Scott Zolak: I’d be interested in Sean McVay if Bill Belichick leaves

While discussing potential successors for Bill Belichick, Scott Zolak admitted he'd be interested in Sean McVay coming to the Patriots.

Scott Zolak: If you're getting rid of Bill (Belichick) and you're getting rid of (Jerod) Mayo, you're probably getting rid of the front office too. That's paying a lot of people.

Marc Bertrand: It's going to be a big bill to foot. But really, what choice do they have? What choice are they going to be left with, with the way this looks.

Hardy: You're talking about a lot of contracts that they're going to have to pay out, but they'll almost certainly be saving money in whatever they pay the new GM and head coach.

Scott Zolak: What if it's Sean McVay though? A guy like that or some young, you know, offensive guy that has proven himself elsewhere.

Hardy: The combined salaries of the new GM and head coach are not going to be $25 million.

Marc Bertrand: No, they won't. Even if you do get a superstar like McVay.

Hardy: It's not going be $20 million.

Marc Bertrand: What does he make now?

Scott Zolak: He's up there, like he's in the high teens because Amazon offered him $30 million to do color.

Marc Bertrand: But you're not going to pay a GM $8 million a year.

Scott Zolak: Right, Nick (Caserio) didn't make that.

Marc Bertrand: So ithat's not going to happen, but if you actually do something big and drastic and go all in on trying to get a guy like Sean McVay, which would then take draft Capital Zo to get him out of his deal, to get him here.

Scott Zolak: What are you gonna give up a top 5 pick?

Marc Bertrand: I only think his name is worth throwing around because he's expressed some displeasure with his job there and I don't know that he loves it there. He almost left.

Scott Zolak: He already almost retired at his age. At 38. Burned out at 38, are you? Yeah, but that's like a guy that if you're definitely moving on from Bill that I'd kind of be interested in because you know you're getting a pretty good coach.

Marc Bertrand: It's a big name.

Scott Zolak: You're not getting some like young schlep that's never had a head coaching job, you know, Nick Sirianni or something. But hey, it's working in Philly.

The New England Patriots are 1-5 after a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. It was a closer, more winnable game, but still not enough to get New England back in the win column. Here are 11 players we graded "UP" or "DOWN" based on their performance in the game...

Jones was slightly better than he was in Weeks 4-5, technically speaking. But he still hurt the team by making careless decisions with the football, most notably a second-quarter interception that killed a potential scoring drive. Jones also should have been intercepted on a late-fourth-quarter drive, a gotta-have-it situation. And of course, there was the safety on the Patriots' final chance.

The quarterback ended up 24-of-33 passing for 200 yards, no touchdowns, and the interception, adding up to a passer rating of just 75.3. That may be a relative improvement over the previous two weeks, but still not enough to win, and not nearly good enough in the key moments of the game.

"Definitely frustrating, but I just have to watch it all and learn and watch it with truthful eyes, that's all you can do," Jones said after the game. "Just wasn't clean enough, across the board. There's penatlies and all sorts of things we need to clean up. It's hard to win like that, and I'm definitely frustrated for sure."

Jones actually got a few solid performances out of his weapons in the game, but still had rough protection in front of him and ultimately made a few too many negative plays himself. It was a winnable game at the end and he came up short.

For the second straight game, no real complaints about Bourne, who certainly wasn't among the reasons they lost. Bourne caught 10 of 11 targets for 89 yards. He's been one of the few Patriots to keep showing up on Sunday, despite their dire situation.

Parker punched his ticket to the "DOWN"s when he dropped a deep pass on a late-fourth-quarter drive. He failed in a gotta-have-it situation, as a great throw by Jones popped out of his hands. He had just one catch for seven yards prior to that. Parker is coming up painfully short in the one area he's supposed to excel, and it's a big contributor to their offensive woes.

Stevenson found the end zone in the fourth quarter, averaged 4.6 yards per carry, and added five catches for 24 yards. He had a bad first-quarter drop that nearly bounced into the defender's hands for an interception, but that was the only real blemish in a solid day for Stevenson. He even got banged up during the game, but kept truckin'. Hard to feel bad about his performance, specifically.

Raiders tight ends combined to make seven catches for 94 yards on Sunday. Mills has been the Patriots' primary coverage safety against tight ends, so this was not one of his better games.

Solid day for the Patriots' ground game, amid all the problems. Elliott averaged 4.9 yards per carry, added a catch for 15 yards, and nearly broke off a 74-yard touchdown catch-and-run that a Hunter Henry penalty wiped off the board.

Why are we showing the Raiders' kicking operation for Roberts? Because he was the culprit on a "leverage" penalty that turned a Las Vegas field goal try into a first down early in the game. The Patriots still held the Raiders to a field goal on that drive, but that doesn't excuse Roberts' ill-timed penalty.

Peppers made the best Patriots play in weeks, when he delivered a thunderous hit to Davante Adams that popped the ball in the air. Jahlani Tavai gets an honorable mention for tipping it to himself for the interception, but the play likely would've been ruled a fumble if the ball hit the ground before Tavai recovered. So, that goes in the books as a pass defensed by Peppers. Incredible play, either way. Nice bounce-back for Peppers after a shaky game last week.

Jackson had a solid-enough start to the game, as evidenced in part by a slow first half for Davante Adams. But Jackson got flagged for pass interference that kept a late-fourth-quarter drive alive for the Raiders. The Patriots ended up forcing a punt, but Jackson gets dinged for a bad penalty at a bad time in the game.

Barmore made five total tackles, including one for a loss, and made two pass breakups at the line of scrimmage. Clearly a disruptive day for Barmore up front. They're desperately going to need it, after the defense suffered such devastating injuries.

As we've noted in prior weeks, this isn't fair to Lowe. The "DOWN" doesn't necessarily apply to Lowe, but rather what he represents, which is the Patriots' scant investment at right tackle in the off-season. It's really coming back to bite the Patriots, and at the worst possible times.

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Matt Dolloff is a writer and podcaster for 985TheSportsHub.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Check out all of Matt's content here.