Christian Fauria, Former Patriots Tight End

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That's Stamps.com code PROGRAM. Let's head out to the guest line right now. I guess I could do the cheesy radio play right there.

Ship up to Boston with the music playing right now. Welcome in to former New England Patriot, played under Bill Belichick, and now does a great job on mid-days on Sports Radio WEI. That, of course, is Christian Fourier joining us right now.

Christian, appreciate the time as always. How are you? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

So, today is a bizarre day. Like, we all expected this would be the outcome, but when it finally hit the fan today, what was your reaction that your coach, Bill Belichick, after 24 years is no longer going to be coaching the Patriots? Yeah, well, I didn't know that was going to be the outcome.

I was still kind of wavering, to be honest with you. But then, you know, reality struck, and then once you saw Pete Carroll go down and you saw Nick Saban go down, you're like, uh-oh, Bill's got to be next. So, for the most part, I think it was the right move because, you know, the proof is, just look at the last four years, and, you know, regardless of how much goodwill equity Bill has built up over the last 24 years, I just don't think the crowds were willing to kind of give him one more year to kind of fix it. And quite frankly, sometimes I don't know if Bill was even, you know, down for doing it one more time. So, you know, they keep talking about, you know, mutually separating ways and all that stuff, and it's all amicable.

And, you know, who knows if that's really true or not, but they did the photo shoot, they did the handshake, and now each side is going to go and try to make their fortune on their own. Would you agree with this assessment? Like, I think Bill is still a good coach, but the last few years, he just did a bad job assembling a good roster post-Tom Brady and just never really got great wide receivers there, and it almost felt like he still thought with some of his actions that Brady was still a quarterback for his team in a bizarre way. Well, I would say he's not just a good coach, he's still a great coach.

The dude has not lost a fastball at all, in my opinion. And even he said it, and this is just the real reality of it, if you don't have good players, you're not going to win. I don't care how good your coach is, I mean, Bill is proof of that, and you can look at any other situation, you know, like for a guy not to have the quarterback, and listen, a lot of his demise is by his own hand, to this point, in a way, where, you know, even if you just go back to last year, what a debacle that was. Not hiring a coordinator, given his former defensive coordinator, former head coach Matt Patricia, the reign to run his offense, or to run a semblance of an offense, and actually, looking back at this year, I mean, he actually did a better job than they did this year, but again, I think it was just time for everybody to just kind of admit that it wasn't working.

And you can go talent, you can go attitude, you can go bad draft picks, or you can go bad free agent acquisitions. The reality is, there were some other teams out there in the NFL that dealt with massive issues, major injuries, multiple quarterbacks being started in. Look at the Steelers alone, they're on their third guy, so I still think they look at it as like, you know what, somebody else needs to speak for the organization, and somebody will use Bill to speak for theirs.

Christian Fourier here with us. You know, I'm annoyed today, Christian, not because of the decision, but just some of the people that just spew nonsense on television and radio when talking about Belichick. You know, because of what happened the last two years, people make him out to be like he's some bum when he's the greatest coach of all time, and I love Tom Brady, he's my favorite football player of all time, but as great as Brady is, and I think Brady was more important to the dynasty than Belichick, it wasn't like 100% Tom Brady, and Belichick gets no credit. The conversation drives me crazy. You know, it's low hanging fruit, and I've been in those locker rooms, I've had great teams with crappy coaches, I've had great coaches with crappy personnel.

I'm not even willing to entertain the nonsense that was who was more valuable. It drives me crazy. Now Brady going out there and winning a Super Bowl with another coach, who a year and a half later decided to hang him up, is intriguing, and I would think that the best, really to be honest with you, the only way Bill kind of kills this noise is if he goes out, he coaches another team, and they win a Super Bowl.

I mean, as lame as that sounds, that's kind of what he has to do, because then anyone who does kind of feel that way, and maybe they just don't like Bill, they don't like what he stands for, they don't like the way he talks, they don't like how grumpy he could be. Oh, they just hate winners. That's just nuts.

But I don't know. That's just part of the narrative now, and I don't think they can escape it at all. Period. It's just not going to go anywhere. It's just blame everything on Brady.

Let's just do that. Your favorite player. Blame everything on Brady.

He's probably like, just give me some heat, I'm good. Well, it's just so funny, because even in that first season when both were away from one another, there'd be one weaker who's like, oh, Brady needs Bill. Then, oh, Bill needs Brady. And obviously Brady ended it with the Super Bowl, but then the following season after that, it's like everyone now says how bad of a quarterback Mac Jones is. Like, does people forget that that crappy quarterback, Bill Belichick won 10 games with him and made the playoffs? You know?

It's amazing what people forget so quickly. Yeah, and listen, we all know it's hard to win in this league. It just really is hard, and some of it is about timing, and a little bit is with luck. You can just look at all the quarterbacks in Mac Jones' class, and I don't know if any of them are great. Some of them got traded, some of them aren't playing. It is a crapshoot to find a guy, and up in Boston, we used to mock and tease and just kill the Buffalo Bills, the New York Jets, the Miami Dolphins, and all the other teams throughout the NFL Football League, because they just kept missing. And then they would draft one guy in the first round, three years they'd draft another guy, and then that wouldn't work if they drafted another guy. You just have to keep doing it until you get it right, unless you find some journeyman Joe Flacco-type guy, or a guy like Kirk Cousins. Even there, you're not winning it.

I mean, they'll keep your head above water, but they're not the difference-makers, and they're not a long-term answer. So, that to me is going to be the tough part for the Patriots alone, is how do they start all over again, and who do they start all over again with? Well, I think the first phone call for a head coach got to be to Mike Vrabel, and I think they already had that conversation, because I've never seen a head coach get inducted into another team's hall of fame for what he did as a player, then go during his bye week to that other team's stadium and sit in the luxury box with the owner. I don't want to accuse anyone of tampering or any of that, but I'm assuming Kraft and Vrabel already had that conversation.

Yeah, I don't even know if they need to, though, to be honest with you. At that point in time when Mike was inducted into the hall of fame, I'm not sure it was as bad as it ended up getting when the Patriots only won four games. They still were in a decent position, not a great position, and a lot of people up here are assuming that it's just naturally going to be, you know, pseudo-defensive coordinator, former first-round draft pick, and linebacker for the Patriots, Jerrod Mayo. That's who they think it's going to be, which I think is a mistake, because if you told me that I can have a guy like Mike Vrabel, who's already kind of cut his teeth, has already figured it out, was a coach of the year, went to the playoffs four times, coached in the AFC Championship game, I would say that's the guy I want, and still has ties to the organization. Like, Vrabel is where Jerrod Mayo hopes he will be in ten years.

That's why I would cut it. You know, nothing against Jerrod Mayo, fine dude, but Mike is so much more prepared for this job than Jerrod Mayo is. Now, he's a former teammate of yours. Have you talked to him?

You got any inside scoop for us? No, I never played with him. I was done by the time he came in, but I know him well, and no, I have not talked to him. No, I'm talking about Vrabel. Oh, Vrabel. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not about this. Yeah, not about this. No, yeah. No, not about this. And the last time I saw him was at the induction ceremony, and we just hammed it up like it was no big deal. Like, you're just reminiscing, telling stories, and bragging about what you used to do. And I used to take all my touchdown passes because Bill kept putting them in in the game.

I drove him nuts also. Yeah, so listen, there's three guys, at least two guys right now, three guys right now. Harbaugh, if he comes out, Vrabel, and Bill.

And there's like, what, seven or eight jobs open right now? I mean, I think these coaches are going to break the bank right now when it comes to those three guys, when it comes to term, when it comes to their average annual, when it comes to how much money they make. It's going to be unprecedented, what these guys get. Two more for Christian Forey, who joins us right now, former Patriot tight end. That does a great job on Sports Radio WEI. Where is Bill going next? What's your take on that? Well, I mean, the easy answer seems to be Atlanta. It seems to be the easy answer. You've got an owner in Arthur Blank who's 82 years old. I think he's tried the offensive coordinator, he's tried the defensive coordinator.

I feel like he would want a ready-made product, and I would think his term limits would be three to four years. It's not like, we're not rebuilding here. I don't have any patience. But then the allure of having the most important piece to the puzzle out in La La Land, the LA Chargers who are basically renting space at SoFi Stadium. Not only do they need a boost, some sort of validation, they just need somebody to come in there and take that town over and give them credibility because they're a second-class citizen in that city. And I don't think, you know, Spanish actually likes the fact that people call them cheap and other teams take over their stadium. That happened.

That's a real thing. So I think having Herbert on that team is probably the most important piece and probably most of the attractive angle to all these jobs. And also, I threw this one out there about a month ago when this report came out that maybe Dan Quinn could replace Mike McCarthy in Dallas if Dallas has a short exit. Could you see Jerry Jones and Belichick working together if, let's say, the Packers beat the Cowboys and they fire McCarthy after this weekend?

Absolutely. I mean, Jerry Jones is just the guy to do it. I think the personality-wise, I think he can handle Bill. I mean, listen, he had Jimmy Johnson, he had Bill Parcells. I think he likes that elite status. I think, you know, Jerry Jones is so successful in business, but he hasn't won since Barry Switzer left the building.

And, you know, so it's been a while. He tried with Parcells and that didn't work. But I think that some teams that are still, even if they kind of like their coach, are willing to part ways with them just to have the chance to hire Bill. Even if they feel like they're going in the right direction because he is undoubtedly an upgrade and he will fast-track you regardless of who you have in-house.

That's my opinion. And then last thing I'll ask you, you know, we don't even know the GM or the coach is going to be next year, but I'm already thinking about the NFL draft Christian Fourier. I think the Pats have just stayed put at three. I know a lot of people are going to say, oh, trade up, trade up, trade up, go get a quarterback. Like, they have, like, nothing right now on this team.

They don't have a lot. I'm taking the best player available and I think that's going to be Marvin Harrison Jr. at three. What would your thoughts be on that one?

Yeah, I know. It's hard to kind of pass a guy like that up because you just, you know, he probably is the closest thing to a sure thing and the quarterback is not. But I feel like if you don't have a quarterback and if you don't draft one and start all over again, what pile, what bargain bin are you buying out of?

Like, where are you shopping? Like, who's available? I mean, the one guy that I kept thinking of was Jake Browning. As far as, like, if you want to go ahead and get Marvin Harrison, you need to go grab a free agent guy like Jake Browning, like 28 years old, going to be a free agent.

I mean, he's not like, you know, Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers, but I think that that's a guy, if you put the right pieces around him, that he can win for you. So I think they're going to have some options. Again, the other question is, who's going to be picking the groceries? Like, who's going to be the GM over there in Seattle?

I mean, in New England. All right. He is Christian for a sports radio, WEI, former Patriot tight end Christian. Always appreciate you would jump on board with us. Thank you. Learn more about the new Tucson and Bluelink Plus at HyundaiUSA.com. Call 562-314-4603 for complete details.