Christian Gonzalez Secures RECORD-BREAKING $135M Extension! + Patriots vs. Seahawks Preview

0:00Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into Tom Karrons. Patreon, it's talk podcast. Phil Perry is going to be alongside. We'll have Mike Sando from the athletic. He covers the Seahawks and the NFL at large. But the news that we arose to on Tuesday, just a day before the game is a Christian Gonzalez has signed his pact with the Patriots in the court of public opinion and media opinion. Gonzalez has been the victim, but really this contract, the same one he signed has been sitting in front of him for a little while. As I told you guys on Monday, on early edition, the higher guaranteed money of 102 was sitting there, the higher APY, the higher value for the contract that it's entirety cash flow in years, two, three and four, which we don't have the numbers

1:01on those yet. And we haven't seen them. That's going to be higher. The hang up as I told you guys, stop saying that Tom, stop patting yourself on the freaking back. But the hang up as I told you guys was fully guaranteed money. And let's throw this up there. This is the full screen of the top cornerback contracts in the national football league. Will ad Gonzalez is once the folks over it over the cap throw it up there. But you'll look at all those fully guaranteed money numbers. And it was going up incrementally, one million, two million all the way through. You saw a Trent McDuffie, he gets $50 million, fully guaranteed. That means no matter what, get by a bus tomorrow, he's getting that money. Not wishing that on Trent. Then you see it jumps to $59 million. Exponential jump. Thanks to Reggie Johnson and the Seattle sea hawks coming to an accord for Devon Witherspoon to give him $59 million, fully guaranteed. The Patriots satisfied everything else. That's

2:03why Elliott Wolf was able to say, yes, it's still a better offer than anybody who's ever gotten one in the league has gotten. That's why Robert Kraft could say, it's the most lucrative cornerback contract. That was the one hang up that fully guaranteed money. But the Patriots were of a mind that we're not just going to give witherspoon, excuse me, Gonzalez more than Witherspoon because the sea hawks went off half cocked. We're going to follow the same parameters. The rest of the league has been following by incrementally moving up. And I think that the Gonzalez camp fill was kind of sitting there and saying, good, safely can get him to do it. We'll just wait. We'll wait. Maybe they'll do it. And there wasn't a lot of conversation. There were not ongoing talks here. And it wasn't because of Matt Gro not ferrying messages. And it wasn't because Elliott Wolf wasn't picking up the phone. It was silence coming one way. The Patriots said here's what it is. And they wouldn't answer. So I think basically all's well that ends well. This was a little bit

3:07of an exercise that we all engaged in that was over dramatized for two months when he was going to do this whole. It was pretty well planned. Yeah. Well, it just depended on how principled I guess he wanted to be in terms of what he was going to get with the fully guaranteed money. If he views himself as the top corner football, go ahead and ask to be number one in every metric, right? Which we've been saying for weeks now. That's what he was asking for. I remember asking people, you know, with the team early on in the process, you know, did the Witherspoon contract actually make this more complicated in some ways? And I think the answer was yes. That would be the easy answer. But the response I got back was they weren't looking for the Witherspoon contract. They were looking for more. They were looking for increases on every single one of those metrics that you mentioned. And the fact that he got what he wanted when it comes to average per year and total value and guarantees over the life of the deal, those are feathers in his cap. And now in the hours after the signing has happened, he and his agents and you know, Reggie Johnson, when sports

4:11group, they can say, look at this great deal. We got our guy. To me, the most important number is the fully guaranteed at signing number. And my guess is they finally on the eve of the season beginning after having practiced really all summer and into the early portion of the regular season here, they decided we can give on this one metric. And maybe we won't get the fully guaranteed number that Witherspoon got. And even though we don't have that number yet, my guessing Tom, they didn't get it because we haven't heard about it yet. This is pretty arcane contract language stuff. And I don't want to get too deep in the weeds. But basically what the Gonzalez camp wanted was for the patriots to go into the contract and take the year for this coming year paragraph five, which is the salary and to fix that and also the qualifying offer for year five and to make that more

5:12lucrative. Basically to go into his rookie contract, not just give him an extension that goes forward, but to go into the rookie contract he signed in 2023 when he was picked 17th and Devon with the spoon was picked fifth. The ask was, we will like to be made whole, meaning pay us more than Witherspoon in the initial contract. If I'm understanding what I was told correctly by the people I've had a chance to speak to over the weeks, make us whole in that regard, which is basically retroactively saying in essence, because Gonzalez is better now, he should be paid more than Witherspoon was when he was picked fifth overall. So it was a steep ask. And that's why I think the patriots are like, he has the best offer on the table. This is, this is an ask right now that is a little bit off the beaten path. And it wasn't a precedent that the patriots wanted to set with it going back into the deals and tearing them up. And in the end, Gonzalez gets everything he

6:12could buff his chest out and say it's the best contract in the league. And even if he doesn't get the fully guaranteed money, the Trumps Witherspoon, he can still say, who cares about that? I got everything I needed. And it was a tall ask anyway. And, you know, I think it's a tough thing to try to pull off if you're him, because what are your other options? You either go into the season and you take on loads of risk and you maybe risk this $100 million contract that's on the table for you if you were to get injured. You could do the thing where you play and then you suffer an injury and you're not technically holding out, but your teammates probably know what's going on. And then you lose credibility with them, which I don't think is what he wants to do. He's not a captain. I think he probably would have liked to be a captain, but he's, I just don't see him being that kind of teammate. That's a hard thing. Yeah. And so because you can't hold out realistically, I think you have to come back and you have to play a certain number of games to a crew a season and

7:13have your contract hold. When you come to the table early, we've been talking about this from the jump that you only have so much leverage and your leverage is to threaten your availability, but he's been practicing. I don't think he wants his teammates to feel like he's holding out on them. And so you make that concession. Okay. Devin Wendell's from got 59 million fully guaranteed. Sagan's always gets 51, which would be a $1 million bump over Trent McDuffy, who is the previous record center in that regard. Is it worth it to him? You know, is that $9 million that maybe he's not getting that he wishes he got worth it to him to take on the kind of risk that he would be taking on if he stepped on the field without a deal. And it's probably four or five. We'll see what the fully guaranteed money is, but it's probably going to be 53 54, a reasonable jump and the 52 that with a spoon, most likely could have gotten again, Devin with a spoon, 2023, fifth round, fifth overall pick, four Seattle. We guys all know this, but buttons will rehash it. Representative by Reggie Johnson, the same agent that Christian Gonzalez has, they wanted to trump that contract.

8:17Maybe should have said that at the beginning, but you guys are all up to speed. Quick question, couple of them. If Christian Gonzalez poops the bed in 2026, is he tradable in 2027 with this contract? I think this kind of actually makes him more tradable because his contract is going to become affordable very quickly. It probably will. Quenyan Mitchell from the Eagles is due to come up this coming off season. And so that could sort of reshape the market. He's a very good player. You could see somebody like Patrick's retain who might be the best bargain and football right now. Yeah. Get a bump, which makes Gonzalez's deal look like a relative bargain. So in that sense, you're probably right. And the near future, his contract will in all likelihood no longer be the richest corner contract and football. It's just hard for me to say that's on because sometimes the guarantees, if he has these mass as whether spoon does, where's point has a massive guarantees through the first two years. So if

9:20the Seahawks wanted to trade him after year one, good point. I think it would be really hard to do. So I'm not trying to look at at least three years of Gonzalez. And I'm not trying to trade away the guy they just signed 15 minutes after they signed them. They wanted them. They sounds like the game. We could do that. Well, I just like it. Okay. Stay loose. Stay loose on all fronts. We got to start our next narrative for everybody to harp on. We also have to get into the game. Phil, let's get into it. Here's Drake May talking about what happened. What God's name happened and what could happen Wednesday? I mean, you like just, you know, think it's a new year. You like to think that, but at the same time, you, you know, you can go this and opponent that you just lost Super Bowl against in the last game that, you know, I played and it was out there. We lost in them, you know, you know, in the biggest game. That's why you play the game for. So, um, we definitely, it wouldn't say extra just a little bit of man start chance to start the season off, you know, strong on a good foot and knowing that that point that we have and you get to say, you get to the little bit of a, you know, you get to your revenge game, but it wouldn't say a revenge

10:21game. You know, they won the big one and we got to start the season off. And, you know, you can get that game back that we lost. So we're on to onto something new. All right. You guys all watched the game. You did get an eye full of it. It didn't look so good. Here's some of those numbers from that game that we saw in February. The Patriots were up against it on the offensive line. Drake May. I don't think it was as hard as most of the planet does, but that's just contrary and wired. Tom did not have a good game. I thought interestingly, he wasn't able to escape the way he was in other games from the rush that was on him. But you'll look at all those different numbers. And you say to yourself, my God, what can the Patriots do to thwart this Seattle defense? Here's Josh McDaniel talking about how things looked in February. Again, whether it's the rush concepts that they had when they didn't blitz or the pressures that they used, you know, they, they created some opportunities for themselves. I didn't do a good enough job. I mean, pointed at me, you know, I mean, so,

11:26you know, they did a great job. They out everything to us in the game, you know, so start with coaching. And that relies, you know, comes back to me. So we have a lot of things we've learned. But I think this will be a different game. I think it'll be a new game. All right, back to fill again, Phil. What do the Patriots need to do offensively? To win this football game. I think in this is going to sound a little simple. This might sound a little surface level. I think it might. One, two, three, run game may has to make some really difficult throws. Run game. I wasn't going to go there. I just am assuming almost they're going to have a really hard time running ball. And I'm not saying punt on it. Don't abandon it. You know, this is one of the reasons why this offseason, I say this, this team and what they did to

12:30you in the Super Bowl is one of the reasons why you had the offseason. You had a few of the Patriots. Why you got a Reggie Gilliam. You got a couple of tight ends that you thought could play once hurt now. But you drafted a tight end who looks like he's going to make some real contributions. You got a new offensive lineman Elijah Verri Tucker. You've upgraded across the board there. So run game. They want to be able to run the ball. I'm not sure this is the week. You're going to be able to to show that off. I'm not sure this is the week. You're going to be able to flex on the rest of the late. The sea hawks are too good in that regard. This is what they do. They have four really talented, really stout defensive lineman that are damn near impossible to run against. At least they were last year. So we'll see if that changes this coming season. But I think this is going to fall on Drake May shoulders. If they're going to move the ball, it's going to have to be through the air. I think they have the weapon read to do it. And I do think they're going to move the ball. He just has to be able to get it out quickly, get it to these new wide outs. AJ Brown and Romeo dobs. The sea hawks secondary honestly player for player is not as talented as some others that they may see this year. Devon were there

13:32spoons of great player, but they've lost some pieces. You're going to hear from Mike Sandow a little bit later in this program about the Seattle sea hawks gaps in their secondary and they're trying to cover them. And so I think there just will be opportunities for them to make plays. Drake May's going to have to though still fit it into tight windows. Mike McDonald's a phenomenal coach who really will try to confuse the Patriots, which could be really difficult to start a new season with some new pieces. But that's to me what it comes down to the quarterback. And I don't think I'm going to say that every week. You probably could say it every week, but I just think because the run game could be mitigated, this is going to come down to to number 10. You know who I'm really intrigued to see is he's not a new ad, but he has a new role. And I think it's going to be a much more prominent role. And it could be you're either putting all your eggs into a basket that's not going to be able to carry him or it's going to be bountiful, a horn of plenty, a cornucopia of results from pop Douglas. He would be ideal if he can fit into the Edelman Amandola, Troy Brown,

14:33you name it. And again, that's that's asking a lot. But to be the bailout guy who can get you yards after the catch, you can pop it to on third and eight. You can pop it to on second and 12. Pop it. Yeah. And you can get something out of that. And you know, so far, he's been a good player. He's been an okay player. He's been a very good player for a sixth round pick. But he has not yet elevated to the point where you can say, my god pop Douglas has taken over this game. I haven't seen that happen. And that position should get the opportunities and should have the impact in the Patriots offense with McDaniels to take over again. I'm not saying he's going to do that. But that's what they're setting him up for. I was just going to say I was just going to say I think the Patriots agree with you, right? Because of the way in which we've seen him used throughout the course of this training camp and other preseason's past. He has been kind of, you know, the hot name every summer. Yeah. Feels like since he's been here. And so let's see if he's

15:34able to do it once the fall has his rolled around here. But I think they think that he can. Otherwise, he wouldn't be out there every single day, really from the start of camp with Drake May and the other starting receivers. It's dogs. It's brown. It's pop. Pop Douglas. That's that's been the three. And the job they're starting. That's their top grouping for 11 personnel. And the drop off is significant because Kyle Williams is not pop Douglas's backup. He's AJ Browns. And that's a big drop off. Might be Mac Hollins. I am. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, the game started. Fair. Right. And now, you know, again, maybe this doesn't come into play. Maybe they're ready to get away from the run. You know, that word balance always comes to mind. I think ideally, every offense coordinator and head coach would love to be balanced. But you want to do what's going to score points. And so, you know, I'm not sure run of the ball 40 times in this game is going to be great for them to score points. And so that could mean more pop Douglas in a game where running the ball makes more sense. You might see less pop Douglas because he's not going to really impact the

16:38run game as a blocker. And you might see more Mac Hollins in the slot where pop Douglas would be because he is a bigger body. And you can almost use him like a tight end. So this would be an interesting week for him. He also, he might be going against Devon with her spoon, Tom, who does play in the slot quite a bit. But if they decide to use him on a tight end or they decide to blitz with her spoon the way they blitzed him, which happened and had some great results for the C-Harts when they blitzed him in the Super Bowl, you know, then maybe that's where pop Douglas can be that release option that you're talking about. Who is the one player that you're looking for to offensive defense to to thinking could be an X factor key to the game? So I know this is going to this is going to seem in congruous, Tom, because I don't think it's going to be a big day for the Patriots run game necessarily, but I think Remondory Stevenson in the passing game could end up having a big night. We know Travion Henderson's hurt. Remondory Stevenson is going to get all kinds of work. Even this summer when Henderson was available, Tom, he was their better pass catching. And he's their

17:39better pass protecting back. And so listen, Drake made could be under duress. He was, we know, quite a bit in the Super Bowl. If that's the case, you need to get it out quickly. Maybe it's pop Douglas, but it also could be Remondory Stevenson in the flat, quick little, you know, roll out passes. We saw that quite a bit last year with with Drake Mayward felt like it was almost like an option play like he'd have a runner. And he'd be getting closer to the line of scrimmage and someone would come off of Remondory Stevenson. Don't get to your back. And after the catch, he has the ability to be really, really good. So I like like Stevenson as a potential sleeper. Let's flip it around. Let's look at the Seattle Seahawks offense triggered by Sam Donald. He's got a tremendous receiver over there in Jackson Smith and Jigba. Also have a new running back taking over Kenneth Walker and his name is Jadarian Price. Of course it is. It's for to see a film. All that in mind, Phil comes down to one thing with Sam Donald. You get in his damn face and he's a big puddle

18:41of go. If you don't, you're in trouble. And they did a pretty good job against Sam Donald and the Seahawks pass a game in the Super Bowl. So can you do that again? I guess would be my question. I still have a lot of questions about their ability to rush the quarter. I agree. Now they worked on their blitz so frequently this summer that that portion of their defense and their defensive playbook might be more advanced this year for week one than it was last year. And so maybe they have the ability there. There's a lot of turnover there in terms of the linebacker level and the secondary. They might have the ability to get a little exotic for week one and and really rush from a variety of different angles and bring some different bodies because they practiced it so much this summer. Finally, we'll have a game again. We'll know so much more and we are going to be so much more loaded for bear when we do our next pod, which will be right after the game. And we'll

19:43have so many more answers. The only answers we can really provide you with right now are historical answers. Unfortunately, before we get to my stand, we have Phil Perry to provide you with historical answers about previous openers and the tendencies they're in. The Patriots going to have to brace themselves, Phil, for an absolute onslaught in the first quarter of this game and in the first half, Phil, centerweight raising nights. You know, I thought they might. And I was ready to write a story all about how the Patriots are going to withstand this barrage in the first quarter. And even though Banner raising teams do tend to win these games and the record is pretty staggering. I think maybe in the last 17 of these, I heard Alex Barth 985, the sports ups, say Banner raising teams are 14 or in three or something along those last 20. They might be 17 and three. It's it's staggering. The numbers. But the last five, the last five have provided some interesting context. In four of the last

20:43five Banner raising games, the Banner raising team didn't cover. So these are closer games than you might expect. In two of those five, the Banner raising team actually lost the game outright. And in the first quarter of these games, the Banner raising team never left the first 15 minutes with a lead. Is either tied or they were down. This is just in the last five. But I find that interesting. The fact that you can get into this atmosphere, Banner's going up, crowds going crazy, all sorts of great memories. Sure, the montages are beautiful on the jumbo trunks. But it might it actually be the home team, the Banner raising team, the reigning champs that have a harder time adjusting to all of that extra stuff than the visiting team does. I would think that that's possible because you got the visiting team just stand there going. And you get the other team reveling in its

21:47accomplishment from last year. It's like, you know, do you remember your wedding? Do you remember who you talked to when you were walking around the wedding at the reception, making sure you stop by every table? No, your head was in the game. It's a little bit of a bad wasn't in the game. It was a blur. So the head's on the game early. You get to get your gut, start heading the game. That's what you got to do. Coming up after the break, Mike Sando. Hey, what's up? Welcome back everybody, Philly. We're going to bring in Sando in a second from the athletic. Do you think that the conversation during the game we've speculated about it for months is going to center on the Mike Vrabel Diana Rousini situation, the Gonzalez contract. Will it be more Seattle focused? What do you think our folks, our friends are brethren at NBC will spend their time gum flapping about relative to the Patriots or a Seattle the show? Well, I think Seattle will be the show to some degree that the energy in that

22:48building is going to be off the charts as they raise a banner. I just would think that yes, there'll be a mention of what went on this offseason with Mike Vrabel and Diana Rousini that situation. They already kind of teased that they would talk about that situation way back at the Hall of Fame game, if you remember. Yeah, they were looking ahead to Patriots Seattle and the way they previewed that game was by talking about the offseason that Mike Vrabel just had. So that'll be a part of it. But my guess is it'll be a lot of Gonzalez. It'll be a lot of the addition of AJ Brown will be the growth of Drake May. Those will be the primary talking points. They'll be a mention of Vrabel in the offseason, but I doubt it would dominate the conversation. Yeah, to me, the most important story is as the Patriots take the field for this opener by far is Drake May was the MVP runner up and people have disputed that it was a consequential season or as consequential as anybody who voted for MVP, which he should have been voted for by nearly everyone because of the schedule. So how well does he play with Romeo dobs and how well does he play with AJ Brown? And in

23:52a second year in the Josh McDaniel system, that's the number one small focus story, regardless of Vrabel off the field because I'm kind of into the football. You guys probably are too. And then the bigger story is how do the Patriots perform against the tougher schedule soup to nuts with an improved roster, but one that is not so improved that it's going to roll into the elite and say here we are. Look, go for us. I think you're right. Although I think they could even change people's perception of them in that way. Maybe with a strong start. I mean, it might even just take one week if they go in there and they somehow beat the Seahawks. And I'm probably not going to predict that they'll win this game. Hey, but if they somehow do do that, Tom, suddenly, you know what happens there may be not number one in a lot of the power rankings that come out on Tuesday the following week, but they're probably somewhere in the top three. And it's the Rams and

24:52maybe one of the team ahead of them. And so that to me is, you know, if you want to say that's those are the stakes. It's week one. There's a million things that could happen between now and the time when, you know, things really, truly matter. But they can make a statement. And I think they can change people's perception of them now and the year they had last year just by winning this game. All right. The future is now, Mike Sando. And here is the aforementioned Mike Sando, longtime friend, one of the most respected, the venerable Mike Sando on the Seattle Seahawks beat. Let's cut right to the chase and talk about this game before we get into the national perspective on the Patriots. And Drake May, what do you see unfolding on Wednesday night? Well, I think from 50,000 feet, I would say, Hey, it's going to be continuation of the Super World Seattle's better team. But I don't necessarily feel that strongly about it right now because I think number one, the first game of the year, you know, you don't have a lot to go on. Anything

25:55that happened. Number two, Seattle's got issues in their secondary at the safety position. You know, Nick M. and Worry, who's kind of their Swiss Army knife and really opens up a lot of the scheming for Mike McDonald. Their head coach who calls a defensive place. You know, he's had surgery and isn't going to probably be a factor in this game. And then Ty O'Cotta, who has done decent job in relief at the safety position, but isn't nearly as dynamic showed up on the injury report with a hamstring. So I could see this game being like, Hey, Drake May is actually healthy, you know, which I don't think he was in the Super Bowl. You had AJ Brown. You have a really good defensive Seattle that's playing at home. Probably has a good past rush. They're probably going to get after Brick May. But like to me, there could be opportunities for Drake May to make some plays in this game. If he's healthier, if Seattle's a little weakened in the secondary, there's been some talk to you about, Hey, Seattle's secondary, their team doesn't communicate as well at home. Sometimes it's so loud. So, you know, I don't think it's just a gimmie that Seattle's

26:57going to go out there and, and, and, you know, run away with it. Yeah, it's, it's interesting because you could certainly, and I asked Josh McDaniel says, you know what, we're going to throw the sound in right now. As an entire unit, we haven't functioned in a, in an NFL game yet together. And so I think the, the unknown of that and how it's going to all unfold, we know it won't be perfect. That's never going to be the case on opening day and really never in any game. But opening day, you always learn so much about your team and what you need to do going forward. And I think learning those lessons, even though they may be hard at times, you know, certainly can help serve you well as you go forward. So we'll hope to keep the lessons to a minimum. But, I'm sure we're going to learn some good and bad and we're always going to try to use that to be better as we move forward. So that's basically what you're talking about is you don't know what you're going to get in the first week and you have to learn a lot about your team. They've got AJ Brown,

27:57they have a healthier will Campbell, but you don't know how Elijah Vera Tucker is going to play at left guard. You don't know exactly what you're going to get at center with Jared Wilson. So all those factors come in and I look at the noise, the fundamental soundness and physicality of the Seattle defense and say they're going to be much more predictable in terms of results. They don't screw up on defense Seattle. They don't break down. It seems to me. They don't, but it is the first game. You know, I think that they're, I know they're going to be really good and improved over the course of the year. But the first game, like I said, a couple issues of safety. This whole offseason, they've been telling everybody basically through their actions. They got big question marks a corner too. You know, they got Terry and Arnold from Detroit. They've been in on a number of guys. They traded for a guy from the Chargers who wasn't even drafted. So they've been doing some scrambling here on the back end that tells me if I am New England, I would probably rather play them now. You know, then yeah, 10 weeks from now when it's a

28:59well of machine and they've worked out the kinks. CM Donald Jackson Smith and Jigba. All the weapon review that the Seattle sea locks showed in the Super Bowl last year. If the Patriots cannot exert pressure on Donald, they are blank. You fill in the blank. They're in big trouble because I think that he then it opens up the run in the past. Seattle's offensive line is actually pretty good. They've got two really good kind of cornerstone tackles there. The right tackle, Able Lucas. Not that well known. Super powerful guy. So they have, it's interesting. Their offensive line was a big problem for like 10 years when P. Carole was the head coach and that's changed. Steve Hutchinson who's a Hall of Fame guard who played for Seattle has been kind of in their scouting department for the last, you know, I don't know, seven, eight years. They started listening to him. Really? And they got some personality on that line. They got, you know, Grey's Able with a draft pick who's got that sort of offensive line mentality. They've got a good group. So if they're able to protect Sam Darnold, I think a lot opens up. Now that being said, the offensive coordinator for

30:05the CX is no longer Kubiak. He's gone. So Brian Flurry, who's under Mike Shanahan, it will be calling plays in a real game for the first time. Is he going to be as good right now as he's going to be in 10 games or two weeks? Right. So again, maybe it's a good time to catch Seattle. That's going to be fascinating to see. Is it unfolds? And one thing too, you know what Seattle's going to be? You know what the NFC West is going to be? What you don't know is what the AFC is going to look like. And you don't really know what the Patriots are going to look like. Given, you know, we can go chapter in verse on their schedule from last year, but they're a better team on paper. But that doesn't really matter because the teams they're playing are so much better. They have to make up that gap. You spend as much time as anybody networking and talking to GM's coaches and personnel people. What's the general perception about the AFC and the Patriots place in that pecking order? Yeah, they're going to they're in the top half of it, but are they you know, that really they have to fell nicely for them in Denver last year, you know, it did. And so

31:09you know, is that going to happen again? It might because Kansas City still could be anything, right? They could be the third best team, the sixth best team, the best team. We don't really know. I think Buffalo's still going to be good. I think Baltimore's going to be good. But you know, I pull executives every year going into the season, just hey, rank them one to 16 in each conference. Since the end, he got a number two vote in the AFC and a number 10. You know, it's a perfect if you can make a case for either one of them. So I feel like it is all over the place. The concerning thing I think for New England was just what Mike Ravel said, you know, he talked about their depth. You know, it's interesting thing. I think for a coach to say on the eve of the season, but if he's saying it, he's feeling it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's, look, we're going to take the field against some really good teams this year. And if there are occasions when we're into our depth, you might not see media and fan base exactly what you're anticipating seeing. So it had a two double edge to, you know, use it was to explain to us what we might see, but also to explain to

32:11the guys who are depth, you guys better start doing a lot better because right now, not friggin good. What about Drake, Mike? I know that we talked about him a lot last year. He's probably going to be the 70 million dollar quarterback next year. Once he gets to the table and go ahead, I can tell you, he got thoughts. Yeah, I mean, to me, he's the least of their worries right now, right? I mean, you know, he's whether he's going to be great. I mean, we don't, I don't think people are predicting that he's going to begin the top tier with those guys necessarily, but I think if they're predicting he's being the top half of tier two and be a guy who can go to the pro bowl any year and and now they don't go to the pro bowl, but could be named actually legitimate to a pro bowl now. You know, that he's going to be an upper half passer and maybe on the verge of that top 10 areas. So he seems solid to me. I don't think anyone's predicting his demise. And now, it's just a matter of them making it right around him, you know, the talk will Campbell tackle. They tried to do that. Now they got him a, you know, probably a true or number one receiver, hopefully,

33:13an H8 Brown. They invested in the running back position, right? They're trying to do those things to help elevate them even higher. You sound slightly tepid on May relative to your, to folks out here because folks out here look at his MVP runner up. And I would even contend through my East Coast bias glasses that he probably should have been the regular season MVP, given the faceplant, the Matt Stafford did at the end and the numbers and the all that crap. Yeah. Yeah. It's what I'm looking at him as being top five this year. I'm looking at him with AJ Brown in the people you speak to with it. When you did the tears, it was not, that was not the sense. And I'm not expecting you to know. Yeah. Make chapter reverse. Yeah. No, no, I agree with that. That wasn't what they were saying. You know, that hey, this he's going to go into top five. I think that there's an expectation that, you know, he that he's going to be a solid tier two quarterback, which is placed like cheer when some of the time, but not all the time has a whole or two in his game. If I were to point to one thing, you know, about him, I think we'll be

34:17interesting is he does have a really high sac rate. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of discussion, you know, about it's not always the offensive lines fault. It's not always all the quarterbacks fault, but typically, you know, the best guys get the ball out typically. Now that's there's a difference for the guys who run around a lot. They're going to make some big plays with their legs. So to the extent that he's doing that, he's probably going to have a higher sac rate. But still, that was like, he was like 9% sac rate. That's pretty high. So that's something I would, I would hope would come down not because of the offensive line, but because of him being more comfortable in the offense, maybe being more confident in where he's could throw into, get it out quick on time, make it go a little bit more consistently, efficiently. I think that that's typically a trait of those guys that get into the tier one. Unless I said, unless it's like the the dual one, the dual threat guy, particularly those dual threat guys don't stay in tier one. Well, that's back and forth. Yeah, he's up there one year than he's not. It's funny too, because the sacs that he took last year, some of them were zero sac, zero yard sac, one yard sac, because he was like, I'm not

35:22throwing it into this chaos. He didn't get guys separated. So he would start up and he would get a zero yard sac. It was really fast. I think you're right. We may have talked about this last year. And when we look at the value of those sacs, what it was like you said in the yards, or you can even look at like the EPA of the sacs, like how much did it hurt your offense from a translating into points, right? Yeah. I think his may have been a lower value. So that's interesting. It is. It was interesting to see. It was a McDaniel's kind of variable, be decisive. You know, yeah. Shoulder get off the plot, please. But don't put it in harm's way. Mike Sando, I was funny. I would bucket him though with Caleb Williams. I think those are the two guys this year that made the big jump in the tier two that were young guys. And Caleb holds the ball forever. And he got his sac rate down somehow. So it's probably something to watch with both of those guys just how they create and find that balance between taking a negative play and making a good one. All right. Well, we're going to see what happens with Drake May and the rest of the Patriots on Wednesday night. Mike, thanks as always for joining us. You're the best. Thank you.