Tom Curran, NBC Sports Boston Patriots Reporter

Don't you wish your khaki shorts were legitimately comfortable instead of stiff cotton? Try Bird Dogs. Bird Dogs stretch khaki shorts look like khaki shorts but feel like gym shorts.

They have it all – anti-stink, sweat-wicking fabric, a super comfortable built-in liner, and zipper pockets to keep everything secure. It's time to swap your old-school khakis for Bird Dogs. Go to BirdDogs.com slash MLB and enter promo code Baseball for a free baseball hat with your order.

That's BirdDogs.com slash MLB promo code Baseball for a free hat. BirdDogs off, we promise you. If you want to play it out, play it out, play it out. I think there's a hope and an expectation here in New England that the Patriots are going to get DeAndre Hopkins sewn up, but it's going to be dependent upon him. I really think the Patriots are very much interested, and actually too, Zach, very much in need of DeAndre Hopkins. But it's tough for me to evaluate what Mack Jones can be if JuJu Smith-Schuster is your best wide receiver. So they're down to Parker and Bourne at the wideout positions and then a variety of guys who kind of just ambled in off the street or have been kicking around the bottom of the roster. So if you are on notice, which Bill Belichick, believe it or not, kind of is, and you have a quarterback and an offensive coordinator you feel you should be able to get a better season out of, you have to have somebody at their disposal to make two sets of sweat.

And he would help do that. On a scale of 1 to 10, you said Belichick is on notice. In terms of how hot his seat is, where do you kind of put that number right now, 10 being the hottest?

I'd say 5, and that's understanding everything he's done and everything he's been all about. But when you talk about what have you done for me lately, since Tom Brady left in 2020 and the Patriots said, yeah, we're not going to pay him, and he went and won a Super Bowl elsewhere, that felt like a miscalculation. And I think the team itself looked at it as a miscalculation. After a positive season for Mac Jones in 2021, they went totally off the board last year, and in doing so, Bill Belichick choosing to do so, they retreated.

They did the backstroke. So it's not a conventional, hey, this is the letdown after Tom Brady leaves. It's actively pissing away 2022 that kind of puts them in a position where like, okay, you've kind of made this bet.

How are you going to fix it? I think we all remember how it ended for DeAndre Hopkins in Houston when Bill O'Brien was the coach and basically the general manager as well. Is that relationship something that they have to smooth over? Because I see some things, hey, it's a concern, then others, hey, it's no problem.

DeAndre Hopkins would be more than happy to go to New England. I haven't spoken to O'Brien directly from the intimations I've gotten. It's not a problem as far as he's concerned. I saw Diana Rossini from ESPN earlier today, who I think is very reliable, say that she doesn't see it as being an issue for either side. So I trust her reporting on that.

So, excuse me, that should be not an issue. Tom Kern, right now, where are your expectations for the Patriots? And if they get DeAndre Hopkins, how does that change it? I'm high, but they're a 10 or 11 win team. Really?

Yeah. I mean, they were a 10 win team in 2021 in Mac Jones rookie year. They've added an offensive coordinator who knows what he's doing.

Mac is two years better and built some resilience last year. They've added players at some of the skill positions who are better. They have a very, very good defense to begin with. And they added the kind of corner who should, even though he's 20, develop into a player that can be that shutdown type of corner in Christian Gonzalez in the first round.

So they have the pieces in place. They also have a very difficult schedule and division in which to compete, however. But I still see them, I mean, Vegas has them at seven and a half.

I think that's nuts. So we know Tommy Curren is going to be hammering the over on that one. Just to go back to that, Tom Curren, the AFC got better. The AFC East got better.

You say 10 or 11 wins. How do you view the Patriots in the pecking order of the AFC East? Who's in front of them?

Who's behind them? I think Buffalo still is ahead of them. But I think they're right there with Miami.

I know Miami, you know, was a much improved team, but I'm still not a full buyer on Tuatung to Violoa in terms of durability or in terms of just overall. Is he that good a quarterback? I don't think he's a top 15 guy. I think he's right there.

Mac Jones certainly, I think, is a better player, although certainly he did not show that last year. And I think it's going to take a while in New York. I mean, they scored 28 offensive touchdowns last year. And I'm sure that Aaron Rodgers should be expected to throw 28 touchdown passes on his own, at least.

But it will take some time there. So I think that New England, Miami, and the Jets are three teams that can throw a blanket over and say they're all right there next to each other. Tom Curran, you've covered a lot of drama throughout the years in the NFL. What did you make about the last 24 to 48 hours about whatever's going on in Buffalo with Staphon Diggs and the Bills? It feels like relationships.

It really does. I mean, he needed some time and space. I mean, that's what February, March, April, and May are supposed to be for. So however they got sideways this week, I would imagine that was whatever led to that. And you can't have the head coach say he's very concerned and then pretend he's not concerned at all the next day.

So to me, there's something afoot. And the way they closed the season last year was not encouraging if you're a Buffalo Bills fan. They went through a lot of adversity and they closed the season poorly in the playoffs.

So I think there are things that they're going to have to iron out early in the season. Last thing I'll ask you, Tom Curran, just when we get to Trent Brown, I've read so much about this. If you could sum it up, what's going on with Trent Brown right now? Every other year, he's pretty good. And in the off year, he's really bad. Last year, it wasn't very good when he was out there. And I'm looking like he's trying to go back to back with bad years because he did not show up on time for minicamp, really the only guy to do so. All of Lawrence's guys holding out, but Brown blamed a hailstorm.

And that's the kind of thing that in past years, he was like, why are you taking the last flight out? But he showed up late, then he was on the field just for one drill on Tuesday and kind of had to tap out after about 15 minutes and head to a lower field for apparently conditioning work. So that's your left tackle spot. That's your best tackle. And if you don't have protection on the backside for a pocket passer, that's not what you're looking for. So that's something that has to be resolved the next month or so for the Patriots.

Because you'd hate to see a position like that hold a team hostage. Tom Curran, great job covering the Patriots for a long time. NBC Sports Boston. Tom, always appreciate the time. Thank you. All right. Thanks, Jack. See you.