Patriots Daily Notebook 7/10: Diggs Talks Challenge of Pats Offense, Two Key Names on Make List
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Some Patriots news on this Thursday
1) Yahoo.com’s Frank Schwab released his list of “Best draft picks of the past 25 years,” and there were a couple of obvious Patriots who made the list, along with a couple of eyebrow-raising non-Patriot names among the group.
Former tight end Rob Gronkowski came in at #11, with the former 2010 second-round pick (42 overall) certainly being among the top offensive players of all time for New England. As Shwab notes, the former standout at Arizona slipped primarily due to a back injury that saw him undergo surgery, opening the door for the Patriots to grab him in the second round that offseason.
Gronkowski, who was among the group of players who visited the Patriots ahead of that draft, was projected to be a first-round pick that April after catching 75 passes for 1,197 yards and 16 touchdowns in two years with Arizona prior to being sidelined during that 2009 season.
Still, his meeting with former coach, Bill Belichick, went well enough where New England ended up jumping up two spots on Day two, moving in front of the Ravens and took him with the 42nd overall selection. That 2010 draft yielded top pick, Devin McCourty, with the Patriots trading back twice before selecting McCourty at 27th overall. Former tight end Aaron Hernandez (Round 4, 113 overall) and punter Zoltan Mesko (Round 5, 150th overall) were also among players taken that offseason.
We all know how the selection of Gronkowski worked out, given that he went on to become a force for the Patriots, playing a key role in all three Super Bowl victories he was a part of. It likely won’t be long before he makes his way into the Patriots Hall of Fame, and a spot in Canton is also likely in his future.
To no one’s surprise, the top spot went to Tom Brady, which shouldn’t shock anyone. Schwab summed it up perfectly, writing, “It’s not just the best NFL draft pick of the past 25 years, it’s not just the best NFL draft pick ever. It’s almost inarguably the greatest draft pick in American sports history.”
It’s definitely tough to argue with him. Brady’s selection here didn’t really move the needle for most people the day he was picked, with the former Michigan quarterback expected to compete for a role at the time behind then-veteran John Friesz and Michael Bishop.
Instead, Brady put together an impressive enough preseason where Belichick opted to keep four quarterbacks out of fear that Brady wouldn’t have passed through waivers. He ultimately worked his way up the depth chart into the back-up role, with the hit on Drew Bledsoe the following season in Week 2 against the Jets in 2001 changing everything.
Six Super Bowl championships here in New England and one more in Tampa Bay solidified his place in NFL history as the greatest quarterback of all time. Given where he was taken in the sixth round, it remains an incredible story that will certainly be told for generations.
Meanwhile, a couple of recent picks also made the list, with one that was a little interesting. Shwab had San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy behind Brady at #2, noting that “it will be a long time before we find another Mr. Irrelevant that approaches Purdy’s career.” Purdy came in ahead of both Super Bowl-winning QBs Jalen Hurts (3), and Aaron Rodgers (4), which was a little surprising. But Schwab seems to be factoring in where they were selected, which, as the last pick in 2022, would make sense given that both Rodgers (Round 1, 2005), and Hurts (2nd Round, 2020) were more obvious selections.
Denver’s Bo Nix came in at 25th overall, with Schwab writing that, while “it’s too early to judge this one,” the fact that the Broncos took him where they did was surprising. “We’ll remember this pick for Sean Payton’s clarity, and not that just about every analyst thought it was wild for Denver to take the sixth quarterback in the class at No. 12 overall,” wrote Schwab.
2) Receiver Stefon Diggs provided some insight on ESPN’s NFL Live on Wednesday, with Diggs talking about what it’s been like learning New England’s offense under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
“I’m studying, but it’s really the route concept,” said Diggs, with the video of him speaking taking place on a plane. “Basically, if you hear a word, you need to be able to know the word immediately, know the concept. Really, I’m just working on my memorization. I got the formation, but I need to know the concept, I don’t need to know exactly just what I got. I need to know what somebody to the right or to the left of me got. So what everybody got around me, how I’m going to get open or how I’m going to get somebody else open, you know what I’m saying?”
“In between 2-3 seconds when you break the huddle, I’m starting looking at the contour of defense. I call it contour of the coverage. It’s like this is the coverage, but I’ll start figuring it out. But you know that by knowing what you got, you know what I’m saying? I can’t be thinking about what I got in trying to figure it out. I can win any given time, but it needs to just become second nature.”
Diggs was among a group working out with Drake Maye recently, with the veteran joining DeMario Douglas, Rhamondre Stevenson, Kendrick Bourne, Kyle Williams, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Hunter Henry as the group continues preparing for training camp.
3) On that same segment, ESPN analyst Booger McFarland isn’t quite sold on New England making the postseason. His biggest concern remains whether or not they’ve improved enough up front to protect Maye heading into his second season, with the hope being that they don’t impede his growth as a quarterback.
“I think when you look at his physical stature, 6’4″, 230 pounds. You bring in a proven receiver in Stefon Diggs, if he’s healthy. You’ve got a proven coordinator in Josh McDaniels,” explained McFarland. “I like the steps they’re taking. Couple of question marks. One, can they block for him up front? The offensive line, can they give him the time, that way that they don’t impede his development? That’s number one. Number two, can they rush the passer on the defensive side of the ball? Those are question marks.”
“When you get leads and try to close out games defensively, they’ve got to rush the passer. Can you protect your own quarterback to allow him to develop? That’s the second thing. We saw what happened with C. J. Stroud in Houston this year. His development took a step back because they couldn’t protect him. I don’t want to see the same thing happen to Drake Maye in New England.”
Diggs’ comments ended up being a point of discussion on NBC Sports Boston, with Michael Felger and Andrew Callahan talking about the difficulties we’ve heard about in the past when it came to McDaniels’ offense.
“And it’s not just when you break the huddle, it’s not just when you get to the line. In Josh McDaniels’ offense, it’s post-snap,” said Felger. “It’s what you see as the quarterback’s going back. You have to read and see what the quarterback sees. So this was a long-standing criticism of Josh McDaniels’ offense, even when Tom [Brady] was here and you were scoring a million points and winning. New receivers had a hard time adjusting to this offense, especially as Brady got advanced in it, because it asks so much of the receivers and the quarterbacks to be on the same page.”
Callahan pointed out names like Chad Ochocinco and Reggie Wayne, with Wayne having “retired because the offense was too complex.”
McDaniels talked about this last month, and it sounds like he’s aware of that issue. He told reporters at the time that the goal is just to figure out what guys can process, with that ultimately being the deciding factor when it comes to the type of offense they’ll play.
“I think you have to have a starting point,” said McDaniels. “There’s going to be a way to speak, a learning of the language. We talked about that maybe a couple of months ago. Then really, it’s just going to be about giving them some things to go out and do on the practice field, and then learning what they do well, how much they can process, what style we should play. I’ve always kind of believed that the players will dictate what that ends up being.”
4) For New England Patriots season ticket holders, Mike Reiss reported on another key date heading into New England’s upcoming training camp.
Reiss reports that the Season-ticket member-only practice for 2025 is slated for Friday, August 1st at 5:30 inside Gillette Stadium.
That event has generally been a good one for fans to get an up-close look at the team inside the stadium, which for this year definitely holds a little more significance. The club made some aggressive moves this offseason and it feels like they’ve taken a solid step forward.
Between the addition of head coach Mike Vrabel and some signings and draft selections on both sides of the ball, the outlook ahead of the 2025 season is certainly more positive than it was a year ago.
We’re just under two weeks away from when things get started for real, and it definitely can’t get here quickly enough.
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Good article Ian. The media, in stoking the romance of the old dynasty offense, immediately tagged McDaniels as a huge signing. I hope that’s correct. But it is true, this team had problems for years getting skill players that can handle that offenses complexity. And with player turnover in today’s NFL, I think BB was right in trying to flip the team into a pseudo west coast /simpler offense. It’s hard enough to hit in the draft or pay free agents without narrowing the off season board to players that can play in a complex offense. It fit Brady perfect.… Read more »
Appreciate that, Jim. I agree, I think they’re walking a fine line when it comes to putting some of the onus on the receiver to also recognize defenses and react accordingly. Although, it’s funny, I say this, but we also don’t know if any receivers are asked to do the same elsewhere, which would at least let us be able to make a reasonable comparison. Granted, I’m sure some teams don’t, but I’d be surprised if that number is zero league-wide, which would at least add a little more context to the argument.