Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 10, 2018 - Linebacker Fits, Late Round QB Fits, and Josh Allen #1 Overall?

Episode Date: April 10, 2018

Mark Schofield talks some Fred Warner and Leighton Vander Esch, some Josh Allen rumors, Sam Darnold's mechanics and later round QB fits for New England.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning and welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, April 10th, 2018. Mark Schofield here in the big chair. Apologies at the outset. We were hoping to have Michael Kist on with us from the Kist and Solak show over at Bleeding Green Nation, but he had some family illness. Prayers up for little AK. It's me flying solo here. We're going to dive in in a minute, but reminded

to follow the work on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com Have a new Check With Me piece coming out in the next couple of days here where I revisit the 2016 quarterback class and my rankings on them. Taking a bit of an L on Dak Prescott.

Also, a reminder, I'm over at Pro Football Weekly doing some work here for the draft. Working on a piece right now about some quarterback fits for the day 2, 3, and sleeper guys in this quarterback class. And we're going to talk a little bit about that today. We're also going to talk about the Josh Allen at number one overall rumors. As I mentioned, we're going to talk about perhaps New England's plans C and D at quarterback. But first, we're going to talk linebackers. Obviously, the linebacker position is an area of need for the New England Patriots. You watch Super Bowl 52. You watch the AFC Championship game. You see this defense sort of struggling at that second level,

needing some athleticism there. And you can understand why. There are people out there, Evan Lazar over at, he contributes to a lot of places, Pat's Pulpit, the Naked Bootleg Podcast. He's been banning the drum for a couple of linebackers here, needing the Patriots to get more athletic at that second level.

Because in today's NFL, you need guys that can key, that can diagnose, and that can close on players. And the RPO-type designs and the athleticism of players that we're seeing in the National Football League right now, you need to counter that. And part of the reason why I'm diving into this, it kicks off a discussion that happened in the wake of the mock draft that I posted on Monday,

had a listener to the pod, little Steve's at L I L S T E V E S 12 on Twitter, reach out, ask it about the mock I did and where Leighton Vander Esch fell to. And so that's where I want to start. I want to start with Leighton Vander Esch. Also give little Steve's a follow on Twitter. Thanks for reaching out.

Appreciate that. So that's where I do want to start. I want to start with Leighton Vander Esch. First year starter at Boise State. Could he be sort of the answer to New England's prayers at the second level at the linebacker spot and I think if you asked Evan Lazar

who I mentioned he would say immediately yes Evan's putting together his sort of wish list for the New England Patriots in this draft and Leighton Van Der Esch LVE is his top non-QB so let's get into him a bit as I mentioned Leighton Van Der Esch, LVE, is his top non-QB.

So let's get into him a bit. As I mentioned, redshirt junior, one-year starter at Boise State. A lot of the work I'm going to mention here, a lot of the stuff I'm going to mention here comes from the InsideThePylon.com draft guide. Scott Skouras was our head scout, our lead scout on Leighton Van Der Esch. His tagline on him, he turned heads, that is LVE turned heads of the combine, doesn't always match that athleticism on field. Has ideal size, length, and keen diagnose skills to play the run and drop into zone coverage, but he does need open field tackle and work.

Now you wonder, does that fit the bill of a guy you're going to draft at 23, a guy you're going to draft at 31? And not that Matt Miller's big board is the be-all and end-all, but Miller does a very good job. He's very plugged in, and he has LVE as his 19th-ranked player. And so you wonder, you know, the league is valuing him highly. Matt Miller values him highly. You know, and in that mock draft that I mentioned, again, it's a simulation using Matt Miller's board,

but he came off to Jacksonville at 29. I went with Sam Hubbard at 23. I was wondering if LVE would be there, and he wasn't. Let's talk about what he does well. Has elite, this is according to Scott's report over at the ITP Draft Guide, elite diagnose skills and great play speed to shoot gaps, very good upper body play strength to rip through zone blocks at the line of scrimmage, and good lower body play strength to hold his ground.

Shows good understanding of zone coverage responsibilities underneath, flashes elite coverage ability in Tampa two drops, he can open and flip his hips to make plays on balls over the middle. So that's some athletic stuff from him. And as we mentioned, the athleticism definitely flashed at the combine. 10-yard split in the 40 of 1.56, 40-yard dash of 4.65, 6.883 cone, 39.5-inch vertical jump, 124 inches on the broad. I've mentioned Ken Lee Platt. He's at MathBomb on Twitter.

His relative athletic score, 9.97, which puts him into the elite athleticism bucket. Now, there were some weaknesses. We alluded to those. I alluded to those at the outset. Displays average lateral quickness and acceleration. Has a feet stutterer. Not a sudden movement player when changing direction. Angles can be rounded.

He breaks down too far away from ball carriers. Can't move his feet fast enough to react to shifty ball carrier movements. So, if you're wondering about athleticism at the second level and how it pertains to play on the field, those are some question marks. But he ended up linebacker four for us behind some really good players. Behind Rashawn Evans, who was three.

Tremaine Edmonds, who was two. And Roquan Smith, who was our linebacker one. And if you're talking in that 23 to 31 range, I'm very much on board with LVE. I think that's sort of the sweet spot for him in this draft. He's getting a lot of top 20, top 15, maybe top 10 love. I'm not so sure I'd go that far, but I think when you look at the Patriots' needs,

you look at some of the athleticism that shows up both on the combine and sometimes on film, I think you could get a good player in that range. Another player I want to mention quickly, I've talked about him a bit, is Fred Warner, a linebacker from BYU who's a tough evaluation because of how he was used at BYU. He was used kind of as a slot defender, an overhang defender. Not what you typically expect, but I think when you sort of look at him

projecting to the next level, I think he could be a three-down linebacker. He could be a nickel-and-dime linebacker. And I think, look, he's got the ability, sort of, you know, the athletic ability, his ability in space and zone coverage situations,

his ability to sort of anticipate plays as they develop. Very good at keys in diagnosis. Bo Bell, who did our report over at Inside the Pylon for our draft guide. Very good key and diagnose to anticipate and scrape downhill and inside runs. Uses good leverage on the ball carry and the balance to work through blocks up front. Above average strength at the point

of attack. Using good hand placement and extension to hold the edge and control the blocker. And those words, hold the edge and control the blocker. Patriots fans might be salivated when they hear that because how often have we talked about in the past couple of seasons the need to hold the edge to set the edge we saw it show up in Super Bowl 52 sometimes they couldn't set the edge you need to do it it was an issue sometimes with Trey Flowers. Maybe Fred Warner's the answer there.

And again, relative athletic score from Mathbomb, 9.64. It again puts a player in the elite range, 1.55, 10-yard split, 40-yard dash of 4.64, 6.90 on the three cone, 38.5-inch vertical, 119 inches on the broad. Another athletic player. These are the two guys I think you really should keep in mind. Probably LVE a little bit earlier. Maybe a Fred Warner more in that second round range. But these are two linebackers to keep in mind for the Patriots that could fit their needs. Up ahead, we're going to talk Josh Allen at QB1 Rumors. And we're also going to go over some Plan C and plan D options for the New England Patriots at quarterback.

That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you now on this Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. We're going to talk a little Josh Allen at number one here. I know, again, this is a Patriots podcast, but draft season, crazy stuff happens, and we're hearing the Josh Allen at one rumors. Before I do that, though, I want to give a shout out to Jack Duffin, at J-A-C-K

D-U-F-F-I-N on Twitter. He's a Browns fan, but a very loyal listener to the pod. He asked the question, considering Darnold's college coaches couldn't fix his footwork, mechanics, and only holding the ball with one hand, what are the chances that the Browns could? When players start blitzing a quarterback, how often do they go back to what they've always done?

And that's a tremendous question, Jack. Again, give Jack a follow. And I want to deal with that second question first. When players start blitzing a quarterback, how often do they revert to what they've done, that muscle memory taking over? And I think I've said this before in a couple of different shows, if you're buying into Sam Donald as a quarterback, one of the things that you can point to is the fact that he's relatively new

to playing the quarterback position. Started playing as a sophomore in high school. He was a linebacker until then. And look, he's a young kid coming out. And with a lot of quarterbacksbacks when they're coming out of the college ranks and heading into the nfl they've been playing the position you know six seven eight nine years me when i left college i've been playing quarterback for 11 years i think and it's funny you put me in the backyard right now with a football, I'll play

catch with my son and I'm doing the same things. It's just natural. It's ingrained in my head at this point. But with Donald, it's a little different. With Donald, it's a little different because he's relatively new to the position. He's only been playing it say four or five years maybe. So it's not fully ingrained in him. I don't think muscle memory has fully taken over with him. Now, I could be wrong. We could see him thrust into action early, and suddenly the mechanics revert to where they were. But I don't think it's baked into the cake.

I don't think it's set in stone to use two really bad cliches there. So the other issue, you know, Donald's college coach is not fixing his footwork. Let's remember, Donald's college coaches, their job was to win games. You know, and I'm not saying it's not the job of NFL coaches to do that. But I've brought up Tim Tebow before, because when Tebow was at Florida, his mechanics were a mess. He was throwing jump passes. But Urban Meyer's job was to win national championships. It was to win SEC championships. It was to beat Alabama. And if he could get by with Tim Tebow's treble-shave throw-in motion and throw-in jump passes,

then great. It's similar with Donald because you see this sometimes with spread quarterbacks. When they're meeting guys at the mesh point, running backs to their left, to their right, and then making quick throws, sometimes their feet are going to be parallel to the line of scrimmage. Sometimes they're not going to have time to fix their footwork. And that spreads into the rest of their play style. But if it worked for USC, it worked in their offense, then they'd make it work. But now NFL coaches are going to have to fix that. And so one of the reasons why, even though he's my QB3,

I remain high on Donald is that I think he's talented enough to work through this stuff, and I think he's going to get a chance to win the NFL. And I don't think that the flaws are fully ingrained in him just yet. Again, shout out to Jack for the question. And Jack brings us to, since he's a Brown fan, the rumors of Josh Allen at one overall. And they were perhaps set in motion by our good friend Jeff Lloyd,

host of Locked on Browns. You can follow at Jeff underscore LL underscore Lloyd. Let me make sure I got that right because Jeff's Twitter handle is a little... Yeah, Jeff underscore LJ underscore LLOYD. You can also follow him at LockedOnBrowns. But he sent out a tweet yesterday that basically just read this. Just got a DM that terrifies me. And it mirrors a lot of what we've been hearing that you talk to people in and around the Browns organization.

It's basically Josh Allen at one. And it's surprising to me, but not that surprising as it is to others. Because I believe I talked about it here. I wrote about it as well over at Inside the Pylon. When the Browns made the trade for Tyrod Taylor, that signaled to me downfield passing game is what they want to do.

And who are the guys that I think best fit that? Sam Darnold and Josh Allen. My preference would be Darnold. I think many Browns fans, if you ask them to choose between the two, their preference would be Darnold. But maybe the organization has decided, look, we're going to buy in on the upside.

And people have been suggesting, oh, maybe it's a smokescreen. Who are you trying to smokescreen at this point? Is there a chance that they're trying to send these Allen signals to entice people to get to one to get another quarterback? If they like Allen so much, maybe they think that he'll be there at four anyway. You can get an incredible offer for the first overall pick, get a haul of picks in return, stay at four. Excuse me, get your guy, Josh Allen. That doesn't make sense to me because again, who's to say that somebody then doesn't get to two to draft Josh Allen? Who's to

say the Jets don't do it at three? There's no need to smoke screen now. Maybe play it more close to the vest, hold your cards close to the vest, but if you've decided Josh Allen is your guy, stay there at one and take him. Don't run the risk that somebody else determines who your quarterback is. Now, should he be that guy at one? Again, I wouldn't do it.

Drafted a quarterback in the top five. Drafting a quarterback first overall comes with different expectations. I think there's a good quarterback locked inside Josh Allen. It's just I've been waiting a while for it to come out. And with each passing week, I wonder more and more if we'll ever see it. You need a good glide path. You need a good developmental path for him. Now, they do have Tyrod Taylor in place, but if they come out of the gate 0-5 and they're not putting points up on the board, there's going to be a clamoring

for the quarterback they drafted, whether it's first overall or at four. That's just going to happen. And which of those two guys that I've identified are you more confident in working through and being successful in that situation? Josh Allen or Sam Donald? That's an eventuality

you have to prepare for. And so if it were me, it's Donald. Do I see a scenario where Josh Allen could pan out in Cleveland? Yeah. But probably not one I'm betting the first overall pick on. Up next,

we're going to talk plans, maybe C and D for the Patriots at the quarterback spot on their roster. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield's back with you for this Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. We've talked to little linebackers, Leighton Vander Esch, Fred Warner,

talked Sam Donald, Josh Allen, and the Josh Allen rumors are one overall. Now we're going to close with perhaps New England's plan C and D for the quarterback spot. And I say C and D, I don't know if they actually are C and D, if they're options three and four for them. I still think that you look at what the Patriots might do earlier in the draft. I thought a couple of weeks ago that Kyle Lauletta might be their plan A and maybe a guy like Luke Fogg plan B.

And then you can get into the guys I'm about to talk about. But maybe things have changed a little bit now that they've got 23 and 31. Maybe there's a chance if a guy like Lamar Jackson slides a bit, if a guy like Mason Rudolph is there, that they go get him. I'm still not buying in fully to the sort of Josh Rosen idea. As much as I like Josh Rosen as a quarterback, I think the cost would be too much to go get him.

And if you're looking at maybe one or two more years of the Brady-Gronkowski window, As much as I like Josh Rosen as a quarterback, I think the cost would be too much to go get him. And if you're looking at maybe one or two more years of the Brady-Gronkowski window, if you've got a mortgage, if you've got to give up, say, four or five of those first five picks to get up to, say, two, I mean, that seems like you're setting too much money aside, as we are in tax season here,

for the rainy day and not really dealing with the flood in your basement. It's like, oh, you know, we're getting a new microwave. Let's do that. Okay, but the basement's flooded. We got to deal with that first. That's the more pressing need. And I think the more pressing need for New England is to find some pieces to make another

run or two here while we have this window but let's talk about some later guys in this draft and these are guys that I've talked about before but I think sort of some recent Inklings have made them perhaps more options first and I'm writing about these two guys over at Pro Football Weekly. I did a piece on early round QB fits with the top five guys. Now I'm doing later round QB fits. And I write about Lauletta, and I'm looking at him to the Bengals perhaps. Again, Patriots fans that like Lauletta might not like hearing that. But I think that would be a good fit for Lauletta

for a number of reasons schematically. I think it would be a good fit for Loretta for a number of reasons. Schematically, I think it would be a really good fit. I think he could push Andy Dalton by year two of his contract, of Kyle Loretta's contract. Whereas if he's coming to New England, he's probably waiting a little bit longer. So there's a chance that the Patriots, again, wait and look at these next two guys.

Logan Woodside from Toledo, who I've talked about, and Chad Logan Woodside from Toledo who I've talked about and Chad Knauff from Princeton who I've talked about. With Woodside I talked about when he had his pro day. Patriots were there. There's a photo of Nick Casero watching Woodside during his pro day. And so that speaks some volumes about how they might value him. And he's a quarterback that I like. Experienced, good footwork. I think he makes some sense in New England's style of offense. volumes about how they might value him. And he's a quarterback that I like, experienced,

good footwork. I think he makes some sense in New England's style of offense. I think the schematic fit is nice. Again, he shows pretty good timing and anticipation on some of his throws. And then Chad Knopf, who's starting to get a little bit of buzz. And this might just be the fact that we're nearing to the draft. We've been talking about the other guys for so much for so long now that everybody's sort of looking elsewhere my good friend doug farrar over at bleacher report who i do work with during the season he's got a piece now where he sat down with nick shimanoff the texas tech quarterback and he's calling him perhaps the sleeper of the draft but the ch can awful of

really sort of stepped into a second gear here Connor or over at mmqb as a piece of today covering various tidbits about the draft and he talks at length about Kanoff now basically talks about how Princeton had Princeton's head coach Bob Sarran's he's a former Bengals Orr describes him as one of the brightest minds in college football. And he's banging the table for Chad Knopf. And this is a quote from Orr's piece. Watch Jared Goff. Watch his pro day.

It was outstanding. Watch our guy meeting Knopf and tell me the body type, the athletic ability, the accuracy, the arm strength, that you're not seeing a similar guy. Jared Goff is one of the best in the league. I'm not knocking Goff, but I'm saying, Chad, when you watch these things, they're similar. If teams just close their eyes and think, oh, we're at Ohio State, at worst, he's a day two pick. That's pretty high praise. And yeah, part of it is a guy banging the table, banging the drum for his player. And I get that.

But when you watch Knopf, again, the schematic fit is there. I did a video on it over at Inside the Pylons YouTube page you can check out. I've written about him a bit. I've talked about him on this show. The timing, the anticipation,

all that stuff that we see from Tom Brady, he's doing it at Princeton. And he put up great numbers at Princeton, sometimes running a two-quarterback offense. He was the Ivy League offensive player of the year this past year. He's got 10-inch hands or so, which apparently New England likes as well. Now, I'm still aboard the get a quarterback early-ish in this draft train

but with Brady playing well with the luxury of Brian Hoyer in place they could go a different direction they could wait on it a bit and if they do these two guys, Woodside and Knopf maybe they're the answer maybe not

maybe we're all just tired here at the end of draft season and we need it to be over. Then what will we talk about? Next year's draft. That's how this whole circle of draft life goes. But it's

fun. It's fun. It's fun. Shout out to my boy John Lamarakis as well. A couple of comments the other day on the mock draft. Big, big loyal fan of the pod. Shout out to John. Thanks, buddy. I didn't hit you back yet, but I'll dig up that tweet and get your response pretty soon. But that will do it for today's show.

Tomorrow? Who knows? Maybe Kiss will be back. Maybe he won't. Who knows? We'll make it up as we go. You know what? In the words of Mr. O'Reilly,

F it. We'll do it live. Stay locked right here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked on Picker. Thank you.