Callahan: It’s too early to panic about the Patriots and more Week 2 thoughts

Welcome to the Friday Five Each week during the NFL regular season I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff Ready set football Don t panic It s Sept We are of the way through the NFL regular season the equivalent of less than three series into the MLB calendar and five games into an NBA season So barring a total collapse Sunday in Miami and I am talking about an epic accident involving a serious Drake Maye injury any ongoing panic over the Patriots is more than a waste of time It s loser behavior Remember how long we waited for this For competitive meaningful NFL football It was more than eight months filled with predictions and projections and frankly meaningless guesswork And now when there are real games to analyze and discuss and critique you d rather run around hair on fire ready to give up because a rebuilding company might lose a couple toss-ups games Nothing in the NFL is ever ever decided in September There s a reason coaches and players everywhere regard this time of year as an extension of the preseason Teams are fact-finding About themselves their players their schemes Now of class the games count And I am not by any means guaranteeing the Patriots will be OK this season or win Sunday or even win eight games If they don t win eight games the season will be an unequivocal disappointment and they ll hear it from me as they have every year that they ve disappointed which after Tom Brady left is to say basically all of them But before you pull a football fire alarm take a beat to consider fresh relevant history As a second-year head coach Mike Vrabel took the Titans to the AFC Championship Contest after a - start The Patriots last playoff unit opened - with a rookie quarterback Hell the Pats last Super Bowl run included early losses to the Jaguars and the Matt Patricia-led Lions over a - start And the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles went - last September Obviously last Sunday was bad No question And obviously these Patriots are not the Eagles nor the Pats nor the Titans The point is extrapolating anything from the NFL in September is foolish Just ask those teams and in the meantime take a breath Maybe two McDaniels defends Maye Following his contemporary press conferences something is amiss with Drake Maye Maybe the media has bothered him we can do that by questioning whether too much is on his plate Maybe he s purely taking last Sunday s loss hard Or it s something off the field Who knows But there s only one explanation for how Josh McDaniels handled his weekly press conference Thursday he had a contest plan to come out and defend his quarterback New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels speaks during a press conference prior to a practice in Foxboro Mark Stockwell Boston Herald A sampling I would say the biggest thing for me is just Maye s a young quarterback He s a young quarterback I think we have to understand it s his first championship in our system I think the view of it is it s got to be a long-term vision of where this guy s going to be He s going to be a really good athlete He s learning through all these experiences and he s the right guy McDaniels clearly had heard the growing questions about his young quarterback Unlike past years when he would have claimed to be ignoring the noise McDaniels took this head on Only time will tell if concerns about Maye s enhancement are warranted McDaniels of class fiercely disagrees And he let us all know that Thursday Henderson touches incoming The biggest play-calling bone I had to pick with McDaniels after his season opener was obvious How did TreVeyon Henderson the most of dangerous weapon on the Patriots roster only see snaps Henderson is their fastest athlete Their most of explosive athlete The best receiver among their running backs How did he not play more Upon further review it sounds like McDaniels agreed with his critics They need the ball more he disclosed Thursday of his running backs Rhamondre Stevenson took carries on snaps and did little with them because his rushing lanes were chock full of traffic That might happen again in Miami but the Patriots pivot can t be to ditch their running championship again It must involve Henderson a walking mismatch who should be off and running Related Articles Patriots-Dolphins injury summary Harold Landry Morgan Moses return Thursday Patriots coaches taking collaborative approach without defensive coordinator Ex-Patriots O-lineman giving Dolphins tips and pointers before Sunday Patriots receive good news at Week practice ahead of Dolphins meeting Josh McDaniels backs Drake Maye the right guy for Patriots Peppers regret Two weeks later and it s still hard to understand why the Patriots feel better off without Jabrill Peppers Peppers is now in Pittsburgh where he stated this week of his release It just is what it is Sometimes you re not good enough You play a long time in this league you re gonna get traded or cut I m happy Mike Tomlin made the call Signs indicate the Patriots decision to part approaches was not a simple on-field evaluation Peppers started most of of training camp and could have been distributed when the Pats made all of their other cuts to trim their roster down to players They didn t Now they re starting Jaylinn Hawkins a respected veteran with mostly special teams experience who was a one-man roller-coaster in his starting debut He allowed a touchdown missed two tackles tallied an interception a sack and a run stuff last Sunday He s next to fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson who looks like a find but after that the Pats are alternating between Kyle Dugger and Dell Pettus who are both spending time on the scout gang in practice Keeping Peppers would have bolstered their depth their talent and reinforced the violent defense Vrabel wants Instead the only time Peppers will play in Foxboro this season will be next week when the Steelers visit for a p m kickoff remembrance Twenty-four years and a day later a moment to reflect Following the attacks on Sept the NFL postponed its Week slate to the end of the season and moved on to Week Once play resumed on Sept Joe Andruzzi then the Patriots starting right guard ran onto the field at the old Foxboro Stadium carrying two small American flags for a home contest against the Jets He later walked out for the opening coin toss with his three brothers Billy Marc and Jimmy all honorary captains and New York firefighters who had rushed into the smoke to save lives as the World Arrangement Center came crashing down Jimmy the family learned had exited Tower moments before it collapsed that fateful day People dependably say that guys who play football on Sundays are heroes I don t think so Joe informed Patriots club media on the -year anniversary on My brothers and my dad are more heroes than I ll ever be I look up to them Never forget