Lockdown: Christian Gonzalez Elevating Patriots Defense, Dictating Plans

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. You're juggling a lot, but you can still squeeze in a financial plan. With the Northwestern Mutual Financial Advisor as your partner, it's not only possible, it's personalized. So, if you're tying the knot, closing on a house, or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at nm.com, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Christian Gonzalez is playing like the best corner in football and it is dictating the

1:18path's defensive plan. You are locked on patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening? I am your host, Nick Cattles. On today's episode, Michael One who's lost 2026 and how it could change the team's in-season at roster building in the second segment, Drake May's lack of pre-season work in a possible Stefan Diggs reunion. But first, Christian Gonzalez is balling. Today's episode is brought to by Fandall, get $350 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet $5 every day for seven days. Join all the action at Fandall.com. The paths are one and one and had a chance to be 2 and 0 because of their defense. Now let's be a little transparent here. The fact is they play Drew Lock after the first series in Seattle back up quarterback.

2:23They follow that up playing against the Pittsburgh Steelers who can't get out of their own way offensively. Couldn't do much against Atlanta in Pittsburgh, let alone the Patriots defense in New England. But the Patriots defense, they can only do what they can do, which is play who is on the schedule. And this defense, even though there are questions about who they have faced, has been terrific. And the most important and best player on this team through two weeks has been Christian Gonzalez. The way that the first two weeks have unfolded, he's the guy. And we can sit there and we can pick apart who the Patriots defense played in the first two weeks, defense versus offense. But you can't pick apart who Christian Gonzalez has blanketed the first couple of weeks. The guys that he has played against, mono, mono, no joke Jackson Smith and Jigba in DK Metcalfe. And Gonzalez so far in 2026 to me is playing like a first team all pro.

3:27And I would argue he's playing like the best corner in the entire league. He shut down JSN in man to man reps. And if you missed what Jackson Smith and Jigba did in week two, well, he had nine catches for a buck 55, not one, not two, but three touchdowns. He did nothing of the sort against Gonzalez. Yes, he had the 45 year touchdown again zone. We talked about it. That was not on Gonzalez. Gonzalez did a fantastic job against JSN who is considered one of if not the best receivers in football. And then this past week against DK Metcalfe, he did pretty much the same Mike Giardi, Boston sports journal wrote, Gonzalez is ascended to a higher plane, completely taking DK Metcalf out of the game and man coverage. DK Metcalfe had seven targets, just two catches for eight yards. Giardi continued.

4:28It went beyond the stat line. It was the ongoing conversation between plays where Gonzalez was so far in Metcalfe's head that he probably got a social security number in his girlfriend's cell. Christian Gonzalez has been downright fantastic to start this year and Gonzalez's ability to play man coverage, his ability to shut down the opposition's best receiver has dictated what the Patriots are doing defensively because Gonzalez, he is going to shadow wide receiver one a lot of times during a Sunday. And because he's going to shadow the wide receiver one, you are now going to rely more on man coverage. You rely more on man coverage. You blitz more. We talked about that during the 2025 post season, the playoff games, right? Zach core defensive play caller called a bunch of blitzes. And it's because the Patriots leaned in on the man coverage and they've done the same

5:32thing through the first two weeks of this season. I was wondering how much the Patriots would blitz the Pittsburgh Steelers Aaron Rogers. He's good against the blitz. You could argue he's great against the blitz. Now he stinks against pressure, but you've got to get home with that blitz. Now what else what also helps when you might not get home immediately on a blitz is your man coverage is locked down coverage. The Patriots they walked into that Steelers game. They weren't afraid of blitzing Rogers. They blitzed him 39% of the time. And they married that 39% blitz rate with a ton of man coverage. Andrew Callahan of the Boston herald wrote that the Patriots they played 52% zone, 48% man. That is a ton of man coverage, especially in 2026. When a quarterback is lining up, getting ready for the snap and essentially is looking

6:34out to the defense and whether that defense is playing a zone or it's playing man coverage is a flip up the coin, which practically it was against the Steelers instead of 50, 50. It was 52, 48. That's a ton of man coverage. And because you're playing so much man coverage, you can devote more bodies to the run game. You got more guys up front, right? You're blitzing more, you're more aggressive, which means you can be better against the run. Teams aren't burning you with the pass. And this is all because of Christian Gonzalez. If you don't have Gonzalez, this is not the defensive plan. If you don't have Gonzalez, you're not blitzing Pittsburgh almost 40% of the time. If you don't have Gonzalez, you're not playing Pittsburgh 48% of the time and man coverage. You're just not going to do that. Gonzalez allows you to do that. And this is what the great corners do. We've seen it in past years, the ability to lock down half the field and allowing your

7:40defense to get exotic, get aggressive. That's what we're seeing. You know, when you have a Dorel Revis, you can do that back in the day. When you have a Patrick Sir Tan out in Denver, you can do that. And with Gonzalez, the way he's playing, what he's doing in New England, you can do the same thing. When you have tight man coverage like the Patriots have had and watching the film against the Steelers and I know the Steelers, especially without Michael Pittman again, they don't have a great receiver room. DK Matt Caff is good. I think he's overrated, but he's good. But when you have that tight man coverage, watching that Steelers film, Marcus Jones, Charles Woods, obviously Gonzalez, their corners played really good coverage, the vast majority of the time. And when you have that tight man coverage, the quarterback is looking for somebody to target and that guy's not open. And then you have the blitz.

8:42Just raining down on that quarterback. Good luck. And one of the things that Mike Vrable has discussed throughout training camp, throughout even before training camp is the idea of creating turnovers and this defense needs to create more turnovers than they created in 2025. And if you have that tight man coverage and you've got that hectic blitzing happening that should result in more turnovers being created, which should result in shorter fields, which results in better, more efficient offense, which results in more points on the scoreboard. That's what the patriots are trying to accomplish here. And this is why myself and many other people out there said, yes, you have to sign Gonzalez to an extension. You have to keep Gonzalez happy because he means so much to this entire operation.

9:44It's not just what he can do on an island. It's the trickle down effect for Zach Cores defense and his defense of game planning. And we've seen that the first two weeks. Gonzalez simply put has been worth every single solitary penny. Now what that said, bigger challenges are ahead. You got to play at Jacksonville Trevor Lawrence, a very talented wide receiver room. You've got to play against Buffalo and Buffalo. We'll see if DJ Moore is healthy by then. But Buffalo obviously with Josh Allen who was on a heater to start this season. So the level of competition is going to go up significantly over the next couple of weeks. Continue to play this type of man coverage with this type of blitzing, getting after the quarterbacks. Good luck to any offense. And it all begins with Gonzalez. Should the pads regret not playing Drake May in the preseason?

10:45My answer to that and more mailbag questions coming up next. This is lockdown Patriots part of you. Lockdown podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Our team every day. Running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. One app for accounting, another for inventory and other for sales and somehow not I don't talk to each other. That's where Odo comes in. Odo is an all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Working works in one place helping your team move faster, stay organized and focus on growing the business instead of managing software. The best organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal and that's true in sports just like it is in business. Think about an adjustment you might see a coaching staff make the adjustment itself. Yeah, it's important. But what really makes things click is how smoothly that adjustment gets implemented.

11:48It's great coaching staff. Great organization and great organizations win because operations matter and that's why you should get Odo. Try for free today at Odo.com slash lock down that's Ode O O dot com slash lock down football is back and that means Sundays are about to get a whole lot more interesting every week brings new matchups break out players big performances and plenty of storylines to follow. Look at all the injuries happening early this year and if you like getting even more engaged with the players and stats you're watching. There's a new way to make game day more exciting prize picks is bringing out its best offer yet new users who sign up can get $150 in lineups if they win their first $5 lineup and prize picks of course is now available nationwide coast to coast baby with prize picture building daily fantasy lineups by choosing two to six players and selecting more or less on their projected stats like passing yards rushing yards or fantasy score. And once you start paying attention to individual player stats you notice so much more during

12:50a game like who's getting the targets who's controlling the ground game download the app today and use code lock down NFL to get $150 instantly in lineups if you win your first $5 lineup prize picks run your game. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being in every day or before we jump into the mail back questions some quick notes. Michael when you officially placed on injured reserve on Tuesday he's done so the Patriots with that open roster spot signed punter Mitch wish now ski to the 53 man roster. They also signed tight end Tanner Connor to the practice squad so Tanner Connor replaces wish now skis practice squad spot wish now ski replaces Mike Owenu's 53 man roster spot to get back to tight end Tanner Connor according to Mark Daniels of mass life Connor played in 33 games with the dolphins over the last four seasons apparently the Patriots loved

13:52the dolphins tight end room last year they signed Julian Hill in the off season of course he gets injured Eli Rairden banged up with the thigh. So they go right back to a former dolphin signing Tanner Connor to the practice squad. All right, let's start with the questions. Let's go to Johnny Utah PS how much would some preseason reps have helped Drake may. All right, well, I don't think the lack of preseason reps has hurt me. I think people overrate the idea of Drake may going out there and playing. I understand, you know, Mike Reese says Drake may should have played some and you go back to Bill Bellacic and football players only get ready by playing football and I get the idea. But I do not think may playing in a preseason game would have changed the math through the first two weeks. I just can't believe that eight to 10 dropbacks in a preseason game is the difference between

14:55what we've seen from May through the first two weeks and what we saw from him before last year's post season. I just don't believe that. Let's not forget like if May's out there playing the preseason, who's he playing against? He's playing against second string guys at best. He's probably playing against third stringers. Don't forget, you know, as the Patriots went through their camp in their preseason games, they had three joint practices, one against Indy and two against Philly. Well, Indy andapolis is not going to run out there. They're number two guys against the Drake may. I don't think that would happen. And if so, it's like one series against the Colts, twos. Woo. And then Philly Philly is going to play nobody when you play two joint practices before the preseason game, like you're not going to play any of your guys. So eight to 10 dropbacks against Philly's third string is not going to make Drake may any better in Seattle against the Seahawks against that defense of play call or against the

15:56Steelers front seven. I just don't buy it. And it's not just the level of talent you play in the preseason. It's also what defenses are doing in the preseason. All Drake may is going to see if he's out there in the preseason against second and third stringers is vanilla defense. He's not going to get cover six. He's not going to get unique blitz packages. He's not going to get any of that. He could go out there and take his 10 dropbacks and throw two touchdowns in the preseason. None of that would matter. You know, the early struggles from May part of it is just who they're playing. And that's not excuse making those are reasons. Now there's no excuse obviously. And there are no reasons to throw three interceptions in a fourth quarter. But Seattle's defense is great. Mike McDonald is great. Pittsburgh's defensive line is very good. That a surprise game plan on Sunday against May.

16:58They blitzed more than they usually do. They played more man coverage than we would have expected. And they had Patrick Graham as their defensive play caller who has intel. Right. I mean, he he coached with the Patriots. He's gone against Josh McDaniels. He coached on McDaniels staff in Vegas. He played May and McDaniels last year with Vegas. So some of this you do tip the cap to the defenses in the play calling. And on Sunday, you got Jared Wilson and Greg Van Rowe and just struggle league, which doesn't help. And May still try to learn how to see it better. Quote and quote against copper six. And again, that's not going to happen in the preseason. That's where a lot of these troubles are coming, you know, zone, different looks. He's hesitating. He's late confirming that guys are open. But this type of type of stuff happens to young quarterbacks.

18:00He just has to crack the code. And I think he'll eventually get there. All right. Before we get to our next question, don't forget to help brother out. Don't forget to help this YouTube channel out. Click the thumbs up. Give us a like. Helps us with the algorithm. Don't forget to comment that also helps us with the algorithm and subscribe to the channel. The next goal is 11,000 subscribers. We're far away from that hundreds away. So help us out like comment and subscribe. Okay. Question number two from AJ Brown, enjoyer. We're a ways away. But is there a world where the commander is going on a bad run without Jaden Daniels and are willing to trade the fond digs back to the past? Anything is possible. Kevin Garnett told us that a long time ago, but I don't see it. You know, this isn't just about 2026 for Drake, May. This is about the next two, three, four years. And I think the patriots are better served giving opportunities to Romeo dobs and pop Douglas

19:01and Kyle Williams to see what you have. And to try to build those guys up. It's just critical to the operation. You need to know where you're at as you went to into next off season. You bring in Stefan digs, he might give you. He might give you a little bit of a shot of adrenaline, a little bit more juice, right? He could certainly help you this year. But you're looking at this year and the bigger picture for your quarterback because inevitably, you know, AJ Brown's 29, you bring digs in for one year, not that you're starting over at receiver next off season, but you could be making more moves at that position than you want to because you did not give the opportunities to the guys who are on the team right now. The patriots need to give these other guys the opportunities instead of, you know, being stuck on names from yesterday, like a fans are still there are still a number of fans

20:04who are just obsessed with the case on booty thing. There are fans that are looking at Stefan Diggs as he plays well for Washington says, why don't they keep Stefan digs? You make the decisions you make in real time. Like, it feels like there were non football reasons for Stefan Diggs's release that went beyond just money. And we went through this through the off season. He usually wears out his welcome with quarterbacks in teams after like 18 months to two years. Now, you know, if he comes back, if he came back and helped you, I get the argument, but you also have to think about the big picture, which also includes the idea of trading an asset for Stefan Diggs. Do you want to trade a draft pick for digs? Do you want to trade a draft pick for digs considering he's in his 30s and you would be banking on him being at his best late in the season and in the playoffs? I think that's a far from ideal plan.

21:04Like, I'd rather just give the guys here a shot. Like we also have to think about what other needs the Patriots will have over the next several weeks. Like Michael when who just had a season ending injury, things can happen. And so, you know, I'm looking at receiver and I'm still saying to myself, you get AJ Brown back, you still have a really good room. They should have enough in this wide receiver room to figure it out. Now if you have more injuries, that's a different conversation, but like you should have enough, you should have enough in that wide receiver room. And I'm going to bank on Drake May being better, which will in theory help elevate those guys as well. Coming up, the interior offensive line depth and how desperate the paths could be a post mic on when you were all this is locked on Patriots part of the locked on podcast network

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24:13Thanks for checking out the lock down podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network. Let's roll along with more questions from you. We do this every single Wednesday on the mail bag. Appreciate you. George Smith with a bunch of numbers. Do you feel comfortable with our interior offensive line depth as it stands or do you think it be wise to bring in another vet with Mike Ohenu down? It's tough to say I feel comfortable after watching Greg Van Rowe and on Sunday, but I expect Van Rowe and to be better moving forward. Like Pittsburgh is a very tough assignment. If you're throwing somebody into the deep end, that's what it looks like with with Cam Hayward and Benton and Harmon like Pittsburgh is very talented on the defensive line. They've got some big dudes on the interior. So to be thrown in, that's difficult. I mean, Van Rowe and didn't have a training camp. He came in right around the time of the Eagles joint practices.

25:19The guy just, he didn't have a lot of reps in the summer. And obviously, part of that is his plan. Part of it is maybe he wanted to get in earlier, but teams might not be interested or whatever the case may be. But when you're signing in the middle of August, that's a very late start. And, you know, he's not getting reps at practice because he's a backup. So the rust, that should have been expected. He was bad against the seals. And if he continues to be that bad, then, yeah, you might have to do it all points bulletin to bring in somebody to help you. But I think with reps this week, you know, being prepared, starting from from snap one, I think Van Rowe and will be better. I do. Now, if another injury happens to the interior offensive line,

26:20then you're looking at Ben Brown as a possibility. But of course, I think Ben Brown is more sensor than guard, but it is what it is. You got Ben Brown and Walter Rouse who you traded for after the initial 53 man roster, right? Or right around then from Minnesota. So those are the two guys that would be next up. If somebody else goes down, I don't think the paths would move Caleb Lomu to guard, especially given the fact that Demetrius Crownover missed last week's game with a knee issue. I don't know how significant that knee issue is for Crownover, but, you know, that's one less tackle that you have on your roster right now. That's healthy. And Lomu has played pretty much exclusively at tackle. So, frable was asked about possibly moving him to guard. And it didn't sound like the head coach was bullish on the idea, especially in season. And I would not want that to happen. Now, of course, Eliza Veratucker's injury history makes it very, very shaky.

27:22As far as the long term goes, I mean, you still got 15 regular season games. You now have to watch every game with your fingers crossed about Veratucker. But if somebody's available, inevitably you asked a question, why, right? Like, why is that guy available in late September? I don't know how great of an option you're going to have. And I know there's names that are still out there, but there's a reason why those guys are still out there. If you're a quality offensive lineman, you're on a football team. So I don't know what kind of value you're going to find. I think the Patriots would tell you, let's just pray to the football gods for good health from Veratucker. Let's hope that Greg Van Routen rounds into shape. And where's case scenario? One of Ben Brown, Walter Rouse will be next up. And maybe they hold the fort down for a couple of weeks if they have to. I think it's telling the Patriots had a big tight end workout on Monday. But did nothing as far as the online.

28:22I read that as they think they're okay for now. Again, if another injury happens, then who knows? Who knows what you do at that point. Next question from Sully, the Die Hot Pats fan. Why no traviant Henderson sweeps? Interesting question. You know, last year it could be a number of different things. It could have been, you know, running behind the experience on your offensive line, like the most experienced guys on your old line were Garrett Bradbury, Michael Wenu and Morgan Moses. Did you want to run a lot of sweeps to the outer edge behind Will Campbell? And you know, ask Jared Wilson to pull as well. Could be a risky proposition. So that could have been part of it. Let's run more inside on the right side than than anything else. You also, when you're running sweeps, you're obviously dependent on the blocking on the perimeter, which a lot of times we're talking wide receivers

29:24and tight ends. And frankly, when you look at last year's team, Mack Hollins was mostly good as a blocker, but the other wide receivers were not especially consistent. Stefan Diggs would try to block when he wanted to try to block, which wasn't often pop Douglas. I know he threw a great block this past weekend, but he's still a work in progress in that category. Kyle Williams, hardly on the field and when he's on the field, you know, do you trust in him? Ethan Chisholm, I thought, had some pretty good reps in the run game last year, but you're asking a lot from your receivers and your tight ends, Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper. You know, I watched that week one game between the Falcons and the Steelers Austin Hooper through like three or four really good blocks for the Falcons. I was wondering where that Austin Hooper was last year for the Patriots because he was very inconsistent. And as the year went on, he got worse and Henry did not have a great year blocking for the run. So, you know, we're talking about the entire team. If you

30:25look at Treby on Henderson individually, yes, attacking the perimeter with his speed makes a lot of sense, but you need guys to do their job to make sure he has space to hit that perimeter. And it also depends on the defense is your facing like we know that Josh McDaniels, he game plans weekend and week out. If you're going against teams that you think are good on the edge that are good at the second level can get to the perimeter, then you're not going to call a lot of those runs. If you think a team is weak on the interior, that's where you attack. And you also like to run a lot of play action or would love to and to run play action, you need that downhill run game to set it up. So there's a lot that goes into it. I do expect to see it more this season. You know, Henderson hitting the perimeter should be a strength, but I'm not sure we'll see as much of it as you want. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C radio. Don't

31:28forget to like, comment and subscribe on YouTube. And if you want another way to be locked on to the Patriots every day, check out the Lockdown Patriots hit your daily hit of espresso on the team. You love quick, strong, five minutes or less, find Lockdown Patriots hit on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great day. We'll speak with you next time. We'll talk about a little boost in something that tastes fun. That's where Cotton Candy, five hour energy shots come in bringing back that classic nostalgic flavor with a modern twist. Because these Cotton Candy five hour energy shots don't just taste good. They deliver a tasty caffeine kick and a convenient zero sugar energy shot you can take anywhere. It's perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth who doesn't want the sugar guilt afterward. Bring on the sweetness of Cotton Candy, five hour energy shots available now online at fivehourenergy.com or Amazon. That's Cotton Candy five hour energy shots available at fivehourenergy.com or Amazon. This is brought to you by Colgate Total Active Prevention. Some routines make perfect sense, like securing your seatbelt before driving,

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