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Why the lack of consistency? Was Drake Maye actually worse than the stat line suggests? #NFL legend Boomer Esiason joins! What does Esiason make of Drake Maye's play?
FLURRY OF TRADES?? Vrabel/Henry reunion? Chance the Patriots could add a big-name like Derrick Henry or Jonathan Taylor?

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00:00You know, it's hard to explain.
00:02I mean, there are interceptions that happen in games
00:04that sometimes you feel like it's a wide receiver's fault
00:07or sometimes the ball gets tipped.
00:09And then there are other times, like I was saying earlier in the season,
00:12where the quarterback just, you know, carelessly throws the ball up
00:16and it ends up in the other team's hands.
00:18And that's the first one, that's what I felt like.
00:20The second one, I didn't feel like it was anything other than Xavier McKinney
00:24sitting on a route and obviously being well-coached and being ready to roll.
00:27But, yeah, it's part Drake May for sure
00:31and all the injuries that the offense is dealing with right now.
00:35The other part of this was the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL
00:39was just getting torched yesterday.
00:41I mean, I don't know what to tell you.
00:44I mean, the defense, I thought, was a hell of a lot better than it showed yesterday.
00:47At least up until yesterday, they had been the backbone of this football team.
00:52So Mike Vrabel's got a lot of work to do.
00:55They got a hell of a game this week.
00:57Coming against Detroit, one of the best offenses in football,
01:00much like what we saw yesterday from the Green Bay Packers,
01:04Detroit is loaded.
01:05And, by the way, the NFC North is just absolutely drilling the AFC East right now.
01:11Boomer, when you look at this football team,
01:13I thought and I still think that they're a championship contender.
01:18But was it just a bad game?
01:20Or is this team a different football team against good football teams?
01:25Yeah, that's a good question.
01:26I think I still think there are 10 or 11 wins team.
01:30That's, you know, I felt like that from the beginning when we first started this year.
01:33Didn't expect Drake May to do some of the things that he has done.
01:36But there are other times in these games where he looks like he's unstoppable.
01:41Kind of like Jordan Love looked yesterday.
01:43I mean, Jordan Love played a hell of a football game yesterday.
01:46And certainly having Matthew Golden and Christian Watson healthy makes them a very difficult offense to defend.
01:52So, you know, I still think the Patriots are a playoff team.
01:57If the playoffs started today, I think they would be the seventh seed.
02:00They would end up, you know, probably having to go to Denver to go beat Denver and Bo Nix again.
02:05But this team has got to get healthy first and foremost, guys.
02:08I mean, physically they have to get healthier on offense.
02:10There's no question about that.
02:12And then, of course, when we talk about interceptions and bad decisions, you know, Drake's got to own up to
02:19it.
02:19I think he has done that for the most part.
02:21But, you know, he's going to have to play a much better game this week in Munich if they expect
02:26to beat the Detroit Lions.
02:28Simply because the Lions have so many good players on offense that your defense is really going to have, you
02:33know, a hell of a game and a hard team to handle.
02:36Boomer, the most important thing for me is just the lack of consistency.
02:40Like, you know, I understand he hasn't been good against good teams and a lot of great players struggle against
02:45great defenses.
02:46I don't think the Packers possess one.
02:47However, just even there was yesterday I thought was even worse than the stat line said.
02:53And the stat line wasn't great.
02:54I mean, there was another pick six that was dropped in the third or fourth quarter.
02:59Why are there these massive ebbs and flows to his performance from your perspective?
03:04I can only think that, you know, he's missing a number of guys on the field.
03:08But, like, let's go back to the first interception that Xavier McKinney makes.
03:13He's stepping up in the pocket.
03:15Everything looks perfect.
03:17And there's nobody around him.
03:19Now, he could take off and probably gain, I would think, seven to ten yards.
03:23I would think if he runs with it.
03:25But for some reason, he's making the decision to throw the football.
03:29Boomer, not only throw it, but pirouette and throw it across his body when he has, I'm sure, been told,
03:39you don't do that, you know, for the last ten years of his life as a quarterback.
03:44Yes, and that's the human nature of the position.
03:46And that's the frustrating part of it for the coaching staff.
03:49Believe me, Mike Vrabel said it yesterday.
03:51He said, if our best players don't play their best game, then we don't have a chance.
03:55Essentially, he said that about Christian Gonzalez.
03:58He said that about Drake.
03:59Man, I'm sure there are a number of other players that, you know, we're not even talking about right now
04:03that did not play well yesterday.
04:05So, it's just, you know, two things combined.
04:08One, bad quarterback play.
04:10Two, great quarterback play by the opponent.
04:13And three, just an absolute abysmal performance by the Patriot defense.
04:17So, it goes all hand in hand.
04:20When one player, it starts to snowball.
04:22And as you said, Greg, they gave up more points in this game than they ever had at Gillette Stadium.
04:28And they did it in front of the Super Bowl 51 team, which is just mind-boggling to me.
04:32You would think that they would come out and they would try to do everything they possibly could to win
04:37this game
04:38with Tom Brady in the house and Gronk in the house and the rest of that team in the house.
04:42You would have thought that it would have been a much better effort.
04:44But, man, I'll tell you what, you talk about a letdown.
04:46This is one of the bigger letdown games for a home team this week in the NFL.
04:52Boomer, I know you played the position so differently than these guys nowadays.
04:58But with the athleticism of, like, guys like Drake Mann last night watching Caleb Williams,
05:02and Greg brought up the point, these guys feel like they can make every throw from every arm angle
05:08from everywhere on the field when they're, you know, moving outside the pocket.
05:12How do you make sure that a player who has that talent to make those throws at times
05:18doesn't get caught in the position of they feel like they can do it every time?
05:23Well, I'll say it again.
05:24Like I said it earlier, around week three and week four, this is where Josh McDaniels comes in.
05:29This is where the relationship with the offensive coordinator comes in.
05:33So we've had about four weeks of really good quarterback play from Drake May.
05:37Everything looks great.
05:38We all wondered, you know, what was it that turned Drake's season around until last night?
05:43And that was the discussions with the offensive coordinator.
05:47And believe you me, they have a long flight to Munich.
05:50And there's going to be plenty of opportunity to be talking about different things.
05:53And one of those things, and really I think Tom Brady was talking about it yesterday,
05:58kind of in code.
05:59Because I don't think he really wanted to drill Drake May all that bad.
06:02I think he wanted to be somewhat understanding.
06:05But it comes down to decision making.
06:07That's the bottom line.
06:08I mean, he's as accurate as there is as a quarterback.
06:11He's as athletic as there is as a quarterback in the NFL.
06:14And he should be playing the game kind of like the way that Jordan Love played yesterday.
06:18And now we've seen him play games like this.
06:20So we know it's in there.
06:22Why he has these inconsistent games really comes back to him himself making the decisions
06:29that he's making in real time.
06:31Now whether he's a little bit nervous, whether he's not seeing the field,
06:35those are all different things that Josh has got to figure out with him.
06:39But I'm sure that the one thing about Drake that I do know, and this has always been consistent
06:44about him, is that he has accountability.
06:47I know that doesn't mean anything when you lose a game, especially like you did yesterday.
06:52But he'll work on it.
06:53He'll try to get better.
06:54He'll try to be the better player.
06:56He'll try to be the more consistent player.
06:58That I'm not worried about.
06:59What I am worried about is just the decision-making in the game when he's throwing balls
07:04indiscriminately into the defense.
07:07Well, I'll tell you one thing.
07:08There should be no schnitzel for anybody on that team until I turn this around.
07:14No beer halls for that.
07:16No, please not.
07:18That might help, actually.
07:20Question of the week for Boomer is brought to you by McFarlane Energy.
07:24Chargers are now 0-8.
07:26Is there a chance, and I know there's, of course, with the trade deadline looming tomorrow,
07:32there's an injury or something when it comes to Herbert, but is there a chance that they
07:36make a move when it comes to that player, do you think?
07:39Yeah, I don't know if they'll make a move with that player, but I do believe that there
07:42could be a quarterback or two on the move.
07:45You know, and it's interesting because, you know, Minnesota probably feels like they need
07:50a quarterback.
07:50They probably want to see what Carson Wentz can do here.
07:53And if he can play reasonably well, maybe they'll back off.
07:57But I think we're going to see a flurry of trades.
08:00I would like to think we're going to see a flurry of trades here over the next 24 hours.
08:04There are going to be some running backs on the move, and there'll probably be a few
08:08defensive linemen and maybe a defensive back or two.
08:12So it's an arms race right now in the NFC.
08:15I know that for a fact.
08:16In the AFC, this is interesting because you have a lot of really bad teams that could
08:22look to unload some of these longer-term contracts, and that's what I would look for.
08:27With the questions here about Travion Henderson and his return, do you think that Mike Vrabel
08:33is thinking about Derrick Henry?
08:35I know some reporting over the weekend that they don't want to, you know, give away the
08:39future in order to focus on now.
08:42But they do have that personal relationship, he and the coach.
08:45They do.
08:46They do.
08:46And I think that, you know, the Patriots are one of these teams that are going to be in
08:50it.
08:51They're going to be in it.
08:52I don't care what anybody says.
08:53They're still going to make the playoffs.
08:55And you know what?
08:57Just adding like a Derrick Henry or I'm trying to think.
09:01I'm sure he probably looked.
09:02I don't think he looked into Jeffrey Simmons.
09:04That was pretty too heavy of an asking price for him.
09:07But, you know, Jonathan Taylor, somebody like that.
09:10I mean, that could change the whole dynamic of your team.
09:14And then when your team starts getting healthier, now all of a sudden, you know, you start getting
09:18the confidence back and you start playing your best football in December and January,
09:21which is exactly what the Patriots are going to have to do.
09:24They may lose this game to Detroit and it may seem like the sky is falling.
09:29But, you know, they will have a significant number of games left within the conference
09:34that they're going to need to win in order to make it to the playoffs.
09:38So, yeah, bringing in a player of that stature, I think, helps the team.
09:41I think it helps the morale of the team.
09:43But I also, you know, would wonder about, you know, whether or not they're willing to
09:47part with future assets when they may feel like they don't have to.
09:52Boomer, how difficult is it of a sort of a tightrope to walk for Mike Vrabel being the
09:57guy that is perceived to be the Belichick in charge of the roster and the head coach?
10:02There was a little bit of a spat this week with a reporter in Christian Barmore,
10:06who's been in trade talks.
10:08How do you balance that when you're running both operations?
10:11It's tough, man.
10:12You know, I wouldn't want to do that if I were, you know, the head coach.
10:15I mean, I got enough on my plate.
10:16People don't realize the amount of stuff that come across the plate or the desk,
10:21I should say, of the head coach.
10:23And I remember my buddy Frank Reich, who was the head coach out there in Indianapolis
10:27for about seven years.
10:28He'd be like, man, you can't believe some of the stuff that comes across, you know,
10:32our desk and some of the decisions we have to make and how it impacts people.
10:37Just, you know, whether it be people on the coaching staff, people in the front office,
10:40the players themselves, the trainers, you know, the video guys, everybody is beholden
10:46to whatever the coach is doing.
10:47So Mike's got his hands full.
10:49There's no question about it.
10:50And when your $38 million cornerback plays like he did yesterday, you know, that is
10:56a big, you know, that is a big no-no when you have a defensive head coach and somebody
11:00who's been a part of some of the best defenses the Patriots have ever had.
11:04Should have paid him in tranches.
11:07Like, we'll give you a third now.
11:08A third, depending on how you do, five weeks in.
11:12Well, you know what?
11:13Everybody's allowed to have a couple bad games.
11:16Everybody's allowed to have a bad game or two.
11:17So, but it's how you react to that bad game.
11:20Right.
11:20I mean, we've been talking about this.
11:22This is more than a game.
11:24We've been wondering what's up with him for a little bit.
11:27I would say this game.
11:29Ty Law's been talking about it a lot.
11:31Like, he's just hanging off, guys.
11:33Like, Tom Brady wisely brought it up during the broadcast.
11:37Like, Tom wants to see a little contact, wants to see you right on the wide receiver.
11:42And he doesn't seem to be.
11:43And then the confusion about coverage is.
11:46Well, and there was a play he quit on.
11:48There was a play where he could have forced the running back back inside.
11:51And he just sort of just did nothing.
11:54Well, believe you me, he will hear all of this criticism.
11:57He'll hear every bit of it.
11:59He'll see it on social media.
12:01Patriot fans will call him out for it.
12:04And there's nothing worse.
12:06You know, I don't know how Jermaine felt when he played.
12:08But there's nothing worse being the scowl of the home fan base, especially if you if there's a perception that
12:15you quit on a play or you didn't want to stick your head in there and go make a tackle.
12:19I mean, that is that is really, really I mean, that's hard to overcome.
12:23So, you know, Christian is seems like a really good dude as well.
12:28And I would think that, you know, he's going to have his hands full this week because his wide receiver
12:32crew of the Detroit Lions is pretty damn good.
12:35So let's see if he bounces back this week.
12:38And let's see if he's the pro that we all think he can be.
12:40There was no social media during Wiggy's days.
12:43He would get mean faxes.
12:46All right.
12:47Boomer, you're the best.
12:49We'll talk to you again next week.
12:50All right, guys.
12:51I'll be the same.
12:51Have a good week.
12:52See you.

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