Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 11, 2019 - ASJ, TE Board, and Take Thursday

Episode Date: April 11, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Thursday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Thursday, April 11th, 2019. Got a lot on tap today, we're going to talk some Patriots news. We actually get some real news, not just speculative stuff about the draft, so we're going to talk some Patriots news we actually get some real news not just speculative stuff about the draft so that's going to be fun we're going to talk a little bit about the tight end class I'm going to sort of rank or how I think like we did with the quarterbacks yesterday how I'm kind of thinking that the Patriots might stack their tight end board these are kind of similar to how I would rank these guys anyway so basically what I'm trying to say

is the Patriots should listen to this show. Also, what we're going to do, we're going to wade into the Russell Wilson debate. That's a debate that's kind of enraging on the timeline, so I'm going to have my thoughts on that, as well as, yes, I've got to put the legal hat back on for a second, because the AAF, there will be lawyers. Lawsuits were filed on Wednesday by two former players seeking breach of contract damages

so i did want to talk about that before we do anything though reminder to follow me on twitter at mark scofield please please please check out the work at a variety of places including pro football weekly the score matt waldeman's rookie scouting portfolio inside the pylon a trio of sb nation websites Big Blue View Bleeding Green Nation where I co-host the Cubisco show and of course Pat's Pulpit also want to give it a plug Phil Perry over from NBC Boston was kind enough to have me on his podcast we recorded on Wednesday night we talked about the quarterbacks he put me on the spot basically said all the quarterbacks that we talked about basically everybody you would imagine other than, say, Drew Locke,

other than Kyler Murray, other than Dwayne Haskins. Everybody else is on the clock, on the board, available at 97. Who I would pick. So you're going to want to tune in to hear that. I'll give you a hint. It's not Brett Rippin. Imagine that. So you'll want to check out Phil's show.

Thanks to Phil, a loyal listener to this show, for having me on. Always a blast chatting with him. He does such great work. You've got to be following Phil and checking out his work over at NBC Sports Boston. Now, we do have some news to get to. We got a kicker problem solved. Steven Gostowski is back into the fold. So if you were worried about Steven Gostowski, well, you don't have to be worried anymore.

Gostowski, who is 35, has spent all 13 of his seasons with the Patriots, and he is coming back into the fold. The Patriots have re-signed him, so there's some good news on that front. Also, some Patriots tight end news. Austin Safarian Jenkins, talented player who perhaps maybe never really quite put it together after coming out of Washington. He is now a member of the New England Patriots. Austin Safarian Jenkins signed with the New England Patriots.

Not a big money deal sort of at all. When you look at the contract numbers on this, according to Tom Palacero, they gave him a $50,000 sign-in bonus on his one-year deal, another $40,000 in bonuses. As he described it, it is a minimum salary benefit contract. He wanted to be a Patriot. Chance to produce and hit market again next year at age 27. Now, he was a second-round pick, drafted 38th overall in that 2014 draft. But like I said, he never seemed to really put it

together he was in tampa bay for basically two and a half seasons and he goes to the jets his best year at least in terms of sort of game started and overall production 2017 with the jets where he played in 13 games started 10 74 targets 50 receptions 357 yards three touchdowns 27.5 yards per catch watching him i remember studying him a couple of times bleacher report nfl 1000 project looking at him from his time both with the jets and scouting him and even in jacksonville there are a couple of routes where he's pretty good. He can run some crosses. I mean, I remember watching him run away from, I think it was Jason McCourty on a crossing route. I remember maybe even saying on this show, if A.S.J. is running away from a corner on a crossing route, something is amiss.

The world, my view of it, it is askew. But he can run seams, he can run crossers. What do the Patriots ask their tight ends to do? Seams and crossers tend to be in the mix, tend to be in the discussion. And so it's an interesting sign. It's another one of those examples where the Patriots, as we say so often on this show, ask not what a player can't do, but instead ask what a player can do. Now with him, you get crossers, you get seams, big components of the Patriots' offense. Now, if you ask what he can't do, well, unfortunately, one of the things with him so far throughout his career

is he can't really stay on the field. You know, that's an issue with him. Going back to his first year, nine games, nine games started. Then in 2015, seven games, three started. Then nine and two in 2016, he was with the Jets for seven games and started two of them with Tampa Bay for just two games. Then there's that 2017 year, 13 games, 10 starts. Then last year, five games, five starts. Looking at his injury history overall, there's a fascinating website, sportsinjurypredictor.com. Now, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know sort of the validity of trying to

predict injuries. Now, they do consider him sort of a high-risk player, a 60.8% chance of injury in the 2019 season, but they also list a player's injury history. February 24th, 2014, this was a non-NFL injury, a pedal foot fracture. He had foot surgery on February 24th, 2014 to repair a stress fracture in his left foot, but he did run a 40 in a private workout about two months later. This was sort of a combined situation. September 7th, pedal foot sprain. Missed two games with an injury to his right foot. Different foot, same kind of injury though. November 23rd 2014 back lower lumbar sprain missed the final five games of the 2014 with a back injury september 20th 2015 shoulder missed nine games what was deemed a strained right shoulder then october 9th 2016 pedal ankle sprain grade two

ankle injury costs farian jacob's three games december 24th 2016 thigh hamstring sprain grade two ankle injury costs farian jacob's three games december 24th 2016 thigh hamstring sprain slash pull unspecified grade one hurt his hamstring week 16 of that season missed the season finale december 24th 2017 chest rib bruise missed week 17 with a rib injury and then last year october 7th 2018 sports hernia. He played through a core muscle injury for the first five games of the season, aggravated in week five, had surgery, missed the rest of the season. So there's an injury history here, which is something to keep in mind. Now, again, low risk type sign and not a lot of dollars involved here. I do think it is interesting to point out, we often see this with Bill Belichick.

They got a guy that sometimes burns them, right? You go through ASJ's career game log, highest number of targets he ever saw in a single game last year against New England, their game number six of the season, that early one when the Jets were kind of in first place contention. And you remember that game. I believe this was the game where they had that fumble near the goal line

that was ruled a fumble. He had 11 targets in that game. Highest number of targets he's ever seen in his career in a single game. His highest number of receptions in a single game? That very same game, eight. So you could make the case that his career game came against the New England Patriots where he had eight catches on 11 targets, one touchdown. I think it could have been another if I'm remembering this game right. Maybe I'm not.

I think I am because, yeah, they didn't play again. He didn't play the Patriots again the rest of the season, and they played again in the season finale, and he missed that game. So it is the one that I'm thinking of so he could have had two this could have been his career high in terms of touchdowns in a game too actually would have tied his career high he had two touchdown catches in the season opener against 10 against Tennessee in the 2015 season that was the game where Mariota and Winston squared off in week one and Mariota throws like four touchdown passes.

Well, Tampa Bay scored two touchdowns, and he caught both of them. So seven catches, I mean, excuse me, seven targets, five receptions for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Maybe that was his career game, but a lot of those came in garbage time, if I remember correctly. So anyway, what does the ASJ sign-in mean? I don't think it means anything. I don't think it changes the Patriots' plans of the tight end position in this draft, or at least I hope it doesn't. I hope they still

double dip, as we'll talk about in a second. But yes, the tight end position right now, you have ASJ, you have Matt Lacoste, and we've spent some time on him. You have Jacob Hollister, Steven Anderson, Ryan Izzo. I don't think anybody's putting in any eggs in any of those baskets. Yes, the Easter season is upon us. But if it is a hedge, I think it's a hedge on the second tight end they draft. If this changes anything, it means that maybe either they don't draft somebody in the second round or, I mean, they don't draft a second tight end or they do it a little bit later than we would have thought. I still think they want to double dip at this position.

They've got to figure it out. They're replacing or trying to replace with perhaps a tight end by committee situation, one of the best, if not the best of all time. So they've got to throw some bodies at this one. And with 12 picks, they've got the firepower to do it. Who will they draft? We're going to talk about that next. I'm going to sort of put together what I think maybe the Patriots say top

10 or so is at the tight end position. That is coming up here on this Thursday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots. We usually do Take Thursday.

We'll do some takey type stuff in the final segment of the show. We're going to talk a little Russell Wilson, wade into that debate. We'll do some takey type stuff in the final segment of the show. We're going to talk a little Russell Wilson, wade into that debate. We'll talk some AAF stuff. But since we have some news on the tight end front, I figured it made some sense to sort of do a tight end board here. And so I've got 11 tight ends. Again, it's such a deep, rich, fascinating tight end class

that I wanted to at least get 10 names, and I snuck in an 11th at the bottom because he just screams Bill Belichick guy. Now, I don't think he screams NFL top flight tight end, but he's one of those guys that I think the Patriots might find a way to get on the roster, at least get him into camp. And we'll start there. Isaac Nanta from Georgia and a player that did some nice things on film, but his combine has him trending in a direction and it isn't a good one. The combine was just not good for him at all. And so now you wonder what you do with a player like that. And it is one of those situations. I mentioned it earlier. When you see a guy that comes in as a highly touted recruit, but then gets asked to do sort of the dirty, you know, blue collar type things at

the tight end position, you do wonder about the athletic profile and that bore itself out of the combine. It was not a good combine for him. But the high character type guy sort of screams Belichick, sort of screams Patriot. So I wanted to mention him. Then you get sort of three guys in that next group as we work our way up that are a bit kind of enigma-ish of the tight end position, and we'll work our way up Khalid Warren, Josh Oliver, and then Alizi Mack. You know, with Mack, you've got some injury histories and some off-the-field type concerns, but an athletic type tight end that I think could do some stuff on a lot of the routes that the Patriots sort of use their tight ends on you know you can do some stuff as a he's a pretty good route runner pretty good ball skills you know near the sideline and things like that a flex type guy a

big slot type guy that if you go more all around or complete tight end early say with an irv smith say with a dax raymond say somehow Hawkinson falls into your lap, he would be that guy that you could sort of pair him with. And like we talked about in yesterday's show, the previous show, the Tuesday show, when I talked about the mock draft and sort of complimentary type players, whether it's the safety spot or the defensive tackle spot, I think that's how we have to view the tight ends in this draft from the New England Patriots perspective. There's one guy that's sort of the complete guy, and then the other guys are more bits and pieces. Now, maybe the Patriots have gotten away from the move type tight end a bit, and they've been able to do that because Gronkowski was still good enough where they

can do some of that with him. But I think we might see more of the two-headed monster back in the fold, given the skill sets these players have. And so if they do look and get a true, more in-line type guy early, Elyse Mac makes some sense. Oliver and Warren, look, they're intriguing guys. They're a bit of, like I said, question marks. I mean, especially Warren. New to football, a lot of developmental stuff that you have to project, a lot of uncertainty, but there's some flashy stuff here. There's some upside. And so if you get a guy that you're confident in, and now we're, for example,

this is where the ASJ sign-in might make some sense. He can work as a hedge against a guy like this, where if it doesn't pan out, you've at least got somebody in the fold. And so that's the interesting cluster. Then as we continue to work our way up, Caden Smith from Stanford, who I think the Patriots will like. Vertical type guy, good body control, good catch radius, good strength through contact. Maybe not the best route runner, maybe not the best blocker, which is a bit of a surprise

given the offense. But I think that there is something here with him. And so I think the Patriots will like him. So there's Canyon Smith from Stanford. And then a guy that I love. Maybe he's the Brett Rippin. Maybe he's my tight end or non-quarterback binky. But Dax Raymond.

Love the way he plays the game. Just plays it pissed off. And I think that's how you sometimes get to play the game. A bit older. Doesn't have a high ceiling, not the greatest athlete, but a good blocker, good route runner on the short game, love his feel for the zone type situations. And if you do want to go two tight ends, I think he would make a good pick to pair with one of the other guys. And so then there's Dax Raymond.

Dawson Knox, tough to figure out. Interesting offense down at Mississippi. Hard to evaluate him, but very athletic, almost uber athletic. And so he can catch the ball, good catch radius. I think you could sort of draft him and sort of work it out as it goes along. You know, I think you got a good athletic foundation to build upon and then sort of see how he grows from there. Now getting into the top four. A lot of people say Irv Smith is the guy at 32. I'm starting to back away from that. So I'm going to go Irv Smith next.

I would say TE4 on the Patriots board. There are some things that he does very well. He's probably that more all-around type guy, well-rounded, did a bunch of different things, can block,-around type guy. Well-routed, did a bunch of different things. They can block. Good possession type guy. But I think that he's maybe, say, maxed out or at least close to it. You know, not uber dynamic or anything like that.

So I don't know. Basically, it might be a situation where the floor is great, but there's a guy here that might have a better ceiling, and that's Jay Stermer. I think the Patriots are going to like him. Again, runs great seam routes, very athletic, good through contact. Patriots have shown an interest in him. Now maybe, look, the relationship between Belichick and Saban probably

means that they don't have to spend some time or a lot of time meeting with Irv Smith. They know what they're going to get. I don't think Saban and Belichick are going to lie to each other. Saban's going to tell them the truth. And so they can just pick up the phone and call Saban, whereas you want to get Jace in. That being said, I do think that they like Jace. I think they'll like his athleticism. So I would have him over Smith as far as how the Patriots look at the tight ends. I'm kind of leaning that way too, to be honest. Actually, I am that way since I just said it. So there you go. And then finally, you get Hawk one, Fantu. I think that's kind of the way this is going to play out. I would love to see them get Hawkinson. I don't think it's going to happen. Every time you look at the first round, every

time you look at mock drafts or anything like that, don't see him getting past green bay at 12 or maybe even if he continues to fall maybe you look at some other teams that might be into the tight end situation like say for example the titans at 19 you know he would make a lot of sense there so hawkinson might not be there phat might um i would be happy with either Iowa guy if not honestly you could give me Jace and Dax and I'd be completely happy with that you give me Jace and Warren or Jason Smith I'd be happy Jason Mack might be a bit overlapped there but still they can pair these guys together well so it's gonna be interesting see how this tight end group plays out having spent so much time in the tight ends we all So it's going to be interesting to see how this tight end group plays out.

Having spent so much time in the tight ends, we all know what's going to happen. Same thing as every sort of Belichick draft. They won't even draft one and we'll all be screaming. It's going to be fun either way. So up next, we're going to do some quick takey stuff

to close this out. Some Russell Wilson stuff, some AAF stuff. That is ahead on this Thursday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back here. Going to close out this Thursday installment of the Locked On

Patriots podcast. Recording this on Wednesday night. Sound quality a little bit better. Why? Because there's nobody banging on the roof right now. The roof project is ongoing. Hope to get it done Thursday, but a little peace and quiet right now. Also, do want to let everybody know, I mentioned it earlier,

but a little spring break action next week, a little family trip. So I'm going to be out of town. I'm going to record some shows. Don't worry. You will still hear from me basically every day. If there is breaking news, I will have the laptop and the microphone with me

so I will still be able to hop on the microphone and record something, bang something out. If out of the blue, the Patriots trade for Josh Rosen, I will get off the water slides. I will leave my kids in the hands of their much more capable mother and I'll record a pod. So fear not. The shows might be quick and things like that, because again, the kids might be screaming, so it might be tough to find the window to do it all,

but you will still be hearing from me. Now, let's get into these two topics pretty quickly. Again, non-Patriot stuff, so I don't want to take up too much of your time. But when somebody basically tries to make the case that Russell Wilson is not the player that they'd want over a rookie quarterback, I think it's time to jump in the fray. It is time to join the fray. And so Andy Benoit, from Monday Morning Quarterback,

basically on a podcast and in his writers, and he's never been a Russell Wilson fan. He was making the case, I believe, a couple years ago, Matthew Stafford over Russell Wilson. Made the case that for the expected cost associated with Russell Wilson, he would much rather have a rookie quarterback. And in a vacuum, in sort of that, if you're just looking at the money, I think you can make that argument in a sense and say, look, for what it's going to cost in terms of a cap hit, percentage of the cap,

all that stuff, you could get a rookie quarterback and build around him. I mean, after all, Russell Wilson is the model for that entire new economy of the NFL. That being said, when you start to then go down the road and say, you know, they do so much off of play action, any other quarterback can do that. rookie quarterbacks play action they're they just do half field reads with him that's where you start to lose and let me sort of frame it this way going through the scouting academy with dan hammond there there's sort of some terminology and some buckets that you can put players into you know players that you just can't win with players that you can put players into. Players that you just can't win with. Players that you win with is the sort of next one. They're not elevating the team, but they're good enough

that you can still win games with them. And then there are players that you win because of. They are that good, they elevate themselves and the teammates, the offense or the defense, whatever the case may be. And when you talk about quarterbacks that you win games because of, there's Brady, there's Rogers, you know, there's Mahomes now, there's Wilson. And then maybe you could throw like a Matt Ryan in there perhaps. It's not that long of a list. A Drew Brees is in there, a Times Phillip Rivers, but it's not a big list.

Most quarterbacks, it's like a bell curve, the ability of quarterbacks in the National Football League. On the left-hand side, you've got the truly elite, the best of the best, the Wilsons, the Bradys, and all those guys. And then it sort of works its way up, and the large bulk of quarterbacks are guys that you win with. And then it dips back down to guys that you're just not going to win with no matter what.

I'm not going to mention any names there. You can imagine who I'm talking about, though. And so the bulk of players are in that sort of guys you win with, but then there are the rare cons, the rarefied air. And those guys that you win games because of, they are worth every penny. And so if the debate is, and we talked about this, is Russell Wilson worth two first-rounders? Yeah.

Is Russell Wilson a better quarterback to have even at his cost as opposed to a rookie quarterback? When you start factoring in schemes and stuff like that. Give me Russell Wilson. This is the dilemma that we'll be now facing two teams in particular. And we talked about it in yesterday's show. The Eagles and the Cowboys

because you've got that rookie quarterback either at the end of his deal, like say Prescott is, and he's not under contract next year, or the Eagles where they've got to figure out the fifth year option with him. If you've got a quarterback that's good enough, you're're gonna have to pay him and then you hope that he becomes the guy at the left side of the bell curve the elites the best of the best that's where russell

wilson is and so give me russell wilson if they're dangling russell wilson for two first rounders and patriots might want to pick up the phone he He's that good. Finally, I did want to mention the lawyers are descending upon the AAF. News came out on Wednesday that two former AAF players are suing the league in a class action complaint in the wake of its shutdown. Acting individually on behalf of other players, Birmingham Iron Punter Colton Schmidt and Orlando Apollos are Apollos. May they rest in peace. Linebacker Reggie Northrup have brought this suit alleging that they were misled and defrauded

when AAF control owner Tom Dundon halted operations after eight weeks of pay. Dundon and AAF CEO Charlie Ebersole are the two individual defendants named in the suit. The complaint seeks damages for breach of contract, breach of good faith, and fair dealing, failure to pay wages in violation of labor code, and fraud, among others. Now, the fraud then, they throw that in there. That's one of those things that I'm not well-versed in California fraud laws, but usually you bring fraud in because that might allow you treble and or punitive damages. Punitive damages, let me just say this, harkening back to my days as a lawyer. When you're defending a case

and your insurance carrier agent, your contact over there gives you a call and say, yeah, we just got this new lawsuit. I see you're handling it for us. Walk me through it. When you start mentioning fraud and you get into that punitive damages area, that's when then the hairs on the back of their neck stand up because that's when the money sort of gets accelerated fast. And so that's why you'd put a fraud complaint in saying these guys were basically misled. They were lied to. And the basic argument is this.

The lawyer for the players says clients are entitled to damages because they upheld their end of the aaf player contracts which are non-guaranteed and there are three-year contracts for three years and 250 000 now the trick that they say is that look these are non-guaranteed contracts and that's fine but the non-guaranteed contracts and that's fine. But the non-guaranteed aspect is valid only if termination is performance-based. In other words, you can cut the guy and that's fine. But they can't be cut because the guys behind the league didn't have money. That's not a valid reason for terminating a contract. And so it's going to be interesting to see this play out. I haven't read the suit. I've just sort of glanced through it.

I haven't done a deep dive on it, but that's an interesting way to sort of get around the like non-guarantee aspect of these contracts. And so it'll be interesting to see this play out. It does seem like this AAF situation is gonna get ugly we've got lawsuits there are rumors about Thomas Dundon and sort of if he's stealing some intellectual property well he paid for it but if he bought the league invested in the league the money that he did to sort of steal the gambling app that they were working on so gonna be interesting to follow this AA stuff what is also going to be interesting the rest of your day because you got done listening to your favorite Patriots podcast you can just go on and tell your friends everything

you learned today. Also, as I said, check me out on Phil Perry's show. Again, on the clock at 97 with Daniel Jones, Will Greer, Brett Rippin, Ryan Finley,

Jared Stidham, all available. Tune in to see who I picked. That will do it for today. I will be back tomorrow. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me mark scoffing and locked on