For this week’s “Top 5 Friday,” Jones & Keefe got in the spirit of the start of training camp and ranked the top five current Patriots. Listen to the full segment below.
Adam Jones and Rich Keefe were in full agreement at the top: cornerback Christian Gonzalez one, wide receiver Stefon Diggs two. They noted that even just a week ago, Diggs probably wouldn’t have been a lock to be that high, but getting fully cleared for the start of camp coming off a season-ending ACL injury gave them the confidence to rank him that high.
Both hosts had defensive tackle Milton Williams and cornerback Carlton Davis in their top five, with Keefe having each of them one spot higher than Jones at three and four, respectively.
The most notable disagreement came with the Patriots’ most important player: second-year quarterback Drake Maye. Jones had Maye at three, while Keefe did not have the QB1 in his top five. Jones acknowledged that there is some “projection” in ranking Maye that high; Keefe’s argument was that while he hopes Maye is New England’s second-best player by the end of the season, he doesn’t think Maye has proven quite enough just yet.
Linebacker Robert Spillane rounded out Keefe’s top five. Other players the show considered included defensive tackle Christian Barmore, defensive end Keion White and offensive lineman Mike Onwenu.
A couple takeaways: As expected, there are more defensive players than offensive players here, reflecting the fact that, at least on paper, defense remains the Patriots’ strongest side of the ball. Also, there a lot of new additions with Diggs, Williams, Davis and Spillane, which makes it clear that – even if they didn’t do enough for some – the Patriots definitely did upgrade the talent on their roster this offseason.