The tight end for the New England Patriots Hunter Henry uh yeah Taylor Swift showed up at a football game and good Lord and now all the tight ends across the land everybody is a winner in that in this instance apparently Hunter Henry yeah that’s big time that’s big time for
Travis for sure uh that was honestly the my wife asked how I was feeling after the game next thing she says is hey did you know Taylor Swift at the Chiefs game I was like okay did you see the video did you hit was it
Like hey send me the video and see yeah I I I saw it I saw it partying who’s your who is your uh outside the New England Gillette Stadium like tight end like you know clickiness like do you have like a tight end group that that
You’re on do you hang out do you talk to him did you go there is there a big tight end text string is that right I’ve never I mean they didn’t have it I’m curious like do you guys is how how big is that like uh that like that
Fraternity that Brotherhood with those you know it’s grown a lot in these past few years I think tonight and you having that in Nashville the last few years has been really really cool for a lot of the tight ends around the league I haven’t gone actually the last two years I went
The first the inaugural yeah tied in you I was there so I’ve gotten to know all the guys and then obviously after each game you know there’s a lot of respect and you have a lot of respect for each tight end on each position you know each
Team um for the amount that you know we have to do the amount of things that are put on our shoulders toughest job in the NFL yeah you know you know each guy has a lot to do so who has more who has more responsibility than you we’re back
On this again how about this from now on when you bring it up I will just agree that’s it it’s only the quarterback has more responsibilities okay I’m just saying I know he’s not going to say how much he’s responsible for I’ll do it for him
Uh and there were a lot of there were a lot of tight ends on the field uh yesterday there’s no question and all of them were asked to uh do things a little uh differently but that was a slog I mean ugly weather y’all wanted to run the
Ball you did a good job of running the ball it was almost as if the game plan was perfect for the kind of day that it really was fair to say you guys did a great job running the ball we did yeah we did I wish we would have finished a little better
Um and you know end it with a ball in our hands and not put ourselves in the situation at the end and you know our defense played good ball security was huge yesterday just looking the ball in and making sure even when you have it you know it wet ball
Everything like slick Jersey it’s just it’s tough in those conditions um so that was to do that in those conditions and we haven’t you know had good ball Security in the first two games to finally do that in those kind of conditions was a big for us so the
You mentioned just not closing it out right putting the defense back on the field multiple times and even if you go to the the first two games can’t really close it out to help tie it or win it so is that um how does that what what goes
Into changing that is it just mindset what is it yeah it’s just uh man I know I don’t really know I think we have to get in the film room continue to talk about it and continue to get better and learn like watch this film and learn in
Different ways you know different plays we can run different things we can do to attack them because I mean especially at the end of the game it’s hard I mean you got 10 guys in the Box you know it’s uh the numbers game is tough but we got to
Find a way to get a first down or two um to kind of close that game out do you like if when that does happen is there do you guys feel like how bad do you feel that you got to put the defense back out there is there any like like
Eye glancing rolling the eyes of like the defensive when they’re getting ready to go on the field like is there how does that work no they’re not they’re not that way at all I mean I think they rise to the challenge obviously you saw that I mean those guys rise the
Challenge every time but I mean I think internally as an offense I mean you know we we would like to end in with you know not putting them back out there um just personally for sure but when you have a defense as good as ours you know you feel confident and then at
The end of the day we got to win so that that always makes things feel better last thing on this I I would say based on the fact that they’re playing the Jets I would think if I’m a defense player I would hope you guys can’t get a
First down because I want to get back on the field and get another sack or or maybe get an interceptional oh yeah if you’ve got an incentive this is the game to try to get it off like that Whitehead kid for the Jets I got three picks week
One and you hit the quarter million dollar bonus that’s a that’s a hell of a way to go one of the things Hunter Henry that I wanted to ask you was the touchdown play to Brown I know that it felt like now again I am not going to assume however
But it felt like there was a little bit of huh sauce Gardener you said we’re not complicated I saw sauce Gardener standing there going oh and watching a guy run by him so I don’t know if that was designed specifically towards that but can you kind of walk us through uh
Brown stealing your touchdown yeah it was a formation that we had been running throughout the game and uh you know we were running different runs out of it we had a different couple of different looks and so you know when you have a formation and you’re running a
Lot you got to have different plays off of it and it was just a timely play that we needed um you know the rain was coming down wind was going you know side to side but uh you know two guys connected we were able to kind of
Get everybody to come up to try to play The Run and Pharaoh uh you know was streaking down the seam and it was a big time play for us so how was it just a huge you know sigh of relief that you guys were able to get this road win
Against the Jets and you know like how important was that win overall because I know a lot of people were talking about it a lot of criticism for the team as well and what it would look like at 0-3 so how important was it for you guys it
Was huge we we needed to find a find a win anyway anyhow and we we did that I mean it was you know ugly and gritty and grind like we grinded one out for sure that’s what it’s going to be in this league uh especially when you go against
A good defense in the weather and the conditions on the road loud um you know it’s that was big for us we needed to win a close one like that and the grind it feels like at least in the first three weeks you don’t have the quote-unquote
Like uber teams I know San Francisco’s off to a good start Miami hung a big number yesterday but we saw what they did here in Gillette the week before and it feels like the the the Gap in the NFL has kind of shrunk by a lot is that fair
To say hunter well I mean the NFL’s tough everybody’s tough um I mean week in week out you’re gonna play a lot of close games you’re going to be right there in the mix and that’s what it’s all about I mean the first two weeks we weren’t able to you know finish
Those close games yesterday we were able to finish a close game so um yeah the NFL’s tough you got to be ready to go every week do you feel close on offense like those couple of throws from Mack where he just missed Juju it felt like I don’t know maybe it was the
Throw maybe it was miscommunic it feels like you guys are like this close to really hitting one of those finishing a game and then kind of the flood gates open do you sort of feel that way as well yeah we’re we’re tracking along or the right way we’re doing a lot of good
Things we’re not finishing maybe some drives like we need to we’re not you know we’re beating ourselves in certain areas um but you know we’re doing a lot of good things at the same time um and so we just kind of continue to get better and learn and you know keep
Going we by we well so one o’clock game Dallas was playing in the uh I guess the four o’clock window were you guys able to watch any of their game at all uh on the plane or when you got home no I did not get to watch anything do you just
Shut it off do you even want to do you even want to prep like once your game is over do you even want to do you want to even think about prepping because I’ve seen some quarterbacks as soon as the game is over they’re right to the film of the next yeah there’s
Some people that do that personally I do not I like to kind of just take a day um and just you know process either this you know the win the loss whatever it is process that then tonight I’ll kind of start with the next opponent uh uh Mac
Christian I agree played tough as Nails yesterday another hard defensive line boy he made a couple of throws for that guy just got blasted right in the face and I know for some it’s the I’m gonna look at the numbers and it’s not gonna look great but I thought yesterday was
One of Mac’s better games just in terms of staying in it taking care of the ball and really dealing with the physicality that the Jets were going to uh play with yeah Max Max tough man and he’s going to stand in there and we know exactly where
He’s going to be and that like he’s just he’s really gotten a lot better in the pocket standing in there hanging in there um has a great feel for where everybody is too and so that he knows kind know where he can get where he needs to go
With the ball he knows he needs to get that thing out like on time um I think that’s one of the biggest things too and he he does a great job of just hanging in there and hanging tough people make a big deal about throwing the ball down the field nowadays and
That oh it’s all short and intermediate and stuff like that I still contest when you look at the amount of throws within 10 yards in the line of scrimmage that’s the way the game is gone is that true that it’s much more of an intermediate to Shorter Passing League than it is
You’ll selectively take your shots down the field it’s not like when old man Al Davis was running the Raiders in the 90s go get Tim Brown and Chuck it up to him every time yeah I mean it’s a little it’s a little different um you gotta be selective with your
Shots and when you take them but definitely in the intermediate you gotta you got to take advantage of those and then try to you know make a guy miss or whatever get in the open field a little bit get guys in space um it’s definitely a space game and
Trying to get guys the ball in space yeah I’m waiting for your deep shot dead gum at three weeks now we ain’t got one of them you know just straight up ISO play action there’s Henry running down the middle putting on him on the seam
Type thing I need one of those I went with the over yesterday too I’m just wait because as soon as Pharaoh Brown got that touchdown I’m like God damn that was that should have been hunters and you’re lined up right beside him that’s why I made the sauce Gardener
Joke because I think without they’ll never tell us but they got it well they got to pay attention to me over there too that’s exactly right that is exactly right speaking of paying attention oh here we go there is a I said I sense tight end talk coming it is I see the
Grins it is a little bit a little bit um I have this thing that I used to do when I was when I was playing years ago called First and 15 that these guys are trying to remove from our programming okay they don’t want me to do it the
First and 15 do you guys still I’m assuming you still do the here are the first 15 plays maybe it’s 1200 on a Saturday night you guys knew a version of that something like that okay it’s just something like that yeah well he’s when I’m trapping you I swear
I want to see if he wants to play along this is your future in 20 years honestly for so what we would do is like like we would try to predict before the coach would put it up on the board and he’d go through it like we would try to
Predict as a group like tight ends wide receivers quarterback well quarterbacks couldn’t play because they knew right but receivers running backs and tight ends what the first play would be based on all the practicing that we did during the week yeah and whoever would get the right play obviously would get the pot
Of money and 20 bucks per player whatever um and so I’m having these guys do it now okay and so far you know no one’s come close to picking the right play um I would like to know if you would like to play along from a distance so
And it’s just it’ll just be us it’ll just be us and you just tell us if you were right or not he’ll have the secret ballot we’ll never put it out there we’ll know what it is you need in your mind just go okay I think it’s gonna be zero on slot right
Blah blah blah blah you should have tried I got one more week to have this segment before they kick it out I figured if I could convince you to play along we get one more week so on Monday win or lose you just say I got the right player I didn’t
Get the right play okay she’s in see all right one more week you also did a terrible job of setting up how you sprung this on us in just the middle of a segment yes because you had a moment because we were talking about Seattle
Yeah who’d you used to play it with uh no but it was everybody but yeah well no then it was Hasselbeck and then it was Trent deal first there we go anyone who’s anyone I got you everyone played because the backups never knew do you know this how
Many times you win I won at least 4 least for her so that’s pretty good pot yeah it’s pretty good yeah that’s not bad yeah four times in three years I mean what was the push push yeah money back uh nope just keep it in I was the bank
So it’s like the Skins game oh yeah that’s why he likes this game that’s really what it is Hunter Henry thanks a bunch man we appreciate it good to see you and uh we’ll uh hopefully talk to you next week after a win against the Cowboys
source
