that was on the Rich Eisen show. And I feel like Rich kind of was in agreement with him where getting rid of Bill Belichick, I don't know that it helps you in a way. And this is why I don't buy into these rumors of Bill already having somewhere to go like the Commanders or the Chargers. I can't help but feel like Robert Kraft would want to keep him around because he's one of the greatest coaches ever. Now again, do you want to have him be in charge of all player personnel? That's I think really the question that we have to deal with. But I just don't see the Patriots getting rid of Belichick at this point despite all the people that are just trying to make up shit that the Patriots want to get rid of him. Because I completely agree with Bill Burr. Boston Sports Radio just wants to make shit up. That's all they do. And it's hard to listen to sometimes. And that was part of the reason that I wanted to make a podcast on this stuff was I just want to have something that is just legitimate. Now again, these guys have to talk like four hours a day, but they just say so much shit that just isn't true. And you can tell the players all think they're kind of fucking assholes. So the one thing I always want to have this podcast be is just a very legitimate look at what the Patriots actually look like. And there was an interesting Ian Rafferty quote about Mac Jones. Speaking of franchise quarterbacks, I think it remains to be seen if Mac Jones is the franchise guy in New England still to be seen. Is he the starter in New England? Once again was pulled late in the game, actually with the game on the line, against the Colts. Bailey Zafi goes in. Bill Belichick telling reporters yesterday that he has not yet made a decision on his starter, Mac Jones, telling WEI that he has not yet been informed of the decision. So you have Mac Jones, you have Bailey Zafi, who Belichick cut earlier in the year and now is back. You also have Will Greer. Interesting decision when he was in New England. Yeah, so you hear it there that the Patriots really haven't made a decision on their quarterback. There are some reports coming out that Mac Jones took the first team reps in the Tuesday practice, I believe. Now all players have kind of gone on to their breaks because this is the bye week and players have the option to go off and take a vacation basically or you can go back and train in the facility. And I think a lot of Patriots players chose to go on vacation because honestly at this point, why wouldn't you go on vacation, right? I mean, you're getting paid the same amount. Go have a good time. So the interesting part about that quote is clearly the Patriots don't have a good thought process on what quarterback that they want to start. I think they gave Mac those reps because, I mean, that was status quo, right? They gave the guy that's been the starter those first reps. But I can't imagine that the coaching staff has had time to really get together to say, okay, what do we want to do? Because again, they just came back from Germany. I totally get it. I can't imagine we come out of next week and Mac Jones is getting those first team reps. If that is going to be true, I believe that is a massive problem that Robert Kraft needs to address. We need to start somebody else, and we need to see if, again, as I said in the last podcast, are any of these quarterbacks worth a damn? I don't know that they are, and I don't think that they are. But we've got to figure that out. And the only way to figure that out is to let other guys play other than Mac Jones. Now, again, do I think starting Mac Jones could actually lead to them getting a higher pick? Honestly, potentially. But I just want to see these new guys get a chance. That's kind of where the Patriots are at these days. We just need to let Will Greer get a chance, let Zappi get a chance, and, again, maybe Malik at some point get a chance. But, I mean, it's a bad team. We're a very bad team, and we need to lose games. Let's hop into some fantasy talk. I made some trades today. I made some trades, and I felt like they were all kind of well-received, actually. Now, the second trade I made, I guess, sent some waves through the chat, but I felt like I also had the same amount of people kind of come to my aid as far as what trades went down. So, once again, having this platform, I feel the need to kind of talk you guys through what my mindset was when I made these trades. So, first trade I made today was trading for Justin Herbert and Garrett Wilson and getting rid of Devan Achani and DJ Moore. So, obviously, I had a pretty good hunch Joe Burrow was going to be out for the season. I had seen some tweets that really indicated that Joe Burrow was probably going to be gone and that Mark Andrews was going to be gone. My immediate thought was I need to go address the quarterback position and the tight end position. Now, really, my team was pretty running back heavy, as Pat pointed out in the chat. So, I knew I needed to go find whoever had the best two quarterbacks. So, James had CJ Stroud and Justin Herbert. Those two have been two of the best quarterbacks in the league very clearly. Obviously, he came to me with that bullshit first offer in the chat, which made me feel like should I even try to deal with this guy. And then I kind of texted him, and he was the one that came up with this trade. And when I saw it, I really had to think about it. I was like, wow, this actually seems extremely fair for both sides. And I still feel that way where I really didn't lose too many running backs. And losing DJ Moore sucks. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It does. Garrett Wilson has been pretty consistent, but he's not DJ Moore. DJ Moore has the ability to just go the fuck off whenever he does. And, you know, it's funny. I do feel like I upgraded a quarterback regardless, as far as Joe Burrow is concerned, getting Justin Herbert. So, I put that trade through, and I felt good about that. And then I go to Ben. And, you know, really my thought process at this point is Ben and I are in a similar situation. I have two Steelers wide receivers that I never know who the fuck to play if I want to play either of them. And clearly he's been starting DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett after the fleece that Pat put on him. I had Terry McLaurin, who's been very good for me. Very, very good. DK Metcalf obviously has massive upside if he can figure his shit out. So, with Ben having George Kittle, I wanted Jake Ferguson because he's been a guy that's been coming on. And I knew I had to upgrade him somewhere, so I decided Terry would be an upgrade for him just based on consistency. Terry McLaurin's a very consistent player. DK, sure, he has more upside as far as going off, but so does George Pickens. And so, across the board, I felt like that was an even trade. And I'm not Pat Parrott. I don't want to fuck over Ben Gordon. I'm going to his house tomorrow. How could I fuck this poor guy over? So, I made the trade. I felt like it was fair. And now I feel like my team's in a position where we're not going to come in last. All I have to do, really, to not come in last is win one more game. And that's what I feel like I've set my team up to do. Now, the other thing we had happen in our fantasy chat this week is Tom Driscoll, in an awesome thing, has become our Woj. I love this concept. I think this is going to encourage, and I hope that Tom's willing to take this into next year, this is going to encourage so many more trades, which I feel like our league needs. I feel like we don't have enough crazy stuff going on. Really, I mean, the most listened to podcasts I did this year was the Ben Gordon and Pat Parrott trade. I would love to have more of that. I want to have more where I can have you guys on to explain how this trade happened. And having Tom Driscoll be able to report rumors, that's going to be extremely helpful. Because even, I feel like we don't know who has players that, you know what, they're not really feeling anymore. For me, that would be Tee Higgins. Now, again, I don't know if anyone really would ever want Tee Higgins, because I don't know why you would, with Burrow being hurt. But, maybe somebody says, hey, you know what, I'm going to buy the upside on Tee Higgins as a flex player for the rest of this year. I like the fact that Tom is going to be able to report that as fact, to say, hey, this guy's on the trade block. And, again, maybe somebody comes to me and says, hey, I actually am very interested in that player. I think that will be a lot of fun for this league. So, not a great time for the Patriots, obviously. We're on the bye week. We get to watch just red zone all day, which honestly will be kind of nice. I love the fact that we have a trade deadline now. And, I'm so intrigued to see what these next few weeks look like leading up to it. So, Tom, I love you. I hope you have a lot of fun leading up to the trade deadline. But, what I want to bring up is, can we do a live trade deadline at the wire? Now, I know we talked about doing noon on Wednesday, but I feel like a lot of people will probably be working at that time. So, can we switch it to like 8 p.m. on Wednesday, where the only person that can report trades is our Woj, a.k.a. Tom Driscoll. I feel like that would be a lot of fun. So, good night. I love you all. And, I'm going to play a random clip, a.k.a. I'm definitely just playing the Pokemon theme. I want to be the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause. I will travel across the map, searching far and wide. Each Pokemon to understand the power that's inside. And, I know it's my destiny. Oh, you'll have every friend in a world that once was mad. A heart full of truth, a courage that's wonderful. You'll meet me and I'll meet you. Pokemon! Gargantua! Gargantua! Pokemon!