Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 8/9/17- Going Camping With the Patriots and Jaguars

Episode Date: August 9, 2017

Chris Simoneau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, updates you on what's been going on in the joint practices with the Patriots and Jaguars. #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. Today is Wednesday, August 9th, 2017. We were going to have a couple shows for you guys the other day, but things are a little bit out of whack over here on a technical level. So we're going to provide you guys with as much information as we can today. And there will be two shows tomorrow because it's game day.

So we're going to have a pregame show dedicated just to what's going to be going on as far as the Patriots and the Jaguars and some of the notes that Patriots media relations staff has put out, just some really good stuff. And we're also going to talk a little bit about matchups in the game, but we won't go too far in depth on that because there's really just no need to. It's the first preseason game. But we do want to get you guys caught up on all the news and notes from yesterday and the practices that the Patriots have had with the Jaguars, and also make you aware of all the news going on in Patriot Nation.

Before we get started, I want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Simino. 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, your local advertisers, reach out. It's definitely a good thing to do. A lot of listeners email me directly at simino.christopher5 at gmail.com. That's S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U dot C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-E-R, the number 5 at gmail.com.

If you are a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com, you can contact me on the site directly via message. That's probably the best way to get a hold of me. Patriots news and notes. Like I said, they've had some joint practices with the Jaguars this week as we talked about. We talked about it on our last show. It's great to see the joint practices because these guys get to go up against people for the first time.

They're not their teammates. Sometimes teammates let up a little bit. They let the guy get used to playing together. They know what one guy's good at doing so sometimes they'll let it do it and vice versa in drills. Well, that kind of ends a little bit. They let the guy get used to playing together. They know what one guy's good at doing, so sometimes they'll let it do it, and vice versa, and drills. Well, that kind of ends a little bit when you get out there with some guys you don't play with. Matt Slater's still out with an injury. This is something that definitely, I've said this in the last show too, I've said this a couple times now, this needs to be watched. This could be a problem.

So, Matt Slater's still out. Definitely keep an eye on that. Mike Gilleslie is also, he's nursing a hamstring injury for the Patriots right now too. Considering that he's a running back, I think it makes sense to hold him out as long as possible. You don't want to have a guy like that being injured for any stretch of time. He's their top back this year. He's going to be their workhorse at the goal line, so they need to make sure that he is okay. But that's one of the reasons why he was not at practice, why he's been held out, why he's been working just in the conditioning. Malcolm Mitchell was also held out of practice on Monday and Tuesday,

but I'm not sure if he practiced, not today. I'm going to look that up soon and get that figured out. I did not see him out there, but I'm pretty sure he did get a little bit of time, but we'll get you guys more information on that soon. But Gilleslie is definitely something to keep an eye on. In the first day, Tom Brady was pretty good. He was 23 of 35 on the 11-11, but he did have four balls dropped. So 27 out of 35 is not bad versus another team's defense in the first week of August.

Gronk had a couple drops. Cooks had dropped one. James White dropped a screen pass. But, again, even with Cooks' drop, he was still awesome on Monday. He finished with seven catches. One of his catches was a one-handed touchdown catch that was simply amazing. He actually had three touchdown catches total out of the seven catches that he had on the day, so he was really good.

Brady threw one pick on Monday, but it appeared to be a bit of a miscommunication between Julian Edelman and Brandon Cooks. I'm sure they'll work that out. That's something that they can get worked out in practice. Jonathan Jones is still flashing in practice. He looked awesome on Monday. He looked awesome on Tuesday. And again, he's just the guy can play.

He was out there blanketing Jaguar receivers on a regular basis and showing the same skills that he's been showing throughout the first two weeks of training camp. This keeps up. I have a feeling he's going to be the starting nickelback when the season gets going because you can't keep a good player off the field like that. So that's something to keep an eye on.

I really think that there's a good chance that we see him getting some significant time. And it's good to see, you know, because he's a good player. And it's also good to see because just another undrafted free agent that the Patriots have found. They just keep finding him over and over. One of the things that I also found interesting on Monday, Marquise Lee was having his way with Malcolm Butler during some of the drills, but again, the drill was a little bit more intended for the offensive player to succeed,

but it just goes to show the talent that Lee had when he was coming out of school. You know, I'm an unabashed USC fan, and when he was at USC, I'll say this, you know, there's been three players that I've watched as Trojans that have made me jump out of my chair, and those three players are Reggie Bush, Keyshawn Johnson, and Marquise Lee. So, you know, I know Reggie Bush, his NFL career wasn't as good as people think it was, it should have been, and I'm actually one of those people, I definitely think he could have been better.

Keyshawn Johnson, he was great. He was a great player, won a Super Bowl. He was very productive. The jury's out on Marquise Lee, but from what I saw on Monday, that kid, he's got a lot of talent. He's just got to put it all together. And I think a guy like Lee, it's too bad that he was such a highly heralded guy coming out because he ended up being a top-ten pick.

When you're picked that high, he was a top pick, but either way, when you're picked that high and you go to a team that's not that good, you end up with quarterbacks that aren't that good. You end up with guys around you that aren't quite as good as you would want them to be. If he ended up on a team like New England, I think a guy like Lee would be excellent just because he's got talent around him, just like when he was at USC. He just doesn't have that now.

But that was interesting to watch on Monday. He really did a great job. I thought the Patriots defensive backs on Monday did a great job too. It's not easy going up against some of those Jacksonville receivers, Allen Robinson, Allen Hearns, even guys like Denard Robinson. They got some speed. They got some big running backs. They got a lot, so it was good to see.

It was also good to see, and we'll get into this a little bit more. We're just kind of going through the days here, but Butler also turned it around, had a huge day against the Jaguars on Wednesday. But again, we'll get into that in a couple minutes here. As far as guys that missed Tuesday, again, Slater was out. Tackle Tony Garcia, who I'm expecting to see more out of. I just haven't really seen him yet. Shea McClellan, who the Patriots are expecting a lot out of, especially since Rob Ninkovich retired. Eric Rowe, who was having a good camp, and I know the Patriots definitely want to make sure

that he's involved in the defense. But he's out for this practice. The second practice is a chance we don't see him on Thursday night. And also, reserve linebacker and good special teams player Trevor Bates was also, he was out. It was his first practice that he missed. Nate Solder, Mike Gilleslie, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell, James O'Shaughnessy, and David Jones.

They didn't participate in any of the drills. They came on, stretched with the team, went to the conditioning field. I sound like a broken record, but that's what they've been doing. Hightower, Branch, and Andrew Jelks are still on the, well, Hightower and Branch are on the pup list. Phelps is on the NFL list. So nothing really has changed much there. On Tuesday, though, one thing that really caught my eye eye I thought Tom Gronkowski, that's funny, that's like

one of those super couples that you hear about, Tom Gronkowski, well Rob Gronkowski was awesome. He was probably the best he's looked so far in the whole training camp. He had seven catches in team drills, six of them went for scores. The seventh one that he caught was a nice catch back shoulder. Just made the quarterback look good on that one. And it set up a field goal in a late game situation. And he also had four touchdowns in the opening of the 7-7 period. So he was awesome. Rob Gronkowski was just simply awesome. He was unstoppable yesterday.

And that just goes to show when Gronk turns it on, which he does every game, it's not like you're going to get any less of Gronk. He really does turn it on. He's great. So that was good to see yesterday. Brady was 19 out of 27 in these drills. Completed six to Gronk, three to Julian Edelman, three to Hogan, three to Cooks. Dwayne Allen, who struggled pretty bad on Monday, looked a little bit better on Tuesday, had two.

James Wade had one, and Deion Lewis also had one. Three of Brady's completions also weren't incomplete passes, they were just throwaways. Paul Puzlesny made a great play, two on Edelman, Hogan had a drop, so Brady's been like he has been throughout camp, he was on target. Anytime you see any incompletions, typically it's not because of a bad throw or a missed throw, it's not because of a bad throw or a misthrow it's typically because of a drop or a good play by a defensive player or a miscommunication amongst receivers uh jimmy garoppolo was pretty good eight out of nine uh hit kj may four times

devin lucy and a couple catches he had gronk for one and he also had austin car for one keep an eye on lucy and car those are two guys that i think have a legit shot to make this roster uh garoppolo he did have a good shot to make this roster. Garoppolo, he did have a good day. He didn't get to throw as many times as he wanted to. As I'm sure, he only had nine completions. They really limited him in Brissette yesterday. Brissette actually only threw

seven times, and he also fumbled one, too. The backups really didn't have a lot of time to shine yesterday. It's just one of those things, you know, Patriots are trying to get Brady some, you know, trying to get him reps against another team. It's going to try a little bit harder and work a little bit harder,

and it's good for him, and he's their stopper, and that's the way it is. Belichick actually made the backup defense do a lap in the middle of a drill in the morning. Jags were huddling, and they didn't know what the heck was going on. It was kind of funny, actually. They turn around, the defense isn't there anymore, so they're like, what the heck is going on here? But they were told to go for a lap, which I love that Belichick does that

because we do that with the high school guys. It's good to see that he still does it with NFL players. Keep them accountable. Make sure that they're doing their jobs. If you're not, you run. It is what it is. Sound like Belichick right there. So, like I said earlier, I thought Malcolm Butler, he was excellent today.

He was pretty good yesterday, too. Had a couple passes broken up during the team drills. Stephon Gilmore had a pretty good day yesterday. Got called for one PI and did get beat for a touchdown, too. But overall, I thought he was pretty good. Derek Rivers had a sack yesterday. Did a good job. Got the Blake Bortles.

He beat the right tackle. Here's the thing, though, when it comes to Jacksonville, their offensive line is a mess there, and they don't know what the heck's going on. So we'll see how that all kind of plays out. Harvey Laggy and Lawrence Guy also combined for a sack. So that was good to see. Lawrence Guy has actually been, I thought,

I think he's been pretty impressive in camp so far, like what I see out of him. So it looks like they're going to have a serious rotation of their defensive front. I think they're going to have a lot of defensive, I think they're going to have some rotational guys in their defensive backfield too, as far as safeties and nickelbacks and cornerbacks.

They have a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things, so nobody's really going to get locked into anything. Patriots did throw some different defensive looks at the Jaguars during their Monday and Tuesday. Front seven, they showed us a lot, a lot of different blitz packages. It gave Jaguars, specifically Blake Bortles, their quarterback, who looks like he doesn't have a brain, a lot of trouble. Now, I'm watching Blaine Gabbert the other night against, Blake Bortles, their quarterback, who looks like he doesn't have a brain, a lot of trouble now.

I'm watching Blaine Gabbert the other night against, he's playing for San Francisco. No, he's playing for Arizona. My apologies. He looks better. He looks better than Blaine Gabbert. So they didn't really, when they went out and they got both of these guys, who in my mind are not much different, are you going to develop these kids?

Because that's clearly what the issue is. And Blake Bortles, he doesn't look like he's a very intelligent guy. And that's not a knock on Blake. I don't mean to be a jerk. It's just you've got to be highly intelligent, and you've got to have quick on your toes, quick thoughts in the NFL. And if you don't have that, you're not going to succeed as a quarterback. So, you know, that's something to keep an eye on.

Bortles, like I said, is having a lot of trouble with his blitz packages. So, you know, if you're having trouble picking up blitz packages in practice, I don't know how you're going to be able to pick it up in a game and how you're ever going to be able to take that next step. So that was very interesting to watch. Coney Ealy continues to not really impress me all that much. He had to head over to the medical tent for a little bit. I'm not really sure why, but I did see him making his way over there.

So, I don't know. He was in team drills later on. I don't know. Coney Ealy is one of those guys that is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. I don't know what to think on him. And to be perfectly honest with you, if I had to pick the team right now, I don't think he makes it. I don't think Coney Ealy is going to make this roster.

And I do think that he might be a guy that they look to possibly trade and maybe recoup a fifth or a sixth round pick on him. But teams might just look at him and say, you know what, no thanks. We don't want to give up a pick for this guy. If anybody's going to end up picking him up, it's going to be for a veteran minimum because if you get cut, if you get cut the year before you're trying to play for a contract when you're supposed to be a guy that's talented,

there's something not right upstairs. So Ealy needs to look himself in the mirror and figure out what he wants to do. So I don't know. He just doesn't seem like he's into it. Again, he went to the medical tent, didn't really seem hurt. Nobody really knew what happened. He looked like he'd get back into the drills a little bit,

but then he kind of checked out of those two. So, yeah, who knows with Ilya. Again, I think he might be one of those examples this season, which is unfortunate because I know the Patriots expected a lot out of him. Chris Hogan had quite a block today on a Brandon Bolden touchdown run. It was actually impressive. Tom Brady was going nuts. It's always nice to see a wide receiver step up and make a block,

especially when he gets to do it against a team wearing a different uniform. Landon Roberts flashed a little bit today. He hasn't really been all that great. He had a sack of Bortles. That was nice to see. He got a little bit of help from Lange on that play. Lange's been good. Lange's another guy to keep an eye on.

I think he has a chance to make this team. He's got a lot of potential. You can see it. He's playing outside linebacker when they play in the 3-4, and he's pretty good. Another one of those guys undrafted. He didn't really have a position in college, any specific position. But he can play on the end, and he can play outside linebacker. He can do some different things for you, so keep an eye on him.

Overall, I thought the Patriots had a pretty good day today. Brandon Cooks had another nice touchdown catch down the sideline. He's just gifted when it comes to the deep ball. He can do things that most people just can't do. You know, he's really impressive. Like I said, Lawrence Guy, he did a good job today getting pressure. He had another one that I was watching that led to an incompletion. He gets back there. He's got a nose for the ball. He's got a nose for that quarterback,

and he gets himself back there. So that was good to see. David Harris had an eye-opening run stop at the goal line. It was nice, too. Malcolm Brown also had a good one, too, so he wasn't the only one that was stepping up. So that was good to see. There was a lot of good stuff there. There's been a lot of visitors to camp. We'll get into Wednesday's visitor because I thought that was pretty cool. But on Tuesday, Willie McGinnis was running around out there talking to everybody. Troy Brown was there. Teddy Bruschi was there.

But McGinnis was the highest profile guy because that's what he does. He was making himself known. Talking good things about Brady. You saw Brady's mother gave her a huge hug. That was really cool to see. Brady's parents were there at practice too, so that was pretty cool. Chip Kelly was also at practice on Tuesday, so there was all types of names in the house. Tuesday was a pretty busy day for Patriots camp, but all in all it went pretty well, and it's good to see them out there again against another team

and having success against another roster. And I know that Jacksonville is not the best team in the league by any stretch of the imagination, but they have young, talented players, and like I said the other day, in drills and things of that nature, it's not team play. You're playing one-on-one, so the guys that have talent are going to show up and they're going to give the Patriots players some serious tests.

So it was good to see that the Patriots were able to handle that. So on Wednesday, it was more of a joint walkthrough. So that was what they did with the Jaguars. Again, Slater was out, McClellan, Rowe, and Matt Lengel, the tight end, they were all absent. That was Lengel's first practice that he's missed. Slater, McClellan, and Rowe, they've been out for a while. This is something to definitely keep an eye on.

Obviously, they're not going to play against the Jaguars tomorrow night. If they were, you would have seen them practice today because that's what the walkthrough is for. So those three will not be out there. Something that really bothered me today, Devin Lucien had to join the group of players who had to leave early for the conditioning field. That's unfortunate because, you know, if he doesn't get to play tomorrow night, that's just one opportunity that he's going to miss out on to make this team.

And he's been good in preseason. He's been good in training camp up until today. And that's, it's just unfortunate. I hope that it's one of those things where maybe they just looked at it and said, we want to make sure this kid gets a chance to show what he can do. Let's just pull him for now so he can play tomorrow night. That's my optimist side of me. The pessimist side of me says, let's pull this kid because we like what we see and we want to make sure that he's not hurt and if we can stash him again for another season and possibly call him up during the year because that's probably what's going to be the case with him. Tony Garcia was actually

there today, so he missed practice Tuesday, but he was there on Wednesday. But he left midway through practice and he didn't come back. Obviously this was a walkthrough, but to leave a walkthrough, that kind of worries me even more because it's really not like you're out there working your butt off. You just kind of, I wouldn't say going through the motions, but in a way you kind of are because you're doing what you're going to be doing in the game.

And he had to leave. So that kind of worries me a little bit. Garcia hasn't really flashed me so far. I haven't really seen much to warrant the pub that he received, I thought, during the preseason. And I liked him in college. I really did. I liked the fact that they were able to get him when they did, but I just haven't seen it yet. So that's interesting to see how that plays out. Trevor Bates came back. He was, like I said, out on Tuesday. It was his first

practice that he missed, but he returned today to practice. And, again, Mike Gillisley dealing with that hamstring, David Jones, Nate Soldo, James O'Shaughnessy, and Cody Hollister was back on the conditioning field today. Malcolm Mitchell and Danny Amendola were present for the walkthrough, but they haven't done much all week, so my guess is they're probably not going to be playing in the game tomorrow, which makes sense because if you don't play practice all week because of an injury,

there's really no need for you to go out and play in the game, especially the first preseason game. It really doesn't mean all that much. Hightower, Branch, still on the pup. Jokes, still NFI. That hasn't changed at all. So no competitive drills whatsoever today just because, like I said, it was a walkthrough. They didn't really do anything crazy because, you know, they're going to have a game tomorrow night.

The highlight of today's practice was actually Vince Wilford. He was here today. The Patriots announced his retirement. They had a press conference for him at noontime. It was pretty cool. So, he got to retire as a member of the Patriots. He was down at practice talking to all his old teammates, a couple guys like Hightower. He was talking to Alan Branch a little bit. Wilfork also got to see, you've got to remember, he played with A.J. Bouye last year out in Houston. Bouye now a cornerback with great pickup by the Jaguars.

So Wilfork spent a couple minutes with him too. So that was cool. Personally, myself, as a Vince Wilfork, I was a big Wilfork fan when he was at Miami. I never thought the Patriots would have a chance to draft him at that point. They were coming off the Ted Washington experience, and Washington was leaving, and I said to myself, how are they going to fill that hole that was such an important part of their defense?

And lo and behold, Wilfork slips all the way to 21, which never should have happened. He should have been a top-ten pick, and the Patriots got a steal, an absolute steal. So if you look back at some of these, this Patriots dynasty, if you look back at some of the guys that they took and when they took them and how much they meant to what they've done, that's a big part of this. You know, you get Brady in the sixth round, that's a steal of all time. You get Rob Gronkowski in the second round, that's

another huge steal. You get Vince Wilfork with the 21st pick after you're coming off a Super Bowl victory, and you have to fill that one hole, you fill it with the best possible guy to fill it with, that's what Vince Wilfork was. So there's been a lot of things that have happened to the Patriots over the course of this crazy run where they've gotten a little bit of luck, but it also goes to show that they know that there's certain players that they like, and they've gotten guys late and plugged them in, and look what happens. Look at what Dietrich Wise has looked like in practice so far.

And I'm not saying Dietrich Wise is the next Reggie White, but I'm also not going to say that he's the next scrub guy that the Patriots, because they've had plenty of those guys, more Sean Crables than there's been Chandler Jones. But it's starting to seem of late. They're starting to find more on the guys on the Chandler Jones side. And they don't find him always in the first round. They tend to find him in a couple of late rounds.

So that was pretty cool. And again, Vince Woolfolk exemplifies that. And again, I know he's a first-round pick. People are like, what are you talking about? He's a first-rounder. He should have been a top-ten pick, and he dropped all the way to 21 to a Super Bowl-winning team. It's amazing that that happened.

He had a great career as a Patriot. His going out, the way he did it with the charcoal, that was awesome. It's funny. Just good stuff. So congratulations, Vince Woolfolk, on your career. You, your family, your wife was huge around here too. She did a lot for everybody, and hopefully, your wife was huge around here too. She did a lot for everybody and hopefully you guys will be living around here so you can resume your awesome draft

parties and all the things that you guys do for this community. Hopefully you're back here for good. Congratulations, Vince. So Tom Brady, to end this, he was actually talking a little bit today with Ernie Adams. I thought that was pretty cool. Ernie Adams is a genius. He's the man behind. He's like the Wizard of Oz. He's the man behind the curtain that nobody really knows. He's Belichick's right-hand man.

And when Tom Brady's sitting there talking to him, there's got to be something that they're talking about because Ernie doesn't come and talk to guys for no reason. So I would love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. So, again, tomorrow night we've got the Patriots, we've got the Jaguars, we've got game one of the preseason. You guys should be getting pretty excited because it's here. It's time. It's game on. So before I leave you, I just want to talk a little bit about Scout.com.

I just want to say, you know, if you're not a subscriber to Patriots Insider on Scout.com, well, you should be. We recently joined the CBS.com umbrella, so we're with 247 Sports and CBS. Right on there, CBS.com. You'll click on their link, and you'll see us right up on the top, and you can click on us, too. If you're not a member, you need to sign up now. It is a treasure trove of terrific material on the internet. Not only do you get real local coverage of the Patriots, the Celtics, the Red Sox, and both BC, UMass, and all the local colleges, you're going to get tremendous access to every NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAA team,

and you get breakdowns and ratings of top high school prospects across the country. Not only do you get access to the entire scout.com network which is every team for those leagues i was talking about you also have access to discounted nfl nba mlb and ncaa tickets plus you get discounts to movie tickets concerts amusement parks and up to 20 off purchases at fanatics.com all of this is five dollars a month or 49 for the year don't waste your money on a site that only has local coverage of just the boston area get to know your opponents, too, with access to all the teams throughout professional and college sports for the same price per month. Go to scout.com slash NFL slash Patriots and sign up today. It's a no-brainer. Again, $5 a month, $49 for the year.

And this isn't something where you pay a subscription and all you're getting is the news. You pay a subscription, you get the news tenfold, hundredfold over what you're going to get from that local Boston new startup, and you're going to spend the same amount of money per month, but you also decide you want to go to a Celtics game, 10% off your tickets. You decide you want to go to a Patriots game, 10% off your tickets. You decide you want to order a sweatshirt from Fanatics.com, 20% off your sweatshirt. You decide that you want to go to Six Flags, you're going to take a sweatshirt, fanatics.com. 20% off your sweatshirt. You decide that you want to go to Six Flags,

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Thank you all for joining us for this Wednesday edition of Locked On Patriots. It's like Christmas Eve over here. Be sure to go to iTunes, subscribe to our show today, as in right now. Make sure you tell your friends about 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 great night, Patriots fans. I hope you can sleep. Just remember, this is just the first preseason game,

so definitely get some sleep tonight because all we're really going to get to see tomorrow is one series of starters and a whole bunch of backups battling for jobs. Have a great night, everybody. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. By singing dog. By goal.

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