Welcome back after the holiday. I hope you enjoyed your time with your family. It's a busy Thursday in Foxborough, with the head coach and coordinators leading the way, so without further ado, let's run through the most essential stuff.
Let's start with Alex Van Pelt. As I wrote in Musings on Tuesday, the offensive coordinator/team said one thing, then did another on Sunday in Buffalo, calling a pair of quarterback sneaks in addition to two designed runs for Drake Maye. That decision came after saying the most important thing was to get the rookie through the season in one piece. What changed? I asked Van Pelt.
"I think they were very safe plays, safe calls," he responded. "He was protected. We always have the ability to do those things. It's just, when do we decide to do it? In the situation, we ran him twice - one in the red area, one in the fourth down where it was a clean look and he was protected on the edge. He just had to take care of himself once he got around the corner.
"The quarterback sneak - that's something we do with all our quarterbacks. (We) just happened to do it in a situation where it wasn't expected. So again, we're always trying to protect our guy and make sure we keep him healthy. Again, I felt confident that those were quarterback runs that were going to be run into safe looks for him."
As I've expressed, I'm more than okay with the team not exposing Maye to more hits than he already has to deal with behind a leaky offensive line. This year has been all about cleaning up some of his mechanical deficiencies (he's gotten better), letting him grow as a pocket passer - you have to be able to win from there - and, of course, gaining experience, which can only help the rookie heading into the off-season and next spring.
But there has definitely been a push-and-pull internally about keeping the running part of Maye's game on ice this season, and it seems evident that Van Pelt was overruled by the head coach on this one, which is his right, even if I disagree.
CLEAN-UP ON AISLE 3
As expected, Van Pelt was asked about the lateral fumble call. Greg and I covered this in our writings, but as it was the first time we had heard from the offensive coordinator since the game, I wanted to share his view of the play.
"Yeah, that was a difficult one," he said. "We had, really, three errors on the play, and they were all critical. If we had not had one of those, we may have survived the down. We were a little fast to throw the lateral. It shouldn't be a lateral. We're expecting that to be a forward pass. We asked our guys to cut the end to that side. We didn't get his hands down. So that was number two. And then our back. We lost a little ground on the wide route, which we shouldn't do from that home spot. So those three got us. That was a crucial play in the game. We'd love to just survive that down and, you know, obviously not give them the touchdown. That was a tough one."
Later, Van Pelt called it a "safe play." Hindsight says it was as dangerous as possible, but I didn't hate the play in the moment; I just hated the execution (cue John McKay: What do you think of your offense's execution? I'm in favor of it."). As Van Pelt cites, Maye hurried the throw (and it was a little hot), Demontrey Jacobs didn't cut Gregory Rousseau, and Rhamondre Stevenson wasn't detail-oriented enough on his release/route. Do you want to know what's holding back this group - aside from insufficient talent? It's the little things that continue to show up week in and week out, often at the worst possible times. You can point the finger at the coaches. That's the easy way out. There are a lot of young players who aren't getting what it takes to be successful in this league. They're no longer rookies, and the excuses are getting thinner and thinner by the week.
ROOKIE RECEIVER IN FOCUS
On Saturday, the Patriots will get an up-close and personal look at the Chargers' Ladd McConkey. Had they stood pat in round two of the 2024 NFL Draft, they could have selected for the former Georgia standout. Instead, they traded back two spots, selecting Ja'Lynn Polk, and with the 4th rounder they acquired, added Javon Baker. Safe to say that maneuver has not gone in the Pats' favor here in year one.
McConkey is having quite a season for Los Angeles, with 69 receptions for 960 yards. He also has 50+ receiving yards in his last 8 games played. Only Odell Beckham Jr. (9, 2014) has had a longer such streak by a rookie since 1970 (Malk Nabers is also at 8 straight for the Giants). Oh, what could have been...
"Yeah, we did some work on him," said Mayo on Thursday morning. '"A guy that can get open versus man-to-man coverage. Look, he's playing well right now. He also does a good job finding space in the zone coverages. He's definitely a player you got to keep your eye on."
Meanwhile, Polk played just three snaps last weekend and is stuck at 12 receptions for the season. Baker had eight snaps in Buffalo, and John 'Bluto' Blutarksy can relate to Baker's receiving stat line.
"0.0."
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— Mike Giardi (@MikeGiardi) December 26, 2024
ODDS AND ENDS
Finally, with Ben Brown still in concussion protocol, there is a chance Cole Strange could make his season debut and do it playing center. Lecitus Smith remains in the mix as well. Mayo was non-commital this morning.
Marcus Jones (hip) also continues to rack up DNPs in practice. Defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington indicated he'd be comfortable moving Christian Gonzalez into the slot should they decide that's the best path against the LA offense, and McConkey.