Good morning. Here are your Patriots news and notes for May 19. The Patriots’ schedule was released and it is a daunting one, especially in the first quarter plus of the season.
The Patriots open the season on the road at Cincinnati, come home against Seattle, then travel to New York for a Thursday night game against the Jets, followed by another road game in San Francisco.
It doesn’t get any easier from there with home games against Miami and Houston before the team jets off to London to face the Jaguars. Interestingly enough, the Patriots do not have a bye following the trip to London, which is the norm.
However, the team should arrive back in Providence close to the end of the Sunday Night Football game, due to the time change. So, that may have played into that decision. The Patriots’ bye week comes later in the season.
One game that is circled in my book is the Week 10 matchup with the Bears on November 10. I would expect that we’ll see rookie QBs Caleb Williams and Drake Maye face off against one another for the first time. Hopefully, it will be the first of many of these matchups.
The scheduling this season is curious in that the team will be finished with the Jets before Halloween and then close out the season with two games against the Bills in the last three weeks.
“My Boy Is Wicked Smaht” :
The NFL release of the 2024 schedule was accompanied by videos from all the teams, all of which were different, most of which were excellent. As for the Patriots, they took a page from Hollywood with a parody of the film, “Good Will Hunting.” Julian Edelman played the Matt Damon role, Rob Gronkowski played the Ben Affleck part, while Ernie Adams reprised the Robin Williams role.
It was fantastic and funny. If you haven’t seen it yet, or just want to start off your morning right, check it out here. My favorite parts were the “How you like them apples” bit with Edelman and Gronk talking trash to Evan Lazar, who has a cameo in a couple of scenes. And of course the Ernie Adams’ bit at the end where Edelman slips in a folder labeled “Pink Stripes” under Adams’ door.
“Son of b***h, stole my line,” Adams says. Awesome.
The behind the scenes film was also outstanding. The filmmakers even threw in a part in the end from “The Town,” which was a great way to end the film. An SUV pulls up in the Gillette Stadium parking lot and David Andrews, Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas, and Marcus Jones pile out wearing nun costumes as if they just finished robbing a bank, that was in the Affleck film. They glance over at a cop drinking Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, where the cop deadpans, that they’re in the wrong film.
Some of my favorites from other teams are the Ravens, where a fan uses the team credit card to get tattoos, drinks, etc. instead of delivering the schedule.
The Steelers’ players had a challenge to make former Steeler James Harrison laugh and get a sneak peak at the schedule. The jokes were terrible, however, the best part of the video was from Safety DeShon Elliott got sidetracked while Harrison gave him the stare, Elliott said, “Can you all get me some better questions — this man is scaring the hell out of me.”
The Next Phase of OTAs Begin Tomorrow:
The next phase of team building is set to start. The Patriots begin the next phase of OTAs on May 20-21, 23, and then May 29-31. That is followed by June 3-4, and 6-7, before mandatory minicamp from June 11-13.
Teams can conduct up to 10 OTAs with no live contact or team offense against team defense are allowed in Phase II. On-field work will consist of individual and group instruction and drills. Phase III of OTAs allows for 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills, but again there is no live contact allowed until the fourth day of training camp, as per NFL rules.
Quick Hitters For the Patriots and NFL News:
David Andrews: The team signed the Patriots’ offensive tackle to an extension that will run through the 2025 NFL season, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. Andrews’ contract was set to expire after this season, but he will now receive up to $13 million over the next two seasons, with $8 million guaranteed.
Andrews is one of the core veterans on the roster who will be leaned heavily on with a new coaching regime of Jerod Mayo in place. He is well-respected both on the field and in the locker room.
Drew Bledsoe: Bledsoe appeared on the Kay Adams podcast and gave solid reviews of new Patriots Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Asked about AVP, Bledsoe spoke from personal experience.
“One thing that [Drake Maye] has that’s very significant going for him is Alex Van Pelt,” Bledsoe said. “We were together in Buffalo for a few years… Alex was, from a backup standpoint, the one that had the best football mind, and he also has just this incredibly calm demeanor.
“He played quarterback for a decade, and he’s six-foot and chubby, so obviously he had to win with his brain. I really think that Alex is one of those really special quarterback whisperer kind of dudes that’s really going to help him.”
Bledsoe added, “[Van Pelt] is a great guy and a really brilliant football mind and I believe he’ll find a way — even with the limited weapons that they have — he’ll find a way to get them moving,” Bledsoe said.
Patriots 4th & 2 Podcast: This past week, we discussed the latest news from Foxboro in our PatsFans.com podcast.
Derek Havens interviewed Mike Dussault from Patriots.com and Patriots Unfiltered on the pod. Mike, Derek, I, and others were all starting covering the Patriots at about the same time, and go way back. Unfortunately, I missed that one as I had food poisoning….yuck.
Later, Derek and I did a breakdown of the schedule in a short 30 minute pod.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t in is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed the game with how teams used the tight end position. This will be discussed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
Area 51 News: Jacoby Brissett Is A Key Cog For New England—
The Patriots drafted Drake Maye with the 3rd overall pick in the NFL draft. He is the future, but a big part of the present and the near future is Jacoby Brissett. Not only is he expected to push Maye, Bailey Zappe, and Joe Milton for the starter job as the Patriots starting QB, he’s supposed to be a mentor for the other QBs.
But to Brissett, he isn’t just interested in mentoring QBs but every young player on the roster. Brissett is a rarity in the NFL, among quarterbacks. He’s perfectly willing to mentor a young gun (in this case Maye) to take his job. He actually met Maye before he was drafted. The two were golfing with a mutual friend, Sam Howell, who was Brissett’s teammate in Washington, and was a teammate of Maye’s at North Carolina.
He’s been a fireman pretty much everywhere he’s gone since he was a rookie, taking over in a pinch. As a rookie, with Tom Brady’s suspension, then Jimmy G. went down with an injury and he stepped up and started two games. He went to Indy after Andrew Luck retired. In 2022, he played well for Van Pelt in Cleveland, which probably had a significant role in the Patriots decision to bring him back.
Is Brissett an All-Pro QB who can carry a team to the promised land? No, but he’s a very good backup/spot starter who has his fundamentals down pat and gets the absolute most out of his talent. The team should plan on keeping him around after the 2024 season to be a veteran presence for Maye. I think of him similar to Brian Hoyer, but with a better toolbox to play the position.
“I was 22, 23 years old. I was a kid in a candy store. Excited to be drafted and playing behind the greatest quarterback of all time and for the greatest coach of all time,” Brissett said, in his first media session since coming back to the Patriots. “You still feel that same feeling I felt when I was 23 walking into the building again.”
Asked if there would be any awkwardness in competing with Maye while expected to mentor him at the same time, Brissett’s selflessness came through.
“I have no ego in this. … Whatever is going to happen for me is going to happen.”
“I’m a teammate first,” Brissett added. “I hope I can be a good teammate to not only him but everyone on this team.”
The Patriots knew who and what they were getting in Brissett when they signed him to be the bridge QB/mentor for their soon to be drafted QB this year. Its a job he’s perfectly prepared for. He is no longer that giddy 22-23-year old rookie he was back then. Given the overall play of the quarterbacks in 2023, had Brissett been already back on the team, and so many one-score losses, the team’s record may not have been half as bad.
Now at 31, he’s one of the established veterans on the team and will do his utmost to help the team and his young fellow QBs. With three of the first four games on the road, and facing a bunch of teams with Super Bowl aspirations, they may need him to put out a few more fires in 2024.
The signing of Brissett earlier in the spring didn’t move many of the needles across the NFL landscape. But for this team, right now, it may have been just what the doctor ordered, giving Maye time to get ready. Brissett is prepared for that… it has been a fact he’s aware of and will continue to help Maye on his rookie journey.
Parting Shots:
Harrison Butker’s commencement address certainly stirred a hornet’s nest on social media. His personal pages mostly pics of him at games and Bible passages, because of his deep-seated Catholic faith, are now be deluged with hateful comments.
However the Chiefs and the NFL are distancing themselves from his comments. No surprise there. The funny thing was many in the audience at the commencement booed, while others rose to give a standing ovation. So, the reaction was kind of a microcosm of what is happening in this country.
Something tells me that the KC kicker will be getting a lot more media attention at minicamp and training camp this year.
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““I’m excited to work with him,” Brissett said of Drake Maye. “He’s 21 and I was 22 (when I first came to the Patriots), I remember following Tom around. (Maye) is already texting me about plays and how I think about this and cadence — all the little nuances of playing at this level.”
Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett on being a mentor for Drake Maye
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” Bill Belichick
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A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)
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