Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS-7/30/17- Rob Ninkovich Retires, Raymond Clayborn Enters the Hall at Patriots Place, BB Mocks Media

Episode Date: July 31, 2017

Chris Simoneau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, discusses Patriots news, including the retirement of Rob Ninkovich, and also goes in depth into Bill Belichick's comments about the media's scouting ability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Good evening, I'm Chris Simino, Patriots Inside of a Scout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots. Today is Sunday, July 30th, 2017. Of course, with it being training camp, we always got a lot to get to, get you guys updated on what happened yesterday. We'll start with the latest news and updates, and then we'll start talking training camp. It's been excellent so far. Competitive, good-paced practices when they just had the shorts and shells,

and they put full pads on Saturday and also today too. So that also changes things up a little bit when they go into the full pads. You can see why people are excited about this team, though. It's quite clear that there's a lot of talent out there. Minus one, which we'll get to soon. We had big news today in Patriots land that I'm sure you guys all know about it with the retirement of Rob Ninkovich. We're going to cover that, and we're going to cover it a lot.

We'll talk about that more later in the show. Before we get started, I just want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Seminole. You can also find a Lockdown Patriots on Twitter, too, that we're on there. So either way, you can hit me up on my personal Twitter, or you can hit up Lockdown Patriots on Twitter. You can also ask any questions to the Lockdown Network on Twitter, too, because we're all out there.

If you have any questions for my show specifically, be it about the Patriots, about myself, Patriots Insider, if you're looking to advertise here on Lockdown Patriots, which I would recommend, especially with football season here, we're going to be doing daily shows, weekly shows, we'll have five to six shows per week, so I would strongly recommend if you're looking to get some advertising in on a show that's going to be, get a lot of listeners as the season goes on,

definitely advertise here on Lockdown Patriots. You can also email me directly at simoneau, that's S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U dot Christopher, C-H-R-A-S-T-O-P-H-E-R the number five at gmail.com. If you are a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com,

which I would highly recommend that you do, especially since we've joined up now with CBS and the site's just going to be awesome, you can contact me directly on that site via message. All right, so let's get down to it. Patriots training camp has been a lot of fans there. It's been pretty crazy. On Thursday they had 15,349. I didn't get the exact numbers on Friday,

but I did get the numbers overall, and we're looking at about 53,000 over the course of three days. That's a lot of fans. That's busy. So it just says a lot about the Patriots fans and how they do such an amazing job of supporting this team. And I know they get a lot of heat. They definitely do.

But, you know, that's just how fans from other teams are going to look at the Patriots and their fans because they're the more winning team. They've won the most games over the last 15, 17 years. And even historically, over that course of that time, they've won more than most teams ever have. So it is what it is. But the exact number here is 53,890. So awesome job Patriots fans. Keep turning out. Makes it hard to get around down there, I'll tell you that much. But it's worth it because having all those fans there, I know the Patriots players love it. You can see it in their faces. They enjoy getting the support.

So that's awesome. 53,890 over the first four days of Patriots training camp. That's impressive. Patriots went out and signed somebody today. I'm not going to get too far into the Ninkovich stuff yet, but basically this guy replaced him on the 90-man roster. Wide receiver K.J. May played in Minnesota. He has joined the Patriots 90-man roster. Don't be surprised if they have him around for a short amount of time. They may like him.

He may end up as a practice squad guy. I firmly believe that the Patriots are going to take a look at another edge rusher. But, and there's a big but here. I'm not joking. I'm just a big but. Geno Grissom. And I said this last podcast, I told you guys, and I'm not going to say I knew something didn't smell right as far as Ninkovich was

concerned, but the thing with Ninkovich for me was I had actually, and I wasn't doing this podcast last year leading up, but I did write for Scout.com, I had spoken many times about how I thought Ninkovich might have got cut last season leading up, but I did write for Scout.com. I had spoken many times about how I thought Ninkovich might have got cut last season leading up to the year. I didn't think that he had much left in him. He looked slower. You know, he just looked older. That's what happens to these guys.

It happens to all of us, except for Tom Brady. Knock on wood. But Ninkovich, you could see it. You could tell. And when he didn't show up for that first day of training camp, when Mike Reese, who does such a great job for ESPN, and I had the pleasure to, I've known, not really know, but I've got to meet him and met him recently.

He's a good guy, and he really does a great job. He asks the right questions. That's the thing about him that I really look up to. Reese, he just asked flat out Belichick, was there anybody not here today? And that was, he asked that on the first day, and Bill, you know, had probably given Mike a heads up, or Mike had someone getting a heads up too, but I think the Ninkovich thing, kind of the writing was on the wall for him.

But again, Gino Grissom, it's his time to step up, and if he can't do it, obviously they have Derek Rivers that they can throw in there, the draft pick that they picked up this year, and there's some other guys that they have there too, but I think that they might really have to take a look outside the organization, and I know you hear the name Dwight Freeney get tossed around. Speaking of Mike Grease, he had actually recommended, he had said he gets his eyes on him too. I don't think he fits the Patriots system, but I do think he doesn't fit this system as far as a first three downs guys, a first three down guys, but he fits anybody or we can use some of these other guys on first down or passing or running situations or short passing situations,

but if we have an absolute we need to get after the quarterback, go spend some money and pick this guy up. He played for Atlanta last year, so you're taking away a guy from a team that you played in the Super Bowl that really had you down, and you got a great comeback, but let's call it what it was. That team was good, and I wouldn't mind stealing a little piece off of that to replace Ninkovich. So I think that Freeney makes sense.

I don't think it's, again, it's not a scheme fit. It's not, and this isn't about scheme fit. This is about finding somebody who can sack a quarterback, not pressure a quarterback, not, you know, get him out of the park a little bit. No, you need somebody to go in there and sack the quarterback. That's the reason why the Patriots won the Super Bowl. That's the reason why the Patriots started playing better last year defensively because of Trey Flowers and some of the other guys that started to pick it up,

but specifically Trey Flowers. They need a guy that can get after the quarterback. Ninkovich was one of them last year. Yeah, he only had four sacks, but before that, leading up, he had eight sacks four years in a row. It's time for the Patriots to go out and find somebody that can go sack the quarterback. They need somebody, and I don't think Rivers is ready yet to be the number one guy. I think Rivers is ready to play in a rotation, but I don't think he's a guy he's going to be able to lean on because a lot of these rookies, they hit week 12 and they're done.

So we'll get to that a little bit more later, the Ninkovich stuff, but that's just my two cents on that now. Jimmy Garoppolo had some interesting words. He talked about catching Tom Brady. That's what he wants to do, and he said, cool, that's the competition part. You have to he said, cool, that's the competition part. You have to love that. I think that's a good thing.

It seems like Belichick, he's not going to let go of Garoppolo anytime. From some of the things I've heard, I think, and from what I've actually been told, he looks at him as the next guy. And you can kind of tell, too. They didn't trade him. That tells you everything you need to know. And they could have got two first-round picks for that guy. And I know this team is loaded, but, you know, look at this with Ninkovich retiring.

You're going to try to tell me that with two first-round picks or maybe even just getting the 12 pick, they wouldn't be able to find a defensive end that can come in here or an edge rusher that can help out right away? Of course they could. But they look at that and say, you know what, we can find an edge rusher before we can find our next quarterback. And I think that's what they think Garoppolo is. So, interesting. And the only way he could ever become a starter

with Brady around is to actually win the position. So, give Garoppolo credit for having the you-know-whats to be able to come in there and try to battle. I know Garoppolo has had some moments where he's thrown some interceptions in camp, but that's one of the reasons why is because he's thrown everybody experiments, and he's even admitted that. So good for Garoppolo on that, having that competitive attitude. Here's one thing I forgot to tell you guys from Thursday.

Actually, it was the other day. I'm sure some of you guys have already seen it, but I thought it was kind of funny, on Google they decided to be jokers, anytime you Google the name New York Jets owner, Tom Brady's name and photo appeared, I thought that was funny, and I feel it's actually somewhat true, but personally I would have put Belichick in the picture, because I think he's permanently in the head of Woody Johnson after the, I quit as the HC of the NYJ, which is quite possibly my favorite ever resignation letter I've ever read in my life. I laughed uncontrollably the first time I saw that. That was a, I'm getting the hell out of here.

I don't want any part of this organization resignation letter. Wow, pretty good decision on Belichick's part, especially after Woody Johnson questioned him if he was having mental issues. He really said that, too. That's a quote. Check his mental capacity. Yeah, that worked out. That's just a little anecdote

from Thursday. Here's some pretty cool stuff. Patriots are excited to announce that their Hall of Fame at Patriots Place has officially reached one million visitors. That's pretty cool. I've been in there twice. I don't know, does that count twice?

That might take it down below a million. Uh-oh, better call them up. So as someone who has been in this New England area my entire life, I was born here in Marlborough, Massachusetts. I live in Hudson, Massachusetts, which is in Central Mass. I've been here my whole life. I know this area very well. The other thing is, too, is I know this football team very well. I'm 41 years old.

I've been through it all with these guys. I've seen them be terrible, good for a little bit, terrible, good for a little bit, average, terrible, dominant. That's my life as a Patriots fan, and now I still like the team. I still want them to win, but as somebody who covers the team, I have a totally different outlook on it, and I truly do. It's interesting to say I know a lot of people go, Homer, Homer this, Homer that.

Yeah, I am. I'm always going to want the Patriots to win the game when it comes down to it. But I've totally changed because, you know, you see the way the sausage is made. And that's not a knock on the Patriots organization. The Slides, I think, they're great. They do an awesome job. But I'm a football coach too, and, you know, it's only high school football, but I'm still around the game.

I know how it's taught. I know all those type of things. So it's different for me, you know, covering them as a media member and as a fan of the team too. I used to be a big, big, big Patriots fan back in the day when I, you know, obviously since I'm covering the team now. But now I've learned how to step back and take a look at it from the big picture, and that has a lot to do with coaching.

But, again, this organization is amazing. It's just amazing to see what they've become. And, again, I'll go right through it. My lifetime, 1976, I don't remember any Patriots games until I was about five years old. They weren't that good. Then they got good. Then they got real bad. Then they got pretty good again. Then they got average. Then they got bad. And now they're dominant. Pretty interesting stuff. But, you know, this is the way it sometimes

takes organizations a little while to figure it out. But, man, they sure have figured it out. So this weekend, they're having their Hall of Fame induction, like I was talking about when I just rambled off onto my spiel there. One of my favorite players, and I know a lot of other people's favorite players, including I know Bob Kraft liked him a lot too, Raymond Claiborne has been inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame. It's pretty cool to see. He's a former cornerback.

He was great. Ray Claiborne was one of the better corners in the NFL back in the 80s. A lot of you guys now, young guys, don't remember him just because you weren't watching the game back then. You weren't alive back then. You were alive and you were in diapers. I was watching Claiborne and he was a good player. He's a good guy too. Congratulations to Ray Claiborne. Very happy to see you going into the Hall of Fame. You were, again, one of my favorite players to watch when I was younger, and I know there's a lot of corners out there that played in the 90s,

in the early 2000s that really emulated your style of play, and you see it now. It's still filtered down because these other guys emulated their style of play, and they don't even realize that they got it from you. So congratulations, Raymond. Congratulations on your induction to the Patriots Hall of Fame. So you guys go to games, buy tickets, go to concerts, buy tickets for that. It can be a pain in the butt.

It can be a little bit complicated at times, but there is an easy way to do it, and the easiest way to do it is with SeatGeek. SeatGeek is the smartest, easiest way to get tickets for live events. You use their mobile app, which is a very good experience. You can buy and sell tickets in just two taps. SeatGeek helps you find the best seats at the best prices, and it's guaranteed. Nothing like seeing your favorite team, you know, go to a Patriots game, go to a Celtics game, Red Sox game, or you go check out a musician in person. For me, it's Pearl Jam. For other people, it's Kenny Cyrus.

It doesn't matter. You can go to Country Weston. You can go to Rock. It doesn't matter. SeatGeek is going to get you closer to the action. Seriously, you can get some pretty good seats through SeatGeek, and you're going to get a good price, too. So, what I do, I actually download the app onto my phone, which wasn't that easy to do

because I don't have that much space, but I just removed other things because it was such a good app. I wanted it. It's the easiest way to get tickets. So if I want to go to a Red Sox game, and I've taken advantage of this, I've told you guys this, I'll just go right onto the app, find the tickets. I can be anywhere. Take a couple taps. I find the seats I want.

I just buy the tickets, get them done. They go what they do. They go and they search multiple sites to find the best prices to give you the best price to fit your budget. It's pretty awesome. So if you're bringing a family of five or, you know, a family of three even, it's expensive. So if you go through SeatGeek and get your tickets, you're going to save yourself some money. So definitely make sure that you do that. What you want to do, I would definitely recommend this. If you want to save $20, download the SeatGeek app and to the promo code LONFLtoday. That's promo code LONFLtoday. You're going to get $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. So you're going to buy tickets. You're going to go to a Red Sox, a Patriots game. You already,

these people out there who listen to this podcast, who I know, are already planning to go to their first game. You have nothing to lose. Download that app, and go get your tickets through SeatGeek. I'm telling you right now, you're going to find some awesome seats, and not only that, you're going to have awesome seats along with $20 back in your pocket that you can go buy two beers with. Yeah, sodas sorry so i would guarantee you um it's worth it if you're going to buy tickets anyway so go out there l-o-n-f-l download that c key cap put in that promo code and get your twenty dollars off your first ticket purchase today so i want to talk about training camp and typically when we talk about training camp we jump right into it you know, this guy looked good here, this guy did this, this guy had this many interceptions, all that.

But I wouldn't be doing you guys right if I didn't go through the Bill Belichick rant from the press conference on Friday. It was a thing of legend, and I'm going to read right through it, because it is absolutely hilarious, and people like me should honestly be kind of somewhat offended by it, but I'm not, and I'll get into that, just because I don't care, and

Belichick's going to learn that this year with me, is that I really don't care. But this rant was hilarious. Jerry Thornton, who I he's he's called me one of his muses with some of the articles he's written, some of the ideas we've given him. Jerry's a very funny guy. I can't even remember what he called this in his article.

I think he called it basically a baby seal clubbing. That was Thilliton's quote today from a Boston article, which I found to be hilarious. So he goes, this is Belichick, quote, you guys are asking a lot of questions about what we've seen from this guy and what we've seen from that guy, and we've yet to put on pads. I understand there's a pretty talented group of evaluators in this room, but in all honesty, our evaluations come more in training camp when we actually practice and fully execute the techniques and plays we're trying to do. I'll stop right there for a second. That is so harsh.

He's not talking about coaches. There's no coaches in that room. He's ripping the people in the media who have made evaluations of these guys that are doing it with, you know, guys like me, the guys out there counting how many catches and counting all that type of stuff. Well, you know, it's kind of the job that we're supposed to do, but Belichick doesn't care. He went on. The main thing we try to do in spring and the next days is teach these players what to do to give them the most fundamental instruction we can, given the

restraints we have on practice. Then we have practices, padded practices, and I would say real training camp starts on Saturday and will continue for quite a while after that, including preseason games in which the really evaluations start. I know everybody's all excited when a guy catches a pass,

another dig at the media. But when the defense doesn't jam him, and she's right, well, they're not allowed to really because they don't want heavy contact out there, which is 100% right because the NFL Players Association fought for that, and now these guys aren't prepped for the first month of the season. That's not a Belichick quote. That's mine. Back to Belichick.

They're not competing for contact at the end of the play, and that's not quite the same as when all of that is going on. I'm not trying to take away anything from the receivers, but I'm not taking away from anybody. What he's taking away from is the guys who actually write about it, which is the funniest thing about this whole, as Jerry said, baby seal clubbing. I'm just

saying it is what it is. I'm surprised and shocking that Belichick dropped that one in there. The competitive level out there is not what it's going to be starting tomorrow. Agreed. So to evaluate players competitively when they're not on a competitive level, I have a hard time with it. They start

with the evaluation. But I know a lot of people are really good at that. They can make a lot more out of that than I can. That's a hard core dig at the media. So I respect that. Due to my personal limitations and my personal inability to make those evaluations, I don't make them.

Now, that line is the one that really, I mean, Jesus, Bill. Come on, man. These guys and myself, we're not morons, okay? It's just a riot. I mean, he completely tore apart. Now I know that Belichick absolutely voted for Trump, loves the guy. He does not like the media at all. He doesn't like it at all.

So I'm glad I coached the game. Hopefully when I talk to him during the season and ask him questions, I'll take that approach and bite my head off. He will anyways, but that'll be fun. But Jesus, this thing, yes, on Friday, oh my good God. I usually don't read through an entire thing like this. You guys know that. I've done over 100 shows now, and I don't read through an entire quote like this,

and I'm not even done yet. But this was just holy wow he went nuts he said so let me get right back to where I was here sorry you know that's when the evaluation is really sad other than if a person can't take the instruction and do what they're asking them to do

or can't do it properly you can evaluate that but in some cases it's hard to evaluate how they're doing in some cases, it's hard to evaluate how they're doing in somebody else when it's not a competitive situation. So, you know, again, needless to say, Belichick doesn't have a lot of talent. With respect for the guys in the room, the other writers, myself, who, you know, I can evaluate talent. I can, okay? I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm one of the scouts, but I will say that I could be one of them. There's no question about it. I've been around the game my entire life. I've scouted high school. I've scouted every level. I've put

players in the Division I. I know what I'm doing. So for Belichick to say that there's not guys out there that can't evaluate the talent, I think that's a joke. There's guys that go to the Senior Bowl every single year, and there's guys that go to this. They're all over this. They watch a ton of tape. They watch a ton of film. They've coached, which is a big part of it. So you know what the technique is. You know what the footwork is.

You know all these things. Belichick's not the only guy in the world that does know these things. There are other guys out there. And you don't have to be a coach. It helps. But you can be in the media and know this stuff. And I think it's kind of, it is disrespectful to take that big a shot. These guys work hard.

We work hard. I have three jobs included with this. You know, I love it, though. That's why I do it. But sometimes it's thankless. And it's unfortunate because, you know, some of the things you see happen with the Red Sox, and I'm not going to get into that because this isn't a show about the Red Sox,

but in that market, which I am, and I know I'm part of the national media as far as scout.com, but I'm in the New England market when it all comes down to it. It's just a little rough lately as far as the team's assault on the media, specifically with the Red Sox situation, but also sometimes just trying to talk to Bill can be really hard. And again, like I told you guys, I'm going to ask as many smart questions as I possibly can this year with him because that's the only way I'm going to be able to get an answer.

And if the answer I get is, you know, vanilla, I feel like I've actually done my job. If I get torn into, well, it is what it is. But I guarantee you both of those things are going to happen this year. I just think that that, you know, as Jerry said, baby seal clubbing was a bit much. I did laugh my head off when I heard him talking, and I wasn't in the room, thank God,

because I would have burst out laughing in there and I probably would have been removed. But I was given the information within minutes after it happened. So it was just one of the funniest things I've ever seen him say. And it's unfortunate that I'm one of those people he was taking digs at and I just laugh at it. So on that note, here are some of the evaluations, news, and notes we have from some of the public practices. Sorry, Bill. We're going to give you our evaluations.

That's what I'm here to do. Eric Rowe, in noncompetitive situations, was once again one of the best players on the field. But, again, as Bill said, it was a noncompetitive situation, so I guess Rowe's just out there being competitive while the other guys weren't. They weren't in pads, though. That has to be considered. But he is clearly, he's been one of the best athletes on the field throughout the first three, four days. He had an incredible interception at Garoppolo. He also had three passes broken up on Friday. Secondary as a whole looks very locked in. But again,

Rowe, I think he stood out the most. And I hope that continues when they put the pads on because they really need him. Also, the guy I told you guys about, Jonathan Jones, he's starting to emerge as that nickel corner, just like I said he was going to. I talked about him when they picked him up from Auburn. He was an absolute steal. That guy could play. I had no idea why he didn't get drafted.

I don't get some of these evaluations. What, do you run a 4-5-8 in the 40 or something like that? Well, so be it. It doesn't matter if his 40-yard dash is a 4-5-8. If he's got lightning bug speed and he can cover slot receivers, he can be in the NFL and he can be really, really good. I'm telling you right now, that kid's going to end up being the nickelback and he's going to be a big name. You heard it here at Lockdown Patriots. I talked about it on

scout.com too. I talked about him a lot last season. I like him a lot. I think he's going to be the nickelback, so keep an eye on him. And Rowe is the type of guy that, you know, he's a good guy to have against tall receivers, and if somebody goes down, one of the top outside guys, you could probably have, plug him in instead of having to move your nickel man out. And that way you don't have a lot of changeover. You keep some continuity. So Tom Brady has been locked in, in my mind. He had three passes broken up out of 23.

But those three passes that got broken up were broken up by big-ticket free agent Stephen Gilmore. He's looking pretty good, getting a little comfortable out there, starting to get to know his teammates. It's good to see. Jacoby Brissett, I don't think he's really progressed that much from what I can see, and that's reports of Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That's all three days that practices that I have information on.

He's trying to throw it into places where it's not going to fit and i'm not going to give him any excuses um because he wasn't wearing pads i know he put the pads on but he's got to do better he's got he's got to do better he's got to be more patient he's got to have some progression and just hasn't been any progression there they're not going to let him go. They invested it too high of a pick to take him, so it's not like they're going to get rid of him anytime soon, unless it's in a trade. But Brissett, I'm a little, and I was very high on Brissett last year

because I was impressed by how well he played, how he came in and won a game to get them the 3-1 with a broken finger. That was impressive. He couldn't throw the ball because he was legit broken, but he willed them to a win. So hopefully Brissette just stays confident because eventually it's going to click for him, I think, but he has not looked good so far.

On Friday, Cyrus Jones, Chris Hogan got into a fight. Let me take that back. They got into this generation's version of a fight. Hogan made a catch. Cyrus started yelling at him. Blah, blah, blah. Big mouths and that's the end of it. I guess that's what a fight constitutes now. I think it's actually kind of good to see Jones out there literally fighting for a spot. Last year, he just never really seemed to establish himself at all. He just seemed like just a guy. The only way he established himself was by putting the ball on the ground, which we all know about.

So it's pretty cool to see that over these first two practices, in the first three practices, he's just been more confident and more assertive of himself. And also he's not putting the ball on the ground. He's punting a ton of them to him. He put one kickoff on the ground, like I told you guys two days ago. But he's really doing a good job in the punt returns. That's the reason why he was a second-round pick. You take away his punt return ability and he's a fourth-round pick. He was that good in college.

So if he figures this out, he's definitely a Julian Edelman-style talent as far as a punt return. When Julian had all his explosiveness when he first came into the league, Julian's still explosive but not the same way he was back then, not on punt returns. Cyrus Jones has that ability. So if they can get him out there producing for them, it could be a huge, huge, huge boost for this team's special teams in 2017. Now, considering he was a second-round pick,

I'm sure the Patriots want to see this aggressiveness continue, and that way he just continues to do his thing. So we're going to kind of get ready to end the show here, but I can't go without talking a little bit about Rob Ninkovich. When I wrote up the notes for today's show and what we're going to talk about, I wrote them up so early, and I knew Ninkovich was, you know, I knew he was still out, and that's one of the things I pointed out, Ninkovich was still out, and he was excused due to personal reasons

over the first couple days, but we knew right away, and it's unfortunate that he does have to retire, but he said something today, too, in his press conference, talking about, you know, when you do a squat and your legs hurt for a week, it's probably time to retire. I would say that's the truth. You might want to go see a doctor, actually, when it comes down to it because that seems like a long time to be hurt from doing a squat. But clearly, at the age of 33, 11 years in the league, it's time to be done.

So great job by Ninkovich. You know, I was one of the guys that I like to watch. You remind me of a, he wasn't as good as Mike Vrabel, wasn't as talented, but he was a poor man's version of him. And there was two seasons where I believe he actually was better than what Vrabel was in maybe two of his good seasons. So, you know, he was very close to him, but not quite as good. But he was a huge, huge boost to this defense right from the start back in 2009.

And he just had a good career with the Patriots. So congratulations to him. Hopefully, Coney Ealy can come in and fill his spot. You know, I know that's one of the guys they're depending on. Like I said, hopefully they can go out and maybe sign Dwight Freeney, a guy that played for UConn. Wouldn't mind seeing him up around these parts. I believe he played for UConn.

I wouldn't mind seeing him up around these parts. Actually, no, he didn't play for UConn. He played for Syracuse. He played his high school football in Connecticut. My apologies about that. Freeney would be a good fit for the Patriots. I really do believe that it's time to bring the ex-Colt and the ex-Falcon now into New England and let him finish up his career by killing quarterbacks that aren't named Tom Brady.

Only time to let him go out to Brady's and practice is when he'll tag him because he's got the red shirt on. So, Rob Nankovich, congratulations on your great career. Patriots, you might want to think about going out and signing an edge rusher. So, one of the things that I also wanted to talk to you guys about, Scout.com has merged and taken over, bought, whatever you want to call it, acquired, we're with them. CBS, that's pretty cool. So, CBS, 247 Sports and us, we're all in the same umbrella now. it's pretty cool. So CBS, 247 Sports and us,

we're all on the same umbrella now. It's pretty cool. If you are a subscriber already to PatriotsOnScout.com, you see all the benefits to it. If you're not a subscriber to PatriotsInsideOnScout.com, well, you're missing out because there's this big thing going

on around the New England area with another outfit that's selling subscriptions and um it's all well and good you know if you just want to get news about the patriots the celtics the red sox and the bruins from the same guys you've been getting them from with you know you know who i'm talking about. There's a reason why that site, those sites that they and those people that they were working for, moved on, okay? Now, if you want to pay for a subscription

to get information from myself and my team and my guys with a fresh outlook on things, and also more video, and you're going to get your money back that's the thing you earn your money back this isn't about just going on to scout.com patriots insider giving you five dollars a month or giving you 49 for the year and saying all right well i'm going to go check out my articles and maybe answer a few questions no it's not like that so if you sign up for patriots insider on scout.com,

you're going to get discounts on tickets to every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA game. You're going to get breakdowns and ratings of top high school prospects across the country. That's not something you're going to get anywhere else. So you're going to get all this different stuff. You get discounts on tickets. You can go check out high school prospects, college prospects, NFL prospects, NBA prospects, MLB prospects. You can look at these guys. Go back and look at Mike Trout back when he was 16 years old. Scout.com is, I call it, the treasure trove of sports information from all across the Internet.

And now that we're with 24-7 and we're with CBS, this is just a no-brainer. You have to go sign up for this. Again, you get the discounts on all the tickets. You also get discounts on movie tickets, discounts on concert tickets, discounts on amusement parks, Six Flags. If you're taking your family to Six Flags in the New England area,

you take four people, you're going to save $100. That's going to pay for this site and your parking for the day. You also get up to 20% off purchases at Fanatics.com. Fanatics.com is an awesome website. Where do you think everybody gets their Patriots sweatshirts? That's who made them. The Super Bowl champion sweatshirts from Fanatics.com.

20% off purchases when you're on Scout.com Patriots Insider member. This is $5 a month and $49 for the year. Please, don't waste your money on a site that's only going to give you local coverage and just the same old stuff that you've seen, you know, the Boston area. Get to know your opponents, too. You're going to have access to all the teams throughout the professional and college sports world

for the same price per month. It's a no-brainer. Go to scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots and sign up today. Again, this is an absolute no-brainer. Go to scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots and sign up today. Again, this is an absolute no-brainer. $5 a month, $49 for the year. The money that you spend, if you go to concerts, if you go to games, if you go to Six Flags, if you go to any of these things, and if you order anything through Fanatics,

you are going to save yourself some money. And even if you don't do all that stuff and you just go and take advantage of, like I said, the treasure trove of information on Scout.com, you're going to get your money's worth. Don't waste your money on sites that are only focusing on four teams. Go take that same exact amount of money per month and spend it on a team. You're going to get the same local coverage and you're going to get the best national coverage from their local people. I'm telling you, scout.com is the place to be.

$5 a month, $49 for the year. Go to scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots. Sign up for the site today. Don't miss out. I want to thank you guys for joining us on this Sunday night edition, a little bit late edition, of Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes, subscribe to our show today, as in right now, and make sure you tell your friends about us too.

Here at Locked On Patriots, we're all about getting to Patriots fans the most info they need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fans. I want you guys to have a great night. We'll have another show for you guys tomorrow afternoon, right around 3 o'clock. We're going to talk a little bit about what happened in practice on Sunday, talk a little bit about the Raymond Claiborne

induction to the Hall of Fame, some of the highlights, hear what some of the people had to say, and we're also going to talk about a few other things. Possibly again, I'm going to take a look at some free agents in the pass rush situation, see if there's anybody else out there that really catches my eye. Another thing we're going to do, I'm going to do some dissecting of the Houston Texans

and the Detroit Lions, and the other team escapes me at the moment, the team the Patriots will be practicing with. Then we're going to take a look at all of their rosters and their defensive linemen, because like I said, when Belichick goes shopping, the first place he's going shopping is to a team that he knows. So you guys have a great night. Make sure you tune in tomorrow because we're going to have plenty of stuff for you guys. It's game on.

Everybody have a good night. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Others contend America has faced far more challenging periods and emerged strong. Leading policymakers, Bush Institute experts, and respected journalists take on this debate. Read about it at bushcenter.org slash catalyst.