Colin Cowherd Offers Crazy (And Awful?) Take On Patriots’ QB Situation

02.08.2024 04:46

After NBC Sports Boston's Michael Holley said he "saw the ghost of Mac Jones" when he watched Drake Maye in Patriots training camp on Wednesday, Colin Cowherd of "The Herd" doubled down on the assessment and even had an outlandish take that Joe Milton III would start over New England's first-round draft pick.

"There's another story that Joe Milton ... that Milton has a wow factor," Cowherd said on his show Thursday. "Big, stronger arm than Maye. More athletic than Maye and everybody's looking and thinking, is the sixth-round guy better than the first-round guy?"

This is all after just one week of Patriots training camp and only a couple days of padded practice. And if that wasn't enough, Cowherd also downplayed New England's offensive success during the Tom Brady era.

"Take out the Randy Moss years, three years; even with Brady, (Rob Gronkowski) and (Julian) Edelman and no Moss ... New England was never an offensive culture," he said. "It was briefly with Randy Moss, but it was, 'Do your job,' sacrifice for the team, even a paycheck. It was never an organization of offensive creativity. Abundance. Joy. That's Kansas City. That's San Francisco. That's the Rams. Sometimes it's Philadelphia. It's not New England."

Cowherd expanded, saying the Patriots, with Brady, went to nine Super Bowls with the legendary quarterback and didn't score one touchdown in the first quarter. The reason? According to Cowherd, New England was a team that wanted to play it safe and out-coach its opponents.

"So Drake Maye comes into an organization ... they don't know offense. (It) is a defensive culture," Cowherd said. "They hire Jerod Mayo, who's (Bill) Belichick. Mantras, terms, belief systems. So this was always going to be the toughest lift for any of these quarterbacks."

To back up his drivel, Cowherd cited the bottom-of-the-barrel rankings of New England's wide receiver and running back corps from PFF but said each of those positions were drafted by Belichick. However, the Patriots drafted two wideouts -- Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker -- in the 2024 NFL and signed veteran free agent K.J. Osborn in the offseason. As far as running backs, the club signed Antonio Gibson to a three-year deal after he spent the first four seasons of his career with the Washington Commanders.

"The sixth-round quarterback Joe Milton is going to probably win the job because he's the athlete," Cowherd said. "He's the bigger, stronger, faster, more dynamic athlete and they don't have any at wide receiver, tight end or running back."

Cowherd added: "I don't think I'm overreacting. I think when you look at the historical culture of New England, and then they basically hire Belichick's favorite guy, and Belichick's guy is a defensive guy. ... When you enter a defensive culture, where they just hired another defensive coach, they have no playmakers. Don't be shocked if Joe Milton wins this job or gets a lot of snaps this year."

Mayo has already made it clear that Jacoby Brissett will be the Patriots' starting quarterback come Week 1, so did Cowherd just give Maye and the rest of the Patriots offense all the motivation they need this season?

More Patriots: