A Patriots Insider Says Players are 'Teetering on a Mutiny'
With the Patriots on the verge of being relegated to the XFL like Ted Lasso's soccer team, it's certainly not going to escape anyone's attention when a member of their own writing and podcasting staff throws out the "M" word on the Patriots official podcast.
Full disclosure, the cohosts here are Evan Lazar and Alex Barth. Both of whom are great at their jobs. I consider myself work friends with them. And both have guested on the Pats podcast I was doing. So when they say something, it carries a an unloaded cargo ship's worth of weight to me:
"Right now they're teetering on a mutiny in that locker room. I don't want to be alarmist or hyperbolic. But I was in that locker room Sunday. The defense is mad at the defense. The offense is mad at the offense. You've got young receivers who are literally throwing tantrums on film."
I'll interject here to demonstrate:
Continuing:
"It's at the point now that there are 52 other guys in that locker room that all watch both these two quarterbacks practice every single day. That all know that they drafted Drake Maye third overall. And at what point in time to some of these guys say to themselves, 'Why am I going out there and getting my butt kicked every single Sunday and Drake can't? Like why am I going out there with a quarterback who can't get me the football, when we've got the Ferrari in the garage that CAN get me the football?'"
OK, so this isn't as dramatic as it sounds out of context. No one is saying there are Pats players who are ready to go Full Denzel, march into Jerod Mayo's office, recite the regulations, and take control of the USS Alabama.
But the rest of the points are well taken. This offense is a Tua Tagovailoa concussion away from being the worst in the league for the second straight season. Despite the fact both of last year's quarterbacks, the offensive coordinator, and the greatest head coach in history were all relieved of their commands like they were Gene Hackman. It's only natural that frustration would've hit the boiling point by now.
And it's almost as bad on the other side of the ball. As Lazar and Barth point out, 2023's Top 10 defense is currently allowing the fifth most yards per play in the league. On 3rd downs, they're second worst. They're allowing every QB they face to roll out of the pocket and hit open receivers. And losing containment like that is the sort of thing that would get any edge player on Bill Belichick's roster benched in a nanosecond. Plus they cited a stat I was not aware of: That against the Pats base (non-nickel) defense last week, Brock Purdy averaged 16 yards per attempt.
So believe this. Davon Godchaux himself has called out his teammates for being selfish and not playing within the scheme:
Which is how mutinies usually begin to teeter. And something has to change fast before this doesn't turn into Crimson Tide. (I know I'm leaning too hard into it, but seriously you should watch that movie.) That change is switching to Drake Maye. Of course it's risky. I wouldn't want to spend five seconds behind that pass protection. Which is twice as long as Jacoby Brissett has had. But there's only so bad you can allow a situation to get before the frustration and general bad attitude spreads to the whole organization and becomes permanent. You didn't draft the future of the franchise just to never play him.
