Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 7/31/17- Training Camp Notes, Day Four & How Will The Patriots Fill The Hole Left By Ninkovich On the Edge

Episode Date: August 1, 2017

Chris Simoneau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, updates you on all the news from Day Four of Training Camp and also discusses the hole left by the retirement of Rob Ninkovich. #patriots 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 Cimino, Patriots Inside of a Scout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Monday, July 31st, 2017. As always, we've got a lot to get to today. We're going to get started with the latest news and updates. We're going to focus mainly on some training camp updates, just some of the things that have happened over the course of the last four days.

We're also going to take a deep dive into the Patriots depth chart at defensive end. We did a little bit yesterday. We talked about Dwight Freeney, but that's pretty much all we talked about. We need to take a little bit of a deeper dive in there and figure out who is going to be the best fit possibly in free agency, trade, on the roster depending on which way they go, but they're going to have to fill that, so we've got to talk about it. It's a big retirement, and other issues could crop up too.

We're going to get into that more in the show, so this should be interesting. They may have to find a veteran to set that edge, because if they don't, a very promising season could easily go down the drain. Before we get started, I just want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Seminole, or you can find us on LockedOnPatriots, which also is on Twitter. It's LockedOnPatriot is the handle name because it wouldn't all fit into the characters. So that's what it's called, LockedOnPatriot. So make sure you can check

out myself, Chris underscore Seminole, or LockedOnPatriot both on Twitter. And you can ask any questions for the show on either one of those. Feel free to ask. It can be about the Patriots. It can be about questions for me that you have. PatriotsInsider. If you have any questions about scout.com and Patriots Insider, or if you're looking to advertise here on Lockdown Patriots. Now, as we head into the season here, this isn't going to be a once a week show, this is a once a day show, and on Sundays maybe twice. So, definitely if you're going to do your advertising, this is the time to get it done. Lockdown Patriots, we're gaining steam quickly.

We're getting a lot of new listeners to the show. People enjoy it. I love doing it. It's fun. We're talking about the best team in pro sports here, so it's not like we're dealing with, you know, I don't want to take any jabs at any of my coworkers. So we'll just leave it at that

those teams know who they are that stink we're not that team so it's exciting to be able to be part of Lockdown Patriots and I hope the fans are excited too and remember if you need to get in touch with me you always can so you want to advertise on here too it's going to be on every day

people are going to hear about your business every day you'll be able to make money you'll spend it to make it but definitely reach out to us if you want to do that you can email me at simono.christopher5 at gmail.com. If you're also a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com, you can contact me on the site directly via message. If you're not a member yet, I strongly suggest that you sign up. Later on in the show, I'll explain to you why you should do that. So let's get to Patriots news. Robert Kraft announced some new construction to fit the fifth banner and said it's let's get to Patriots news. Robert Kraft announced some new construction

to fit the fifth banner and said it's a surprise for the Patriots fans to open the season. It has something to do with, I'm not 100% sure exactly what they, I'm not aware of the actual plan because the Patriots don't give me the blueprints on the stadium, but I at least have an idea of what they're going to do. It's in the top level. They're going to do some type of maneuvering so that they can have room for that one. I think they should probably make room for a sixth 1-2 just in case. This team, like I said, I understand that they have a new issue now at defensive end and possibly a nickel corner, which I don't think is the case, but they're

pretty good. They have a 35% chance of winning the Super Bowl, according to Vegas, which is insanity because the second-place team is the Packers at 10%. So needless to say, there is a good chance, again, for a sixth banner going up into that stadium somewhere. So I hope Bob Kraft has had some foresight to recognize that. Just keep in mind, too, Jimmy Garoppolo looks like the second-best quarterback in the AFC East right now. So let's leave it at that.

We'll talk about him maybe a little bit later. Rob Gronkowski, he's changing his partying ways, apparently. The days of hanging out, the late nights throughout the summer and during the offseason, it's done, according to him. the days of hanging out, the late nights throughout the summer, and during the offseason, it's done, according to him. He said he's done doing it, and he's going to join Tom Brady. He already has, actually, in his Fountain of Youth diet and workout plan. You know, I think Gronkowski realizes that he won't be playing past the age of 30 if he doesn't make major changes to his diet, which hasn't really

affected him yet because he's in his 20s, but when you're drinking heavily, and drinking heavily leads to eating, all that other eating, all that other type of things, and not eating well, and he works so hard that it doesn't matter, but it's going to start to, and it's going to start to make him older than he needs to be um he'll be like a regular person like myself so what Gronkowski has decided is that okay I love being a football player I want to play as long as I possibly can he knows Rob Gronkowski has I already think he's the most talented tight end that's ever played the game and I know yeah I'm only 41 years old and I haven't seen everything oh you didn't see Mike Ditka people me. Well, I've seen Rob Gronkowski, and I know what I see.

I saw Mark Pavaro, who was hurt all the time. He's light years better than Mark Pavaro. Antonio Gates, another very good tight end. Couldn't even come close to Rob Gronkowski as far as his blocking ability. Same goes for Tony Gonzalez. Tony Gonzalez is a great receiving tight end. Couldn't block like Gronkowski. He's not even close. Gronkowski. It's not even close.

Gronkowski catches like all those top guys, and he blocks like somebody, he blocks like a god. I say it all the time. So for him to really recognize, okay, I'm going to change my ways. I'm going to lose some weight. I'm going to start to get more lean muscle. I'm going to stop drinking. I'm going to do what I can to preserve my back.

That says to me that this kid wants to play for another five to eight years, if possible, and the only way he's going to do it is to make sure there's no pressure on that back and less pressure on those knees. So good for you, Gronk. You know, that's a great thing to see that you're reinvesting in your body, and, you know, Tom Brady's a great guy to follow, obviously, to do that. I've personally thought about taking a look at the plan, but I just don't know if I could do it. These pro athletes,

they get millions and millions of dollars, so there's a lot of incentive to do it. As just a regular guy, the incentive is just in itself and the willpower, but it's definitely something for, I think, everybody should take a look at. If you take a look at Tom Brady, and I'm not here trying to sell his stuff, I'm just saying, look at the guy.

Look at what he can still do. He's 40 years old. He's going to be 40, I believe, on Thursday. That's insane. That's insane to see what he can still do. So Gronkowski recognized that, and even though people may not think he's the smartest guy, Gronk's no fool. So he's joining Brady in his, like I said, founding youth diet and workout plan.

Good move, Gronk. I hope you last to 35 years old, even though it probably wouldn't be with New England the entire time. So David Harris, we've talked about him a lot. Excited to see him here in Foxborough. I think he's a great player. I think he's going to be a big, big help to the Patriots defense. And it's already been shown because they feel so comfortable with him already. He said that he opened up about his release from the Jets recently.

He said he felt blindsided and disrespected. You know, professionalism is not a specialty of the New York Jets, and this is a perfect example. You keep the guy because he won't take a pay cut and then release him when most of the big money dries up, even though there's a ton of teams out there with cap space, but they're not going to spend it on him. But if he was available in the beginning of free agency, he probably would have got a

two-year deal worth up to maybe $8-9 million per, because he's such a talented player and teams would have said, oh yeah, let's sign him. They wouldn't give him a four-year $60 million deal or anything like that, but he would have got more money than he got from the Patriots. But the Jets, what they did is they held them out as long as they possibly could, and they held back and they dragged their feet

and cut them. It's just weak. So, it's pathetic. And that's why the Jets are the Jets, and that's why I don't think they're ever going to be good, because these are the things that they do. So, just an FYI, too, when I talked a little bit, I just kind of gave you guys a little preview on this one. Harris is already

wearing the green dot on his helmet. For those of you who don't know what the green dot is, that means that you communicate with the coaches through the microphone on the helmet. You hear the calls, you communicate that to your defense. You're the quarterback of the helmet. You hear the calls. You communicate that to your defense. You're the quarterback. You're the quarterback of the defense. You look at that. This guy's been around for a month and a half. What a seamless transition. I think Patriots fans, and I can already tell the coaches love him, I think Patriots fans are going to love this guy. He is no nonsense. He is a good football player. He comes up. He tackles. He makes plays.

He's smart. Now with Ninkovich gone, it's going to change what they do a little bit, and we're going to get into the edge rusher thing later on. The bottom line is the personnel that they have on the roster is going to dictate how they fill the spot with Ninkovich. Because even any free agent, which we'll talk about a couple free agents that I like, but any free agent out there is not going to be able to come in and have the same effect that Ninkovich did when Ninkovich was at his best. Even Ninkovich last year, who only had four sacks, is probably going to be more effective

than any free agent that they signed simply because he was in the system for so long and he knew what to do as far as setting the edge and what Bill Belichick wanted. So the only way they're going to fill this thing is by scheme, either using more of a 4-3 type scheme, which makes a lot of sense, and if they go 3-4, maybe bring Hightower inside and use Shane McClellan a little bit more. But I definitely think you're going to see a changeover and I think you're going to see Dante Hightower coming off the edge a little bit. Scott Zolak on Zolak and Bertrand, I listened to that show. They're really good. I think that's the best show on that network, actually, because you have an ex-football

player, quarterback, who has a very strong relationship with Bill Belichick and Bertrand, who knows the game. He simply does. He knows the game. He simply does. He knows the game. He knows his stuff. So listen to those guys today. It made a lot of sense. They talked about that a lot. Honestly, myself, I never really looked at it that way and I should consider I'm a football coach and eventually I'm sure it would have dawned on me that yes, they're going to have to change things up a little bit in order to make this work. But in the long run, it might not be such a bad thing. But David Harris being

here allows the Patriots to have that ability, and maybe, who knows, maybe the Patriots kind of had an idea that this was the end of the road for Minkiewicz and that bringing in David Harris would allow them to move Hightower around a little bit more because they'd had their middle controlled by a guy who's been relatively healthy. Not relatively, he's been very healthy since he's been in the league. So, green dot for David Harris, who felt disrespected by the Jets, which feeling disrespected tends to lead to some inspired play. So it should be fun to watch him play this year.

And it's going to be very interesting to see how they work this linebacker core and how they run their sub-packages out there. On to some other news. I'm sure Patriots fans will love to hear about this guy. Roger Goodell confirms that he will attend the season opener versus the Chiefs, and he said he's not concerned about fan reaction. Well, yeah, I wouldn't be concerned at all, because if I'm sitting in the owner's box all

night, there's really not much they're going to be able to say or do to you when you're initially out there on the field, if you're doing anything to do with it, which I'm sure you won't. I'm sure you'd be hiding out somewhere. That's when you're going to get booed. But there's really no reason to be concerned when you're sitting in an owner's box. Why don't you sit in the crowd like Adam Silver of the NBA? Go do what he does. I don't see him ever getting yelled at or anything. It's because he's a good commissioner. Even David Stern, who was as shady as they get,

he sat in the crowd all the time too. Didn't get any heat. Let's see how the Patriots fans treat you then. Go sit in the stands. Go sit down like in the front row somewhere. Or go sit in an area that's, even an area that's protected so that way you have security. Don't sit up in the owner's box.

Sit out with the fans. Then see how much you like it because I'm telling you right now, you'll never hit the end of it. So on to some training camp stuff here, some training camp notes that we didn't get to last night, mainly from Sunday's practice. Tom Brady was nearly perfect on the day. He's been awesome. Brady has been awesome. He looks skinnier. He looks very, very, he's, doesn't look old skinny. He looks, I want to make sure that I can preserve my body skinny.

He looks good. So Brady, he's just, he's been laser, laser sharp. He's been awesome so far. Brady, just doing what he does. He's the GOAT. Daron Harmon, he mispracticed with a leg injury. That's a worrisome thing. Daron Harmon has turned out to be a very good player for the Patriots in the secondary. He's a good safety. I call him the closer because he always makes huge interceptions that lead to the ending of the games away. But this seems to be more of a managing on the wear and tear to avoid this issue becoming larger. So we're going to keep an eye on that Harmon situation.

Again, I'm a big, big fan of him. I think he's a huge part of the Patriots' defense. I think he's a huge part of their secondary. That's one of the reasons why they signed him to a four-year, $20 million deal for what they would call backup safety. But keep an eye on that one because, againman's very good player for them and lower leg injuries early in camp sometimes can linger them hopefully that doesn't happen so uh michael isley he's the power running that they're looking for he stood out since they put the pads on he clearly is the top back on the

team i think he could be in line for a huge huge huge year. I'm going to put this out there. I've already put predictions out there before. I do it every season. I don't care. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. What's the worst that could happen? You guys laugh at me. So what?

I was right last year. I said it last year. In fact, I was off in a good way. I predicted last year LeGarrette Plante would run for 1,100 yards and 15 touchdowns. Well, I wasn and 15 touchdowns. Well, I wasn't too far off. This year, I'm going to make a prediction, and I think I'm going to be under again. I say 1,300 yards in between 18 and 20 touchdowns for Gleasley.

Think I'm crazy between 18 and 20? Watch. The Patriots are hell-bent on getting back to more balanced offense, and they should be, because anybody who thinks that the league is all about passing, I'm sorry, you're wrong. You may think that, you're wrong. It doesn't matter. You can have Michael Felger and all these other blowhards tell you that it's all passing, it's all passing, it's all passing.

It's wrong. That's wrong. It's incorrect. You need to be able to do both. You need to be able to run the ball. You need to be able to throw the ball, especially in the red zone. If you can't run the ball in the red zone, you're going to have trouble scoring. I don't care how good your passing offense is.

I don't care if you have Rob Gronkowski on the field. If you don't have the threat of at least being able to run it into the end zone when you're within the 15, 10 to 15-yard line, there's chances you're going to have a lot of issues scoring points and you're going to kick a ton of field goals. Mike Glisley is exactly what the Patriots need. I'm telling you, 18 to 20 touchdowns, mark it down. Fantasy football, you guys that do fantasy, which everybody does.

I do it too. That's a guy to get. Jacoby Brissett. Jacoby Brissett's a guy we talked about yesterday who was not looking too good up to Saturday. Yesterday he was 11 of 12 in their 11-on-11 drills, and he looked considerably better than he has throughout the first week of the camp. So that's good, to Saturday. Yesterday he was 11-12 and they were 11-11 drills and he looked considerably better than he has throughout the first week of the camp. That's good, positive news. We're going to leave it at that. I'm not going to dig too deep on Brissette

because he is a work in progress. He's a young kid. There were a couple drops yesterday, but as a whole, wide receivers, tight ends, the running backs, they've done a terrific job of holding onto the ball during camp. That's one thing that really stood out to me. This team, they hold on to the ball. They don't make mistakes. That's the real Patriot way. You hear all these things about, oh, this guy got in trouble for PEDs,

and this guy was a murderer, and Aaron Hernandez. What's this Patriot way? The Patriot way is on the field. Don't make mistakes. Don't beat yourself. Let the other team do that. Play smart. Celebrate when you're out there because you're not going to celebrate off the field

because that's not what we do. That's the Patriot way, and that's what they've been doing. So you can see it already. They're not putting the ball on the ground, and that's the number one sign of a team, a Patriot team, that looks like it's going to be pretty good. So, speaking of the receivers, Brandon Cooks has 11 catches. Chris Hogan has 10 so far in the 11-on-11 drills over the course of the first four practices.

That puts them at the top of the list for receptions on the team. So, good for them. It's good for Cooks to see that. Obviously Brady's going to look to him a little bit more during his first training camp with the team. It only makes sense. You're trying to get this guy into the system so he knows what he's doing. So Brandon Cooks loving catches. Chris Hogan 10.

And it's funny. Cooks and Hogan, they caught four passes to get the Patriots right down the field yesterday with their 11-on-11. And of course Brady gets down into the red zone and he finds his guy Julian Edelman. It is what it is. He gets comfort with certain guys in certain areas, but he's definitely getting some comfort with his new receiver and his second year receiver in these 11-on-11 drills. So it's been good down at camp.

They've looked really good. They look very sharp. Again, Jaron Harmon was a little dinged up, but other than that, the injuries haven't really seemed all that much. There are some other issues that we're going to talk about momentarily. Before we talk about that, we're going to talk about SeatGeek. So when you're buying tickets to sports and concerts, it can be a pain in the butt. But there's an easy way to do it, and it's with SeatGeek.

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I bought Celtics tickets on there. And, you know, I wasn't even planning on going. I was out with my friends and clicked on the app, a couple taps, boom, we're going to the Red Sox game. You know, SeatGeek is designed to make your ticket-buying experience easier than ever. And with an app, obviously, every experience is easier than ever. SeatGeek does that for you with their amazing app.

Saves you time and money. What they do is they search multiple ticket sites and compare prices, and they find amazing deals. You get the best bang for your buck. They grade all their tickets, and they grade them on value, so that way you can identify the best seats that fit your budget. Because if you're bringing a family of four, it can be expensive. SeatGeek's going to help you out, so that way you know exactly what you're working with. Like I said before, every purchase is guaranteed,

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for $20 off your first SeatGeek purchase. Again, you're going to find great deals on here. If you've got a family and you want to take them all into a Red Sox game, things are getting hot. It's getting to that time of year. The Yankees made a bunch of trades. Red Sox made their trades. They're getting to that time of year. The Yankees made a bunch of trades. The Red Sox made their trades. They're battling it out for first place. Pre-season's here for the Patriots. They got the Jaguars on the 10th, and then they got the Giants on the 31st. Those are two home games. I guarantee you there's going to be tickets available if you go on.

So go to SeatGeek, download the app, put in the promo code LONFL, save $20 or more on top of what you're going to save through SeatGeek. Go do this. Download the app. Get yourself some tickets today. So Patriots edge rusher issues. That's what it says here on my notes.

Patriots edge rusher issues. And it just jumps out at me because we knew it's never going to be perfect. It's never going to be perfect no matter what. Even that 2017 that technically was perfect regular season-wise, they had some what's on that team. People try to pretend that that defense was the greatest thing in the world, and maybe ranking-wise it was pretty good, but when it came down to it, that defense was not as good as people thought it was,

and it was proven when they couldn't make a stop to end the Super Bowl and Pax Cabrera squished out his hop. So I just know that this team is going to have their own issues too, and we've already had the number one issue crop up, and again, that's at the address of the spot. So we are going to try to identify how we are going to fix this problem tonight on Locked on Patriots. So apparently, Coney Ealy,

some of the people were really excited that the Patriots had traded for during the offseason. Us included here at Lockdown, we talked about him all the time. We thought it was a good pickup. I wrote a lot about it, too. Well, with seeing why he was available and why Carolina decided to move him simply to move back, move up eight spots in the draft. That's all they got, eight spots up in the draft. He's not getting along

with the coaches. So it all started up during minicamp. This is a report Friday night. I'm sorry, I can't remember who. I think it was Jim McBride from the Boston Globe had the report. He was talking about it on 98.5 saying that apparently there are some issues. There were some issues that cropped up during minicamp as far as where Ealy was lined up, where he was shaded to, into the 7 technique, 9 technique, wherever they had him shaded.

For those of you who don't understand that, that's basically where they have him lined up, in the gap or on the head of the tight end or the tackle, depending on what they want to do, or in the gap or on the head of the tight end or the tackle, depending on what they want to do, or in the gap. So apparently Ealy wasn't feeling this, and he was barking back at the coaches about what he wanted to do and what he was comfortable with. And next thing you know, he was walking off on his own.

And some people, I remember when this happened, I remember the day of it, because it was weird and people thought it looked was, you know, it looked strange. You know, maybe it was something where he got a little dinged up and just wanted a little bit of time to himself. But what it was was him, well, essentially getting kicked out. He got booted. See you later. Get out of here. Belichick got rid of him. He tossed him out of the drill. I believe he tossed him right out of the practice. So, you know, that's not good.

You know, Coney Ealy, he did not have success in Carolina because his issues with coaches. Yeah, he exploded in games. He should have been the MVP of Super Bowl 51. Super Bowl 50, sorry. But he wasn't because, well, they got their butts kicked. And mainly because he's never really done anything in other games. That's why Carolina didn't want him. He has big moments because he's such a talented player,

but he's being a jerk. He won't listen to coaching. So if you're not going to take coaching, and you come to the Patriots, and they're trying to fix you and trying to help you when you're in the final year of your deal, and you have an opportunity to play for a great team with great talent around you, which means, guess what?

Again, I'm not going to get rah-rah on you. I'm going to get technical on you here. You're going to have a lot of one-on-one matchups here, Mr. Ealy. You're going to have it a lot easier than you ever had because the Patriots' defense is loaded. What are you thinking? Acting up in the final year of your contract when you know you want to get paid again, you know that coaches already look at you and say, this guy's a problem. This is it, Coney. This is it. So make the decision to

make the right decisions. You know what I'm saying? Don't do the ask Coach Bill crap. That's stupid. That's the type of stuff that gets you run out of here. And you know what happens when you get run out of here? You're looked at as soft for the rest of your career. You know, when people talk about guys that have brought in, they've brought in a lot of wide receivers over the years that are free agents at the end of their career, and a lot of them, you know, they retire and they get cut,

things like that, and that's fine. But there's been some other guys that they've brought in here. John Lynch was a good guy that they brought in. It just didn't work out. He was at the end of his career. But a guy like Coney Ealy is in his prime. So this is just pathetic. This reminds me of Albert Hainsworth. Coney Ealy can't hold a candle to the talent that Albert Hainsworth had.

Albert Hainsworth was the best defensive lineman in the NFL. Talent-wise, it wasn't even close. Want, the want he had, his heart, was basically nonexistent. He just didn't have it. He just wasn't one of those guys. That's why Hainsworth, he just didn't like football. I'm starting to think Ealy might be the same thing.

If he's not going to get along with coaches here, he's not going to get signed anywhere else. He may get one more opportunity somewhere, but if he does anything to piss off a coach, he's going to be gone. So I'm going to say this now. I think he's going to get cut. I think Coney Ealy is going to get cut. I understand that they traded for him,

and I understand that they gave up a pick to get him, but I also, I've been watching this coach and seeing everything he's done for 17 years now, and he's not going to put up with this guy's crap. There's no way. He'll go out and find somebody. He'll use anybody. He'll go trade somebody,

and he'll sign somebody that can get to the quarterback and use different guys in sub-packages against the run. He'll do what he has to do. He's not going to put up with Coney Ealy acting like an idiot. So I would have one suggestion for Ealy is if you want to continue to play for the Patriots, if you want to be on an NFL team this year, I would suggest getting your crap together and focusing on football. Just listen.

Just listen to your coaches. It's not that hard. So the third issue with the Patriots' edge rusher issues, I just got myself angry thinking about that because Ealy is eating away at my patience. Gino Grissom has been a disappointment. I've said this, I've been on Grissom the last three podcasts. If you listen to these, you must be like, geez, this guy's all over me. Well, he's been a disappointment. And the Patriots need him. They need him to improve. So can he do it?

That's a big question. You know, they've kept him on the roster for two years, which I think is a stretch. I don't even think last year he should have been on the roster. They should have cut him. So that's a big one, too. That's the third question. Can Gino Grissom get out of the disappointment stage

and improve with some time on the field and maybe get himself acclimated to the NFL a little bit more by knowing what he's up against. I don't think that's going to happen, but I know the Patriots are hoping that from in-house that's going to be the way they can fix it. Another guy, Derek Rivers. You think Derek Rivers can step in and contribute as a rookie? I do. I do think that Rivers can step in and contribute as a rookie. Now, I don't think that he's going to be able to play three downs, not by any means, but I think he can come in on sub packages and definitely in passing situations and just let him go after the quarterback.

I can see that, absolutely. Plus, he's a pretty good tackler, too, so you want to sprinkle him in and run packages, too, to make sure that he is getting acclimated to play against the run and being able to play full-time because he may not be a starter this year even though he may be and that may happen because it's happened a lot in the past with Patriot rookies they plug him right in but if they don't he's definitely going to be a starter next year so you definitely need to sprinkle him in against the run and definitely have him out there against the pass as much as possible so after those four things that we've talked about now what free agents would be a fit and actually provide some production well there's a couple guys out there actually there are five

guys out there that i kind of popped out at me that i think could still play um they're all different types too so first guy is someone that the Patriots actually brought in and talked to, had a meeting with in the beginning of free agency because he was released by the Jaguars before free agency. So the Patriots could have actually signed him then, but they didn't. It was Jared Odrick. So Odrick's an interesting one because if you think about it, they brought him in and met with him before,

and they could have signed him, but they didn't. And it makes you wonder if they said to him, well, let's wait and see how things play out. You know, if a team wants to sign you, great, go out and do it. You know, sign a deal, don't wait for us, but just know that we're not sure what the deal is with Ninkovich. And I know that the Patriots knew Ninkovich was thinking about retirement. I'm sure this isn't anything new. And they were probably thinking about cutting him. That's another thing that people seem to not think about. There's a very good chance the Patriots told Nikovich that he might not make this team.

Even if they did have an issue at the edge, they probably weren't planning on keeping him. So Jared Odrick, keep an eye on that name. And I know some guys think he's just a defensive tackle, but I don't look at him that way. I think he can set the edge and be a guy that if they do want to use Rivers simply in passing situations, they can bring in Odrick as being a guy that can defend against the run, and he can pass rush a little bit too.

The second guy is a guy we talked about yesterday, Dwight Freeney. I would love to see Freeney picked up by New England. I think he'd be a great guy to get. You want to get yourself a pure pass rusher? Go pick up Dwight Freeney. I don't care how old he is. He's going to spin his way into a few sacks for your team. Next guy on the list is another high-profile name who really stunk last year. But he was in the AFC East, and he's been in the AFC East for the last four seasons,

and that's Mario Williams. Williams is 32. I don't know what his deal is. I know his attitude sucks. But I also know that he's very talented, and I know that Belichick has taken very talented guys and got them to work for a year, and Williams has never won crap. He's never won anything. He got paid, and he was the number one pick, so I guess in his mind, he can look at that and say, oh, I'm a winner there, yay, but I guarantee you, when it comes down

to it, he's still out there. He's still a free agent. If a chance to win a Super Bowl was to be put out there for him, I think he might be interested in coming here, and I think he also might be, you know, that might inspire him to play some good ball. Mario Williams is a stud. He's a stud. He is a stud, okay?

But, again, he's 32. He's getting a little bit up there. He only had a sack and a half last year for Miami, but it really didn't look like he was into it. I think you put him with a team like New England, a team that, you know, I know Miami's up and coming and they're going to be pretty good this year, but New England's New England. You know, they're the best team in football and everyone knows they're the best team in football. Even when they don't win it, they're still the best team in the league. Everyone knows that. So William did have a chance Even when they don't win it, they're still the best team in the league. Everyone knows that. So Williams did have a chance to come and play for that type of team.

He's never going to get a big contract again. I'm sure he knows that. He's made all the money he's ever going to make. But if he wants to win and he wants to get a ring and he wants to actually come out and maybe make his legacy a little bit better and not leave with that bad taste in his mouth that he would have left the NFL with if he doesn't sign with someone, I think New England would be a great place for Mario Williams. In the last person on the list, another edge guy, more of an outside linebacker. Williams is more of a pure defensive end.

But the last guy I have on the list here is Paul Kruger. Last year with the Saints, played with the Browns leading up to that, and he was with the Ravens to start his career. Kruger was an excellent player, but he's another one that's getting up there. He's 31. He's not much different than Ninkovich. He seems like a guy that's getting towards the end here, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Patriots at least had him in for a workout. I know they liked him when he was a free agent coming out of Baltimore, but they just couldn't sign him because Cleveland gave him so much money. He was good in Cleveland. He really was. He was not good in New Orleans

last year, but nobody on that defense was good. I think Kruger's a guy that if he still has a little bit left in him, could definitely come in and help this defense out. So, keep an eye on those names. Jared Odrick, Dwight Freeney, Mario Williams, and Paul Kruger. Yes, they're all big name guys, but there's really no young, productive guys out there as outside linebackers or defensive ends that are available. These are the guys. These are the ones. These are the available guys that could give you some production

besides the guys you already have on your roster. So who could they possibly trade for? I don't have an answer for that. I went through and took a look at the Lions roster. I went through and I took a look at the Texans roster. I went through and looked at a whole bunch of different rosters. And the one thing that stood out to me is that as far as edge rushers and outside linebackers, there's not a lot out there. And it's so early, you know, coming up to the trade deadline, I know you don't really say that much in the NFL,

but you do when it comes to the Patriots. They will have identified players in the league that they like, guys that were maybe just drafted this year, guys that maybe have one year left on their deal that maybe another guy emerges for a team, like a defensive end that's drafted, second, third-round guy, maybe a guy that's undrafted emerges, and you have a defensive end or an edge rusher or an outside linebacker that's making a ton of money, you may look at that and say, you know what?

He's got one year left on his deal. Patriots got enough room to make this trade. Patriots going off from a third round pick next thing you know they've got a really strong edge rusher on their team. That's the type of stuff that happens because the Patriots aren't shy when it comes to trades and around the trade deadline. So I can't really throw a name out there right now because that would just be false reporting on my behalf. I know that there's nobody that they're interested that I know of, but I do know that there's a very good chance that a trade is something

that they could visit, especially since they have so much depth in other areas on their roster that they could possibly take some of that depth go to these other teams that have depth at defensive end outside linebacker and make a deal that way so just something to keep an eye on so one of the things i had mentioned earlier is that scout.com has been acquired by cbs we've been acquired by them which is awesome because now we're on the CBS homepage and that's only good for us. So, are you a subscriber to Patriots Insider on Scout.com? Well, if you aren't, you're missing out on the biggest treasure trove of terrific material on the internet. Not only do you get real local coverage of the Patriots,

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Go to Scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots to sign up today. This is a no-brainer. Go sign up. I want to thank you guys all for joining us for this Monday edition of Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes and subscribe to our show today. Go do it. Right now. I'm waiting.

I'm going to watch you. All right. Click on the link. Subscribe. Good. Do it. Tell your friends about us, too, because we're not going away. It's going to be an exciting season.

I'm fired up, guys. I'm really, really rearing to go here. I've got a lot of people that are ready to come on the show as the season goes on. Right now, it's just kind of me doing the one-man thing because, well, with the amount of energy that I have, you only need one man right now. But we're going to start getting more guests on here, start doing more interviews, and we'll really get this thing going for the season. So Patriots fans, you should be as fired up as I am because it's here.

We are getting close. We're less than two weeks away from the first preseason game, and it's exciting times. So thanks again for joining us here at Locked on Patriots. We're all about getting Patriots fans the most info you need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fans. Have a all about getting Patriots fans the most info you need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fans. Have a great night, Patriots fans. 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 Thank you.