Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 7/27/17- News, Notes, and Day One of Training Camp

Episode Date: July 27, 2017

Chris Simoneau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, updates you on all the latest Patriots news and also discusses some of the highlights from today's first public training camp practice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Good afternoon. I'm Chris Simino, Patriots Inside of a Scout.com, and also your host of Locked on Patriots. Today is Thursday, July 27, 2017. For you Patriots fans, today is the day. Patriots fans, training camp is open to the public. So, they had their first practice this morning, so obviously we've got a lot to get to today.

Get you guys started with all the latest news and updates, and then we're going to discuss some of the things that went on in camp today. What we saw, some of the things that stood out to us, and we'll update you guys on all that good stuff. Before we get started, I just want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Siminoe, and if you have any questions for the show, be it about the Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or if you're looking to advertise here on Lockdown Patriots, you can email me directly at siminoe.christopher5 at gmail.com. That's S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U dot C-H-R-A-S-T-O-P-H-E-R 5 at gmail.com If you are a member of Patriots Insider on Scout.com, and if you're not,

you need to change that, you can contact me directly on the site via message. That's the best way to get a hold of me. So, like I said, we've got a lot to get to with Patriots news, so let's get started. First things first, the Patriots signed two players to their roster. They added defensive lineman Caleb Kidder, who was an undirected free agent,

and they also signed wide receiver Tony Washington. So they filled up those two roster spots, able to get them up to 90, which, you know, you always want to have 90 to start training camp. So they got that done today. Actually, they got that done yesterday. I apologize for that. So apparently, Patriots players were not too happy about the 19-0 talk, calling it disrespectful, which I actually agree is the absolute truth. So I think we're done talking about that all in all, but I think it's good that the Patriots players are in agreement with us here at Locked it's disrespectful to talk about in regards to their opponents.

So Patriots players put that thing to bed, and I think Bill Belichick helped out yesterday when he went mute on a reporter when he asked him the question. So enough of that. It's over. One thing that was kind of cool, kind of caught my attention as a former fan of the Madden franchise, I don't really play it that much anymore because i have two young children and i have a lot of work and the bottom line is you stop playing video games and that happens but you're always interested

and i saw that brady got a 99 rating in madden you know the guy's 40 years old to get a 99 rating as a 40 year old it's pretty cool i remember when i used to play the game and I'd use Franchise, I used to get mad when he would retire because he would always still be, like, a very high rating. It would be even higher because I'd get him bumped up when he would throw a million touchdowns for me. It's kind of cool to see that he's still, in 2017, that good and still, you know, looked at and getting that much respect

from the guys that make that game. And that game's incredible. So it's good to see that game still going. It's cool that Brady got a 99 rating. So you guys out there that still have time to play it, enjoy it, because who knows how much longer you're going to have him to be a quarterback for. So we talked about the other day the retirement of wide receiver Hawkins there. And, you know, that could actually help some of the younger guys.

One of the players that I have an eye on is Devin Lucien. I think that's going to help his chances of making this roster. I wouldn't call that breaking news, but I think that's something to keep an eye on is Devin Lucien and how he's looked and how good of an offseason he's had. I think that he has a good chance to make the roster now. I just think that's something we should keep an eye on. In other news, some expatriate news.

Apparently Martellus Bennett slept in the Packers locker room on the eve of training camp. I find that to be funny. Apparently he's excited and ready for football. So that guy, I do miss him, and I wish he was still here, but it's one of those situations where it just wasn't going to work out. He was a one-year guy. There's been a lot of guys like that with the Patriots. He came and helped us win the Super Bowl.

So good luck to him this year. And you've already seen it, him sleeping in the locker room on the EVA training camp. He's a character. So enjoy him, Packers fans, and Patriots fans are always going to love him, I'll tell us. But you might want to sleep in a bed next time on the EVA training camp because it's a long, long few weeks for you guys.

So the Patriots added a third joint workout. This time they're going to do it with the Detroit Lions, so you might want to pull up their roster and take a look at who they have because if the Patriots make a trade, that's another team that's going to become a candidate. So pro football talk, an organization that I've actually, I'm one of their pioneer fans. I was on that site way back when it first started when Mike Florio first got it wrong. I just, you know, I Googled, I think it was in like 2003, 2004,

right when it started. I was looking for some rumors, and next thing you know, I found that site, and I've been on there the whole time, and me and Mike have gone at it occasionally on things, you know. And I don't go to the site as much as I used to due to the fact that I write all the time and my own stuff and I got, you know, Twitter and all that good stuff, but they still do a good job.

I found it interesting they actually ranked the Patriots number one preseason. I don't want to say they're biased against the Patriots because they're not, but typically they don't rank them number one. It was just interesting to see that they already have them up the top of the heap. So PFT thinks the Patriots are the best team in the NFL. We'll see how that goes. Surprise, Florio actually picked the Patriots number one. Shocking.

So speaking of the Patriots and their number one ranking, apparently there's some NFL assistants out there that think Tom Brady is going to drop off dramatically at the age of 40. Listen, I'm 41, and I can tell the difference. I can tell the difference from my late 30s right to 41. There is a difference. You can feel it. But I'm not a professional athlete. Tom Brady is. And Tom Brady, he takes care of himself. And I will say this, too.

For a guy my age and for people my age and my peers, we're not the same 41 that our parents and our grandparents were um i just think that there's more things out there now i think health care wise it's better i just think that we we do a better job of managing our bodies and it's not even their fault that we do a better job than them it's because of the science that we have and brady has a ton of money so you had the science and having the money to be able to afford to eat the way he does his personal chef personal trainer all these other things that he has and that he actually takes advantage of unlike some of these other guys that have the money and say that they do these things Brady actually does it so I don't

know I don't think he's gonna drop off dramatically at 40 40. I'm starting to think, and I could be wrong, and I've said it on this show before that he could just drop off, but I don't think it's going to be a dramatic decrease for Brady. I think it's going to be tapered. I think he's going to taper down. I think he's going to slow down. He's going to get a little slower as the years go on. His reaction time is going to get a little bit slower.

But you have to remember with this guy is his memory, his brain is functioning at such a high level. He even said it. He knows the answers to the test. So a guy who's been in this system, and he's been in the system as long as he has, until he legitimately cannot throw the ball anymore, he can play. That's the way it is. So I just don't see a dramatic drop-off ever happening for him. I think maybe 40-45 is going to be a dramatic difference in how good he plays.

But you'll see a steady drop-off and not something that's just boom, he's done, he hit the wall, career's over. It's going to take, he's going to go from 30 touchdown passes to 25 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions down to 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. And it's like, okay, it's the end of the road. And you'll be able to tell. I just don't think it's going to be as dramatic as what these NFL assistant coaches are. Nameless assistant coaches, of course, because, you know,

of course they don't put their name to it. So, you know, I'll be the first to say that I don't ever name a source because it's just not what you do. It's unprofessional, and when you do name a source, they're not your source anymore. But if you're an NFL assistant coach, who cares? Put your name to it. What, you think that it's going to make a difference

between Tom beating your team or not? That's mattered in the past. So it's just interesting to hear assistants. I think it's more of a hope than it is a prediction for these guys. But again, I don't see it being a dramatic drop-off. I see him tapering off as time goes on, and he's just going to slow down, and eventually he won't be able to do what he used to do, and he'll probably hang it up.

But we could be looking at the, I think it's Gordie Howe that played until many, many decades. We could be looking at the new George Blanda and maybe even Gordie Howe of sorts of football. The guy wants to play until he's 50. He said that recently. So I don't know. I don't know. He doesn't look like he's slowing down.

He certainly didn't look like he was slowing down today. We'll get into that more later. 20 out of 24. A little preview for you. So before we get into the training camp stuff, I just want to talk a little bit about SeatGeek. So when you want to buy tickets to any sports, concerts, anything like that, it can be a pain in the butt. But there is a simpler way to buy, and that is with SeatGeek. So what you want to do, you want to go out, get the app on your phone.

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I've also bought Celtics tickets using it. I haven't had to buy Patriots tickets with it, but that's because I'm there, so that's a big difference. But if I was buying Patriots tickets, I would use SeatGeek because it's going to give you the best prices. They're designed to give you the best buying experience ever because what they do, they save you time and money by searching multiple ticket

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have to worry about that. So what you want to do, again, make sure, go in, get the app, okay, go download that app, and then enter the promo code LONFL today. That's promo code LONFL. You're going to get $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. So that's a good deal. You're already getting the deal as it is. And if you're going in to buy multiple tickets, if you want to bring your family to, say, a Red Sox game because it's that time of the year, go do this now.

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save that 20 bucks and get yourself started again go download seek geek app and get yourself started today so training camp it's here and uh a little damp a little bit a little cloudy but it's still nice down there it's it's actually better when it's like this because it's not too hot not too cold you know it's not something where it's gonna you know really affect you it's actually better when it's like this because it's not too hot, not too cold it's not something where it's going to really affect you it's getting a little muggier as the day goes on here I'm actually back at the house now after a morning of getting a little damp and a little sweaty

but it wasn't anything compared to what it can be which I'm sure it will be tomorrow so first and foremost it was nice to see 87 back on the field again. Rob Gronkowski was dominant. He was catching touchdown passes all over the place during their 11-on-11, 7-on-7, it didn't matter. He was catching touchdowns everywhere.

Belichick did say that he had no limits on him, and that was quite obvious as he was just tearing it up out there. So, a couple things that I thought were interesting. Rob Ninkovich. He was not there today. We have not given an official report as to why, but Rob Ninkovich was not there. I find that very, very interesting.

Coney Ealy and Joe Cardona, I didn't see them out there either. And also, we know Dante Hightower, Branch, they were on the pop list. Obviously, they didn't participate on Thursday, but I think it's interesting that I know N Hightower, Branch, they were on the pup list. Obviously they didn't participate on Thursday. But I think it's interesting that I know Ninkovich wasn't there because that was told to us. But Coney Ealy and Cardona not being spotted,

it makes me wonder if maybe they're nursing something and they're just trying to hide them. But who knows? Who knows? So a lot of things. We got to see some of the defensive ends today. So some of the guys that they're looking at, Trey Flowers to Shane McClellan, Derek Rivers, Dietrich Wise, Gino Grissom. There's a lot of guys there.

I think Gino Grissom might be short for this roster, but we'll see how that all goes. Neither a decent day today, but still some of the guys that they drafted and picked up, I just don't know if he's going to be one of those guys that sticks. So, again, Gronkowski, he put on a show during any goal line drill that they drafted and picked up. I just don't know if he's going to be one of those guys that sticks. So, again, Gronkowski, he put on a show during any goal line drill that they did today, and he was actually celebrating. It was kind of funny to watch. So, Jimmy Garoppolo put one on the ground. He had to

take a lap for that. That was interesting because everyone loves Jimmy G and this and that, but the Patriots still treat him like he's just a backup quarterback, and I think it's great. And Ted Karras got to run with him because Mr. Papadopoulos' grandson there fumbled the, he was the guy that's at center. If you guys don't know who George Papadopoulos is, it's actually a reference to his grandfather, Alex Karras, who was on the show Webster.

And any guys out there around my age know what I'm talking about, probably laughing right now. But Ted Karras is actually a pretty good player, and so was his uncle who was on the TV show Webster. One guy that stood out today, I thought, was undrafted rookie Kenny Moore. He had a nice pass breakup, and he was on Malcolm Mitchell, and he impressed during the minicamps too. That's one guy I really think you should keep an eye on is Kenny Moore.

He was very, very impressive today. Austin Carr I thought looked pretty good today. He had a good release. I like him. I think he's going to be a pretty good player. He's another one that could see his chances improve with Hawkins hanging it up. Andrew Hawkins retired. I just think it's going to be interesting. Keep in mind that there's a few receivers out there that are going to have a chance now because of this. Cyrus Jones, well, he dropped a kickoff in the beginning of practice. It was the beginning. It was early.

But then, during the punt return side of it, he actually looked all right. He did a good job. He didn't put it on the ground. So we'll take what we can get. If he's not going to drop punts and he can do that, that's great. I wouldn't kickoffs. I think he'll be fine, too. That just doesn't make a lot of sense. So the first two returners actually taking the reps in kickoff returns,

they had Danny Amendola back there, Deion Lewis. Slater was back there for a little bit. Back there doing his traffic cop, typical great thing that he does. I think Matt Slater is the smartest special teams player in the NFL, and I think he's one of the best special teams players that's ever played in the league. You look back at guys like Mark Kelso, played for the Buffalo Bills. He was a special teams expert too. Slater's better than him because he's a better athlete than him.

I think that Kelso definitely had the brain, but Slater is just, man, he's a better athlete than him. I think that Kelso definitely had the brain. But Slater is just, man, he's a stud. And he can block. He can do everything. He just, his coverage, and you hear guys say it, he's the fastest guy on the team. Matt Slater, and I underrated him for years, years. You can look back at some of my articles back from when he first, this first, I'd say, five years in the league. And I would say, oh, what are they doing? Why are they keeping him? Why are they keeping him?

And I watch a lot of film. I'm a special teams coordinator for a high school team. But it didn't really dawn on me how good he was until about 2010, 2011, right around that time, maybe a little bit later than that, 2012. And I was watching on film and just watching all the special teams plays, and just every time there was something that had to be done, he's always there, he's always the guy. And it's just, you know, even when they're working in practice, he's still the guy back there leading the way.

It's just awesome to watch. He's really, really special, special, special teams player. And he was really excited for the start of training camp today too, comparing it to the start of school. So that was fun. I just, Matthew Slater really, he turns my head every time I see him out there. He is a gifted, gifted special teams player. Brandon Cooks had a good day today.

He had three catches in a row from Brady. Brady was actually 20 out of 24, and at one point, I think he had 14 in a row that he hit. So it was interesting. It was interesting to watch him work with Cooks, too. Cooks actually ran an end around off of motion. He was untouched. He went into the end zone untouched.

That was pretty cool. He's fast. He is a water bug, and he is fast, fast, fast. So Tom Brady, like he typically does after 11-on-11, him and Garoppolo worked on the side. Josh McDaniels and Dion Lewis jumped in with him, and also Brandon Cooks and Edelman talked with Brady a little bit, I'm sure. That happens every day.

You see these guys get together. They talk about some of the things they worked on in practice. It could be a question that Cooks has as far as the offense is concerned, what he's supposed to do on an option route versus what Edelman's doing, things like that that fans don't understand how many little things goes into running your offense and running your routes, especially the way the Patriots do it. So you'll probably see a lot of Cooks and Brady and Edelman and Gronkowski

and those guys out there talking after practice just so they can make sure they're on the same page because offensively this team is very, very talented and they know if they put it all together they could be scary. So everybody was out there. Edelman, Cooks, Allen, Malcolm Mitchell, Dwayne Allen, Devin Lucey, and all of them were out there, so that was good to see. I thought the offensive line did a good job.

They looked pretty good. So, Gino Grissom, I was talking to him earlier, so he's got a chance to make or break it for him now. Ninkovich was out today. I don't know why. We'll find out more. Coney Ealy wasn't out there either. So Grissom is, you know, he's the oldest guy out there.

If he doesn't show, then he's going to go, period. Derek Rivers, he's a rookie, but he's a guy that they drafted in a high position, a guy that many, many, many teams, many experts out there thought should have gone in the second round, and he didn't, and that's okay. So Rivers is going to see some regular work, but this is it for Grissom. Let's make a break. Jonathan Freeney, it was nice to see him back out there. Shane McClellan, I hope he has a better year than he did last year. He was good at certain points, but he was just so inconsistent,

and it was just frustrating to watch. So hopefully they can get that together and make sure that he's ready to go. Because if they had McClellan playing at his highest ability, which is pretty good. I mean, the guy wasn't a first round pick for no reason. I think it would be pretty nice to see him out there, you know, making plays for them. It'd be pretty nice. So again, all in all, it was a pretty good day down at Foxborough. Brady was awesome. I thought that Cooks was awesome. Obviously

Gronkowski was awesome. Burkhead showed up a little bit today. I saw him making some plays down there. It was nice, again, it was nice that the ball wasn't getting put on the ground on punt returns. Cyrus Jones, good for him. Obviously he did put one on the ground on kick returns, like I said, but that's okay.

If he's got the punt return stuff going down, then he's going to be all right. So it was a good day overall. Jacoby Brissett didn't get a ton of reps. He was okay, and then the 7-on-7 hurry up at the end, he kind of struggled a little bit. Defense stopped him on fourth down. They went nuts, too. The ball got broken up by the pal guy,

and they thought it was the greatest thing in the world. So that was pretty fun to watch. But, you know, again, Brissette is a work in progress. Let's put it that way. But overall, good day down at Patriots training camp. We'll keep you guys updated on injuries. We may have a short show later on tonight, just a quick 10-minute wrap-up after we get more news coming out from the Patriots as far as press releases, things like that.

Again, if anyone got hurt, if anything major happened, we'll have a short little show later. But chances are you guys won't hear from us again until tomorrow. But before we let you guys go, I just want to again talk about some of the changes we've had over at Scout.com. So if you're a subscriber to Patriots Insider on Scout.com, you may realize what's going on. But if you're not, you're missing out on one of the biggest treasure trove of terrific material on the Internet. The place is awesome.

Not only do you get real local coverage of the Patriots, real local coverage, not guys that have gone over and done national stuff. I'm talking local, like central Massachusetts. We're half an hour from the stadium. We're there. We're there, okay? And it's also for the Celtics, the Red Sox, and Boston College. And you notice I didn't say Bruins because I'm not going to try to lie to you guys.

We're not there yet as far as hockey is concerned. But when it comes to football, basketball, baseball, college sports, and the top recruits coming out, it's the best. You get tremendous access to all those teams. And the breakdowns and the ratings of the top high school prospects that come across the country, it's awesome. You get to see these guys before they're anybody. You go on scout.com right now.

You type in anybody's name in the NFL, the NBA, or Major League Baseball, and you're going to find their information going back until when they were like sophomores in high school or depending when they started getting recruited or when they started getting noticed. This is all on scout.com. Plus, you get discounts to NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA games, and you get discounted movie tickets, concert tickets, amusement park tickets, huge discounts. If you're going to Six Flags and taking your family, say you're taking a family of four, you're going to save over $100.

And you get up to 20% off purchases at fanatics.com, which is just an awesome deal. All this for $5 a month, worth $49 for the year. Don't waste your money on a site that only has local coverage or just the Boston area. Get to know your opponents too with access to all the teams through our professional and college sports for the same price per month. It's a no-brainer.

Go to scout.com NFL slash Patriots and sign up today. Seriously, you're going to pay the same amount per month, you're going to get just as good coverage as far as the local stuff, and you're probably going to get more coverage because we've got more guys working for us because we're building up.

CBS bought us, and we're building up as time goes on here. And you're also going to get great Red Sox coverage, great Celtics coverage, and we offer discounts on tickets and discounts on T-shirts and hats and all this other stuff that you want to get. Simple things. You go to the movies. You order them through us, and you get 10% off your purchases. You want to go to a concert.

You're going to get money back, and you're paying the same amount that you would for the new site here in Massachusetts that everybody's all excited about. Well, it's time to get excited about Patriots Insider on Scout.com and Scout.com as a whole because the site is awesome, and if you really want to be in the know on everything around the whole NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball, go sign up for Scout.com again.

$5 a month, $49 for the year. Scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots. Sign up today. This is a no-brainer. Go get it done. So I want to thank you guys all for joining us on this Thursday edition, the first open to the fans practice, and just an exciting day here at Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes, subscribe to our show today, as in right now,

like as right this second, and make sure you tell your friends about us too. Here at Locked On Patriots, we are all about getting Patriots fans the most info you need to be the most in the know Patriots fans. Have a great day, Patriots fans. I look forward to giving you all the information tomorrow. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog.

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