Tag: Christian Fauria

Christian Fauria’s harsh assessment of N’Keal Harry is bold, but holds some truth

There’s no holding back in this bold take about N’Keal Harry.

It’s easy to see that N’Keal Harry isn’t performing with the top receivers in his draft class.

A.J. Brown, D.K. Metcalf, Diontae Johnson, Darius Slay and Terry McLaurin are just some of the names on that list. Harry was the only receiver to be drafted in the first round under Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots. Obviously the Patriots are doing what they can to make the draft pick worth it.

So far this season, he’s struggled to string together a solid performance to justify his draft spot. Harry’s best performance from a pass-catching perspective was in Week 2 when he had eight catches for 72 yards. Is it a lack of practice, or is Harry just not the receiver the Patriots thought he was?

Former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria had a brutally honest reasoning for it Tuesday on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria.”

“N’Keal Harry may be the worst route-runner in the history of the world,” Fauria said. “He is terrible. Even when he’s open, he’s covered. Not only does he have terrible feet, and he worked on it, he’s not any better at it. He’s always late off the ball. His feet are always jacked up. It’s like he cruises into the route because he’s not exactly sure where he’s going to go. And then if you’ve heard of anything that I like to call ‘coverage awareness,’ he has no clue on how to find the voids in coverages. He runs into coverage.”

“… I would say he’s covered on almost every play that he runs. The cornerbacks don’t respect him.”

The season isn’t over and Harry could blossom into the player he was expected to be. As of now, Fauria’s assessment of Harry appears to be spot-on.

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Christian Fauria thinks the Patriots will be better without Tom Brady

The former TE doesn’t think the QB would improve this team.

It’s hard to imagine the New England Patriots without Tom Brady under center. With the exceptions of the Deflategate suspension and his ACL injury, those who follow the Foxboro-based football team have watched Brady lead the offense since early in 2001.

Now, all of that has changed, as the Patriots turn to Jarrett Stidham or Brian Hoyer to lead their team into the 2020 campaign.

Fans and pundits alike are left wondering just how the team will perform in their first year without their franchise quarterback.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss has mentioned that some close to the organization believe that the Patriots could be better without Brady in the picture. That statement is a strong one, but it’s one that seems to be gaining steam.

On the WEEI program “Ordway, Merloni, and Fauria,” former Patriots tight end Christian Fauria echoed the same sentiment.

“They’re better off without him,” Fauria said. “Can I tell you why? And it has nothing to do with Brady’s skillset. It’s not because he’s not good or he can’t throw it or he’s lost some speed on his fastball. It’s because where he was in his career, his age, what he wanted to achieve, and what the Patriots were trying to achieve were completely different. So it was never going to work out. They were never going to see eye to eye.

“This offense is not going to be able to move forward with Brady as the quarterback, not because he sucks. Those throwaways were important. It’s because he wasn’t willing to adapt. There’s the difference. He wasn’t willing to let N’Keal Harry grow.”

What both Reiss and Fauria are saying makes some sense.

At this point in Brady’s career, he’s not going to repeatedly go back to young, unproven wide receivers if they make a mistake. He’s going to force it to the guys who have performed for him when he needed them. In New England, that was Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and James White.

Stidham or Hoyer should be more willing to work with these growing players. N’Keal Harry, Jakobi Meyers, Gunner Olszewski, and others will get more and more opportunities with these quarterbacks than they would’ve received from Brady.

Whether that’s a good thing remains to be seen, but it can’t hurt to see what other weapons New England may develop.

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Christian Fauria says Patriots are ‘better off without Tom Brady’

Christian Fauria caught 79 passes as a Patriot. That didn’t prevent him from taking a shot a Tom Brady on a Boston radio program.

Former New England Patriots tight end Christian Fauria unloaded on Tom Brady Thursday while speaking on WEEI. And he pulled no punches:

“They’re better off without him,” Fauria said on the radio station. “Can I tell you why? And it has nothing to do with Brady’s skill set. It’s not because he’s not good or he can’t throw it or he’s lost some speed on his fastball. It’s because where he was in his career, his age, what he wanted to achieve and what the Patriots were trying to achieve were completely different. So it was never going to work out. They were never going to see eye to eye.”

Fauria played four seasons with the Patriots, catching 79 passes for 790 yards and 13 touchdowns from 2002-05.

“This offense is not going to be able to move forward with Brady as the quarterback, not because he sucks. Those throwaways were important. It’s because he wasn’t willing to adapt. There’s the difference. He wasn’t willing to let N’Keal Harry grow.”

So, Brady would actually be holding back this offense?

“Yes. Indirectly, yes,” Fauria added. “Now you can put some blame on Josh McDaniels. You can put some blame on Bill. They were just ready to change. A veteran quarterback who wants to win and throw the football and is not willing to take risks and doesn’t want his stats being messed with and won’t throw interceptions and would rather throw it out of bounds, that’s the guy that is going to delay the development of your star wide receiver who you won’t throw the ball to because you don’t trust him because he doesn’t have a long enough track record.

“This year. Right now, the offense is better off with Tom Brady. They are better off without him this year, yes.”

Eventually, Fauria tried to couch his comments …

“I don’t think Brady is a bad quarterback,” he said. “I think he is going to win the MVP with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I think he is going to win the Comeback Player of the Year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I think he is going to win the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With a veteran group that is already established that doesn’t need a lot of time to get going. Can you imagine Brady right now trying to do what he did last year this year with less time together and still knowing the window is closing on his career and the Patriots are taking a different direction? The fact is that he is not going to be able to evolve and grow. He’s going to have an anchor around him and that’s going to be not get in trouble, don’t throw picks. And it has nothing to do with his ability. I feel the where the Patriots are they are better off — even though I don’t think Stidham is a good quarterback — without him this year.”

Ex-teammate says the Patriots are ‘100 percent done’ with Tom Brady

“I think the Patriots are okay and ready to move on.”

Few can believe Tom Brady is actually considering leaving Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. But what if it’s not his choice? What if the Patriots are already done with Brady?

Former New England tight end and current sports radio host Christian Fauria believes the Patriots aren’t interested in signing Brady when he hits free agency in March. Fauria thinks Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft won’t be putting a competitive deal on the table.

“I believe the Patriots are 100 percent done,” Fauria said on WEEI’s Ordway, Merloni & Fauria. “I think the Patriots are okay and ready to move on. Everything that comes out from (NFL Network reporter) Ian Rapoport is just bogus-ness. It’s fake, it’s narrative changing, it’s camouflage, it’s not the truth because there’s going to be ‘it’s not our fault’ fans. They know Brady’s not coming back.”

One team is already waiting in line to offer Brady a boatload of money. The Oakland Raiders want to pitch Brady, per ESPN. There will likely be more suitors to emerge in the coming weeks leading up to March 18, when free agency official opens. (The legal tampering period starts on March 16.)

The Patriots are reportedly comfortable letting Brady test free agency. Is that because they’re comfortable with him leaving, too?

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