I had the chance to talk with former Patriots safety and current NBC Sports football analyst Devin McCourty during my Thursday episode of the All 32 podcast. Not all of you are into the audio/video game, and enjoy the written word. So I decided to transcribe parts of that interview to share with you here. Devin was, as always, very thoughtful with his answers regarding the current Pats team, Drake Maye, the Dolphins, and why New England has historically come up short in South Beach (adjacent). Here are some of his thoughts.
Was he surprised at how the Patriots looked in their week one loss?
"I wouldn't say surprised. I remember talking to Josh McDaniels. We were in there talking, and I was like, How are things going? And you know, there was so much excitement, especially, I think, the way they performed against Washington in the joint practice. And then Minnesota wasn't as cut and dry, but going out there were some good things in the game. And he said to me, he's like, 'I don't know yet. We haven't gotten a real game, we haven't had a game plan. We haven't gone in with a game plan. Got punched in the mouth, and they had to respond or be down three points in the fourth quarter. He's like, there's so many things that we have to go through as a team together that we just don't know.'
"So I think the hard part is right now, with so much transition, when you bring in a few guys that have been there, other guys that haven't been there, a new head coach, you don't really know what to expect until you get in a real game situation. So, no, I won't say surprising, but I would say when you're so excited, and that's how every team is with week one, you want to see some part of your team look really good, and I think for them, it was a struggle on offense. Geno Smith had a good day offensively, even though you got to him with some sacks - Harold Landry leading the league in sacks right now - but I think you still walked away and wasn't like, 'Man, we can hang our hat on this.' And I think that was probably the disappointing part."
If I told you the defense was going to blitz 43% of the time, how would Devin McCourty, the free safety, feel?
"Not great, in the sense of it, it's situational. As much as we blitzed with Flo (Brian Flores), it was all about us as a defense, getting them to third and five plus. Because when we got in third-and-five-plus, we lived in an era where we loved the blitz calls that we had. So when you love your blitz calls in the secondary and the secondary has confidence - of course, the front seven wants to blitz, like they don't want to have to think and just go. But if you talk about we're blitzing on early downs, first and 10 or second and eight. And it feels like those so-called run blitzes, no, like, I don't want to run blitz. Like the run blitz might get home, might not get home.
"The first touchdown for the Raiders was a blitz. And if I'm Geno Smith, if this is the blitz, like he's comfortably sitting back (and) Jaylinn Hawkins, like, yeah, you get credited as the blown coverage, or whatever you want to say, on the touchdown. You've got no shot. I mean, the slot is running at you full speed with no pressure. So no, I wouldn't want to live in that unless we're talking about, hey, it's second and we got them backed up. It's second and 15. We know it's a passing situation, and we know we're sending more than they can pick up, so the ball has to come out fast. We loved that in 2018 with Flo. Not so much with some of the other, like early down blitzes that I've lived in with my time in New England.
"I remember there was a game in 2013 where we had a call that me and (Aqib) Talib, we hated the call. As soon as it came in, we looked at each other and started smiling. And it's one of Josh Gordon's ultimate highlights, where he catches the slant and he goes like 70-75 yards for a touchdown. We hated that call."
Was your game plan against Tua Tagovailoa to clog the middle of the field?
"Yeah, no doubt about it. Like you take away the middle of the field. When you watch Miami, and again, I don't know if this is schematically what Mike McDaniel wants to do, or if this is him fitting his scheme to his player. Like Tua, I don't know. Is it that he doesn't like to do it? But there aren't many throws that go outside the numbers. A lot of passes are right down the middle."
What is it about the Patriots not having success in Miami?
"I love Bill (Belichick). Bill used to always say, 'I don't want to hear about the weather.' The weather plays a part in this. And again, we won a lot of games, and Bill's madness resulted in a lot of victories. But I always hated our Miami weeks at the end of the year. We would be going in the bubble, cranking the heat up, and I just felt like that would wear us down. And now you're going into the game worn down. We open either '21 or '22 in Miami. I forgot which year, and we went down there early so we could get acclimated. But like, instead of getting acclimated again, I felt like by the time Sunday came, it was like, 'Holy." You know what I mean? Like, I think that played a part in it."
MAC IS BACK
Before the 2021 NFL draft, the prevailing thought from insiders across the league was that Mac Jones was going #3 overall to the San Francisco 49ers. Sure, Jones wasn't considered a high-level prospect athletically, but his smarts and accuracy seemed to be perfect fits for the Kyle Shanahan offense.
That's not the way it played out. GM John Lynch and others reportedly swayed Shanahan to take the plunge on the Trey Lance experience - and that failed miserably. Lucky for all parties involved, 7th-rounder Brock Purdy emerged, and the three first-rounders it cost to move up became merely a footnote in history.
But with Purdy hurt (turf toe, left shoulder), the Jones/Shanahan union is about to be consummated. Jones, who signed with San Francisco in the offseason, is in line to start this weekend in New Orleans.
“I think Mac knows how to play the position,” Shanahan said. “He can play well in the pocket, distributes the ball well, sees coverage well, and can play fast in there. He’s got a lot of good film from the NFL with the experience, and, obviously, college. Tough guy who will hang in there and deliver the ball where it needs to go.”
The word out of the Bay Area is that Jones has been humbled. His teammates are showing confidence in him — at least publicly — to step in and run the offense the way it needs to be run against the Saints.
"Whether Brock is playing or not, it comes down to executing at a high level and keeping it that simple," said Christian McCaffrey. "Not trying to do anything special.
"... Mac shined a bunch of times in camp. He's got a whole bunch of starts under his belt. He's played in the NFL. He's played good football before."
Joey Bosa added, "I think he’s really popped up on tape throughout camp. If Mac does start, I think it’s a little more advantageous for him being early in the year since he’s gotten some real reps recently, and he’s not like 10 weeks into the season, taking only scout team and getting pinballed around by the D-line and scout team. I think that’s a bright side.”
Jones will go into this one without one of the best tight ends in football, George Kittle. The team placed him on IR with a hamstring issue, and he will miss the next four games. But it appears the shoulder injury that plagued wide receiver Jauan Jennings won't sideline him on Sunday, and Jones may also have old friend Kendrick Bourne in the lineup as well. Bourne, who was released by the Pats, signed with the 49ers earlier this week and is taking a crash course in an offense that he used to play in.
"Me knowing Mac obviously helps," Bourne said. "We have a connection. We can speak to each other in a certain way, because we're already connected."
EVENTUALITY
It didn't take long for fans of the New York Giants to be begging for a quarterback change. Veteran Russell Wilson, a clear placeholder, was thoroughly ineffective in the opener, a lopsided loss to a sluggish Commanders team. With Jaxson Dart waiting in the wings, it's not a matter of if, but when the rookie takes over. Brian Daboll was tepid in his assessment of Wilson's play, leading some to wonder if Dart would be inserted this weekend. Still, the head coach is sticking with his original plan, which is to keep Dart marinating as long as possible.
“Look, I’m not going to get too much into last week,” Daboll said. “We’re moving on to this week. We go through our tape on Monday. We make our corrections in all facets, and I expect him to come out here and have a good week.”
Wilson, who went 17-of-38 for 168 yards and wilted at the first sign of pressure, claims to be unaffected by Dart's presence.
"I think you embrace challenge,” he said. “I don’t think I run from challenges. I don’t think I run from anything. I know how confident I am in myself, confident I am in the guys that we have. My confidence never blinks. I’ve been through everything. I’ve been through all the biggest highs there could be, been through a few lows, but at the same time, I also know my confidence never wavers.”
At 36 years of age, Wilson's time as a starter in this league is growing short, and his words do little to cover up his rapidly descending play. Aside from a few games last year in Pittsburgh, he's been in decline for a handful of seasons, and Seattle was brilliant to move off him when it did.
Meanwhile, even though the Giants have restricted media access to Dart, Daboll himself had no problem detailing the plan they have for their future starter.
“Yeah, he gets show (scout) team,” Daboll said. “We mix him in once in a while on the first unit, but he spends a lot of time going through the script and going through the plays and keeping guys after practice and working through an entire script and throwing live balls. That's just the plan we have for him.
“There's a lot of good learning examples from that. You try to play that like a game, the best you can, with your timing, rhythm, eye control, mechanics, and knowing when to take off and when not to."
Daboll played a significant role in Josh Allen's development, and his offensive coordinator, Mike Kafka, was involved in Patrick Mahomes' growth in KC. There have been reports that Dart must meet certain thresholds/standards before the braintrust will put him in as the starter, but Dart was elevated to the backup position after being a third-teamer all summer. Meaning he's one play away from meaningful game action. However, left tackle Andrew Thomas didn't play in Week 1, and Dart won't receive the big promotion until Thomas is healthy and the offensive line stabilizes. But believe you me, it's coming.
BO WANTS TO BOUNCE BACK
A player's progress is rarely linear. That's especially true for young quarterbacks. Just ask Bo Nix.
The Broncos' signal caller had a terrific rookie season, throwing for 3,775 yards and 29 touchdowns while leading Denver to the playoffs. If not for Jayden Daniels, Nix could have easily been the rookie of the year, and he did all that with a broken back.
Fully healed, the 25-year-old is expecting to add to his resume, but he had a tough time in a season-opening win over the Titans. Nix turned the ball over three times (2 INTs, 1 fumble) and scuffled in the face of pressure (sound familiar?), completing just two passes against the blitz. Despite that, Denver escaped with a narrow win.
"It's not about the stats or it's not about perfection by the outside, but it's just, for me, a standard that I have for myself, and I know that I can be better," said Nix midweek.
To his credit, the quarterback rebounded from two of those turnovers by leading the Broncos to a touchdown just before halftime, hitting his top target, Courtland Sutton, on a perfect strike. He then rallied after another interception in the third quarter, converting three straight third-down passes on a drive that resulted in the go-ahead field goal.
“It’s probably the toughest part of our position, in my opinion, is bouncing back from the negative,” Nix said. “Because you work really hard, you get one shot at it, and every once in a while, when you miss it.
“It’s tough because that’s what you just want to think about. “You just want to fix it so bad that that’s what you’re thinking about. The real advantage, the real edge, is when guys can just go to the next play, move on.”
That's where having Sean Payton and teammates like Sutton helps.
"I don't know how many games I've called, but that's one of them where I came away from it like, 'I have to be a lot better,'" Payton said, absorbing some blame for Nix and the offense's performance.
"He is a competitor," added Sutton. "He challenges himself to be perfect. I tell you guys all the time that is something you love to see from your quarterback: someone who wants to be the best version of themselves because that is who they are. That is their character and competitive edge. To be able to look at him and say, 'Hey, we got you,' it's something subtle.
"I think he understands, and he knows that, but it's not just him. It's all of us. We all need to be reminded now and again that the weight of the world is not on your shoulders; it is on all of us. We as a team go out there and perform to achieve a victory."
The Broncos visited the 1-0 Colts on Sunday.
NERD NUMBERS
- Kayshon Boutte is the first Pats' player with 100+ receiving yards in back-to-back games since Julian Edelman in Weeks 5-6 of 2019. He joins Edelman, Wes Welker, and Rob Gronkowski as the only Pats' players to have 100+ yards in consecutive games since 2010.
- 12 of the NFL’s 16 games in Week 1 ended with a final score within 8 points (one possession). That's tied for the most one-possession games in a single week in NFL history (15th week all-time with 12 such games). Week 1, 2013, is the only other Week 1 all-time that had 12 one-possession games.
- The Bills have allowed 40+ points and 400+ total yards in 3 of their last 6 regular-season games. Buffalo had just 2 such games in the Sean McDermott era before Week 14, 2024.
- Aaron Rodgers may have thrown for 244 yards in the opener, but he did not attempt a deep pass (20+ air yards) in Week 1 (per Next Gen Stats).
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba had more targets (13), receptions (9), and yards (124) than all the other Seahawks combined (9 targets, 7 rec, 26 rec yds) in Week 1.
- Puka Nacua needs 6 receptions to join Odell Beckham Jr. (206) as the only players since 1970 with 200+ receptions in their first 30 career games (Week 2 will be Nacua's 30th game).
- Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are 2 of 7 QB with a .700+ win pct since the 1970 merger (min 50 starts). The two square off this weekend. The 0-1 Chiefs have never started 0-2 in the Mahomes era (starter since 2018)
- The "revamped" Texans offensive line struggled in the opener. C.J. Stroud was pressured on 41.2% of his dropbacks, took 3 sacks, and was hit seven times in the loss to the Rams.