Game overview:
Well, this was a game...
The only game I could watch live Thursday night...thanks to my NFL+ not connecting me to the DET-NYG game...that I much rather would have watched over this game. I need to take up a class action lawsuit with the same lawyers who almost got a bazillion dollars from the Sunday Ticket frivolous lawsuit and we’ll sue the NFL for the pain and suffering of having to deal with their App. Man, just let Amazon or Netflix handle your digital media...you’re so bad at it. Or hire the people who built the MLB App.
If the most money I make as a worker in the football industry is suing them over their porous media site/App...hey, I won’t complain.
Back to the game, because I have to...
It was raining on-and-off all game, and it had rained 6-10” in parts of Charlotte from the hurricane moving up north from Florida...so, the offenses were hindered by the weather to a degree.
But it wasn’t all the rain to blame ...the Panthers deserve some credit for how bad this game was. That team is so untalented, so under-QB’d, so adrift a team from horrible management from the owner down to his new staff -- the Panthers looked terrible here. Not a great debut for the new regime.
With six QBs total seeing action in this game...the Panthers had the #5 and #6 best QBs in it – and they were awful. Dave Canales is quite the QB guru. The Panthers made the Patriots look really good, crisp, better/more focused in this one...but a lot of that was due to how bad their opponent (Carolina) was.
As soon as I saw the way this trainwreck was going, I started betting the Patriots in-game...just coffee money bets on preseason games (because preseason games are so volatile/weird)...but I felt good enough to start betting that the Patriots were gonna keep putting in plausible QBs while the Panthers had none they could retaliate with. Bryce and Andy didn’t play. I bet NE at -7.5, after they took a 7-0 lead...and some more at -7.5 at better odds soon after, then heaped on a -10.5 bet when they got up 10-0 because I knew Joe Milton was coming in for NE and so was Jake Luton for Carolina. Starbucks...get ready to have your revenues spike this morning (on my 3 hours of sleep from game tape review all last night post-games)!
And let me just say this, before we get into the critiques (good or bad) of the players... It’s the absolute height of arrogance for Dave Canales to not put Bryce Young out there to start this game...to show the world how ‘great’ Bryce is now that Canales has ‘fixed’ him...(spoiler alert, not gonna happen). This first preseason game for the new regime, at Carolina, and Canales could’ve forced this bad team from 2023 to go out and try to give the fans some hope for the season, and let the players wash the stench of 2023 away. NOPE. Instead, they laid down for New England.
Sad.
No, you see...Bryce is too good for these petty things...the scouts and analysts KNOW Bryce was just a victim of bad surroundings last season...and he’s all fixed now, somehow. He doesn’t need more reps...he’s already headed to Canton. Many of the top NFL QBs are playing a series+ this week, but not Bryce.
This Panthers franchise is so arrogant and devoid of talent/leadership it makes my blood boil at what a wasted opportunity this team has been for the past few years. The David Tepper era has been a total embarrassment that even Jimmy Haslam is laughing at them.
Oh, and Bryce got interviewed on the sidelines midgame...and he still looks and sounds like they’re interviewing a 14-year-old fan...and Bryce answered the questions with all the gusto of the most boring, uncharismatic politician you could think of...bland, unexciting, empty, clichéd answers...he’s the opposite of a ‘leader’ personality – and he doesn’t fool me...never has. He fooled the entirety of the football intelligentsia/your football overlords...and fooled billionaire David Tepper...and Tepper’s wife, who helped ‘pick’ Bryce because they loved having dinner with him pre-Draft. Bryce should’ve been one of the servers at that dinner, not a future multi-millionaire diner.
OK, got that out of my system...onto some player scouting.
Scouting Notes from the game:
-- The Patriots started Jacoby Brissett (0/3 for 0 yards)...and he looked fine, but it was raining...so some tough to catch (click) throws were missed that caused the 0-fer-3.
...and Brissett was not ‘too good’ to not play with his guys in the first preseason game...unlike the great Bryce Young, who doesn’t need more reps...because he’s so good...you saw how good he was last year, right?
After a series, Brissett gave way to Drake Maye’s (2-3 for 19 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) debut...and I thought Maye looked fine/OK for what he was given. It was raining/wet, he threw a couple screen passes for his completions and threw a ‘scared’ (nervous) pass downfield that couldn’t be caught/got broken up. We didn’t get to see Maye in action enough, real action, to say anything one way or the other...but he looked not-too-nervous and had good mechanics for his brief time.
I’m not a fan of Maye, per se, but he could be groomed to be Daniel Jones with lesser feet...and maybe more. But it ain’t happening in 2024. This is Jacoby Brissett’s team for 2024.
Bailey Zappe (12-20 for 108 yards, 0 TD/0 INT) was in the game third, for some reason. He’s not making this team, so he’s just a camp body. He’ll be cut and land with Detroit as a #3 QB...or he’ll sit by the phone waiting for injuries to hit some team that will need someone with experience. Zappe isn’t a bad #3 QB for teams...he was decent in spurts last year when he got to play/got settled in as a starter.
Last in, was the suddenly-in-the-spotlight Joe Milton (4-6 for 54 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 5-22-0). Milton had a decent TD throw in this game. Overall, he looked pretty good too...calm and mobile/elusive a little bit...and did a nice job – but I can tell it takes him a bit too long to process things, which is likely his NFL downfall. He needs more time baking in the oven...but he’s the kind of guy non-competitive teams (like NE) should have a developmental #3 QB.
I will reiterate what I said on video last week – to all the Milton > Maye analysts suddenly out there...7-on-7s is not real football. The strongest arm isn’t always the best arm/QB. Just because the Patriots are finding out that Drake Maye isn’t Justin Herbert (the lie the horrific NFL scouts thrust onto them and us), doesn’t mean Joe Milton seems like the better or a great QB prospect now by some deductive logic.
-- Jack (not Jake) Plummer (11-21 for 86 yards, 0 TD/0 INT), son of former NFLer Jake Plummer, got the start for Carolina instead of Bryce, because Bryce is so dialed in and great now because the team overpaid some marginal offensive lineman and traded for declining diva Diontae and drafted another WR...so, Plummer was the sacrificial lamb and he played like it...a victim of bad blocking, several drops (again, it was wet...but some of these drops...)...and a victim of ‘lack of talent’...it was truly ugly.
Plummer played 2+ quarters, Carolina never scored a TD but did take a cheap, late FG just to claim they didn’t get shutout. What a moral victory!!!
-- Because the Carolina offense was wretched, I could not get any feel for Jonathan Mingo (0-0-0/1) or Terrace Marshall (0-0-0/2). Both started in this game...both dropped passes/had catchable balls they didn’t catch.
One of my favorite UDFAs of 2024, Jalen Coker (1-3-0/2) suffered the same fate, forced to work with Plummer/Luton. Coker sprung open for a TD near the red zone late in the game, but had a pass way underthrown to him where he had to try and stop his route and adjust to the dud pass, but he slipped and fell in the rain...and the pass was nearly picked off (reviewed for a catch/INT but wasn’t).
I do have some additional thoughts on scouting Coker’s night, and it will be on our SUBSCRIBER ONLY notes edition for this game.
-- Maybe it was the wet field...
Maybe it was the bad O-Line play...
I don’t know what it was, but I thought Antonio Gibson (4-4-0, 1-13-0/1) looked absolutely dreadful here. He ran with zero passion or burst. He looked a lot thinner than I’m used to seeing. It was jarring. I am taking his already-paltry projections DOWN...until further notice. And I’ll give more touches to Rhamondre Stevenson (1-11-0).
-- There was a positive from this event, when it comes to the Pats backfield...and I heard a few people say nice things about this player from camp but I hadn’t seen it myself yet...but rookie UDFA RB Terrell Jennings (6-38-0, 2-11-0/2), out of Florida A&M, looked like the best non-Rhamondre RB the Patriots have.
6’0”/217 with a weak Pro Day (4.66 40-time, 7.72 three-cone) and mediocre college output...a prospect our analytics deemed ‘not worth my time’...but visually, he got my attention. Muscular frame and ran with the most passion and burst of any player in this game.
Here’s a look at his best run of the night: https://youtu.be/urgLLbQIP2o?si=DUuwXgA5Znf22nMz
I’ve got more insight and commentary on Jennings, and I’ll discuss that in the SUBSCRIBER EXTRA notes from this game.
-- The Panthers RBs were nothing special here...
Mike Boone (8-34-0, 3-13-0/4) ran with heart, but was a yawn.
The rookie RB that football people like, but I never thought was going anywhere, the UDFA out of Washington, Dillon Johnson (2-6-0, 1-3-0/1) failed to impress...but didn’t have many chances to. The Titans signed him first, after the NFL Draft, but had already cut him a week+ ago...picked up by the Panthers. He won’t make the team...or the league.
Rookie UDFA Jaden Shirden (4-12-0, 1-10-0/1), out of Monmouth, was probably the best-looking RB of the Panthers group/night -- but paled in comparison to Pats UDFA Terrell Jennings.
-- We got to see the two rookie WRs for New England in this game, but sadly the wobbly QB play early, and the rain, kinda hid them from me being able to get a great feel for them in their pro debut. Jacoby Brissett didn’t complete a pass on his series with the WRs, and then Drake Maye came in and dumped the ball off to RBs in his series after Brissett. It wasn’t until Zappe came in that WRs got into the flow.
Jalen Polk (3-14-0/3) looked solid enough and led (tie) the Pats in catches.
Javon Baker (2-11-0/4) was more running as a 2nd/3rd team...got a 2nd/3rd team treatment but did catch a couple passes.
2nd-year WR Kayshon Boutte (3-53-0/6) looked more like the WR that was ahead of all of them...but I think it was more that he had experience with Zappe, but this game was a solid performance for Boutte, nonetheless, to try to stick with the team.
-- This was such an underwhelming game marred by the wet field, slick ball, and intermittent raid...it was hard to get a feel for any defender in this game, for IDP scouting.
Panthers 2nd-year SAF Alex Cook (6 tackles) led the game in tackles but didn’t catch my attention much, as a scout.
Panthers CB D’Shawn Jamison (4 tackles, 2 PDs) had a couple nice passes defended but he’s destined for a 3rd-team corner role situation. He flashed a little last preseason for SF but was bounced around from the 49ers in-season.
Overall, the Patriots defensive unit looked pretty good...especially early on -- but it was the Pats 1st/2nd-team D mix facing the dreadful Panthers backups/future cut players in the rain, so it was an unfair comp.
*FFM subscribers can see the SUBSCRIBER EXTRA notes version of this game report, posting the same time as we post the regular game report.
