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Join me and James Co as we take a deep dive into the position that's going to make or break your fantasy roster. Wide receivers. We analyze route running, target share, and all the metrics that matter, giving you the insights you need to draft the best wide receivers. As you prep for your draft, let us give you the coverage you need. Follow and listen to Reception Perception on the free Odyssey app. Or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, back end of the old six rings in football things here. We're going to do another one of our off-season Patriots positional previews and OPPP. Yes, you know we today, we take upon ourselves a position, I believe, the Patriots could use a little help in or rather that is going to be defined by, I guess, what we see on field in terms of whatever sort of defense the Patriots deploy. I don't even really know what to expect of this position, Andy. That would be the safeties. Now, your current safeties on the roster for the New England Patriots are Kyle Dugger, Jabril Peppers, Brendan Schuller, Marte Mapu, even though he's also listed at linebacker. And then, of course, Joshua Bledso, Del Pettis, and Jalen Hawkins. Perhaps even maybe Marcellus Dyle, though he is listed on the depth chart currently at cornerback. We'll see where the Patriots deploy him as well. As we always do, Andy, with our off-season positional previews, I'm going to ask you for the first adjective that comes to mind when you talk about the New England Patriots safety unit heading into the 2024 season. Redundant. And I say that because I think the top three players at the position, all kind of replicate skills, you're really good in terms of tackling, you're really good in terms of playing in the box and the run game physicality. Because I would include Marte Mapu just athletically is probably the third best player at this position. If, as you said, you actually include him at this position and not linebacker. But Jabril Peppers, we all have grown to really love his style of play. Dude is just a walking muscle. It's continuous muscle from head to foot, who likes to hit people, is fun to watch, brings an energy, an effort, and an attitude. He might be the biggest Andy Hart youth level player on the team in terms of that. And then Kyle Dugger, you just invested, you know, 50 million dollars in as a Pro Bowl caliber, I guess, safety. You're paying him like he's a Pro Bowl caliber safety. But again, coverage, not really his forte. And Marte Mapu is a versatile, bigger, tweener guy, coverage, not his forte. And we've been saying for a couple of years now, like, who's the Devon McCordy? Who's the deep guy? You know, Miles Bryant kind of played a hybrid part of that. He is gone. So I think you're right, whether it's dial, who I don't, I'm not really dialed in on in terms of what he is yet. Football dad humor there. Just wait a second. It'll just the room will clear itself eventually. I don't have time to roll a window down and let that wafting. Or one of these other corners, somebody is going to have to play in my mind like, okay, we're putting our five best defensive backs out there. You're playing a hybrid safety corner role here for us because you don't have a true free safety. We've brought up the idea, could a guy like Stefan Gilmore be an option and maybe do that late career? Great cornerback becomes good safety transition. But yeah, I think it's in an ideal world. Dugger and peppers wouldn't be so similar in sort of their playing style and abilities. And same with like you like you pointed out mappu as well, who's listed in linebacker and safety on the chart. They're all big dudes. They all hit like freight trains. They all had a lot of power. I want to be clear. Like them all. Sure. But it's like it's like having three centers in the modern NBA. And you're like, huh, this is great. But yeah, 25 years ago, this would have been better. And today we're kind of lacking depth on the wing. Right. So my choice, similar to you say redundant. I choose unbalanced because I think it is the safety unit as of right now is weighted in terms of skill experience and potential too heavily in the strong safety mold or the safety slash linebacker mold of which dugger peppers and mappu all can and do play. And I love to know who's going to be our long speedy, rangey, intelligent, recovery based free safety. I don't really see one on the roster now. Jonathan Jones, if you figure out corner, could Jonathan Jones, I don't know, like I'm spitball would dialed. OK, so all right, this is a good question because you lose. You lost the green goblin. He sort of played that role last year. Where did he go, by the way, again? It's a good question. Stop asking me these questions. I'm right. It's fine about transitions in the NFL. I haven't paid attention to the transaction wire. I'm like, OK, fine. That's fine. Any which way he's gone. No, we're like eats away at brain cells. No, it doesn't. It makes you stronger. It's but it's like Brando. It's what plants need it. That this is what this is what people need. So you just don't really have a free safety. It could it be Jonathan Jones? Could it be actually last week I jumped on a pod with Andrew Callahan? And he said, maybe Marcus Jones, because Marcus Jones is speedy. Obviously played pretty well at the cornerback spot in his rookie season as well. You don't think he's as good a corner as he is a return guy. However, he did, in addition to playing a high level of cornerback in college at the University of Houston, he did also play some safety as well. So maybe even though he's a bit undersized, speedy, quick, ranging, good playmaking instincts, maybe he'll get an audition there. I don't know. It a lot of it does depend, I think, on what you get out of Marcellus Dial and Isaiah Bolden. So in some ways, so go the young cornerbacks in this camp, Andy. So may go the opportunity for someone to step in and be the starter at free safety. So there's another something we have to keep. I'm going to need a lot of eyes to keep on the action. We're going to be very busy during this Patscamp 2024. That's how it's supposed to work. This is when you get a feel for what the team is and can be. And it's why it's my favorite part of the year. But again, there's another question on a defense, like top five defense, and you don't know who a free safety is. That feels like a key position in the modern NFL when you face Joe Barrow and Josh Allen and Tuah and all those weapons. Like we saw it last year. Remember when Maapu was in and he got toasted because they weren't quite on the same page. Like if your back end is ill fit or ill prepared, you take it up the back end and you lose game. Oh, geez, godly. Jalen Mills is on the Giants. Jalen Mills, thank you very much. Jalen Mills is on the New York football Giants. Probably if I were watching the off-season edition of Hard Knocks, football life with the New York Gigantes, I would probably, I've only consumed a couple of clips on the social media and how the rest of them. Including the one where Dable says he can run a sub-740 and the scout goes, no, just no. But it is skinny Dable now, which is interesting to see as well. Looks good, I still don't think he'll run a sub-seven. Neither do I. It's funny watching them discuss like the at length discussion and turmoil and toiling and restlessness they have over, you know, what kind of offer should we make to Saquan Barkley. We can't afford to lose him. We want to keep him on this team. Football, knowing that they absolutely just butchered the negotiations. And ultimately he went to their competitor for the paycheck that I think somebody like himself, who when healthy is a true legit offensive weapon, deserves as well. Not a great season incoming for the New York football giants. That's my prediction. Okay, so of these safeties on the roster, Dugger and Peppers, no brainers, mop who's making the team as well. They have schooler listed on the unofficial depth chart on ESPN.com, but he qualifies in a different position that we'll have to break down later on the specialist. Yes, he has to qualify at some position, I guess, if you have to give him something. But he's, he's all, he's all special team. You're never really going to see Brendan schooler in its safety unless there have been a number of injuries in a particular ballgame. So yeah, take him out of the equation. If he's playing defense, you're porked. So Andy, so Dugger's a no brainer, Peppers a no brainer, schoolers making the team, mop who's making the team. So between Dell Pettis, Jalen Hawkins and Joshua Bledso, one of those three guys, unless there's a camp edition or a trade made is probably going to make the team. Who's it going to be? Do you believe and why? I would argue probably none of the above and just, I think you'll keep an extra corner and it'll be this. The job will fall to a corner unless there's a veteran edition late in this process. I think those three might be your safeties and then the back end is covered by the Isaiah Bolden's dials, guys that are sort of seen as corner backside. I'm not, you're got the year of Joshua Bledso, we've given up on that, right? He was your guy, was that last year? I wanted it. So I wanted it every year's Joshua Bledso season for me and it just hasn't worked out yet. I know. Yeah. Now Jalen Hawkins was signed away from, let's see, I believe he was signed away from the Atlanta Falcons for his special team value. He is in, let's see, he is in for a base salary this year of 1.125 million dollars. That's also his, his cap hits strangely enough is higher. So he's not in his dead cap is $400,000 if the Patriots move on from him on a one-year deal. So again, actually decent money. He'd probably going to be on the roster. He's probably going to be on, maybe is, maybe he's a core special teamer. Maybe he actually gets a shot to make safety. Callahan thinks he may actually get a chance to audition for the free safety role. Maybe again, it could be John Jones. Maybe more likely Marcus Jones could get a look over there, depending on how the slot corner plays out. Maybe it is somebody else that steps in. I just don't love, like there's a, there are a lot of unknowns obviously on every football team right now. But I, I, I, I, I love things like the defensive line where we know you've got your God shows and your equales and now obviously, teacher's wise and especially Christian Barmore like this is going to be a strength of this football team. Once again, they're really good on the upfront as well. And if you have Jude on and Uche playing at a high level and healthy, they're going to be able to get after and key on white, that's a strength, that is unknown, that is quantifiable. When you just have no idea who's going to be your free safety at this juncture, like you mentioned earlier, give me a more borderline night sweats. And, and don't even really have good options, like, or, or even really options. Like, I mean, at least looking at it from the outside, maybe they feel a little differently internally, but like backup running back. I don't think they have one. You have Antonio Gibson, who's a pass catcher who'll have to step up. If, if it hits the fan and remandary Stevenson is hurt, but you don't really have one. Even like wide receiver where people say, well, you don't have a number one, but at least I can get mildly excited about what DiMario Douglas can do. I watched some social media video of how quick he looks. And it's like, ooh, he looks fun to watch. Or, you know, maybe this is the year Taequan Thornton actually does something. Or you have two rookies who are, yes, unknowns. But what if they hit in a league where wide receivers hit? Free safety, Ioma, I guess it's similar to backup running back, left tackle. Although even left tackle, at least we have Elliott Wolf telling us, we believe that Okora four can play left tackle. He played it in high school. Like, I don't agree, but at least they have a little bit of confidence in that idea publicly. Free safety is one of those positions where it just, it seems like they may have to get through 17 games without really having an answer. Yeah, and we know once again that the linebacker and strong safety positions have almost become like, if the same way a linebacker who plays on the outside and is almost the same size as a proper defensive end, now gets called an edge player, eventually, Andy, I think there's going to be a requalification or some sort of new name that's got like Antonio Gibson, like you just pointed out, he's sort of the backup running back, but he's also a wide receiver and more of as much a pass option as he is a running back. So that makes me think he's more of an OW offensive weapon, if you're going to qualify him as such. What are we going to call these linebacker safety hybrids? Because that's, that's almost what I feel like the Patriots are deploying. Like that's what that's exactly what mop who is because he's listed at both spots. And you can't call them LBS's because that just looks like an acronym for linebacker, right? Or I was thinking pounds or pounds. You can't call them SLB's because that means strong side linebacker. That's always been a thing. So you can't just blend the two terms. Right. Can we call them? Yeah, we're going to need a new name. Maybe anyone in the audience, if you guys can figure out whatever the new word should be for the linebacker safety hybrids in the NFL as the modern defensive evolves, holler at us at Fitzy GFY at jumbo heart and of course at six rings pod. All right, Andy, as we always wrap up these off-season Patriots positional previews, let's give an adjective or a term to describe what we think the Patriots safety unit will be or that will add that will appropriately describe them at the end of the 2024 season. Disappointing. Disappointing. Because I think at some point people are going to say, wait, Dugger makes how much? How come he doesn't make more plays? And I think Dugger is a good but not great player who I think at some point people will circle the contract. And then I think as we've just talked about, I'm not sure there's an answer that steps up at free safety. So you're going to say, yeah, that kind of that we didn't get a lot of help from the back end or as much help as we may be expected from the back end that there's a couple holes there. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with aggressive because I think you're going to because I think you're going to be impressed by the aggressive powerful play of guys like Kyle Dugger. And of course, our guy, Gabriel Peppers, who wakes up and has a bowl of violence for breakfast every morning. I like and maybe even Mapu, a lot of it hinges. It's hinging upon the development and deployment of Marte Mapu, ultimately where the safety unit goes as well. And I sure as hell, like everyone else would love to see who's going to play free safety. But I think those guys are one of the big reasons why this Patriots defense will either flourish or falter, sink or swim in 2024. All right, there we go. How about that? There's some hot, high quality Pat's podden for you as Andy Hart jumps back into the fray here on six rings of football things. We will be back on tomorrow, Wednesday with another what if Wednesday edition. And of course, there probably will be some hot topics discussed Thursday as Hart and I jump in with Christian Arcan on the afternoon show at WEEI. So stay locked in. Make sure you turn on your notifications, smash that subscribe button and tell your friends to jump in the pool. There's plenty of room for everyone here at six rings in football. Thanks. Good to have you back, Hart. Thanks very much for putting this together. As always, Turp and posting it as soon as it's done. Thank you all for listening and making us a part of your regular Patriots programming in season or off. We'll talk to you soon. This has been six rings in football. Things brought to you by WEEI Odyssey and 2,400 sports for Hart for Turp, for everyone associated with this big old pile of football, talk nonsense. Good day, God bless, and as always, Go Pits!
Next up on our "Pats Positional Preview" is the Safeties. Fitzy and Hart take a look at the current state of the Patriots' safeties corps.
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