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What's the best podcast of all time? This boy isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Radford and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion. It's a cause I started more than two years ago and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod. There is another fact. So jump aboard the BIB Express. Follow and listen to baseball as I'm boring, presented by Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row Azman. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in the place to be to be. Hey, fantasy football owners. The road to winning your fantasy football championship starts now. I'm Matt Harmon from Reception Perception. 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 podcast. Fitsy and hard. Kevin at you here on 93 7 fmwei.com. And of course, all of our fabulous affiliates. I said fabulous. Sorry. I got a little tongue tied. Not gonna lie. All that sounds good to me. Our fabulous affiliates throughout New England and all over the world. T minus 15 hours till parade time, Andy. Are you gonna be slipping in for the parade? No. No? How about you kids? Uh, no, he's got to work. Nope. Where does he work? Baseball camp. Oh, nice. Yeah. My kids are starting baseball camp next week as a... No, this is not to draw things back to the Cape, which I do oftentimes during the summer. The Cape Cod Baseball League actually does a camp. They do it on the field where the YD Red Sox play at Yarmith Dennis High School. And it's only like 20 bucks a day for a couple, like three hours. Drop the kids off. They get a chance to work out and run some drills with some future potential major leaguers who are all paying their way for the summer, cleaning pools and teaching camp. It's a blast. Anyone else get the feeling Fitsy tries to ditch his kids a lot or whines about his kids a lot? I don't ditch my kids a lot. I can't spend enough time with them. I have such an active hands-on dad. It's ridiculous. He's like 20 bucks you can dump your kids. That's great. I get two hours. I gotta run home and do a six-rings podcast with you in peace. Record for Big 103 and whatever the hell else I do. No, I'm fully committed to the whole thing. I'm already designing this fall's curriculum because I'll be ascending from assistant coach to head coach of the flag football program. Oh my God. Who's going to be better? Mayo or Fitsy? That's a great, you know what? Who is less prepared? Mayo or Fitsy? Who's going to have to walk back more things they say within the first three months on the job? Mayo or Fitsy? It's got a culture shift for the flag football team as well. It's going to be super fun. They're already actually working on the huge murals of me talking to the kids and making connections with them. So we'll see how that goes. But like I said, you and I often have to. I thought your dad was a comedian. How come he's never fun? See, you have to always do that. You know, hey, you know, oh, Andy Hart's dad. Oh, Jackson Hart's dad is coaching us. He talks football a lot. How come he doesn't know crap? That's right. Back-to-back Super Bowl champions on the flag football field. Please bought and paid for back to back and paid for illegal job gotten the way they lost in the final and I couldn't call plays. Man, you sure you're something that working at the excuse factory where his dad made a mint. He had to call plays himself. She was like a 12 year old calling his own place. It was a debacle. If you got wheels like kids, it probably, well, he probably hung in there as long as he could. But like I said, oftentimes if the kids are away at camp doing their thing, we run home. We do a little six rings pot. We talk some Pat's football. Just like one and many out there today, I was surprised to see the Patriots made a little news, Andy. That's right. They promised one of the many things that the Wolf of Ball Street, Elliott Wolf promised us before he was actually given the title of executive vice president of player personnel de facto GM. Of course, it's New England. We always have to do things a little different around here before given the title said he was going to weaponize the offense in the draft, delivered on the promise, seven out of eight picks. Oh, we're on the offensive side of the ball. And yes, they were going to do their best to retain the veterans, the core, the players who would earn their second contract here. Dare I say, this feels like three off seasons of Belichick core retention contracts given out. We had Ramon Dre today, four years, 36 million dollars, 17 million guaranteed joining that bag three for 57 that Michael Wen who got David Andrews, getting extended by another couple of years as well. Dogger got the four for 54 after he was given the transition tag and the Christian bar more. You Christian bar more for 92 biggest of them, the biggest of them all, literally and financially. Yes. So what is that? All these players that earned the number three pick in the draft. So see, that's the thing though, the whole entire idea of like, as a bunch of moms band together, baby, they played terrible views. These guys were awful. This band sucks. Let's just keep them together. See, I disagree. I think so many things went sideways. So many things went wrong for that team last year between the coach, obviously in the quarterback, the dysfunction on the team, just everything surrounding it. It almost made it seem, at least to me, like it was an impossible situation for anyone to barely survive, let alone to thrive in as well. And yes, I understand they had the 30th ranked offense last year. So why wouldn't you want to race to bring back as many of the players from that 30th ranked offense you possibly could? You know, the tables tilted in the wrong favor for them last year. So many different people got injured. The defense still hung in there as well. The offense was just legendarily bad. Do you not think that if you're going to run your team through a certain player this year, at least run the offense through a certain player, Romandre Stevenson would make the most sense and paying him that second contract as a running back you trust a running back, you know, that has good hands two years ago, led the team with 69 receptions. Isn't he somewhere? Gronk smiles. Nice. Don't you think that he's worth at least that 17 million? That's basically paying him up front for two more years of his prime. He's only in his mid 20s. It's not like you're paying a running back who's 28 29 and could be on the doorstep of tired legs and, you know, tread bear tires. Makes sense to me. Yeah, I think this is a win-win deal. Romandre previewed it when he said during many camp. Yeah, I think we're close. He said he thought he was going to get the deal done. They obviously got the deal done. He had seen everybody else kind of get theirs fall in line and the packer way of retaining talent that Elliot Wolf has spoken about and now enacted. And there's no question. He's the centerpiece of the offense. That's the first thing that Alex van Pelt said. It's the first thing we've seen in OTAs and mini camps. They throw it to him. They run it with him. And quite honestly, there aren't a lot of other proven options or guys you can lean on, especially at running back. I mean, it's Romandre and pray for rain at running back. And I know he didn't have a great year last year, started slow and finished hurt, which is not a great season in any sense of the words. No, but two years ago, I thought he was on a trajectory where he was sort of you remember, I kept calling him poor man Saquon Barkley, a thousand yard back, 69 catches, made big plays. He needs to get back to that. But no, I think this is a win-win because you need him. He had some leverage. He's the centerpiece of your offense. And he gets some money. He gets paid in this weird running back market world where yes, it took a little uptick this offseason, but he's not Josh Jacobs. He's not Saquon Barkley. He's not Christian McCaffrey. He's not one of these truly elite running backs. And yet he got some financial security. He already has the job security. So now I think this works for everybody. Now he just needs to go out, stay healthy and do his job. So it was Stevenson, four for 36. Duggar ultimately was four for 58. Excuse me, on wento three for 57. Hunter Henry also in the club this offseason, three years, 27 million dollars, and we both thought at the time that sounded like a pretty good deal. And he is definitely going to be either a veteran or rookie quarterback's best friend. Kendrick Bourne coming off of the torn ACL last year in October against the dolphins got extended three for 19 and a half million. Hopefully he can make it back to the field sooner or later, sooner than later rather. And of course, the big deal for the big man, that would be four for 92 for Christian Barmore. Also, let's not forget and for the Jennings, one of the sneaky secret pieces of that highly effective Patriots defense, three years, 12 million dollars as well. So if he, oh, and Josh, you know, one for three, he turned down boatloads of money elsewhere to take that deal. Or so we were told. No, that's what he said. I'm going to take him at his word. You are? No. Why would you believe him? No one else? I never believed the players. I think they lie nonstop. So yeah, so Uche as well. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight players, eight veterans. They're minimal free agent law. Who's the only free agent they really lost? Miles Bryant. Uh, no, Ezekiel Elliott, the best offensive player. Oh, they're they're passing leader last year. They lost their best offensive player who's soon probably going to be coached by Bill Belichick. See, I think I'm with you. I think this makes a ton of sense as well. You know, the guys like Josh Jacobs, he left the Raiders and went to the Packers Packers. That was four for 48. So he got 25% more money than Ramondra Stevenson. Do you think he's 25% more of the back than Ramondra is? Because Ramondra is healthy. He's a multifaceted, versatile, explosive player. He, he's a good player. Josh Jacobs is a foundational player. He's pretty led the NFL in Russian. Like he's an all pro caliber player. Whereas at his best, I think Stevenson is a pro bowl caliber player. And I like Stevenson, but even a couple years ago, if you go back and look at the yardage, um, in some of those games, it was, there were stretches where he was really good. And there were stretches that he were, he was really quiet. He can't be that this year. You know, he brought up, he's been watching Nick Chubb going back to Alec Van Pelt in Cleveland, watching Nick Chubb. Nick Chubb's a 14 or a 1500 yard running back. And speaking of juggernauts, he ran runs like, when healthy runs like correct juggernauts, and you need Stevenson to be consistently good. It's a little like Jason Tatum. Uh, you know, not all 28 or 30 point games are the same. Not all 1200 yard seasons. Like if you have two 200 yard games, but then go quiet for three games where you only give me 35 yards, 35, you know what I mean? Like, no, you're going to need to be consistently good, consistently productive. If this team is going to have a chance to maybe overachieve offensively. But again, he's, he looks like he's, I guess he's going with redistributed his weight, same weight, 225, but, um, little better weight, he's eating better. He looks like he's got a little bounce in his step and is ready to have a good year. But, you know, it's a big jump from mini camp, no pads, no contact, no hitting to, oh, it's the second week of the season. And it's a real game. And how does he look? Good. Yeah, Ramandre Stevenson at first was remembered for the fumble in the, or the missed blocking assignment in his first game back in 2021. Then he came on and was remembered for supplanting Damien Harris and basically being a star on the rise and a focal point of the offense. Then he became remembered for being part of the single worst play in Patriots, if not NFL history. And then last year, man, like there's really no, there's no signature Ramandre moment from last year. There was no signature Ramandre play. No game. You can say like, that's the Ramandre Stevenson game. He put the New England Patriots on his broad shoulders and carried them across the goal line to victory on this given Sunday. But to defend him, like, the offense suck period. What was there? And all aspects, the quarterback sucks. We have no passing game. We have no offensive line. Like, how am I supposed to do my job when those guys can't block the defense doesn't think we can pass it all. So they're going to, you know, play the run. Like, I kind of give him and everybody a pass. It was so bad last year that it was. Yeah, the, the, the, the sum of the parts was just so hideous that I don't blame any of the parts, except the line was so bad. You had to get rid of the greatest coach of all time. Yeah. That's not the rails and he's on Nantucket. I won't say it. He's talking about that once was a man from Nantucket who had a younger whose girlfriend was so young it caused a ruckus. Uh, yeah. Josh Jacobs, 2022, 1653 yards rushing. Yeah. Pretty good. Now. Damn. Pretty good. Yeah. He is so good. So that even they got rid of Aaron Jones for him in his stead, which was amazing. Jones goes over for the one year, $7 million deal with the Vikings. There's a player I would like to see Romandre Stevenson emulate because Aaron Jones sneaky fast at times, good between the tackles, a little too injury riddle. Let's hopefully Romandre has kicked that out of a system. Like you said, eating better training, better this off season. Hopefully he's in it for the long haul because they're going to lean on him early and often and then in between both of those this season. So let's see how that one works out. I'm not an Antonio Gibson guy, eh? I love Antonio Gibson, but I don't think he's going to fumble more than they score. Yeah. You know what? I like third downbacks. I like pass catching backs. I like guys that have a little, uh, little, a little extra dynamic in their, in their game out of the backfield. I think it wasn't Gibson a converted wide receiver turn running. Yeah. Yeah. No, he is. He's a essentially receiver playing running back. And I'm interested to see how he fits in with Alex van Pelt and the system and third down and, you know, you have been lacking that. It's why Elliot and Stevenson had to kind of lead the team in receptions. You didn't have the James White Kevin Falk at all type. I'll be interested to see how that works with this offense. I just, I think that's what he is. I don't think you want to see Romandre Stevenson get hurt. And now Antonio Gibson is your lead back and he's going to get all the touches. I don't, I don't think that's a good game plan to win with. So I'm curious, were you in the role of Elliot Wolf? Would you have given him this deal or something? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a Stevenson fan. And again, I don't think you overpaid. You didn't go long term. Um, you know, and we need to wait and see the details too. Sometimes these contracts aren't even, you know, it's four for 36. Is it or is like the last year, sort of a fake year? Well, it was reported 17 million guaranteed. Yeah, I know. But even if it's just a three year deal for 20 something million, I'm fine with that. Right? I'll pay him like, Devon Godshaw is making eight million a year, nine million a year. He wants a new deal or so, I'm told, well, he can pound sand. Wow. And he's a big man. So it's a lot of sand. That's gonna be a very bad and hard. I've, but didn't Bill Belichick tell us he's one of the best defensive tackles in football? The unemployed guy. He'll listen to people on the unemployment line now. Shots fired from the south. Never mean. So Ramondre has totaled 2,265 rushing yards on 499 carries with only 14 touchdowns. Geez, you think you'd have more 120% as good as you think he demonstrates the yards. And I overpaid him. What the hell? Actually, here's, here's what I'll say. I'll leave with this before we go to break. If it's possible that Alex van Pelt is able to engineer some sort of Ramondre Stevenson is Nick Chubb and Antonio Gibson as Kareem Hunt type of thing this season with a nice, you know, with a first and second down back, possibly mixing up the passing game every now and again, Gibson gets the carry and Ramondre catches the pass. If he can have the, the kind of efficiency and productivity those two guys had in their prime a few years back with Mondre and Gibson this year, that'll be fun. That'll take a little pressure off of Jacobi Brissette. That'll take a little pressure off of Drake may whenever he takes over as QB1. I'd like to see it. And since there's a lot of questions at the wide receiver position, it would be nice to lean on a running back, not only running the ball, but I think you're going to see a lot of screens and dump offs and some of those. Oh, yeah, you can say that again, Margie.
