Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Abdul Carter Visits The New England Patriots: Could Solve Top Need

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Abdul Carter and the New England Patriots are set to meet at Gillette today. What are the chances Carter falls to #4 and what skills would he bring to the table?Also, the New England Patriots have a major need they could address with or without Carter, and does Derek Carr’s significant injury make the New Orleans Saints a great trade partner for the Patriots?Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Abdul Carter is one of the best players in this draft and he's in Foxborough today. That's where we start on this episode of Locked On Patriots. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. What's up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, your New England Patriots expert, host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast

with Nick Cattles and also a sports talk show host veteran. The Patriots are missing one key element for their defense and a significant quarterback injury might open the door for a first round trade. But first, one of the best prospects of the 2025 NFL draft takes a visit today to

Gillette Stadium. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen and for being an every dayer, the Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by the all new 2025 Nissan Armada. Stay tuned for the Armada Player of the Week

later in the show. Abdul Carter, he's the type of game-changing prospect that you want. When we talk about having a top five pick in any draft, you want a blue chip guy. You want somebody who can walk into your facility and change the side of the football he plays immediately. That kind of impact guy. And Abdul Carter is one of two or three. If you want to include

Ashton Gentry, you conclude Ashton Gentry to the conversation. And we can look at Travis Hunter, Carter and and Genti. Those three guys, if you want to say Genti's blue chip, those three guys are seen as the blue chip prospects of this draft. Abdul Carter is one of the people that you are hoping and praying, if you're the Patriots, falls to you on draft night to number four.

Now, how likely is that? The ESPN draft simulator gives that opportunity a 31% shot of actually happening. So there's a 31% shot, according to ESPN's draft simulator, of Abdul Carter falling to the Patriots at number four, and Abdul Carter is visiting Foxboro today, making the visit. He's only going to visit the top four teams in the draft because he knows he's not falling to five. There's no way somebody of his talent in this particular draft is going to fall to number five. So he's only taking visits with the top four teams. Obviously

that's Tennessee who feels like it's going to be cam war time down there with the Titans. And then you've got Cleveland, the Gi Cleveland the Giants and the Patriots so Carter he is meeting the top four teams He knows he's not gonna end up in Tennessee, but he might end up in Cleveland He might end up in New York or maybe that 31% chance actually happens and he ends up here in New England He is a top five pick in most years a legit top five guy He is a top five pick in most years, a legit top five guy. We would be having the conversation about Abdul Carter last year in the top five, six, seven players picked in last year's draft. That's the type of player he is.

That's the kind of impact that he can bring. And we saw what he can do on the football field at Penn State this past year. You want to talk about production. Carter had production top to bottom. Number one in the FBS in tackles for loss. You want to talk about production. Carter had production top to bottom. Number one in the FBS in tackles for loss. He makes a ton of plays behind the line of scrimmage. He lives behind the line of scrimmage.

He was number two in FBS in pressures. So not only do we look at sacks, which by the way, he had the seventh most sacks in the FBS this past year. Not only are we looking at sacks, which is an easy number to pull up, the counting stats are the counting stats, but when you want to look at somebody who can disrupt an offense. Carter is one of those guys.

Second in pressures in all FBS this past season. Tackles for loss again, number one in FBS. He just lives in the backfield and he makes any offense that is playing against him feel like it's in the middle of a nightmare. Just see him against Notre Dame in the college football playoff, even though he was injured, he was all over the place.

Again, living in that backfield. You want to talk about game changing. Abdul Carter is game changing. And what's truly special about Carter, when you're looking at who he is right now and why he's going to be a top five pick in this draft, one of the top reasons why he's going to be one of the first guys off the board is not only the production that we just went over, not just his athleticism, that the, the, the natural gifts that he has, but it's also the fact that what

you're seeing or what you just saw at Penn State from Carter is truly the tip of the iceberg because he's only played one full season devoting himself to the edge. He's been a full-time pass rusher for one year. So what you saw last year at Penn State was the beginning, the beginning of what Abdul Carter is as a pass rusher. And that is scary. You want to talk about somebody who has that type of explosiveness that jumps out when you watch a football game. Carter has that type of explosion to his game. He's an explosive athlete

He can single-handedly wreck a game Any game that he's in because of that explosiveness and don't get it twisted. He's not a disaster against the run He's actually pretty good against the run So you have somebody who was number two in pressures, number seven in sacks, number one in tackles for loss, incredibly explosive off the edge, good versus the run and what's truly crazy about the game of Carter on the field. He also can drop into coverage.

He's far from a one trick pony. This is somebody who can drop into coverage. If you've watched any local TV, NBC sports, Boston, for example, they will show this highlight package. And there's one highlight of Carter at Penn state last year, where he drops into coverage. He picks up, it looks like a wheel route and he goes down the sidelines step for step with the skill position player.

That's freaky stuff. There are not a lot of human beings that are built that can have the pressures, tackles for loss, sack numbers that Carter had last year, but also can drop into coverage, take a skill position player down the sideline and shut them down. Not many dudes walking the planet can do that. That's the type of player, that's the type of athleticism that you see from Carter. Some will say he might be a little bit undersized. He doesn't have the ideal size for 2025 in the NFL to play the edge, but he's six foot four, he's 250. Some say he's a little too light.

We've gone through this before, I'm sure we'll talk more about this as we get closer to the season, but when you look at Mike Vrabel and the type of defense that Mike Vrabel likes to run, he's not afraid of having guys who are not 265, 270 on the defensive line. He brought in Harold Landry, who reportedly last year played in like the 230s, maybe low 240s for Tennessee and he's going to play that outside linebacker defensive edge role for Terrell Williams's defense this year. So Vrabel is not afraid of playing a guy who's 250, not afraid at all and maybe just maybe you put Carter in an NFL program and he puts on 10 pounds of muscle. Maybe we're talking six, four, two sixty. But this defense and what they do with their edge players, Carter's a good fit.

You might even say he's the perfect fit at six, four, two hundred and fifty pounds. Maybe you'd want a little bit more weight put on. Now, objectively speaking. We talked about this last week on the podcast. There are some questions about Carter physically is a shoulder issue stress fracture in his foot Reportedly that's going to heal without surgery being needed So he has some injury concerns the durability that goes back to the size question But also some character questions, which we went over in last week's podcast.

You can check out that episode from last week. But there are some questions about Carter's character. And whether or not he's a quote unquote good guy. So it's not like he's the perfect prospect. It's not that he's completely clean. But you talk talent in this draft and what Carter can do on a football field. He's easily one of the best two or three players that is going to get drafted next Thursday night. He is going to be one of those guys.

And if he falls to the Patriots at number four, I can guarantee you the Patriots would be very excited and happy that Carter is there to be drafted. All right, Carter would address a significant weak spot in this Patriots defense. That's coming up next as we continue on with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Did you know that your Fire TV is also an Xbox? It's true. Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV stick 4K devices, no console required. Just grab your paired controller, subscribe or sign into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with

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There's a major missing piece for the Patriots defense, a major missing piece. And I'm talking about a high ceiling one-on-one top notch pass rusher, you know, like Abdul Carter. That's what this Patriots defense is missing on this defensive line. You've got Anthony Jennings, right? There's no doubt that Anthony Jennings is very good against the run. One of the best edge run defenders in football, frankly. So you have that piece of the puzzle in Jennings being able to shut down the run on the edge on that side.

On the other side, you've got Harold Landry who can be your cleanup guy. Landry is not necessarily a one-on-one pass rush demon. He's not really the kind of guy who is going to just crush a tackle all game long one-on-one and get a ton of sacks. That's not really what he does on a consistent basis. He is certainly capable of doing that every once in a while, but a lot of the sacks that Harold Landry will get are cleanup sacks, so to speak. You disrupt the middle and you force the quarterback outside of the pocket you flush them And there is Harold Landry with his athleticism to run down the QB and get his sack

Now when you look at the interior defensive line You wonder if Keon white is going to be a part of that puzzle or are they going to play him a little bit more? To the outside that's a question that we really don't know the answer to just yet. We've got to see how it unfolds at camp. But when you look at Jennings run stopper, Landry cleanup guy, Keon White, we'll see where he lands. And then you've got Chase on who is really going to be, I think, a sub pass rusher, the Josh Uche type role. That's what Chason is going to be for this defense. So you've got your sub pass rusher, you've got your good run defender on the edge, you've got your cleanup guy, but you don't have, you don't have that

top notch pass rusher, one on one elite edge who is going to drive a tackle crazy all day long, who is going to force double teams. Landry is not going to force a double. Jennings is not going to force a double. If Keon White is playing to the outside, he is not going to force a double. You need somebody on this defensive line on the edge that forces the offense's hand and makes them on the edge that forces the offense's hand and makes them double on the edge, opening up the middle for you. That's what you need. You need a guy that is going to wreak havoc

from beginning to end. And not as a substitution guy, not as the cleanup guy, not as the run defender guy, but the guy who's going to drive that offense crazy because as I said last segment regarding Carter, he's living in the backfield. That's what this defense needs. That's the one missing element, especially in the front seven. And you look at the blue chip factor for this defense.

We always talk about blue chips. I say that a lot. The blue chip factor on the defensive side. Let's go through it. Christian Gonzalez, is he a blue chip corner? Absolutely. He's an all-pro. Outside cornerback one is one of the most crucial positions in all of football on the defensive side. You need a guy, right? If you have somebody who can shut down the opposing wide receiver one more often than not, that makes your defense so much better. The ceiling of a defense like that is much, much higher than if you don't have that kind of guy. And I

think it's safe to say that Gonzalez is that kind of guy. So you've got your outside cornerback one check No doubt blue chip guy at that premium position Then you look on the interior of the defensive line the interior defensive line and football is becoming more and more important And that's why you see a lot of guards now Getting paid bigger money making 19 20 21 22 million a year It's because defenses are now creating a lot of pressure on the interior of that defensive line. Quarterbacks, every single one of them, even Tom Brady the Goat,

we saw it for years here in New England. Quarterbacks are inherently uncomfortable when you get a pass rush up the middle. You need a disruptive defensive lineman. Patriots, if Christian Barmore is back, they don't just have one, they have two. With Milton Williams and Barmore, maybe you have three if Keon White slides inside. Outside cornerback one, premium position. Do you have a blue chip guy? Check. Interior defensive line, disruptor. Do you have one

of those guys? Blue chip, check, maybe check and check. That elite pass rusher is the final piece. If you can have an elite pass rusher screaming off the edge, and you can have those interior defensive linemen disrupting the action, making life miserable for the quarterback, and you have the outside cornerback one shutting down that quarterbacks favorite target that's a recipe for success for any defense in the NFL so if the Patriots were capable before Abdul Carter and we

think they are a capable defense probably just around you know 10 11 maybe even a little bit higher than that across the board through the league. You add Abdul Carter and now that's the final piece to the mix and you've got Carter and you've got Barmore and Williams in the middle and then you have Gonzalez on the outside and you got outside cornerback to and Carlton Davis. That's how you put together not only a very good defense but a defense that could be on the cusp of being an elite defense in 2025. A game plan guy.

When we talk about game plan guys, we always talk about offense. Do you have a receiver that the defense has to game plan for, right? We always talk about those types of things, but you could also have game plan guys on the defense, not just offense. You can also look at it defensively and say, we have somebody who is going to cause that offense during the week of the game, during the preparation to sit down and say to themselves, man, oh man, we got to make sure that we game plan for this guy, we've got to eliminate player X from what he does best on Sunday. Because if he does what he does best on Sundays against us this Sunday,

we are going to be in some major, major trouble. And so an Abdul Carter is a game plan guy. Milton Williams hopefully gets to that point. We'll see without some know some help with the Eagles but you also see what Barmore looks like and if Barmore is 80 to 85 percent and it's him and Williams well guess what all offenses are going to have to try to game plan to figure out how to deal with that inside pressure. Christian Gonzalez is a game plan guy. How do we get it away from Christian Gonzalez? We don't want to throw it directly into his coverage because he's going to kill our quarterback all day

long. And if you're the Patriots and you have Carter, if he somehow falls you that 31% shot, right? But even if it's not Carter, if you could find in this draft, one of those game plan defensive edges, one of those guys that's going to get after the quarterback. If you can find one of them. Now you're giving so many different problems for the offense, the week of the game, to plan for, that they understand they can't stop everybody. They're not going to be able to control or slow down every single one of the guys defensively that you have. And so that's the key. That is the key. And that's the focus if you can land one of those guys. And here's the good news for the Patriots.

Defensive end in this draft, it's pretty deep. Now some guys have questions off the field. We all know about that. But there are a number, there are a number of players in this draft that play defensive end that could give you a great boost of a pass rush. They're not Abdul Carter, but there are guys in this draft. It's a deep draft when it comes to defensive end that can cause that trouble. You have one of those young guys to go along with the middle disruptors to go along with the stud outside corner all pro Christian Gonzalez.

Now you got a defense that is scary. A starting quarterback is injured and it could lead to the Patriots making a significant draft night trade. That's next as we continue on with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The Armada player of the week is brought to you by our friends at Nissan and the all new 2025 Nissan Armada. Each week, we're taking a look at our draft prospects to pick one guy that stands apart. The guy we believe showcased the strength and

power needed to push the Patriots forward as we look ahead to next season. This week's Armada and clear cut player of the week is Josh Connerly Jr. Left tackle from Oregon, 6'5", 311 pounds. Connerly could be the answer to all the Patriots left tackle problems over the last few years and we know there's been plenty. Connerly has the light feet, body control to conquer the running lanes ahead. He might not be as rugged as an Armada, but he certainly is durable finishing his career with 28 starts. Connerly allowed only six pressures over his final 12 starts at Oregon.

It's clear that our Player of the Week, Josh Connerly Jr. is out here ready to conquer the road ahead with confidence just like you can in the all-new Nissan Armada or any of their outstanding vehicles. Take the Nissan Armada Rogue or Pathfinder and go find your next big adventure. Shop NissanUSA.com. Derek Carr. Why are we talking about Derek Carr? Because Derek Carr has a serious shoulder injury that threatens his 2025 season. Now, what's this mean?

Well, this means, I believe, the Saints are even more desperate to find the answer at quarterback now with this car injury. And that desperation from the Saints could help the Patriots come draft night. Couple of questions I wanna go through here. Does New Orleans feel like they need to leapfrog anyone for a shot at Chedurah Sanders? Or maybe they love themselves some Jackson Dart. Do the Saints feel like they need to leapfrog any team for

their favorite quarterback in this draft? Now a couple of teams, the Vegas Raiders. I know they just signed Geno Smith. And the story is that Geno Smith is Whitpeak Carroll. They're a big old happy family. I don't think that completely rules out the Raiders from drafting a quarterback. Now I would lean towards the Raiders drafting somebody like Ashton Gentry. That would make a lot of sense and I know that's a fit in a lot of the mock drafts that

are out there right now. But I don't think you completely get rid of the idea of the Raiders possibly dipping their toe into the quarterback position in the first round. Because Gino Smith is early to mid 30s. You don't know really how much is left in the tank. He might have three years, he might have one year, he might have two years. I still think the Raiders though go away from quarterback,

but it matters how New Orleans feels and what kind of Intel they have. How about the New York Jets? Now you could sit there and fall in love with the idea of Justin Fields. Plenty of teams have done that. First it was Chicago, then it was Pittsburgh, now it's the Jets. But Justin Fields, he has the type of contract where like after one year you could conceivably move on from him and slide

somebody else in. So what do the Jets think about Shadr Sanders? What do the Jets think about Jackson Darr?? What do the Jets think about Jackson Dart? Now I think this is the least likely scenario how this could impact the Patriots in a possible draft night trade with the Saints is that the Saints feel like they need to leapfrog anyone for Sanders or Dart, and they look at it and say, we've got to leapfrog Vegas

because Vegas is gonna make that pick, or we've got to leapfrog the Jets because the Jets are going to make that pick. I think it's unlikely for the most part that the Raiders or the Jets are in the quarterback market in the first round. So I'm not sure that the Derrick Carr injury makes the Saints feel any more urgent about moving up and jumping over them those teams than they might have felt before the Derrick Carr injury. We should also note that the Saints obviously have known for at least a certain time period that Derek Carr is not feeling well.

Sure, this has been talked about and vetted. And I'm sure they had this information before it was leaked out to the media. So the first part is, do the Saints feel any more urgency trying to leapfrog a team ahead of them in the first round after this Derek Carr injury? I'm not so sold on that, but there's a couple of more things that we have to discuss and look into. Do the Saints think that another team behind them could leapfrog them?

Now that's an interesting question, right? Does New Orleans believe that the Pittsburgh Steelers, for example, who are at 21, who had Sanders in for a visit, do the Saints look at that and say, man, Pittsburgh might be super aggressive and jump ahead of us super aggressive and jump ahead of us to draft Shider Sanders because now Pittsburgh knows that we need a quarterback even more than everybody thought we needed a quarterback. Before this Derek Carr injury was public knowledge, many people thought that the Saints could draft a Q at nine. Now the Steelers are looking at this and saying to themselves, well now Derek Carr is very likely going to be out in 2025, which means the Saints are very likely going to make some kind

of a move here and they're going to possibly draft a quarterback at number nine. We don't want them to draft that quarterback at number nine because we were hoping that quarterback would fall to us to 21 or maybe we can move up a few spots and pick that quarterback somewhere in the teens but now because of this derrick car injury are the Steelers getting on the phone and calling teams that are ahead of the Saints to try to move up how aggressive are they being because if the Saints believe that a team like the Steelers is being uber aggressive to jump up and draft the quarterback, then that is going to make the Saints in turn become uber aggressive and try to jump up to make sure that they solidify a spot that allows them to draft their future quarterback.

So for example, if the Steelers are being super aggressive, and they're talking to teams that are ahead of the Saints in the draft order, and they're talking to teams that are ahead of the Saints in the draft order and they're talking to those teams in the top eight and they're looking around and they're asking what would it take for us to move up in this draft and draft our guy. They're giving Jacksonville a call, they're giving Carolina at eight a call, they might even be giving the Jets in Vegas a call who knows They're probably calling everybody if they want to be that aggressive and they're calling they're saying What would it take for us to get up to number eight from 21?

The Saints if they feel even if it's not happening, but they feel they feel like the Steelers are doing that Now the Saints are in a situation Where they have to quickly, you know turn around and say okay if if the Steelers are going to move up and be that aggressive Then we've got to be aggressive to leapfrog the Steelers So what's the best way to secure the quarterback that you want moving to the Patriots? Cam wards going one I believe the Browns and the Giants are gonna stay at two and three,

and they're very likely going to draft Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, any order that you could figure. And so the next team that has control of the draft is the Patriots at four. The only guarantee the Saints can do is if the top three picks go, as I just said, and then the Patriots are sitting there at number four and the Saints call the

Patriots and say we want to move up to four because we want to secure we want to secure QB one for us for the next eight to ten years twelve years we want to pick Shudder Sanders and we can't take any risks so we're gonna move up to four and draft Sanders because that's the guy we want. That's the guy we think that we need. It's all about urgency. It's all about what teams feel like other teams are going to do. Here's another question, final question for you.

Does Cleveland and or the Giants have concerns about drafting a quarterback later? If the Browns were going to wait and try to trade back into the first round of draft Sanders, do they feel like that's not going to wait and try to trade back into the first round of draft Sanders, do they feel like that's not going to happen now? Because the Saints are more likely to draft Sanders or Jackson Dart at nine than they were maybe a week ago when the Browns were looking at all of these different scenarios. Now it's tougher, right? If you try to trade back in, your quarterback might not be there for you.

Same thing for the Giants. The Giants interested in Shadrers Sanders. Did they think they would be able to trade back in and draft Sanders? Did they think either the Browns or the Giants, did they think that they were going to be able to draft Sanders or Jackson Dart at the top of the second round? And now they don't know if those guys are even going to make it to the teens because of the New Orleans Saints and then if the Saints pick Sanders at 9 what do the Steelers do? Do the Steelers draft Jackson Dart? Now if you're Cleveland and you're

the Giants if you walk out of this draft without a rookie quarterback one of the top four or five guys that you've been looking at, do you feel good about that? I wouldn't think so. So is number four to number nine an option? Is it a possibility? I would say it's a possibility. This Derek Carr injury could have changed many things within these draft rooms over the next 10 to 14 days.

It's gonna be fascinating to watch play out. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Tomorrow on the show, we'll look at the double dip early on the O-line scenario. Let me know your thoughts on today's topics. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the Lockdown NFL Draft with

Damian Parson and Keith Sanchez. The season is well over. Get the latest draft rankings, rumors, and news every day. Find Lockdown NFL Draft on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day, and I'll see you tomorrow.