Welcome to the Friday Five!
Each week during the NFL regular season, I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.
Ready, set, football.
1. Don’t panic
It’s Sept. 12.
We are 6% of the way through the NFL regular season; the equivalent of less than three series into the MLB calendar and five games into an NBA season.
So, barring a total collapse Sunday in Miami — and I am talking about an epic disaster involving a serious Drake Maye injury — any ongoing panic over the Patriots is more than a waste of time.
It’s loser behavior.
Remember how long we waited for this? For competitive, meaningful NFL football? It was more than eight months filled with predictions and projections and, frankly, meaningless guesswork. And now, when there are real games to analyze and discuss and critique, you’d rather run around, hair on fire, ready to give up because a rebuilding team might lose a couple toss-ups games?
Nothing in the NFL is ever, ever decided in September. There’s a reason coaches and players everywhere regard this time of year as an extension of the preseason. Teams are fact-finding. About themselves, their players, their schemes.
Now, of course the games count. And I am not — by any means — guaranteeing the Patriots will be OK this season or win Sunday or even win eight games. If they don’t win eight games, the season will be an unequivocal disappointment, and they’ll hear it from me as they have every year that they’ve disappointed, which after Tom Brady left is to say, basically, all of them.
But before you pull a football fire alarm, take a beat to consider recent, relevant history.
As a second-year head coach, Mike Vrabel took the Titans to the AFC Championship Game after a 1-4 start. The Patriots’ last playoff team opened 2-4 with a rookie quarterback. Hell, the Pats’ last Super Bowl run included early losses to the Jaguars and the Matt Patricia-led Lions over a 1-2 start. And the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles went 2-2 last September.
Obviously, last Sunday was bad. No question. And obviously these Patriots are not the Eagles, nor the 2018 Pats, nor the 2019 Titans. The point is extrapolating anything from the NFL in September is foolish.
Just ask those teams, and in the meantime, take a breath.
Maybe two.
2. McDaniels defends Maye
Following his recent press conferences, something is amiss with Drake Maye.
Maybe the media has bothered him (we can do that) by questioning whether too much is on his plate. Maybe he’s simply taking last Sunday’s loss hard. Or it’s something off the field. Who knows.
But there’s only one explanation for how Josh McDaniels handled his weekly press conference Thursday: he had a game plan to come out and defend his quarterback.
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels speaks during a press conference prior to a practice in Foxboro. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels speaks during a press conference prior to a practice in Foxboro. (Mark Stockwell/Boston Herald)
A sampling …
“I would say the biggest thing for me is just, (Maye)’s a young quarterback. He’s a young quarterback.”
“I think we have to understand it’s his first game in our system.”
“I think the view of it is it’s got to be a long-term vision of where this guy’s going to be. He’s going to be a really good player.”
“He’s learning through all these experiences, and he’s the right guy.”
McDaniels, clearly, had heard the growing questions about his young quarterback. Unlike past years, when he would have claimed to be “ignoring the noise,” McDaniels took this head on. Only time will tell if concerns about Maye’s development are warranted.
McDaniels, of course, fiercely disagrees. And he let us all know that Thursday.
3. Henderson touches incoming?
The biggest play-calling bone I had to pick with McDaniels after his season opener was obvious.
How did TreVeyon Henderson, the most dangerous weapon on the Patriots’ roster, only see 25 snaps?
Henderson is their fastest player. Their most explosive player. The best receiver among their running backs. How did he not play more?
Upon further review, it sounds like McDaniels agreed with his critics.
“They need the ball more,” he said Thursday of his running backs.
Rhamondre Stevenson took 17 carries on 45 snaps and did little with them because his rushing lanes were chock full of traffic. That might happen again in Miami, but the Patriots’ pivot can’t be to ditch their running game again. It must involve Henderson, a walking mismatch who should be off and running.
4. Peppers regret
Two weeks later, and it’s still hard to understand why the Patriots feel better off without Jabrill Peppers.
Peppers is now in Pittsburgh, where he said this week of his release: “It just is what it is. Sometimes, you’re not good enough. You play a long time in this league, you’re gonna get traded or cut. … I’m happy (Mike) Tomlin made the call.”
Signs indicate the Patriots’ decision to part ways was not a simple on-field evaluation. Peppers started most of training camp, and could have been released when the Pats made all of their other cuts to trim their roster down to 53 players. They didn’t.
Now, they’re starting Jaylinn Hawkins, a respected veteran with mostly special teams experience who was a one-man roller-coaster in his starting debut. He allowed a touchdown, missed two tackles, tallied an interception, a sack and a run stuff last Sunday. He’s next to fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson, who looks like a find, but after that the Pats are alternating between Kyle Dugger and Dell Pettus, who are both spending time on the scout team in practice.
Keeping Peppers would have bolstered their depth, their talent and reinforced the violent defense Vrabel wants. Instead, the only time Peppers will play in Foxboro this season will be next week when the Steelers visit for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
5. 9/11 remembrance
Twenty-four years and a day later, a moment to reflect.
Following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the NFL postponed its Week 2 slate to the end of the season and moved on to Week 3.
Once play resumed on Sept. 23, Joe Andruzzi, then the Patriots’ starting right guard, ran onto the field at the old Foxboro Stadium carrying two small American flags for a home game against the Jets. He later walked out for the opening coin toss with his three brothers, Billy, Marc and Jimmy, all honorary captains and New York firefighters who had rushed into the smoke to save lives as the World Trade Center came crashing down. Jimmy, the family learned, had exited Tower 1 moments before it collapsed that fateful day.
“People always say that guys who play (football) on Sundays are heroes. I don’t think so,” Joe told Patriots’ team media on the 20-year anniversary on 9/11. “(My brothers and my dad) are more heroes than I’ll ever be. I look up to them.”
Never forget.