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Should we be worried about the Patriots? | You Pod to Win the Game

Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the rumblings coming out of New England that the Patriots are going to struggle this season. Should they go get Jimmy G? Is this the year Bill Belichick’s master plan crumbles? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

CHARLES ROBINSON: The Patriots, that is probably, I don't want to say, a completely unexpected storyline, that there's some struggles there. I'm being a little more levelheaded about this. I just don't, like, I'm not going to say that this is a consistent sort of theme out there or suggestion by anyone.

But if anybody's really question, oh god, Mac Jones, what, oh no, now what are we going to do? Should they go get Jimmy? I'm like, come on, this is [BLEEP]. It is ridicu-- Mac Jones is a good player. OK. He's a good player his last year at Alabama. He was a really good player as a rookie.

FRANK SCHWAB: He was the best rookie quarterback by far. By a mile, he was the best Patriot quarterback.

CHARLES ROBINSON: Particularly, just from the standpoint of efficiency, consistency not killing your team, for the most part, very, very good. The playoff game, I get it. Didn't work out. But I think what happened here is something that was probably easy to see. Particularly when I went through Raiders camp, and I'm sitting there, and I'm watching like, what does Josh McDaniels want to do in Raiders camp with Derek Carr? He's looking at the offensive line. He's saying, we got a lot of problems here with offensive line. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to engineer it so that we get Derek a lot of really easy completions.

We're going to get that ball out super fast, and it's going to help us negate some of the problems that we have at the line. We'll use the back rotation whatever, but we're going to structure this in a way that helps them as much as possible.

That is what he was doing, Mac Jones. He's saying, get the ball out fast. Let's make sure that we engineer some easy completions for him. Occasionally, we'll go down field with this guy. And you now take away a really good coordinator who knew how he needed to handle the kid. And you put it into the hands of-- I'm sorry. People right now, there should be questions about who's calling the plays, who's handling the quarterback, who's got the mental mindset that would even come close to Josh McDaniels.

I don't think that exists there. I think that's why you're starting to see some of the unevenness. And I'm not even going to mention the skill position piece is the roster. This idea that Underwood's going to solve the virus. I'm like, dude, that ship has sailed. Yeah.

FRANK SCHWAB: I just-- again, how many times over-- this is 10 years for me. How many times have I written some form of, maybe the Patriots dynasty is dead, maybe they're done, maybe they're-- and then we end up a few weeks down the road, and they've figured it all out because Bill Belichick is the greatest coach of all time. Do we really truly think Bill Belichick is not going to figure this out? Really? Like there's to be a stumbling mess all season? I don't think so.

Now Josh McDaniels' one of the great offensive coordinators we've seen in the past, however many years. He legitimately can run an offense. I don't know yet about his head coaching acumen. You wrote a great story, saying he's learned it. And I'm willing to give him a shot. But unquestionably great coordinator.

So it's hard to replace a guy like that. But how many times have we seen the Patriots struggle in September? And then by the end of October, we're like, oh OK, they're winning every game again. We've really truly believed that the Patriots are going to figure this out? They will. That's what Bill Belichick does.

Mac Jones is a good player. I think everybody just wants to assume last year was a fluke. And I don't why. He was really good for a rookie quarterback. They got enough guys. Between David Harris and Rhamondre and some of the receivers and Hunter Henry and all that, they got enough guys on offense.

Yes, they're struggling right now. Some of the reports say that they're changing the entire run scheme and all that stuff. Yes, it's a little disturbing, a little alarming. Matt Patricia is not my first choice as an offensive coordinator, but whatever. But I just feel like the Patriots can figure this out, because they always do.