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EPISODE 23 - Fitzy from WEEI!! Patriots Free Agency!!! Draft!!
151 Plays2 months ago
fundraiser happening on Friday night! check out Fitzy's socials for more detail!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Savage Boston
Alright, what's up guys? Welcome back to the Savage Boston Podcast. We are here with a very special guest today, Fitzy, who is pretty much Mr. Patriots down at Gillette Stadium.
00:00:12
Savage Boston
And now you see him on WEI in the afternoons, in a great gig, great spot for him, and really just killing it.
Fitzy's Career Journey
00:00:20
Savage Boston
So so yeah, welcome to the program, Fitzy. How you doing?
00:00:23
Fitzy
Brett, Snoots, and of course, Scott, a.k.a. a the man in Roman times they would refer to as the mighty Agritorius, the keeper of all Boston sports links. Great to be on with you guys.
00:00:34
Fitzy
This is awesome to finally get a chance to talk Boston sports. I haven't done it at least three hours, so...
00:00:40
Savage Boston
i go
00:00:41
Snooty
Yeah.
00:00:42
Savage Boston
I know feel bad. i just This is just just putting in the overtime, man. We we appreciate it.
00:00:46
Fitzy
Hey, listen, I'm going to tell you straight straight up from way back in the days, even before when, you know, the idea of Fitzy as a character was just an itch in a bad notebook that I used to take cheap ass bars in the East village of New York through when I got the YouTube page going into TV work and ultimately on the radio.
00:01:06
Fitzy
You are only as good, not just as your next hit, your next gig, your next show, but how hard you grind and get after it. And and somebody like yourself, Scott, should understand that as well. So if people ask me, like, hey, can you come on talk past?
00:01:16
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:01:18
Fitzy
Can we do free agency? Like, if time, which is the most precious commodity, which all of us don't have nearly enough of, especially, you know, with two kids and a drinking habit, you know, I'll always say
Patriots Season Tickets Excitement
00:01:30
Fitzy
yes, because it's fun.
00:01:30
Fitzy
This is how we got here. This is what we love doing. And this is why we love to get after it.
00:01:35
Savage Boston
Yeah, it's great, man. I certainly love – I absolutely appreciate the grind. i you know Obviously, I grind on Twitter all the time trying to like create the platform and and and help it grow and watch watch something to but develop and and see where it takes me, which has been a lot of fun.
00:01:50
Savage Boston
Still trying to stay like slightly anonymous, but you know people know me as Scott, know my name, but and I'm sure I'll be around. I just actually got season tickets for the Patriots approved today.
00:02:01
Fitzy
Nice.
00:02:01
Savage Boston
um Yeah, great.
00:02:01
Fitzy
Welcome to the club, dude. You're going to listen. The guy that shows up on the world's biggest single panel jumbotron and the the lighthouse end zone, he stinks. But everything else about the game day experience.
00:02:11
Bret
but but
00:02:13
Fitzy
Awesome.
00:02:14
Savage Boston
ah It's going to be a blast, man.
Digital Fundraising Event for Pediatric Cancer
00:02:16
Savage Boston
It's super fun. So why don't we, before we get started, Fitzy, kind of ah want to come on and and promote a a super important cause. I know you have a fundraising event that's going on digitally on Friday. So kind of why tell us a little bit about your fundraiser and what that's all about.
00:02:31
Fitzy
Yeah, this is great, Savage, because this is like one of those like Super Bowl week media row interviews where like you do the slap and tickle for five minutes and it's like, hey, I heard you've had some prostate issues.
00:02:42
Fitzy
Why don't you tell us about the product you're representing this Super Bowl week?
00:02:45
Bret
but from but
00:02:46
Fitzy
ah Like, oh, you're having memory issues, Captain CTE?
00:02:47
Savage Boston
Yes, basically.
00:02:50
Fitzy
Why don't you tell us about what's going on in the new Folk and All product you got? um Yeah, so, you know, i don't know but if everyone here is a dad, but I got two kids, and okay, all right, everyone's dadded up.
00:02:59
Savage Boston
We are.
00:03:02
Fitzy
That's why we all probably look and feel like Tiger Woods' celebrity mugshot 24 hours And... and um They're the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And, well, you know, obviously what happened to Doug Kyatt, who we all love reading and following, and I've gotten to know him over the last couple of years. He's just such such a freaking great dude.
00:03:20
Fitzy
And it's every parent's worst nightmare. And so we've partnered up ah with his buddy and co-host. Uh, collaborator at the Herald, uh, my buddy, Andrew Callahan, who also loves sports and world-class beer a little bit too much. And what we decided to do was in an effort to raise money, to try to combat pediatric cancer.
00:03:41
Fitzy
We figured we're only good at a couple of things, which is getting together, talking football, and drinking beer. So we put together what we're calling the Pats Pre-Agency Party. So Friday night, across their socials and my Facebook, my YouTube Live, Twitter and such, ah we have like a little two-and-a-half-hour livestream where basically we're just...
00:03:59
Bret
Okay.
00:04:00
Fitzy
talking Pat's off season, talking free agency, talking combine draft wishes, draft crushes, and more. And we've had such an incredible outpouring of support. The guests that we have lined up for it are awesome. We got Devin McCourty field Yates and Bill Barnwell from ESPN.
00:04:18
Fitzy
Tom Curran, Megan Ottolini, Michael Hurley, the the the almighty and powerful Mike Reese. It's going to be it's goingnna be awesome. And everyone's doing 15-minute shifts, kind of like a little online Jerry Lewis telethon type of thing.
00:04:31
Fitzy
And people can jump in, make donations. And for a certain amount of money in the YouTube Super Chat, you can get to ask a question to DMACC, to Field, to Reese, to Curran if you want to as well. So...
00:04:42
Fitzy
ah That's Friday night, 730 to 10 on my Facebook, YouTube, and those of Doug and Callahan as well. Hope you guys hope you guys get a chance
Personal Experiences with Loss and Community Support
00:04:52
Fitzy
to jump in. It's going to be a blast.
00:04:53
Savage Boston
That's great, man. Thank you for for sharing that. And just ah even personally, haven't shared this on the pod or anything, but I can definitely sympathize and slightly empathize with um with Doug's, you know, with that horrible event that happened to him. Because my my brother-in-law, my wife's brother, lost his child last year at four months old due to SIDS.
00:05:15
Fitzy
awful
00:05:15
Savage Boston
It's really horrible.
00:05:16
Bret
you
00:05:17
Savage Boston
And it really just devastated our entire family. And so we've we've raised, I believe we've raised over $30,000 for the Roberts Foundation, Roberts program affiliated with Children's Hospital that does research on SIDS.
00:05:25
Fitzy
way to go mm-hmm
00:05:29
Savage Boston
So not to start this off on a super bummer note, but um definitely just
00:05:33
Fitzy
No, but it's a great point because when bad things happen, you know, people always accuse, you know, mass holier, Boston sports fans and such of being whiny and petulant and selfish. And we are, make no mistake.
00:05:45
Fitzy
And we're damn proud of it. But we have a way in Massachusetts. I'm originally from the South Shore and I am always... so heartened and so surprised and so
Patriots' Line Improvement Needs
00:05:55
Fitzy
exhilarated by the way the the good people of the Commonwealth come together ah when people are in need and there's plight, a problem or a good cause and give the most of themselves and then some.
00:05:55
Bret
Thank you.
00:06:05
Fitzy
So, I mean, what could be easier than Friday night sitting around, you know, waiting for your toot or Papa Gino's order to arrive or your door dash at the house, crack a cold one, jump online and, you know, watch a little sports radio, donate a few bucks.
00:06:12
Savage Boston
Thank you.
00:06:18
Fitzy
And then, you know, ah you know ask ah ask Field Yates what he thinks of your fantasy team. It would be awesome.
00:06:25
Savage Boston
Certainly certainly a fantastic cause. so All right. Well, we'll definitely be tuning into that. to To pivot to the actual ball talk, right?
00:06:30
Fitzy
Thank you, guys.
00:06:32
Savage Boston
with pivot. um you know Today, i thought, was, ah was a I guess, a mildly important day. It wasn't wasn't a huge day like you know the the legal tampering period or free agency starting, but this was the franchise tag deadline and And only two tags got used.
00:06:48
Savage Boston
And the one player that we're all kind of like main targeting is Ronnie Stanley, who did not get franchise tagged today. So what I'm hoping is that he actually um makes it to free agency and doesn't kind of negotiate a deal in the meantime.
00:06:58
Fitzy
Okay.
00:07:01
Savage Boston
So Fitzy, let me ask you, as far as like players that you're targeting with kind of, or or if you're pretend GM, you're Elliott Wolf, like who's your number one, who's your top target?
00:07:06
Snooty
Thank you.
00:07:12
Savage Boston
Is it Ronnie Stanley? Is it someone else? What are you looking at right now?
00:07:16
Fitzy
I have just wanted to go back and
Past Issues with Patriots' Player Acquisition
00:07:19
Fitzy
make the unsexy sexy again. That has been my offseason wanton wish from this team for years. You know, couple of years ago on our Patriots podcast at WEI, Six Rings of Football Things, we referred to the battle for the tackle positions as the bum fight and the hobo rumble because it was just...
00:07:38
Fitzy
constantly watching the Patriots shuffle in and shuffle out retreads, reruns, cast offs and players that no one else wanted. And it carried through all the way into the Mayo regime in the first year of Wolf of Ball Street and his boys last year with the Chooks of Korofor experience.
00:07:57
Fitzy
Where were you Patriots fans when Chooks of Korofor took a walkabout and decided to end his football career? That's how bad it was last year.
00:08:05
Savage Boston
was awful.
00:08:06
Fitzy
just absolutely brutal. And the Patriots last year finished with the third worst pass rush in the end. Sorry, they were 27. So fifth worst pass rush in the NFL, the lowest, uh, in terms of pressure rate generated the lowest number of sacks, they only had 19, nine of which came in the bears game that I saw and took my son Thomas to out in Chicago, which means they only got 10 sacks in the other 16 frigging games And as everyone knows now, this is our obviously well-tread ground.
00:08:34
Fitzy
They had ah the worst pass-blocking offensive line and the worst run-blocking offensive line.
00:08:36
Snooty
So.
00:08:40
Fitzy
So I just want thick, beefy, fat, strong, and thumpy. That just give me, I want Ronnie Stanley.
00:08:44
Savage Boston
Thank
00:08:46
Fitzy
I want guards. If they're going to go, like Zeitler, I would love, if they go after a center, much love to David Andrews. But, you know, he's, teeing off on the 14th hole of his career. And the poor guys missed the better part of a couple of seasons in recent years due to injuries.
00:08:56
Savage Boston
you.
00:08:59
Fitzy
And he's such a good dude. I wouldn't want him to play to a point where he's feeling it into his forties and fifties. And then on the defensive line side, Godshaw has been given a chance to seek a trade.
00:09:10
Fitzy
You know, they want Jeffrey Simmons cause he's one of Vrabel's booze from his days in Tennessee. And I would love to see them just offer a bag to Milton Williams.
00:09:21
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:09:21
Fitzy
And tell him, come on in and bring some of that Philadelphia swag to New England. And just just like like like we've been hearing from ah Bedard, or sorry, I have to say Bedad, and Callahan, and Kide, and Reese, and Kern, and Perry, and everyone else in the know that has done the interviews, went to Super Bowl week, went to the Combine,
00:09:42
Fitzy
like just get aggressive, get strong, shore up the basics and the fundamentals again, because it doesn't matter if your receivers, you know, although they have the worst receiver, it doesn't matter they're the worst or the best receiver room.
00:09:56
Fitzy
If Drake may is going to get folded like an accordion or a table at a VFW hall, because he's got 1.3 seconds to throw. And the other team can hold the ball and sustain 12 minute drives. Like the Colts finishing off the pats last year Gillette.
00:10:09
Fitzy
then it doesn't matter. So just, I want them to get big and strong. You guys, that's, that's, I want the trenches to be great again. That's my wish.
Patriots' Draft Strategy Discussion
00:10:16
Snooty
Yeah, no, I mean, I think those are the the worst areas where they were before. Everyone points to left tackle. They want Ronnie Stanley, and so do I. But right tackle was arguably worse than last year, right?
00:10:24
Fitzy
ye
00:10:27
Snooty
like and And that's saying something, that you can be substantially worse than Vidarian Lowe at tackle in the NFL. I think. You know, I mean,
00:10:34
Fitzy
ah When you make Vidarian Lowe remind people of Tony Buscelli, you are not doing a very good job.
00:10:35
Snooty
but
00:10:41
Snooty
no, seriously. Like, when Vidarian Lowe is the linchpin of your offensive line, you're in fucking trouble. Right. Like that's bad.
00:10:47
Fitzy
Yeah.
00:10:48
Snooty
um There's also like Cam Robinson. If you can't get Ronnie Stanley, fine. I don't care. Dan Moore from Pittsburgh. Is he great? No, but but he's better than what you had before.
00:10:55
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:10:57
Snooty
He's better.
00:10:57
Fitzy
Mm-hmm.
00:10:58
Snooty
And there's no left tackle in the draft. So you kind of have to, you have to, you have to go with where the market is. So, you know, if it's, you know, the, the, the guard there, Patrick, what's the Macari, whatever it is from Baltimore,
00:11:10
Snooty
If you can get him, fine. Because it's you just need real NFL linemen up front. It allows you to run the ball. It allows you protect Drake May. It allows you to keep going. um You know, defensively, it sounds like they want to get smaller.
00:11:23
Snooty
I'm not sure how well that's going to go long term. um But they want to get smaller and faster. Fine. um
00:11:29
Savage Boston
Do like the Sherwood kid from the Jets? lot hype about Sherwood.
00:11:32
Fitzy
He's nasty. He's nasty. He's like one of those... He reminds me a lot. He's like a linebacker version of Peppers. He's one of those...
00:11:42
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:11:44
Fitzy
almost reminds you of a box safety. feel like the Patriots have... i feel like the patriots have You know, on offense, I'm hoping that when it comes to the draft and we'll see exactly what iteration or hybridization of the Josh McDaniels offense we get. I don't think it's going to look like it has in every year under Tom Brady. Obviously it looked different with Cam Newton and it looked different with Mac Jones. And I think that's what's so underrated about Josh is his ability to morph his game plan and his playbook to the styles, tendency, and strengths of the talent that he has on offense. But,
00:12:17
Fitzy
As far as the defense ah the defense goes, the Patriots have not adapted to having one of those ah linebackers that's great in coverage but also still strong enough to be able to hold a block or take down a runner, keep up with a tight end and drop him when he gets the ball And that's exactly what I think they would get with that kid on on the jets. And the fact that the fact that they're targeting guys like that, that are not necessarily household names, I get it. That's kind of what this free agency pool looks like.
Analyzing Potential Draft Picks
00:12:50
Fitzy
But the fact that they have readily identified some of the guys that they want, tells me that they they have a tone and a style that they want to bring to defense and every time you hear somebody talk about terrell williams all you hear is mean nasty and violent like oh please that's that just what i want to see again because passive incompetent and disappointing have become the new normal on defense and foxborough and they need to change that too sweet especially because mike vrabel's a badass like
00:13:02
Bret
Thank you.
00:13:07
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:13:20
Fitzy
his team is ah Your team is supposed to resemble your personality, and Vrabel is, I call him football Hagrid because he's just like a giant imposing human being who was nasty on the field, and he's nasty as a coach. So I expect his team to and his defense especially to resemble that. Thank
00:13:37
Bret
Yeah, no, I agree. It's good that Vrabel's coming in there with that kind of mentality. You know, for me, what I loved most in his introductory press conference was when he talked about how we really got focus on the line.
00:13:43
Fitzy
you.
00:13:48
Bret
So I agree with you at the top with, you know, we got to get big, fat, meaty guys in there that be able to do it. So looking at the draft, You know, obviously a lot talked about with Campbell and the combine and his measurables where he's just measuring at a guard level.
00:14:04
Bret
So, you know, a lot of people are very weary about getting him at four. i feel like there's a good amount of options, but who are you looking on in the draft where you think on an offensive side to get on the offensive line?
00:14:08
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:14:15
Bret
Who do you think stood out at the combine or someone that we should be putting at our top of our radar? Yeah.
00:14:21
Fitzy
Yeah. it Isn't it ridiculous? Like, you know, insert your own. That's what she said reference here, but like, that they have Has New England scrutinized a dude over a half an inch more in the history of time than poor Will Campbell?
00:14:35
Fitzy
Like 6'6", three years that left tackle in the SEC, nasty, bearre barely gave up a handful of sacks over those over those seasons.
00:14:40
Snooty
Well, I'm sorry.
00:14:44
Fitzy
And yet still it's like, nope, all the people that know football better than us because they have lived, eaten, breathed, and slept it their entire lives are saying like, no, trust me, That makes a difference.
00:14:55
Fitzy
And then if we look to our recent history in New England, guys, the problem with Isaiah Wynn, aside from his attitude and the fact that he couldn't stay on the field, was that he was the exact same size, basically.
00:14:56
Snooty
yeah
00:15:05
Snooty
but
00:15:06
Fitzy
And people said, i don't know, those arms are kind of small.
00:15:06
Savage Boston
That's right.
00:15:10
Fitzy
Looks like he might be better at guard in the NFL than tackle. Turns out they were right because the only success he had as a pro was as a guard in Miami and not at tackle with New England. So i looked up, as far as Will Campbell, I was looking up different comps for guys that were tackles that played guard in the NFL.
00:15:23
Bret
Yep.
00:15:27
Fitzy
And Will Campbell's size, his combine testing, everything almost matches up to a carbon copy to a dude who... was in the NFL for over a decade for a decade and was awesome.
00:15:39
Fitzy
ah The guy, Zach Martin, the guard for Dallas, who just retired.
00:15:43
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:15:43
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:15:43
Bret
yep
00:15:43
Fitzy
That's your comp for Will Campbell. He's not going to come in, you know, in full-throated Patino. Will Campbell is not walking through that door and saving you a tackle, Patriots fans, all right? Matt Light is not walking through that door.
00:15:53
Bret
Bye.
00:15:55
Fitzy
2018, Trent Brown is not walking through that door. so we need we need to we need to like We need to just hope a blue chip falls to the pass at four or someone else wants one of these five below quarterbacks that are available in the top of the draft over pays to move up to four scoot back a crew, some more picks because of Rabel and Cowden and Wolf and company are in this for the long game.
00:16:24
Fitzy
And the guys that I'm looking at ah that kid, Membu over the weekend, Aardman Membu, he changed.
00:16:30
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:16:32
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:16:32
Fitzy
My God, you're not supposed to be 6'8", 330, and run a 4'9".
00:16:33
Savage Boston
He's the one.
00:16:37
Fitzy
Holy smokes, if you saw that coming at you, you'd be like, oh, wow, my God, where's Magneto? Because the juggernaut's in my fucking face. Holy shit. That guy is ridiculous. um I like ah some people like Mike Giardi are high on Simmons, the tackle from Ohio State.
00:16:56
Fitzy
i
00:16:56
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:16:56
Fitzy
I'm one. the There's the kid Ursary who had for Minnesota who actually did pretty well against Abdul Carter in
Comparing Patriots' Drafts
00:17:04
Fitzy
college. Didn't, you know, didn't have a clean sheet all the time, but not bad.
00:17:04
Savage Boston
He's big.
00:17:07
Fitzy
He'd probably be a good day two tackle pick. Or how about local legend Ozzy Trapio from Boston College, who I learned yesterday.
00:17:11
Savage Boston
Ooh.
00:17:16
Fitzy
i was yesterday years old when I learned actually had some secret coaching and training sessions with Dante Skarniecki because the kid's a local legend and through Bill O'Brien went to scar and got coached up by the living legend.
00:17:24
Savage Boston
oh
00:17:30
Fitzy
So he wouldn't be a bad pick. And I wouldn't be surprised if we connect again in a couple of months and go Fitz, you were right. The Trapio kid how about that. Huh? Like,
00:17:39
Savage Boston
I can see in ah he could be a decent pick in like maybe the third round or something if he gets there.
00:17:39
Bret
I'm just,
00:17:43
Fitzy
and And that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, look what they did last year. did What did you guys make of that story that Mark Daniels, who does an awesome job at mass live? Um, what did you guys think of his little nug about the last year?
00:17:52
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:17:58
Fitzy
They decided they were, they were so desperate for, I mean, they were trying to figure out what they were doing every day. You guys, they were just treading emotional, metaphorical playbook and actual football water every day as such, such a mess.
00:18:07
Bret
Thank you.
00:18:09
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:18:11
Fitzy
Uh, you know, Netflix and, you know, Bill Simmons and HBO could all team up to try to make a documentary and it wouldn't even cover what a shit show last year was sadly.
00:18:14
Snooty
No.
00:18:15
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:18:19
Fitzy
But, um, the Mark Daniels piece where he said last year they drafted for need. It's like, you know, it's the mistake you make. You never go to the grocery store and shop hungry because then you just end up shopping on whim as opposed to properly shopping and stocking the pantry.
00:18:34
Fitzy
And now they're flipping it and they're going to shop
00:18:34
Snooty
not
00:18:37
Fitzy
BPA, which is the best thing they could do. Just grab the best player available because there's such a deficit of talent.
00:18:43
Snooty
I've said this forever. Drafting for need is the dumbest thing you can do. That's why bad teams stay bad because you bypass a better prospect just to fill a need.
00:18:49
Bret
you
00:18:51
Snooty
And you end up with a Caden Wallace who probably and won't be able to play in the NFL instead of taking someone at a D line position or a corner or something like that, that you now need to fill in this draft and still fill the offensive tackle position.
00:19:05
Snooty
You, I mean, obviously I'm not saying take a quarterback early, right? Like, cause you have one, but you know, Short of that, they could draft best player. They should draft best player available at at every draft spot.
00:19:16
Snooty
And it doesn't matter because you have so many holes. You're not a good team. it's It's the dumbest thing ever. I was so happy when I saw that report that they were going to they're going to go so not draft on need.
00:19:24
Savage Boston
Well, let's they That's why they can't draft Will Campbell at four. That's why they won't draft Will Campbell at four.
00:19:30
Fitzy
now correct
00:19:33
Savage Boston
You're not going to take the guy who ah you know is questionably not even a left tackle, um let alone the the measurables, which, by the way, we haven't mentioned yet today, even though it was talked about a million times all over the internet, is is his wingspan at 77 inches or whatever, which...
00:19:49
Savage Boston
is that like the lowest they've ever found in draft history or something. It's just an insane insanely low wingspan measurement. It has me extremely nervous. I kind of feel bad for Will Campbell in some way. you know Maybe he's been trying to hide his arm length, but like he might be an all-pro guard.
00:20:06
Savage Boston
He could be the greatest guard in the in the fucking world, but you cannot risk taking him at four ah to just to fill a need that he might not fill.
00:20:08
Fitzy
Yeah.
Learning from Other Teams' Draft Success
00:20:15
Fitzy
Yeah. We were talking today on the radio. Like if Joe Alt was in this draft, would he go first overall? And if he didn't, that would he barely maybe fall to the Patriots at four?
00:20:22
Savage Boston
Maybe. Yeah.
00:20:25
Fitzy
Because he's a, what that, that is the size of the prototypical ginormous mauling, uh, left tackle of the modern NFL that has to go up against these absolute Cybertron defensive edge players that are 270 run four five are carved of soapstone and look like they were grown in a laboratory. Like they're, they're, they're insane.
00:20:49
Fitzy
Will Campbell, I think he's just going to, he's going to be an awesome guard.
00:20:49
Savage Boston
yeah
00:20:53
Fitzy
And the Patriots need a bigger dude. And if they need to take some time, if you sign a Stanley or sign the guy from Pittsburgh and you just let say like, you know, we're going to overpay you for four years, but it's basically going to be a front loaded two year deal.
00:21:07
Fitzy
Congratulations. You just got rich. That's awesome. It's like, you'd want a Mr. Beast video. Kudos to you. Great. ah And then you slowly groom this guy behind him. You know, that's, that's, that's the way to do it.
00:21:19
Fitzy
But as far as that, that back to the, the way that they're going to conduct the draft this year, One of my favorite lines I ever heard. So on game day, obviously, I go in the stadium around like 11, pre-tape some of the stuff, and then at 11.30, I'm up in what used to be the Putnam Club, I guess. Now they call it the cross-insurance club, the red seat level, the 200s. And I do a live talk show for the fans, and we used to have a couple hundred people show up, and an alumni is there. And I've just gotten to learn so much from all the James White and, you know, Richard Seymour and...
00:21:54
Fitzy
Chris Hogan and all these guys, McCordy that have come by Brian Hoyer and are just so willing to, you know, share in this open forum that's not recorded. So that way they know it's never going to be thrown back at him.
00:22:05
Fitzy
It's amazing. And i start my Sunday every week at Gillette for the home games by walking around the parking lot for like two hours, taking photos and videos, sharing them on social and interviewing the fans.
00:22:16
Fitzy
So that that way, by the time I get in the stadium or do the postgame show on EEI, when I say, well, I was out talking to the fans and here's what the Foxborough faithful have to say, it's an authentic POV. And my favorite line I've ever heard was this guy pulled me aside a couple of years ago, real close to the stadium by like the E3 entrance.
00:22:35
Fitzy
He's like, hey, Fitz, you know, you look like the kind of guy that would probably have this influence with Belichick. Spoiler alert, I didn't. He's like, yeah. You know what the Patriots need to do is like, if you could just tell someone upstairs, like, quit fucking around and just turn on Yahoo auto draft, that would be awesome.
00:22:53
Fitzy
Perfect.
00:22:53
Savage Boston
Yeah, they probably would have done better.
00:22:54
Fitzy
I mean, that's exactly what they need to do.
00:22:57
Snooty
Yeah.
00:22:57
Savage Boston
Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, yeah, we've talked about it. The best player available, you know, some teams have done this really well over the bat last bunch of years.
00:23:03
Bret
you
00:23:05
Savage Boston
um Maybe the Eagles, maybe the Lions have drafted really well. And typically really good teams who are good now have drafted well in the last bunch of years. But I think this this year you're in a unique scenario where you get a pretty shitty quarterback class.
00:23:18
Savage Boston
And we're all aware of this. I mean, I think Cam Ward is probably a real maybe mid-pack quarterback in the NFL. And I think as of right now, hearing that the Titans are are um going to trade down and maybe the Giants will trade up and take Ward at one,
00:23:33
Savage Boston
And then the Browns are potentially happy to take Shadir Sanders at two. So you're still in a reality where you could luck into Travis Hunter falling to four. And everyone's like, oh, dude, you don't have a line. you have that like No, you have he's an elite player, elite two-way player. You can use him anywhere.
00:23:50
Savage Boston
Elite ball skills, crazy talented. like If Travis Hunter falls into your lap, you have to take that player. And they should want to take that player and take on that challenge.
00:24:01
Fitzy
Yeah, you know, you mentioned the... Patriots trying to emulate other teams that have had a lot of success in the last couple of years. And the the teams that have done that, obviously high flying offenses like with Detroit, but also their trenches are solid.
00:24:18
Fitzy
You know, the, you know, Ragnow and Panay Sewell just anchoring the line for Jared Goff and obviously the elite talent they have, but they have a great defensive
00:24:19
Savage Boston
yeah
00:24:22
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
Reflecting on Past Drafts
00:24:28
Fitzy
line as well.
00:24:28
Fitzy
And I've been saying for ages now, The way the Lions really kick-started things wasn't just by bringing in Goff and, you know, or hiring Ben Johnson or hiring Dan Campbell and biting kneecapes, bro.
00:24:42
Fitzy
It was the 2021 draft. They took it seven Pinesseul. Um, then they got a Lee McNeil who just sadly tore his ACL and was one of the reasons why they got bumped in the playoffs.
00:24:54
Fitzy
He's a animal on the defensive line. They got him at 72nd. They got, uh, the other Melifon Wu at safety at one Oh one and Amon Ross St. Brown in the fourth round.
00:25:04
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:25:04
Fitzy
If the Patriots have a draft like that, where they get four starters, four studs in one draft, trust me, we'll be talking about the Patriots playing meaningful January football within two or three years time.
00:25:16
Savage Boston
Maybe that's what it is. like you have to have really solid drafting all the way. And like, if you look at, and you just brought up their draft in, you know, 2021, right? Like, and this is, again, you're looking back. This is how they're good. Now I'm bringing up their draft from 2023. Okay. Listen to these first four picks. Okay. Number one, Jameer Gibbs at 12th overall.
00:25:35
Savage Boston
18th overall is Jack Campbell, linebacker. He's a starter. Second on 34th overall, Sam Laporta, tight end.
00:25:39
Fitzy
Yep.
00:25:42
Fitzy
It feels feels criminal.
00:25:42
Savage Boston
and And then they have – and then at 45th, they got Brian Branch, and another pro bowler DB.
00:25:44
Fitzy
My God.
00:25:50
Savage Boston
So, like –
00:25:50
Fitzy
how How the NFL should be arrested for letting Brian Branch fall to overall?
00:25:54
Savage Boston
So I mean, like they murdered the draft. Like if you, yeah, you crush it in the draft and we could go back to some old past drafts, you know, back in like, I feel, you know, like whenever they got, you know, between Ty Law and like they had some incredible and Terry Glenn, like they had some great drafts back in the nineties, right.
00:26:09
Savage Boston
That ultimately shape your franchise, but like you have to hit, it's the only way to have a good team and the Patriots covered it up for so long, but you have to hit on the draft. That's it.
00:26:19
Snooty
Well, if you go back to...
00:26:20
Fitzy
Yeah. And so that's when you hear Robert Kraft talking about like the only way i can build the team is throw the draft, you know, free agency buys you only so much.
00:26:27
Savage Boston
He's not wrong.
00:26:28
Fitzy
He's not wrong. Like, all right, here, ready for this? how would you got you know How would this do you guys? First round, Ty Law. Second round, Ted Johnson. Third round, Curtis Martin.
00:26:37
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:26:37
Savage Boston
Yeah. Two Hall of Famers.
00:26:39
Fitzy
1995. Yeah, just like absolute all local legends and a couple of Hall of Famers in there.
00:26:45
Savage Boston
Yep.
00:26:46
Fitzy
1996 Patriots draft. um and st Terry Glenn, Laura Malloy, Teddy Bruschi, Heath Irwin.
00:26:49
Savage Boston
Terry Glenn.
00:26:52
Fitzy
First four picks. Like, what are we doing? like
00:26:54
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:26:54
Fitzy
and mean Meanwhile, the reason why...
00:26:54
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:26:57
Fitzy
The reason why Belichick ah ultimately, like, tell me if you guys agree or sort of feel that feel this take. Like, i I still believe the main reason why the Patriots uncoupled from Bill Belichick, if you will, was because...
00:27:16
Fitzy
They had to sacrifice Belichick, the coach, to get rid of Belichick, the GM, because he had just sort of like run ashore and had had not had a good draft in so long. And you can't have two third round picks in 2020 and take Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene.
00:27:35
Fitzy
Like you just like in a year where everyone else is like, it's the worst tight end draft in history.
00:27:36
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:27:38
Fitzy
Cool.
00:27:39
Savage Boston
Well, Fitzy, let me ask you this then.
00:27:39
Fitzy
We'll double down and take two of them. Like,
00:27:41
Savage Boston
what When do you think was the last excellent Patriots draft? You know, and I know it's random off the cuff and like, cause I have a semi answer, but basically you could go back through the last almost like 12, 12, 13 years back to the 2012 draft was the last time that they had a, a, a very, very significant good draft.
00:27:46
Fitzy
but
00:28:03
Savage Boston
In 2012, they took in the first first round, they had two picks. They got Chandler Jones and Dante Hightower, which is ridiculous, right?
00:28:09
Fitzy
Massive. Absolutely massive.
00:28:11
Savage Boston
Ridiculous draft. After that, though, go year by year. i mean, we don't have to do the whole thing now, but you go be year by year, they start missing slowly.
00:28:17
Bret
Thank you.
00:28:19
Savage Boston
Like, yeah, there's guys here, like Joe Tooney, like there's guys here and there. And once you get to like 2018, 2019, they start massively missing with every first round pick. They lose first round picks in a scandal.
00:28:28
Fitzy
Oh.
00:28:30
Savage Boston
You know what I mean? Like it just became a disaster with the drafts.
00:28:32
Snooty
with the time.
00:28:34
Fitzy
Yeah, no the Patriots draft picks... Um, as you guys probably know, all of my, all of my references, you know, devolve ah ultimately into like beer, star Wars or food. So the Patriots draft picks, uh, like this, this one, here was one that was hit or miss.
00:28:51
Fitzy
Actually it was more, it was more hit than miss, but the problem was they mismanaged the roster over time. Um, 2016 first pick Cyrus Jones. Oh my God. i swear to He was like, Belichick lost a bet.
00:29:01
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:29:03
Fitzy
Um, that had to have been a Saban recommendation and that kid just got in his own head and stunk out loud.
00:29:04
Savage Boston
Yeah. Remember
00:29:04
Bret
Thank you.
00:29:09
Savage Boston
the punt returning, Tim?
00:29:09
Fitzy
But then in the third, uh, he, memory, tore his ACL returning puns. He got scorched.
00:29:15
Savage Boston
He was like dropping punts every week.
00:29:16
Fitzy
Uh, yeah, I can even, I can even remember this.
00:29:17
Savage Boston
Like there was some brutal – he was dropping punts.
00:29:19
Fitzy
How about this? I remember. So I was at the, uh, I was at the Brady returns game. One of my top five live sporting experiences in my lifetime. That was a Brady returns week five in Cleveland after the ah garbage suspension of deflate gate.
00:29:38
Savage Boston
Hmm.
00:29:38
Fitzy
And the Patriots actually went, that Cleveland team stunk too. And that's when Brady said in the dynasty documentary, he was going on the FBA fuck them all tour.
00:29:47
Bret
Thank you.
00:29:47
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:29:48
Fitzy
And it began that week and it went through the whole season. He finished with 32 touchdowns and four picks that year. It's just an an insane, insane revenge tour. ah
00:29:55
Savage Boston
yeah
00:29:56
Fitzy
But I remember sitting in whatever the first energy field or whatever after partying in the Muni lot, and those fans are animals. And i watched Cody Kessler throw a touchdown pass to, I forget the receiver, who absolutely smoked Cyrus Jones. And I remember thinking like...
00:30:15
Fitzy
Is Tom Brady going to have to play his ass off because Cyrus Jones can't cover the Browns' fifth receiver who just caught a touchdown pass from freaking Cody Kessler, of all people? Like, I had such a beautiful firsthand view as to how bad that guy stunk.
00:30:29
Savage Boston
Ugh.
00:30:30
Fitzy
And sadly, his career ended did later.
00:30:30
Bret
Thank you.
00:30:31
Fitzy
But later on in the 2016 draft, Joe Tooney, Jacoby Brissett, Vincent Valentine, he was not bad but not good. Malcolm Mitchell was great. He fell to the fourth round because of the knee. It's sad what happened to him.
00:30:44
Fitzy
Here's one. Now, late all right we have ah two sixes. three six The sixth round that year, they crushed Camus Grugier-Hill, Landon Roberts, and Ted Karras.
00:30:53
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:30:53
Fitzy
Roberts is still in the NFL. So is Karras. They never should have let him go over ah million dollars to Cincinnati. And Grugier-Hill has played for a bunch of teams and been... One of those stereotypical, like, great special team, hybrid safety linebackers. um That might have been their last good draft because now to the Star Wars reference, most of the rest of the drafts of the past 15 years have just been like the planet Jakku, just broken starships and space trash as far as
Current Optimism for Patriots' Future
00:31:22
Fitzy
the eye can see. They have been bad, real bad.
00:31:25
Savage Boston
Yeah, it's ah it's obviously a massive problem.
00:31:25
Bret
yeah.
00:31:28
Savage Boston
I mean, you know, we've been following it just like you. You know, we're not down there every week, but we've been following following the team extraordinarily closely, like we assume a lot of guys are that might be listening to this or might be on Twitter.
00:31:37
Fitzy
Mm-hmm.
00:31:41
Savage Boston
You know, guys have followed close for a long time. And I think this has been obviously a massive ah experience awakening experience having the team just suck. And it's been, i mean, truly the last time they sucked,
00:31:54
Savage Boston
um I don't remember. you know that's you know I'm born in like 87, right? like Back in 91, 92, I don't remember that. And then all sudden, off to Bill Parcells. And it's really been 30 years of competitive football ah through Pete Carroll, through whoever, like 30 years of good football. And to have it be this bad, this quick in the Gerard Mayo year, which – I know there's stuff going on behind the scenes with Mayo and Kraft, and there's a lot of drama going on, and I think Mayo is really unhappy with Kraft behind the scenes.
00:32:22
Savage Boston
We'll wait for some of that stuff to come out. um but ah But it's been a real experience having this team suck, and I'm very excited for them to not suck again.
00:32:35
Fitzy
Yeah, isn't it great, guys? ah Once Vrabel got hired, it's almost just sort of like you found the rug that had been pissed on and you're like, God, this room always smells. What the hell?
00:32:47
Fitzy
It's awful. Or just like, or just like i don't know, I got this rash.
00:32:48
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:32:52
Fitzy
you know And I can't figure out where it's coming from. And someone's like, dude, that like there's like mold and bed bugs on your couch.
00:32:58
Snooty
it
00:32:59
Fitzy
You need to burn it you need to go West Virginia style and burn that couch in the street right now.
00:32:59
Bret
but
00:33:04
Fitzy
And you open the windows and you take out the rug and you bring in a new one, which ties the whole room together. And you get a fresh couch and you're like, oh my God, this is great. That's where the Patriots are right now.
00:33:14
Fitzy
There's still a ton of work to do.
00:33:14
Savage Boston
and
00:33:16
Fitzy
We got to fix the back deck, get a couple of landscapers in some interior designers, but the Feng Shui and the basics, the studs are in place. The basics of what needs to be done in the renovation of the new England Patriots is happening.
Optimism for Boston Sports Teams
00:33:31
Fitzy
And isn't it nice to just after like the, the, the malaise, of the just like the, the, the Paul, almost the apologetic feeling for being a Patriot fan, which is just nuts to even think that way because we were so brash and so cocky and so unapologetic for so long.
00:33:31
Bret
Thank you.
00:33:45
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:33:47
Fitzy
And damn it, it felt good. God, do I miss being a dick about my football team? Um, But like now there's just positivity in the air again. And look what's happening.
00:33:58
Fitzy
It's permeating the whole scene. you know The Celtics are good. Their Eastern Conference Finals bare minimum ticketed. They could make a run back to Banner 19. The Red Sox have good vibes now as well. Bregmania sweeping through.
00:34:11
Fitzy
The Patriots, obviously things are feeling good. like There's just a nice uptick in the and the positive energy again. There's some respect back on being a Pats fan, you guys. And that's what makes me happiest.
00:34:22
Savage Boston
I love it. We appreciate you coming on, Fitzy.
00:34:25
Bret
Thank you.
00:34:25
Savage Boston
Appreciate your time. I'll try not to keep you too long because we'll just keep going.
00:34:30
Fitzy
i could do that I could do this all night. I was about to reach into the micro fridge for a second one, but I probably should put the kids to bed. so um You guys are awesome, man. Keep up the great work, dudes.
00:34:39
Savage Boston
Yeah, thanks, man.
00:34:39
Fitzy
Thanks again.
00:34:40
Savage Boston
we appreciate it. um I'm going to stop the recording and just don't go anywhere yet, Fitzy. Let it upload. All right. See guys later.