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We are joined by Tommy Carroll, aka Tommy Freeze-Pops. He's a content creator for W-E-E-I, he's been at Patriots Camp, and he'll be giving us the inside scoop. Tommy, the Patriots' offense is looking promising, at least for the future, right? I want to start with the quarterback room, Drake May is competing, Jacobi Brissette, the veteran in his way at the moment. Is there an actual quarterback competition for Week 1, or is it looking like the Jacobi Brissette show for Week 1 at least, and how is Drake May looking so far? So there's no quarterback competition for Week 1, it's clearly going to be Jacobi Brissette, unless something crazy happens over the next three preseason games. And I don't know when this airs, but they have preseason game one tonight. So we'll see how Drake May looks, but all indications point to Jacobi Brissette being the Week 1 starter, and that makes sense. He looks the most pro-ready out there. Drake May has had peaks and valleys, and as a guy who grew up a lifelong Patriots fan and someone who benefits from the team doing really well, moving forward, of course I want Drake May to have a successful career and be the guy, and I want to see those peaks as much as possible. But at the moment, there's too many valleys for him to be the Week 1 starter. And I know that there's a school of thought, you know, throw him into the fire, look what happened to Peyton Manning, he set the interception record, and he became Peyton Manning. That doesn't work every single time, and there's no rush here. The rest of the roster isn't necessarily ready to go out and win double-digit games. So let Jacobi Brissette ease him in, and look, he's done enough during camp to win the job. It's going to be Jacobi Brissette's job. But Drake May has shown flashes of a guy that's going to be a good NFL quarterback at some point. He just hasn't done it consistently enough to say, okay, this guy can and will start Week 1. I think this is a good thing, right? I think Jacobi Brissette, you know, not being there kind of like takes the pressure off of Drake May and lets him develop at a pace that, you know, a quarterback should be developing at, you know, as a rookie, right? So I do like this approach personally, and I think Brissette, you know, should be able to hold it down. And for fantasy, you know, we obviously want to know what this offensive philosophy, you know, is going to look like, right? And the Patriots offensively have been all over the place lately, right? A lot of different offenses taking shape. And now Alex van Pelt is the play caller and OC. What would you say is his philosophy going into this year and how and how does it change based on what the Patriots were doing over the last couple of seasons? So what the Patriots have been doing the last couple of seasons has been a whole lot of nothing, right? It's throwing the ball into the flats on third and long and getting sacked and throwing timely interceptions and when I say timely, I mean timely for the other team, getting the turnover that they need to secure the victory, right? So it's a whole new world, right? There's no more Matt Patrice are running the show. So we have an offensive coordinator coming in here who has a system and his system is run the ball and throw the ball to tight ends. So we're not looking at an over the top style offense here, at least if we're going to go by what Alex van Pelt has been throughout his career so far. So Ramondre Stevenson is going to be a guy that I think is going to get a ton of carries. You're going to see a guy, you know, like Austin Hooper, who's new to this offense, be a factor from the jump, especially since he's a guy that comes from the AVP offense in Cleveland. You're going to have a guy like Hunter Henry who's been a favorite of whoever's playing quarterback for the Patriots over the last few years. Have a situation where he can step up and be a major player in this offense again and probably see an uptick from a fantasy perspective. So focus on the tight ends, focus on the running backs for the Patriots. I personally would stay away from Patriots altogether when it comes to fantasy because look, Jacobi percent, he's going to be the starter week one, but what is Jacobi percent ceiling as a quarterback in this league? How productive is he going to actually be when they don't even know what their left tackle or right tackle situation is going to be for week one as we sit here three, four weeks away from the NFL opener here. So I'd stick away from the Patriots, but if you're forced into taking some pads for your roster, if you're in a 16 team league, you're going to want to focus on the running backs and the tight ends. Now you mentioned the tight end being a big part of this offense. I wonder how Hunter Henry and Austin, Austin Hooper, I was going to say Austin Eckler, Austin Hooper, you know, I'm going with the fantasy relevant guys here, right? Austin, Oprah, do you think from based on what you see in a camp, do you think that this is going to be somewhat of a rotation? Do you think it's going to be a lot of, you know, 12 and 21 personnel with two tight ends in the field, you know, with both these guys kind of sharing those targets? Or do you think there's one guy between those two that stand out that stands out right now as the main pass catcher for Jacoby Brissette? I think you're going to see a lot of two tight end sets. With that said, I think that Hunter Henry is going to be the guy that is going to get the bulk of the targets. But look, Austin Hooper's a guy that's been in the AVP system, right? So he's a guy we've seen be productive in the past. But Hunter Henry is kind of the mainstay guy. He's the guy that I think has had the most moments so far during camp. But we're going to find out a lot more here over the next few weeks. Obviously, like I mentioned, we have preseason game number one here tonight in New England. They have joint practices against the Eagles next week. So we're going to see what that looks like. And then the preseason game next Thursday with Philadelphia. So I think that these reps are going to be really important in determining what this offense looks like. It's a rare preseason for the Patriots, where I think the games are actually going to matter for the roster building at the top. Whereas in previous years under Belichick, it was really the bottom of the roster here that was kind of fleshing itself out. Now, Dr. Admeo said the other day of practice, and we'll see if he's telling the truth. He said, look, if guys are healthy, they're going to play. So we're going to get at least, I would say, a series out of what we think is going to be the ones here for the Patriots tonight. And I think it's going to go a long way in determining what the allocation here of targets is going into the season. Ramadre Stevenson was rewarded with a big extension this off season and for good reason. But have you seen any reason to think that he'll be on the field and all three downs, potentially? Can someone like Antonio Gibson steal some of that receiving work or some of that third down and two minute work? Because if Stevenson can get some third down work, get some two minute work, we're talking a big boost to his fantasy value, kind of regardless of whether the Patriots are up down in neutral game scripts. So we're trying to figure out if Stevenson is going to be involved in all phases of the game. It's interesting because I think that he has the capability of being a three phases of the game guy. He has good hands. He's been a pass catching threat in the past, especially the last few years when it was a lot of dump offs because there was no one down field. So I think he has that potential. I also think that Antonio Gibson hasn't really shown a lot this training camp. I think he may have lost a step would be happy to be wrong because I think having a young quarterback, have a guy that he can dump the ball off to and be a real threat out of the backfield is a positive, you know, having that James White game, Vereen type running back has worked well for the Patriots in the past, but that was when Tom Brady was throwing the ball. So if Antonio Gibson can kind of harness the player that he's been in recent years and be that guy for the Pats, I think you'll see him a lot on third downs, right? Because that's where he's thrived in recent years. Like that said, if he can't be that guy, I think Ramon Drey, they just paid him like a guy that is going to be a three down back. So I think he has that capability and that skill set to do so. So it's really going to be determined off of can Antonio Gibson be who he's been in the past, whether or not I think Ramon Drey Stevenson is going to get those type of carries, if that makes sense. Yeah. Okay. I got you. All right. That's interesting to me. They went from picking the wrong guys year after year after year, to in my opinion, picking the exact right guys, right, Jalen Polk, Javon Baker at a serious value. You add that to Damari with Douglas, who I'm a big fan of personally. You obviously have Kendrick Bourne still on his way back from an ACL injury. But those initial three guys I mentioned, you know, three young wide receivers who can potentially grow with Drake May, very intriguing to me. But I want to know about right now, right? I want to know who has been having the best training camp so far, you know, who has been running with the ones and what you think the target pecking order might look like as it stands right now based on what you've seen. You mentioned them. Polk and Baker have been excellent and Baker has really jumped off the page. He's a guy that has had all of the big moments at camp, but Polk has looked phenomenal too. I mean, they have been the best two receivers at Patriots training camp. And I don't think it's crazy to say that those guys could both be on the field running with the ones most of the time next season. Pop Douglas is coming back from a hand injury. He's been in the red non-contact throughout all of training camp. So, you know, I think they're being cautious with him. When he's healthy, he's going to be the guy in that exposition. He's going to be a huge factor for the offense, you know, underneath slot receiver type guy, he play potential, he doesn't have a coach on the sidelines now that's going to bench him for the rest of a game after our first quarter fumble. In theory, right, we haven't seen Gerad Mayo as a head coach yet, but he's liking to continue to say, okay, I'm not Bill Belichick and he likes to point out the differences, right? So we'll see if that holds true for Pop Douglas here, but those have been the three guys. I think they're going to be the three biggest factors for the receiving core for this offense this season. And Patriot fans, they were a little bit about the Jalen Polk pick. There was excitement no doubt that they would use a pick that high on a receiver, but there were other receivers picked in that range that the Patriot fans thought, hey, well, why didn't we land this guy or that guy? But Polk has been great throughout the camp. So I'll be really curious to see how the preseason plays out for him, but no complaint so far. I like Baker who can open up the offense. That's exciting. That's something that hasn't been around here in a very long time. So let's see if these guys can do it at game speed against another Jersey other than the Patriots. All right. I love that. And I have a selfish question kind of going back to the tight end room. Jeheem Bell was one of my favorite prospects at the tight end position this year, and unfortunately he fell all the way to the seventh round, maybe fortunately for Patriots fans because I still am holding out a little bit of hope. Have you seen anything on a Jeheem Bell this training camp and is there any glimmer of hope that he'll end up making the roster and being somewhat of a legit NFL player? So I don't know how it's going to shake out as far as cuts go because you can only have so many pass catchers, right? And it's a weird position for the Patriots now where it feels like they almost have too many receivers when they at one point didn't have any right like KJ Osborne's there too. They brought him in for a reason. He's had some moments this camp. So to carry a third tight end, I think personally that AVP will want to have more tight ends because he's a tight end happy coordinator and someone that's going to make those guys a big part of the offense. Bell has had a few moments during one on ones in camp, he had a nice grab in the end zone yesterday. So or two days ago, I should say, so I think that there's a shot. I think if he has a good preseason, I wouldn't be shocked. But it's a whole new world in New England. So it's really hard to predict these things from the jump. I would say with this being a fantasy focused podcast, I wouldn't be drafting Jeheem Bell in a fantasy league. Of course. You're going to have to wait to see if he's a waiver, wire pick. Exactly. That would be mostly for Dynasty leagues and that sort of thing. I think this season is probably not going to happen, especially with the veterans ahead of him. But at some point, listen, what you said about him, that's perfectly good enough for me. I'll take it. He has a chance. That's all I need. Tommy, thank you so much for joining us. You can find Tommy on Twitter by searching for Tommy Freeze Pops and you can catch all his work over on WEI Boston Sports Radio Network. Thanks again, Tommy. Really appreciate the time. Appreciate it, man. Good luck with the fantasy this season. Hey, it's Cheryl Swoops and Jordan Robinson from the Queens of the Court Podcast here to talk about staying connected to what you love. With AT&T, 5G and home internet, you can be a sports super fan your way. You could cheer like crazy in any room of your house or your backyard, which might start of your neighbors, but they won't judge you. You could fist-pump after watching your team hit a buzzer beater while you're on a train surrounded by strangers. Who cares how you look. You enjoy that moment. Or you could let out a triumphant roar when your team makes an incredible trade. And don't worry if you're out with your co-workers. They know what this trade means to you. So however you watch, listen, or read about your team. And no matter how that makes you act, AT&T, 5G and home internet keep you connected at home and on the go. AT&T, connecting changes everything. AT&T, 5G, requires a compatible plan and device. Cover, it's not available everywhere. Learn more at att.com/5g for you. (upbeat music)
From 'Upper Hand Fantasy' (subscribe here): Faraz welcomes on Tom Carroll of WEEI for his takeaways from Patriots training camp, including the new offensive philosophy we may see, the quarterback battle and if Rhamondre Stevenson could be in line for a three-down role.
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