Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Caserio, Edelman, Gordon and Summer TV - Locked On Patriots June 21, 2019

Episode Date: June 21, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Friday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here in the big chair for Friday, June 21st, 2019. And I'm going to put a bow on this week. We're going to talk about some of the news that's been floating around New England and the New England Patriots. Going to dive back into Nick Cassaro for a moment. We're going to talk wide receivers and then a little bit more of summer TV. Because again, look, it's almost to the end of June. So there isn't a ton to talk about.

So we're going to do what we can here at Locked on Patriots. Also remember, starting Monday, Patriots A to Z. We're going to go through the entire alphabet. We're going to talk about some of the players, the plays, the moments that have made the New England Patriots the franchise they are. Basically an encyclopedia style look at your New England Patriots. So that's phase two of the offseason program here at Locked On Patriots. And then look, phase three, Papa's going to get a little me time. That's phase three. But more on that later.

But before we do anything, your usual reminders here at the outset, please do follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio. And yes, that trinity of SB Nation websites included Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. Let's talk Casero again because I mentioned last week the sort of tampering issue with Casero and the Texans. And this issue sort of sparked up again. Ben Volin put out a report that basically said Casero wants out. He wants this Houston Texans job.

And then he sort of walked that back. So let's sort of outline what Volan is saying. Because he put a piece saying, you know, Casero wants to leave the Patriots and join the Houston Texans. And then he was on outlets such as, for example, Sports Radio 610 down in Houston where he said, and I'm quoting him, so I just want to clarify one thing. I'm seeing my column that I just posted a half hour ago. I'm seeing it being referred to as a report all over the internet. And I don't

think it's a report. I'm not talking like I don't have direct information from Kocera or his agent. Like no one's telling me on Nick wants out. What I'm doing is looking at all the facts of the situation and analyzing it and using some logic and common sense to try to tell people what's going on. And I people what's going on. And I think what's going on is pretty clear, that Nick Cassero wanted that Texans job and the fact that the Crafts and the Patriots had to lawyer up and enforce his contract. Interesting clause there, that's me talking. And file the tampering charges against the Texans. It's pretty clear that Cassero wanted that job and the Patriots are basically enforcing Cassero

to play out his contract, so to speak. So what Volan has now basically said is, nobody's told me this, but if you read between the lines, if you think about things logically, the Casero wants out and the Patriots aren't letting him out. And Mike Florio over a pro football talk sort of backed up Volan's read of the things. You know, because Volan was on EEI a little bit later. And here's what he said to EEI. In this case of Nick Cacero, the facts speak for themselves.

Again, quoting from Volan. If he didn't want to go to Houston, the Patriots would not have had to jump through all those hoops, filing tampering charges and enforcing his contract. It's very clear that Nick Cassero wanted this job and would have taken this job if it were allowed to him. And then on top of it, look, I've been reported on this team for six and a half years. It's not like I walked into this situation in a vacuum. I know stuff. I talk to people. You mentioned it earlier. I broke the Jack Easterby story earlier this offseason. I know stuff. I talk to people. You mentioned it earlier. I broke the Jack Easterby story earlier this offseason. I know people want to pretend like I'm hated in Foxborough. No one

talks to me, but unfortunately that's not the case. I do have some inside knowledge on the situation. And as pro football talk and Mike Florio say, Volan's logic is accurate. In this sense that if Houston approached him and Casero simply didn't want the job, he could have turned down the opportunity. Now, here's where in my mind this idea starts to fall apart. Florio goes on to say after he says Voland's logic is accurate indeed on many

occasions when a team denies permission to another team to interview an executive and the issue ends at that point it happens because the executive doesn't want to leave but that executive doesn't want to develop a reputation for rejecting opportunities

Casero clearly wasn't rejecting his latest opportunity forcing the Patriots that executive doesn't want to develop a reputation for rejecting opportunities. Cacero clearly wasn't rejecting his latest opportunity, forcing the Patriots to mobilize in order to keep him in place. See, to me, that falls apart here. Because if the idea is executives don't want to develop a reputation for rejecting opportunities, if Casero didn't want to go, you can't say that all the patriots and this stuff is keeping them here. But then on the other side of your mouth say executives don't want to develop a reputation for leaving or rejecting opportunities it falls apart in my mind because if casero doesn't want to develop that reputation as a guy that's going to turn down opportunities he's not going to tell houston no i don't want to interview you what he would need would be an organization to step in.

Florio's analogy is on many occasions when a team denies permission to another team to interview an executive and the issue ends, it's because the executive doesn't want to leave. So here, the Patriots, again, they raise a stink. They say there's tampering. They do all this stuff. Maybe it's a sign that Cacero wants out, or maybe it's a sign that Cacero doesn't want it's a sign that Casero doesn't want out but doesn't want to be known as a guy to reject opportunities because at some point maybe things change and he will want to leave and so the team raises a stink basically to give some

cover for their guy that's in my mind equally plausible especially if these theories and the way that they're putting together the dots over pro football talk and other places are to be believed. So maybe it's not so much that Casero doesn't want out. It's maybe that he wants to protect his opportunity to leave at some point. And here his team is raising a stink basically to go to bat for him, to give him a way out. So it doesn't look like he's going to keep turning down offers and offers and offers. Because at some point, it makes sense. If teams keep coming to you and you keep saying, no, I don't want to leave, they're going to stop coming. And so that's kind of where I am on this.

Maybe Casero does want out. Maybe he doesn't. If Olin doesn't know, hasn't heard, certainly from somebody telling him that, I certainly haven't heard. Nobody's going to tell me anything. But if you're going to make the case that, you know, he wants out because he hasn't said no to the opportunity, but at the same time, teams sometimes raise a stink because they want to protect their guy,

so he's not known as somebody that's looking to turn down opportunities, the logic falls flat to me. So I just wanted to touch on that briefly. Up next, we're going to talk some wide receiver stuff. But first, it's Friday after all. It's the week and maybe you get some big plans. So it's the perfect time to talk

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and going to touch on wide receivers, two wide receivers specifically here in the next part of this show. A little bit later, summer TV watching. We're going to be talking a little bit more letter candy, but another show that I've dived into and a strange little overlap between the two. So we'll talk about that in a second. But first, let's talk Julian Edelman.

Josh McGowan became the latest in the backup quarterback clipboard carrying to the ESPN NFL Network pipeline, announcing his retirement and the very next day being up in Bristol to start his new career as an ESPN analyst, following the shoes of Dan Orlovsky, albeit without the Twitter sidetrack. Now, he made some news, ruffled some feathers on his very first day when he was ranking the top five wide receivers in the NFL. According to him, he included Julian Edelman on his list of top five

receivers, overall receivers. And that drew some attention from various corners of the internet football twitter got all up in arms now i've said before i relayed a conversation that i was having with some other members of the football media world john ledyard and others down at winsels in mobile alabama during the senior bowl a couple years ago when i made the case that julian edelman is the top five receiver now i made that case that case, but I qualified it. I qualified it by saying, if we're just talking overall, it's probably a hard case to make. Putting Julian Edelman to the overall do-it-all, encompassing sort of rankings of wide receivers. Because he's asked to do different things.

He's not asked to beat press coverage as much as the other guys. You know, you're not putting them on the outside all the time. You're not matching them up against CB1 all the time. But I do think, and this incident sort of illustrates the larger point, that when we look at rankings, particularly at the wide receiver position, I think we need to start breaking them up a bit. You need to start looking at them. You can have sort of an overall top five. And before anybody asks, I'm not putting Julian Edelman in my overall top five.

I'm just, I'm not. I love Julian Edelman to death. But as I said, sort of, when we had the Hall of Fame Julian Edelman discussion, not ready to go there. Top five, Hall of Fame. Just overall. You can have an overall ranking, but I think you need to split it out sort of by x by slot by z by what they're sort of asked to do

because if you're asking me to rank my top five slot receivers julian edelman is number one on that list and you're not making i'm not moving them from that spot because it's a different position in a sense they're asked to do different things, to run different routes, to face different coverages, to sometimes work over the middle a bit more. And so different skill sets go into it. It'd be like asking me to rank pitchers.

But then if I put, say, a Mariano Rivera in my top five pitchers, people lose their minds. Okay, well then let's split it out. Rank them by starters and relief pitchers. a Mariano Rivera in my top five pitchers, people lose their minds. Okay, well, then let's split it out. Rank him by starters and relief pitchers. Because Mariano Rivera isn't asked to go into the eighth inning in a start. He's asked to maybe come in in the eighth inning and get four outs. They're asked to do different things.

He can get by on one pitch. He's a cutter. But maybe he can't do that over a start. Because eventually people are going to figure it out at some point because he's going to lose something on it it's not going to be as effective in the sixth of the seventh inning as it was in the first or the second and so they're asked to do different things and so that's why i am on this whole julian edelman discussion is he a top five overall receiver i don't think so and maybe that's going to make some patriots fans angry.

But I think if you look at what some other guys are asked to do, say the Odell's of the world, the Julio Jones's of the world, the AJ Green's of the world, the DeAndre Hopkins of the world, the Antonio Brown's of the world, they're asked to do different things. But if you're asking me to rank slot receivers, it's Julian Edelman and then pretty much everybody else. I think Cole Beasley is in that mix he's a great slot receiver I think there are guys

younger guys that have the potential I look at maybe Golden Tate might sort of fill that role for the Giants but it's Julian Edelman to begin the list and so I did sort of want to chime in on that also want to chime in quickly we all saw the Instagram stuff

Josh Gordon working out with Tom Brady I just want you to close your eyes Patriots fan and think to December December 2019 hopefully the Patriots have a better December than they did December 2018 but picture them running out a four receiver package

with maybe Damian Harris or Sonny Michelle or James White at running back Tom Brady in the shotgun and to one side of the field you've got a slot formation with Demarius Thomas on the outside and Julian Edelman on the inside

and then on the right side you've got Brady looking over there and he sees Nikhil Harry in the slot and Josh Gordon on the right side you've got brady looking over there and he sees nikhil harry in the slot and josh gordon on the outside tell me that's an offense that isn't going to score points that's an offense that's going to score points and while gordon's status might be up in the air the fact that brady's working out with him makes me think that he expects to come back. And we don't know what the league is going to do. You know, he took himself out.

There's rumors of another failed test. We don't know what's going to happen there. But if he's back, this passing game could be fun again. And I know a lot of people wonder, well, what can he do? Well, you can do some stuff along the boundary with him, with Nikhil Harry or Julian Edelman, or both of them working inside of them. And it's sort of similar to how at times you would see Edelman in a slot and Gronk outside of him.

You've got a boundary-type guy and an option slot receiver-type guy inside of him. They could put some things together with those four guys. So some reason for excitement about the Patriots passing game here on June 21st. But up next, we're going to close it out with some more TV talk, summer TV watching, and one final reminder about what lies ahead

here at Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. Going to close out this Friday show in the week by talking a little summer TV binge watching because, as I've said, it's June. So, last week I talked about Letterkenny and my Letterkenny binge rolls on here this summer I'm now into season six the episode that I've been watching actually watched a couple times now because it's funny the episode with the Mennonites looking for their daughters Charity and Chastity.

It's pretty funny. Again, the show is juvenile, and I get it. And I'll be watching it, and my wife will come in, and she'll be like, how can you watch that show? It's so stupid. But I like it. What can I say? And it introduced me to All Dressed Chips, which, by the way,

some of you that do follow along the old Twitter machine, you probably saw, took the kids down into D.C. on Thursday. We were running around the museums. We did, you know, natural history. We did air and space. And my daughter was bored out of her mind. Then we went to the National Gallery of Art and got yelled at for getting too close to the paintings. But then we walked out of the National Gallery of Art. We crossed the street to the Newseum, which is one of my favorite museums in all of Washington, D.C. It's apparently closing, but it's a museum all about, you know, news journalism, photojournalism. It's fascinating. And, you know, the wall of journalists that have lost their lives while doing their jobs,

that's always moving. They have pieces of the Berlin Wall there. If you get to D.C. before it closes, do check out the museum. It's right on Pennsylvania Avenue. And they've got the First Amendment carved into the side. They have one of my favorite things in all of D.C.

Every morning they put out newspapers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and around the world. They put out the front page of each paper so you get to see how sometimes huge events are covered in real time from around the country and around the world. They put out the front page of each paper, so you get to see how sometimes huge events are covered in real time from around the country and around the world. But next to the

museum is the Canadian embassy. And the prime minister himself, Mr. Justin Trudeau, was in town. And if my kids had just been a little bit more patient, we would have seen them because we were, there's a beautiful fountain as well as a huge statue sculpture of an Inuit tribe basing on a canoe it's it's one of my favorite embassies all the embassies in DC tend to be beautiful the Italian embassy the British embassy but the Canadian embassy is gorgeous and it's right there in Pennsylvania Avenue the rooftop where Justin Trudeau gave a speech is gorgeous because you have a beautiful view of the National Mall and the Capitol building. But had the

kids been a little bit patient, we would have seen Justin and I could have asked him, Mr. Prime Minister, do you have any chips? Like the real ones from Canada? And Ian McDonald on Twitter, listener of the show, faithful member of the LockedInPatriots Slack channel, he theorized that he's got to have a bag person, right? Like on

Veep, Gary, you know, the person that carries stuff that the leader needs, like chips? hatred slack channel he theorized that he's got to have a bag person right like on veep gary you know the person that carries stuff that the leader needs like chips they've got to have some good chips right that could have got the real all dressed anyway point is i'm still rolling on letter kenny but thanks to watching it on hulu i've also picked up the handmaid's tale and that's a bit of a struggle to get through. But the acting is fantastic. Elizabeth Moss, who I loved on Mad Men, is fantastic in it. Makes me want to read the book by Margaret Atwood.

I'm now in season two of that show, and that is already beyond where the book was. But it was interesting to me, in the episode of Letter Kennedy that I talked about, the two hockey players, Riley and Jonesy, are speaking with a man and a husband and wife who are looking for their daughter and they just come out at the end of their little exchange and one of them i think it was jonesy maybe it was riley i always get the confused says blessed be the fruit i mean the other says may the lord open and it's pulling quotes from The Handmaid's Tale. I lost it.

And it's probably more because that I'm watching those two shows in concert. I'll watch one and then watch the other. But that reference had me rolling. So again, I would highly recommend Letterkenny. Some of the show's stars are actually in New York City right now. They're doing Letterkenny Live on Broadway, which blows my mind. But it's a funny show. Handmaid's Tale, if you haven't seen it, it's deep, it's dark, it's dystopian.

But it's good. So I'd check that out as well. But that will do it. I'm sure most of you have long since tuned out. But for those of you who are still here, remember, Patriots A to Z. That starts on Monday. We're going to do Letters A and B. Patriots A to Z. That starts on Monday. We're going to do letters A and B. Patriots A to Z brought to you by

the letters A and B on Monday, then C and D and on down the line. That will be the next couple of weeks here at Locked On Patriots. Please do check out our great friends and sponsors, Blue Chew, of course, Himalaya, the fantastic podcast app. You have to check that out. It's a great way to follow along with this show and all the other shows across the Locked On Podcast

Network. Until next time, friends, have a fantastic weekend. It's a great way to follow along with this show and all the other shows across the Locked On Podcast network. Until next time, friends, have a fantastic weekend. Stay safe, watch some good TV, and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriot.