After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

Manjay, there are a lot of good questions for asking me anything. So many that really have nothing to do with the wedding, which I appreciate. Like Maureen wants to know if I've ever broken any bones. That was a good one. I've actually had that before.

Maybe you have. I do appreciate that we continue to get tons and tons of questions every week. So thank you. Thank you so much for your interest and for blowing up our Twitter and Facebook pages every week in advance of asking me anything. I do go back and answer as many questions as I can quickly on social without having to write an entire novella.

So please check them out, whether it's Twitter, ALOL Radio, After Hours, CBS or on Facebook. Some good ones. Again, that has nothing to do with wedding, marriage, anything like that. Maria wants to know, besides Penny, what's your most prized possession? Ooh, that'd be a tough one. Also, Glenn, now that you have Princess Leia paid off, are you considering a different vehicle? Good questions. I thought Leia would be offended by that one, so I want to keep it out.

Oh, right. That's nice of you to consider her emotions and her feelings. Yeah, lots of people want to know about Penny and Bob and whether or not Penny approves of Bob.

I've gotten that question multiple times. What do you think, Jay? You know Penny. Would she approve?

I would say yes. Penny can't hear anything, but she can see really well. Actually, if I had a guess, I'd say she loves Bob. I actually told Bob when he first met her that I'm pretty sure she likes him more than she likes me. Well, because I'm the mean mama, right? I don't let her do whatever she wants. Yeah, I don't let her drink as much water as she wants because now she's nearly 14 and she dribbles.

Yeah, I mean, we've got all kinds of issues. Although, I gotta say, given Penny's dribbles here and there versus what I did in the kitchen on Tuesday morning, I haven't told you about this, Jay, but this is how I'm going to wake people up as we start the fourth hour of the hump show. You want a funny story to laugh at?

Here's the story. This is one of those that I'm doing just for you out of the goodness of my heart so you all can feel better about yourselves compared to me and so you have something to laugh at. Now, just don't do this this morning as you're making breakfast, okay? I was tired on Tuesday morning, extremely tired, and I was rushing while I was tired to make some breakfast because I was really hungry.

I don't know what it is. My stomach growls like crazy when I get done with the show and I go home and I gotta feed the dog and take care of the zoo and everything else and it was my morning to make eggs. So, I make four eggs.

I know, laugh if you must, but I eat a lot. I made four eggs. Well, I cracked. I generally make four eggs.

I cracked three of them. The fourth one somehow slips out of my hand and I'm standing in front of the counter so the dishwasher is right underneath me. I'm standing in front of that counter where the dishwasher is and the egg bounces, weirdly enough does not break then, but as it slips out of my hand it kind of bounces on the counter. I mean it wasn't a very far drop and then rolls off the front edge of the counter like a dope.

What do I do? But I try to trap it between my, not really my leg, more like my hip. I try to trap it with my hip so that it doesn't fall on the floor except as you can imagine that impact then shattered the egg. So, I have egg all down my legs. It's also smashed against the dishwasher and then runs all the way down the floor onto the floor and so there's egg everywhere all over me, all over the dishwasher, all over the floor for a good like three feet because it hit the floor and just boom like an egg explosion. So that was my Tuesday morning. I nearly burst into tears because I was already exhausted and I was hungry and I just couldn't believe that, well that I made it worse by trying to trap it with my hip against the counter.

That's not your fault. It was an instinct, right, to try to trap it before it hit the floor. That's what it is. It's just, oh let me, it would be anything. It didn't matter what it was. That was, you were gonna do that no matter what the object was.

Let me catch it. So this is on the heels of the story where I choked on the chicken at Cheesecake Factory over the weekend and now I'm batting over with food this week. Not a good food week.

No, it's not been a good food week at all and so like I said I nearly burst into tears. I got really upset. I yelled at myself, like yelled at myself, called myself an idiot or something along those lines and no I did and then I had to figure out how to clean up the runny, it's a big egg too, the runny egg all off of the the tile floor and then I realized it was dripping down the dishwasher and I nearly cried again. It's all over my shorts. Do you know by the time I got done cleaning it up, I didn't even care that it was on my shorts. I walked the dog that way anyway. Penny was sniffing me funny though, wondering what that was, the smell on my shorts. So yeah, it was just one of those mornings where I hope that none of you have an egg incident or a choking incident but if I can be the cautionary tale, don't eat the chicken at Cheesecake Factory.

No, I'm just kidding. It wasn't their fault. I don't know what the problem was. They didn't save you.

Right, that's true. Nobody even noticed and definitely don't crack eggs. I'm not sure what the moral of that story is. Don't smash the egg against the dishwasher. It was just an instinct. Crazy enough, the egg survived the bounce on the counter. It really did. It didn't crack until it rolls off and yep, my first instinct was to catch it with my hip and it was everywhere. It was everywhere, Jay. It was everywhere. Good reflexes.

I didn't get it. It smashed all over me, all over the dishwasher and all over the floor. Who knew that that one egg could make such a mess? I feel like egg yolk to clean up too. It's like you put paper towels or whatever then it's still like got that sludge and like that sliminess. Sludge! I'll never eat eggs again. They were sludgy. Yes, it was very slimy and the yolk was funny enough, half of it landed intact on the floor.

I don't know if it was that. You know sometimes you find twin eggs? I'm not sure because there was some yolk on the dishwasher but then there was actual round yolk on the floor surrounded by the egg white. It almost looked like I was trying to fry it on the floor.

It's a sick yolk. Should I just fast? Just not eat for a while? The way it's going, it's not the worst idea. Just think about it. Thanks, Jay. Hire a chef.

That'd be cool. Use the money from the wedding budget and hire a chef. I can't have flowers. Oh my gosh, what a disaster I am. Yeah, I did. I yelled at myself, you idiot!

You're a dumbass! Like I was so angry at myself. Were you wearing the clothes that you were going to wear to bed or you hadn't changed yet? No, I had to walk the dog still so I changed out of my work clothes into a pair of shorts which thankfully were not clean.

I had worn them the day before but usually wear my shorts a couple days in a row if I don't work out in them and so put on those shorts and then after that of course they went into the laundry. So now I'm sure my laundry smells like eggs but whatever. I guess there are worse smells.

There are. Probably not an egg that's been left out. Eggs not great though. That's up there. That's great. I hate when they serve eggs on the airplane. Never get that. Do you actually eat on the airplane now?

No, no. I never do anymore because these days, depending upon which airline you fly, they actually won't even give you cookies or peanuts or anything else for free. You have to buy a snack pack or a snack box. Snack box? Like getting a charge of $14 for those peanuts.

Snack box. Right, in some cases you don't even get complimentary complimentary beverages. When I flew Spirit home from Houston in early August, they don't give you water. They don't get, no, they don't. No water, no sodas, no teas, no coffee.

You have to pay for everything and you have to buy your food. Wow. I know. No water is, come on. Right?

What are we doing? I thought that was like a basic human right. No, there's no such thing.

When it comes to airlines, there's no such thing as basic human rights. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, producer J here on CBS Sports Radio. On Twitter, ALawRadio and our Facebook page too. Again, if you did not hear your question answered on Ask Amy Anything, well then make sure you check it out on either of our social media sites. I always go back and answer, but I am not answering any wedding questions. We're saving those for a video version of Ask Amy Anything. No idea you all would have so many questions. Some of them though, J, I have to tell you, I did answer the one about whether or not we would play Chubby Bunny at the wedding. Oh, you answered that.

I saw that one. Well, at the wedding. I mean, what's the answer? Could you imagine getting all 50 people to play Chubby Bunny at the wedding? Oh, what a mess that would be. Come on. What is the answer? This is why you're not invited.

Clarify. Oh my gosh. I'm sure there's many places where J would rather be than at my wedding to play Chubby Bunny.

I don't know. It's pretty fun. I bet Bob would want to play. No, stop it. Don't suggest that. We're not playing Chubby Bunny at the wedding. No, don't give him any bright ideas like that. But they already wanted to play at Thanksgiving, so.

No, negative. Well, yes, the family does actually. In fact, the family recently asked whether or not I would be in Texas for Thanksgiving so that we could play Chubby Bunny. That's why. Not because I bake a great pumpkin pie or anything, just because I could commandeer the games and we would play Chubby Bunny.

No, no. They would excommunicate me from the family. If I upchucked marshmallows at the Thanksgiving table.

Wouldn't be the best look for the first Thanksgiving together, but. Oh my gosh. Let's change the subject, shall we? Shall we?

There's a lot to get to this hour. We're not quite to the final preseason weekend of the NFL season. I actually, or the NFL preseason, excuse me. That was redundant. The final round of games from the NFL preseason. But earlier, if you missed it, I don't know why I keep outing myself. I actually said and believed it too that we were just over a week out from the start of the NFL season. Nope, I skipped right over Labor Day weekend. It's actually two weeks from Thursday, not next week. Just pay zero attention to me, please. I'm an idiot.

Like I said earlier, I break eggs with my hips and I give you false information here on the show. All right. Maybe we should stay away from football and talk about something safer. Like Mike Trout returning to a baseball diamond near you. No, I'm not sure it's safer though, because he can't seem to stay healthy from one year to the next. However, he is back in the Angels lineup when one for four with a strikeout after 38 games away. Yeah, I'm back.

Okay. Yeah, it's a long time coming, obviously. You know, just real excited to get out there with the guys. Had the rain not played a part in things the last couple of days, might you have come back Sunday or Monday? Yeah, I mean, it was, it was, you know, definitely, I guess, like taking day by day and, you know, did a live VP Thursday. When I woke up next day, I was, you know, sore, just a normal soreness. So, you know, it's, the rain kind of helped me a little bit.

Give me a couple extra days. So with the doubleheader tomorrow, do you anticipate playing one, both, or is kind of how today goes? Yeah, I'm just playing by ear. You know, I got to talk to Nev. You know, see how I come out of it. You know, see how that hand responds tomorrow and we'll go from there. Welcome back, Mike Trout.

It may be too late. The Cincinnati Reds actually end up with three runs in the fifth inning in their game in Anaheim and while the Reds desperately need the wins as well, Angels have faded so far back that I don't know that it matters anymore. Especially when you consider what's happening at the top of the AOS, but in the wild card too. Angels and Yankees, since the trade deadline, have been abysmal. Is that too strong?

Is abysmal too strong? No, the Yankees haven't lost nine in a row. Right, and the Angels, after making the moves that they did, and they went out and they got Lucas Gilli, you know, I don't even think he's won yet with the Angels and if he has, it's been one time. Oh man, he's been shelled since he joined the Angels.

It's been a real weak spot for them. Otani's exhausted, as you can imagine. They're doing what they can to preserve his energy and his strength through the rest of the season, but there's a good chance that if they fall any further back, that they don't actually pitch him the rest of the way.

Or maybe he says he doesn't want, I don't know if he would do that, but he's worn out. As you hear with them skipping starts and everything else, I mean, why go to all those great lengths if your team is not going anywhere? You don't love it when athletes think that way, except he's put himself on the line for months now and the Angels did try. It's just, it fizzled.

It fell pretty flat. So now Mike Trout is back. He's still not 100%.

Apparently doctors told him that he couldn't do any more damage, so he is playing with pain, but that's not helping the Angels. Last night didn't even have many opportunities. They only left four guys on base. That was it against the Cincinnati Reds.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. At the top of the AL West, wow, you've got some fireworks. So Justin Verlander and the Astros have, they've got the pitching and the offense working right now. Finally, they've been able to find that groove again. They're able to beat the Boston Red Sox last night.

Then along the way, Justin told Alex Cora, his former bench coach, to f*** off essentially. Can I say that on national radio? Okay, all right. It's just a letter. It's just a letter.

That's all. He did give him a piece of his mind and so apparently they've, they're not bonded over trash cans and World Series rings anymore, but yeah, Justin, season high, nine strikeouts, had six scoreless innings and sees, he kind of feels like he's back in a space where he's comfortable. I'm always thinking pitching. You know, it's always, it's always on my, it's always on my mind. You know, it's, you know, a little neurotic at times, but, you know, you know when you're right and I haven't quite felt like that this year, even though it's, you know, had some decent runs and I've gotten better and, you know, some of the mechanical tweaks I've made have improved, but it, to me, never felt just quite right.

So good for him. He's back with not only a franchise that is comfortable, but one that appreciates him and it's not a surprise that he would start to pitch better with the Astros. So while the Astros are putting a few wins together, you've got a Texas Rangers team that is coming back to the pack in a major way. They have dropped now six in a row.

And so for them, the time is dire. There's a major sense of urgency here because for Bruce Bochy's club, they've got the Astros within a half game and the Mariners within one game atop the AL West. We're off tomorrow in, you know, Minnesota and we got to see where we're at. And it's time to pick it up. It's go time. You know, we worked hard to get in this position and, you know, we can't let this get away from us. It's time to play good baseball.

And so I think it's a challenge for all of us, you know, to amp it up here a little bit. Tight. I like it. As we get closer to the end of August, so September being the official stretch run, Rangers Astros have the same number of wins. Seattle just one win behind that pace. So that's a tight three-way race, which maybe makes up for the fact that in the East Division, the National League, the Braves have a 12 and a half game lead. The Dodgers up 11 and a half games.

They buried the rest of their divisions. So it's not going to be competitive there except for talking about potentially the number one seed in the NL. But we do have some great division races and of course, the wildcards too. Yeah, September stretch run.

September. September in which the Yankees don't matter even a whip. They're not always a contender as much as that's the goal. There have been years past where they made the playoffs as a wildcard and they're not really considered a World Series contender. But this nine game skid is the first time since 1982.

Think about it. We're talking 40 plus years since they've been this bad. I don't know that Aaron Boone survives this. People ask me all the time and I say if it's me, I make a change because something's wrong. And it's not all on him. The moves that Brian Cashman and the front office have made, they've not panned out. So the GM has to take some responsibility. But whatever Aaron Boone says is right now falling on deaf ears. We're in it to win it.

At the end of the day, you work hard to put yourself in a position to shake hands at the end of the day. And when you get beat over and over again and you're in the middle of a tough season, it makes it hard. But you got to fight that. We're in it to win it? What are you talking to one of the kids teams at the Little League World Series? We're in it to win it. It's right in front of us. If I was Aaron Boone, I would just spend the rest of the games getting ejected. I'd sign up for that. Just doing what I can to get an early exit from the ballpark.

He wasn't going to deal with me. We're in it to win it, he says. We're in it to win it. No, no. I'm not sure what it is, but we're in it to win it.

Oh my gosh. Speaking of eggs, how many fans want to take eggs to the ballpark and just chuck them at the Yankees now? The thing is they sell these games out. People still go. It's an experience to go to Yankee Stadium, but oh. Just think about where they were this time last year.

I know they weren't quite to the point where the sense of urgency and the excitement was heightened over Aaron Judge, but he was on pace to set a brand new American League home run record. He gets that massive record-breaking deal. Now I know he got hurt through no fault of his own. He ran through a wall at Dodger Stadium and broke a toe or no tore a ligament, right? That's not on him. Yeah, I mean that's not.

He was. He was making a defensive play. But just that's sports, right? And it's not as though anybody else on the team is doing squat.

Just what a disaster. They've got to make changes. It's just tough because there's so they're locked into these guys like Stanton and LeMayhew and Rodon now who actually pitched OK last night, but Virgil's got another year. I mean, Stanton's got four more years.

LeMayhew's got three, four more years on this contract. These guys are terrible, right? Can they pay people to take them like the Mets did?

They can. The Yankees can afford it, but they don't seem to be wanting to do that right now, which is the weird. I know the Yankees are all of a sudden playing like a small market team. It was a couple of years ago when the Yankees actually traded away, but that was marked to share.

It's been a few. It's been longer than just a few years, but they traded away a bunch of older veterans or caught a bunch of older veterans or even paid other teams to take them so they could start fresh. That was supposed to be this iteration of the Yankees that's now mature enough, but they'd kind of gone back to doing the free agent route and paying a bunch of guys that are later in their careers and have all fallen flat at the exact same time.

Yeah, it's a it's a mess. So nine consecutive losses for the New York Yankees. When was the last time you heard that? If you were still if you were following them going back to 1982, maybe you remember it, but we're in it to win it. No, no, you're not not even remotely in it. You're not in it at all. You might be winning it, but you're not in it. Just gross. All right, coming up, let's see.

What do I want to do? Oh, Baker Mayfield. Baker's back, baby.

Eat your heart out. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. We go through many camp training camp and OTAs, and we love everything Kyle has done, and he's gotten leaps and bounds better than he has in the spring, and he's continuing to get better, and we're excited about him. Baker's our guy right now, experience-wise and understanding the playbook just a little bit better, but Kyle's on the come, but we like both guys. We like where we're at. Baker's one, Kyle's two.

Getting you to the good half of your week, it's the Hump Show on After Hours. Baker Mayfield is back, baby. He's about to start for the third different team in a row.

Three different season openers, three different teams. So three years in a row, he's starting for a different team. Very few quarterbacks can claim that. I'm not sure it's a badge of honor. Ryan Fitzpatrick could probably claim that, but Baker Mayfield never thought his career would work out this way.

I'm rooting for him. I don't know what happened to me. It's a total about face. I like this version of Baker Mayfield a lot better, the humbled version of Baker Mayfield. They always come back. No, no. So creepy.

It's so arrogant. It was only a year ago that he got traded to the Panthers. It took a while for the Browns to find a trade partner, remember, because so many of the musical chairs were full at quarterback.

A year ago, he got traded. This is after he issued the goodbye letter to Cleveland Browns fans, even before Deshaun Watson had chosen the Browns and had gotten the fully guaranteed contract. He learned over the course of those few months when he was in limbo, how to keep his emotions in check and how to keep him, his emotions and himself off of social media to his detriment, right?

I mean, he did. He was silent, almost entirely silent on social for months, which is so out of character, at least the character that we had known Baker Mayfield to be. And he finally figured out that it was not a positive and it was hurting him, actually, to put all of his junk out there on social media. And so he got quiet. His wife did a podcast of some sort, if I remember correctly, some type of an interview where she talked about how he was healing up from the shoulder, but that he was just waiting.

They were waiting and they were staying positive. Goes to Carolina, starts with the Panthers last year, but essentially in that whole mess where Matt Rule was fired and Christian McCaffrey was traded and, gosh, Baker was cut. I mean, all kinds of things happened, right? They were divesting themselves. Robbie Anderson, he got traded as well.

They were divesting themselves of pieces before they hit a fresh start button this year. And so he ends up in LA, which might've been one of our favorite moments of the entire NFL season. It was Monday Night Football, wasn't it, Jay? He's with the lake, the Lakers.

Oh my gosh. He's with the Rams for all of like 10 minutes and he leads them on a fourth quarter comeback. Hey, I'm happy to be home, man. Rams on three.

One, two, three. Rams! Good for you, Baker. Walk around like you own the joint. I mean, you might as well.

That's one of my favorite games of the year, I gotta say. Seriously. And so after that, obviously his contract runs out. He's a free agent again.

The Bucks pick him up and he has to compete with Kyle Trask in Tampa. Though he did tell us many times in the spring, I'm not going to be Tom Brady. In case you're wondering, I'm not Tom Brady. The ultimate goal is always to be playing.

So yeah, it's one of those things that when you look at, you know, the big picture, it's one of those things you have to check off the box. So yeah, but now's the time to really ramp it up and go from here and start winning ball games that count. No joke, Jay. I'm on Baker's bandwagon this year. I want Baker to kick some NFL booty this season. You think the Bucks just found their new franchise quarterback? Look at your face when you say it.

You can't even say it with a straight face. No, I don't know, but he was a number one overall pick. Absolutely. Friggin Heisman trophy winner, for heaven's sakes. Not that that means anything in the NFL, but he's got the ability. He's smart.

We know Baker's smart. It's just, he doesn't always make smart decisions. And too often he's led with his emotions instead of channeling those emotions, he's allowed his emotions to run rampant and to control him. Use them for your good. Be a better leader. All of the failure, all of the frustration. How about all of this kind of, um, it's humiliation, right?

He's, he's gotta be at some point embarrassed by what happened to his career. Use that as a way to be a better leader and a better voice in a locker room. Get them to respect you, not just for what you do on the field, but for what you can offer as a mentor and a veteran of sorts. But yeah, you go out there and you compete your rear end off and you make smart decisions. And if the Buccaneers win a wide open division, then I don't know, you might in fact have a fresh start.

Should we call it a fresh start? You might in fact have a second stage of your career in which you can earn a big contract. It's there. It's there.

It's possible. The opportunity's there. He's in control of his own destiny.

Hey, step one is done. He won the job. He won the job and he believes that the offense has got a whole lot to offer. Guys are really understanding the objective when we call certain plays.

What's the scheme we're trying to get accomplished and they're, they're executing it. So the improvement's been unreal. And so now it's just time to go out and execute and play fast.

So we've learned the system. Now it's time to adjust on the fly based on coverages or defenses and just play fast. I'm telling you, I like this Baker Mayfield. He sounds smart. He sounds controlled. He sounds measured. Yes, he's eager to go. And of course he wants to prove himself. He's got a lot to do.

He wants to prove himself and you can imagine the chip on his shoulder is the size of Cleveland. Like it's enormous, but don't lead with that. Don't lead with that tone of voice where everyone's against you. Poor me.

It's me against the world. Be a team guy, be a buccaneer. That's it. Baker's a buck. I'm all in on Baker. Baker's back, baby. Jay, you think I'm joking, but I told you last year we're rooting for the lions and look what happened to the lions. You're right.

You're absolutely right. There's no hype train around Baker Mayfield except here on After Hours. I like the new and improved. I like the humbled Baker Mayfield.

I think that there's value in a human being finding a shot at redemption, being humbled after falling so flat on your face and so miserably that you have no choice but to start over again. And Baker has. That's it. I'm on the Baker bandwagon. It's official.

Hashtag Baker bandwagon. Let's go. All right, coming up, we had a chance to catch up with Karen Grigian.

Long time. I mean, long time Patriots insider. She's now with Mass Live. A couple of questions with her about what is a team that could be flying out of the radar in 2023. That's weird. And also a sad situation for one NFL team member.

But his team is rallying to support him, which is what I love about pro sports and teams and the family aspect. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Around here, you kind of just have to live day by day and just focus on the now. And obviously, you have that in mind, right? A good team has the end goal in mind, but you can't focus on the end goal without going through, you know, the rough stuff. So you got to continue to plug along, you know, have a good practice here tomorrow and full pads and see where it takes us. And then, like I said, every day is a life, has life of its own.

And you kind of just have to go out there and attack each day. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Mac Jones, the Patriots offense firmly in the spotlight as they get set to kick off 2023.

Not to mention, could they actually fly into the radar in their own division, considering Josh Allen and the Bills, Aaron Rodgers, and the Jets, and obviously the Tua situation with Miami Dolphins, and they did make the playoffs last year. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Had a chance to catch up with Karen Gerigian, who's been covering the Patriots since I was a kid growing up in New England. I respect her so much and just wanted to bring back part of this conversation. We'll pick it up at the part where we ask her about the biggest question mark for the Patriots this season.

Everyone you ask in New England will say the same thing. It's the offensive line. They haven't even played with the group that anyone has projected to be their starting offensive line. They've had, you know, several of the starters have been out. Most notably, Mike Onwenu, who hasn't participated in training camp at all. He suffered an ankle injury the last game of the season. He had off-season ankle surgery and just hasn't yet been ready to come back. Although he was in Green Bay, a spectator watching the joint practices, Cole Strange, their starting left guard, got injured a week or two into training camp and hasn't been able to come back. Trent Brown has sort of been in and out and injured and not playing and he's just back. Basically, they have a revolving door at right tackle. All the improvements to the offense, whether it's with Bill O'Brien now as the offensive coordinator, a renewed and confident Mac Jones, all of that goes out the window and you can't protect them.

Good point. You said a renewed and confident Mac Jones. What does that mean in how he plays? Well, I think, you know, we've seen even from the early camps and the OTAs, and there's just a different feel around him.

There's not this gloom and doom. He was really, I don't know, set back last year, let's say, by having, again, a couple of coaches take over for Josh McDaniels, who led him to one of the best rookie seasons in the history of the NFL. And then Josh leaves and Coach Belichick, besides Matt, Patricia and Joe Judge, two coaches who haven't really ever led an offense, are going to take Mac to the next level year two. None of us thought that that was going to be a good move, but you know, you always give Bill Belichick the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, us idiots were right and it was a disaster. Maybe players on the offense, maybe Mac, they were all thinking like us and really didn't give it a chance, but the offense was so vanilla, so pedestrian.

There was no complexity to it at all. They were so easy to defend and now, especially, it's like you watch the practices now. Oh my God, they run motion.

I mean, oh my God, Mac can audible. I mean, the changes are glaring. And I think to a man, the players who had to go through all that last year, it's almost like they've been liberated and gotten this new freedom. And there's a confidence they have now with each other and a trust in Bill O'Brien. Just that alone is going to improve them. But as they said, they just might be derailed by a bad offensive.

We'll see. What does the addition of Ezekiel Elliott mean for the offense? He's actually very important and not as a lead back, but as the number two back.

I mean, Ramondre Stevenson is the guy. And last year, it was pretty obvious he wore down toward the end of the season because he was like their every down, every minute back. He was the first and second down back running the ball. He was the third down back, catching the ball. And he was the third down back running the ball.

It's hard. It wears on your body. And you could tell in the last quarter of the season, you know, he lost his legs. They basically got another back who essentially does what he does, runs like he does. At least Ezekiel in his prime. Ezekiel can catch just like Ramondre.

So they basically got a clone of him. You know, obviously Ezekiel's older, but I still think there's something left in the tank. And that, you know, the Patriots, you know, maybe because their offensive line isn't as good and they don't want to have Mac pass 50 times a game, they're going to run. They're going to lead with the run. So it's important to have a couple of competent backs carrying the rock and doing damage. Karen Patriots flying under the radar.

It sounds so odd, right? And yet it almost feels like that's what they could be doing this season. What are the expectations for them in the AFC East? A lot of people think that thanks to Aaron Rodgers arrival in New York, you know, the Patriots are going to replace the Jets in the basement. Anything can happen. I mean, last year we were predicting everyone in the AFC West was going to be a playoff team and it all but a great division that right.

And, and look what happened there. That was not a good division. So you have to see it play out. And again, I think the Patriots are a good team, a good to better than good team, better than average team. They're very well coached. They're not going to beat themselves. They will be in games. And again, who knows what Aaron Rodgers will or won't do in New York?

Who knows? It's too, it can stay healthy in Miami. You know, maybe the Bills are more vulnerable than they've been. I think the Patriots will be lurking. You know, a number of things going to have to go their way for them to stay out of the bottom, let's say. When you look at their schedule, what's notable about it?

It's killer at the start and it's killer at the end. So, and you know, the odd thing, Amy, is that in recent years, the Patriots, it's post Tom Brady, mostly, they haven't started out well, and they haven't finished well. So if you believe in patterns, then they really aren't going to do well this year.

Oh, no. Yeah, they've been slow starting. But that's kind of been a typical thing.

And what's been surprising is, you know, Bill Belichick has always preached, you know, you build and build and build so that you're peaking toward the end. I mean, for years and years and years, they were like unbeatable in December, or after Thanksgiving. They go five and one, six and oh, always, year after year after year, like clockwork. And now, you know, they've been like two and three, two and four, one and five. And they just haven't closed out well. You know, which is, again, not what we're used to seeing. So they're gonna have to fix some things, they're gonna have to start out better in the rough half of the schedule, clean up when they can in the middle of the schedule.

These teams are supposed to beat and then not fall flat in their face right in the final month. Weird to be talking about the Patriots that way, right? More with Karen Grigian if you check out the podcast I asked her about. Bill Belichick potentially admitting he was wrong about the offensive coordinator last year, and then we talk about the defense. The McCordys are gone, yes, but it's still a veteran group.

So a lot of good stuff there coming out of New England. Podcast available every weekday morning on both our show Twitter after our CBS as well as on our Facebook page. Not sure if you heard this, but coming from the world of the NFL, the father of Titans cornerback Caleb Farley actually passed away in what was a home explosion in North Carolina, apparently caused by a gas leak, and it just built up and eventually somehow bonded or spread to the point where it exploded. Something else caught fire and and really sad just 61 years old. There was another person in the house who right now is recovering in the hospital, but I guess you can imagine for Caleb a lot of the Tennessee Titans thinking about him and praying for him and and can't even imagine being in his shoes. Praying for him, keeping him in our prayers, a prayer for his family, send my condolences. All we all send our condolences, just a tragic situation. I just can't, you know, I can't describe the way he probably feeling right now and just let him know we praying for him. We love him and you know we all here for him. If you need somebody to lean on, I feel for him obviously and he'll be in my prayers. But no, I mean it's just a you just feel for him for sure.

Hmm. I can't even imagine getting that news and Caleb's just 24 years old. 24 his dad was only 61.

You hear the voices of Derrick Henry and Harold Landry on the defensive side of the ball. So yeah, first responders were able to get there. It was right after midnight, so middle of the night too and they did see another young man coming out of the structure, but we're not able to get to his father in time.

A really terrible situation. We launch you forward into Your Hump Show, Your Hump Day, I guess our Hump Show, Your Hump Day. We will reconvene tonight. Thank you for hanging out with us. Thanks for all your questions for Ask Amy. We'll check in again soon.

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