According to ESPN, Boston has emerged as a leading destination in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. No deal is on the table (that we know of), but the mere possibility might raise a few concerns.
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Callahan: The Patriots’ silent killer and 4 more Week 7 thoughts
LONDON — Welcome to the Friday Five, England edition!
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.
1. Killer first quarters
The Patriots opened practice this week with an unusual period.
The starting offense faced the starting defense down in the red zone. Full speed, full contact, full go.
The idea, Jerod Mayo explained Wednesday morning, was to jump-start one of the slowest starting teams in the NFL and address another area where the Pats have struggled. Offensively, they are scoring touchdowns on a league-lowest 35.7% of their trips inside opponents’ 20-yard line. Defensively, life isn’t much better, tied for the 10th-worst touchdown percentage allowed in the red zone.
As for their slow starts, the Patriots trailed 14-0 after the first quarter last weekend to Houston, and dug double-digit halftime holes versus the Jets and 49ers. Overall, they’re allowing almost as many points in the first half (11.3 points per game) as they’re scoring per game (13.8).
It’s hard to win like that generally in the NFL, but especially as a run-first offense with pass protection issues.
2. Maye-king time
Drake Maye’s off-schedule plays were some of the most impressive he made last weekend in his starting debut. Maye gained 30 yards on an unplanned pitch-and-catch with tight end Hunter Henry and scrambled for 11 yards on another extended play. On dropbacks where he held the ball for longer than 2.5 seconds, Maye gained a first down 42% of the time compared to 28% when he got rid of it within 2.5 seconds.
Most of all, Maye’s ability to escape and keep plays alive figures to help a receiving corps that struggles to separate.
Because, as Patriots defensive back Jonathan Jones put it to me this week: “You know, if you can give (receivers) six seconds, at some point even grandma’s going to get open. They don’t need much space, the way these quarterbacks can throw the ball. The quarterbacks get outside the pocket, and as a defensive back, I know the whole world’s mad, but I’m like, you can’t even cover grandma forever.”
3. Play-action attack
Under offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, the Patriots’ offense is designed to generate explosive plays off deep play-action shots.
So far, thanks to problems at quarterback, receiver and in pass protections, the Pats haven’t completed a single deep pass off play-action. While Maye’s arm has given the offense new life, play-action dropbacks are still relatively new for the former college quarterback who worked exclusively out of the shotgun. Maye said this week he feels more comfortable making those drops — his footwork has shown marked improvement the last few months — but the ability to read a defense a second time after turning his back on a play fake is a different challenge.
Callahan: The Patriots are making more changes after Drake Maye, so who’s up next?
“Our defense does a good job of flipping up the coverages and changing the picture post-snap, and that’s something that I’ve really started to kind of understand and learn,” Maye said this week. “The picture I’m seeing when I first get the snap versus when I turn my back and look at it may be different. So, just trying to find my checkdowns or find an outlet, that’ll be something that I’ll kind of build towards. Then, other than that, try to exploit them with matchups.”
Last year with Van Pelt, the Browns passed for the fourth-most yards in the league off play-action. This season, the Patriots have the fewest completions and second-fewest passing yards off play-action. Expect to see more bombs on Sunday, due to Maye’s comfort and Jacksonville allowing more completions and yards than versus play-action than any defense in the NFL, per Sports Info. Solutions.
4. Underdog history
The Jaguars are slated as 5.5-point favorites for Sunday’s game, the first time they’ve been favored to beat the Pats since 2006.
Back then, the Patriots held on for a 24-21 win at Jacksonville on Christmas Eve and clinched the AFC East title. Tom Brady’s leading receiver was rookie tight end David Thomas, who had 83 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Mayo was a young college linebacker at Tennessee and Maye was barely four years old.
Before that regular-season win, the Jags were last favored over the Patriots in a 1999 Wild Card playoff game. At kickoff, more than half of the Patriots’ current players hadn’t been born.
5. English extra points
The Patriots will practice Friday at the Harrow School, an all-boys boarding school in greater London that Winston Churchill attended. Mayo and Maye are scheduled to hold press conferences before practice at 9 a.m. ET, while other players will meet the media after practice around 11 a.m. ET. … This weekend will mark Maye’s second trip to London, after he said he visited family and attended the Summer Olympics in 2012. … The Patriots will kick off in Wembley Stadium for the first time since 2012, when they trashed the Rams 45-7. Mayo finished second in tackles that game with seven, while Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns from Tom Brady and finished with a game-high 146 receiving yards. … The Patriots could return to Europe next season for a third international game in as many years, should they play a “home game” in Germany again or are selected to kick off in Madrid against the Dolphins, who are expected to play in Spain next year.
Concern numero uno is obvious. Giannis is one of the handful of players capable of altering the championship picture by himself. Pairing him with Jayson Tatum would create an impressive combination of size, athleticism, versatility, and star power. The question is whether Brad Stevens and the Celtics can actually pull it off without creating a new set of problems for themselves.
Boston’s path to Giannis is narrower than it first appears. The Celtics would almost certainly need to move Jaylen Brown, either directly to Milwaukee or through a third team. Reports indicate Brown has little interest in joining the Bucks (in paraphrase: “Milwaukee?! Yuck!”), which complicates matters further. We start moving from a blockbuster trade to a three-team puzzle involving contracts, draft compensation, and competing agendas.
Even if Boston finds a way through that maze, there’s no guarantee the resulting team will succeed.
Giannis may be a better asset than Brown, but championships are not won by comparing players one-for-one. They’re won by building complete teams (case in point: YOUR WORLD CHAMPION NEW YORK KNICKERBOCKERS ).
Brown averaged more than 28 points per game last season while defending multiple positions. He can create his own offense, punish smaller defenders, and absorb primary scoring responsibilities when Tatum is unavailable (as Tatum was for most of last season, recovering from a torn Achilles). Replacing him with Giannis raises Boston’s ceiling, perhaps, but also changes the structure of the roster.
The Celtics have spent years building an ecosystem around two star wings. Remove one and the supporting cast suddenly becomes more important, which means Stevens would have many more decisions to make before the start of training camp.
What catches me up is, if the Bucks believed that Giannis has more great years ahead of him, would they so quickly offload him to a conference rival? Might he actually be a distressed asset?
Giannis will turn 32 this season. He has generally been durable over his career but has dealt with increasing lower-body issues (especially calves and knees) in recent years, leading to more missed time. To wit:
• 2022–23: 63 GP / 19 missed
• 2023–24: 73 GP / 9 missed
• 2024–25: 67 GP / 15 missed
• 2025–26: 36 GP / 46 missed
Wouldn’t that just be the worst if the Celts parted with Brown to get him, and then Giannis missed extended time due to injury? Like, the absolute worst? (Insert diabolical laughter.)
A healthy Tatum-Giannis pairing would present unique challenges for New York. The Knicks would need to defend relentless downhill pressure while also containing one of the league’s best bucket creators. But, given their depth, New York may be better equipped than most teams to handle it.
So if the Celtics’ pursuit of Giannis causes an initial flutter of worry, you can let that just drift on by. The scenario only noses toward Red Alert if Boston nabs him while somehow also acquiring a guard who makes up for what they’d lose with Brown’s departure.
But wait! This just in: Chris Haynes has pushed back on the idea that a Giannis Antetokounmpo-to-Boston deal is close. He writes that Boston does not appear to be a promising destination and suggested the situation could extend into July. Additionally, Marc Stein reported that the Celtics are frustrated by speculation involving Jaylen Brown, while Brian Windhorst said Brown has not been formally offered in a trade. So, to quote the great William Goldman (also a Knicks fan), “Nobody knows anything.”
It’s worth noting that the Miami Heat are also reportedly in the mix. We’ve heard that the lack of income tax is alluring to the Greek Freak. Plus Florida offers sunny, warm weather, which is not a defining feature of Wisconsin. In the end, though, joining Boston would allow Giannis to keep all his favorite green-themed items in his wardrobe, and shouldn’t looking good be a priority, too?
BOSTON — The Boston Bruins said Thursday they are retiring Patrice Bergeron’s No. 37 as part of a ceremony next season.
The date will be shared later, following the NHL schedule release that is expected next month.
Bergeron is set to join fellow 2011 Stanley Cup champion Zdeno Chara with his number in the rafters. Bergeron, when it happens, will be the 14th player to have his number retired by the storied franchise.
He spent his entire 19-year career in the league with the Bruins, playing 1,464 games counting the regular season and playoffs. That included the title run in 2011 and more trips to the final in ’13 and ’19.
“Patrice was the kind of rare, generational talent that every team wanted,” owner Jeremy Jacobs said in a statement. “He was a deftly skilled playmaker and the undeniable greatest defensive forward in the NHL’s history. But it was the leadership he provided on the ice and in the locker room that made him truly stand apart and an all-time legend of the Boston Bruins.”
Bergeron succeeded Chara as captain in 2020 and served three seasons in that role before retiring. He called this an honor that is difficult to put into words.
“When I arrived in Boston as an 18-year-old, I could never have imagined receiving this recognition one day,” Bergeron said. “I have always believed that any success I had was only possible because of the people around me. I was fortunate to play alongside incredible teammates, learn from outstanding coaches and staff and be supported by an organization that believed in me from the very beginning.”
Craig Ferguson set out on foot from Los Angeles with a remarkable goal: to walk 3,500 miles across America. It took him 109 days.
Last week, I had the privilege of joining him for his final steps into Boston. In those first moments after completing his journey, I asked him what the experience had been like. Without hesitation, he called it the hardest thing he had ever done.
What began as a mission to raise money for SAMH, a Scottish charity that provides mental health and social care support, became something far greater. Along the way, Craig inspired thousands of people and helped raise more than $1 million. His arrival in Boston also came amid the excitement surrounding Scotland’s appearance in the World Cup, giving his home country even more reason to celebrate.
Craig’s commitment to mental health advocacy is perhaps best expressed in his own words: “Mental health doesn’t care who you are or where you’re from. It can meet you along the road, sometimes when you least expect it.”
Those words resonate deeply with me. I was raised by a mother who faced significant mental health challenges, and I know firsthand how important support systems can be for individuals and families. Organizations like SAMH provide hope when people need it most. Equally important is continuing to normalize conversations about mental health and recognizing that it is a health issue that touches every community and every walk of life.
There are countless routes Craig could have taken and many cities where he could have chosen to conclude this extraordinary journey. The fact that he finished in Boston is something we should be proud of.
Boston has always been a city defined by resilience, compassion, and perseverance. Those qualities are why “Boston Strong” means so much to so many people. Craig Ferguson may be Scottish by birth, but through his determination, his generosity, and his commitment to helping others, he has embodied that spirit.
As we welcome him to our beautiful and sports-loving city, we thank him for reminding us that even the longest journeys begin with a single step, and that no one should have to walk through life’s struggles alone.
Craig Ferguson is Boston Strong.
Anne Brensley is the Republican-endorsed candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.
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