Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 2, 2018 - Scouting Profiles and QB Scheme Fits

Episode Date: April 2, 2018

Mark Schofield is back after a spring break trip with the family to break down some of the players linked to the Patriots this draft season, and how they were viewed in the ITP Draft Guide.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning and welcome back to Locked On Patriots with Mark Schofield here with you. That's right, I am back after a week away, little spring break vacation with the family. Trip up to Boston, a little bit more on that in a second. Reminder to follow me on Twitter you can follow me at Mark Schofield follow the work over at inside the pylon.com you might know by now our inside the pylon draft guide draft guide 2.0 dropped on Easter Sunday more on that in a minute I'm going to talk about some of the profiles we did in the ITP Draft Guide from a Patriots perspective with you today. Also, a reminder to check out the videos over at youtube.com backslash Inside the Pylon where I do my quarterback-centered videos.

Also, perhaps by the time you listen to this, my debut piece over at Pro Football weekly will drop or will have dropped happy to be contributing for a little bit over there during draft season as well so you can check out the work but that's right i am back after a brief little spring break trip with the family back up to boston to see my new niece summer shout out to my brother steve his wonderful better half kelly doing a great job now with two kids of their own. It's kind of fun being an uncle and not the dad. So that was kind of fun to see them. Also got a chance to spend some time with my parents who also made the trip up back to Boston from the Maryland area where they now reside.

But because, you know, you're spending time with family, you're running around the Boston area, didn't get a chance to record any podcasts, so I figured, you know what? We'll just take a little week. Sometimes it's good to recharge the batteries. Besides, we were doing some final work on the Inside the Pylon draft guide, so I'm just keeping my free time to help out on the editing side of the draft guide.

And that's where I do want to start because at the outset, I have to give a massive shout out to Dave Archibald, Ryan Dukarm, Derek Benson. Ryan and David were basically the backbones of the production operation for the Inside the Pylon draft guide.

Please follow them on Twitter at Dave Archie. You can follow Ryan at D-B-Ryan underscore Dukarm, D-U-K-A-R-M. They really did Yeoman's work on the back end. And also Derek Benson as well, who really picked up the weight on the editing side of the Inside the Pylon draft guide. Those guys just did tremendous work this year putting this together so again hats off to them massive thank you to them for their effort and inside the pylon draft guide it is out like i said

over 430 pages of information for you over 50 scouts working on it over 500 players scouted over a thousand reports written including including cross-checks. If you pick up the Inside the Pylon draft guide, which you can do at itpdraftguide.com, we talk to you about the process we used to put it together. And what's great about this product is there are some great draft guides out there. There are some great fantasy guides out there. I'm speaking, of course, about Kyle Krabs at NDT Scouting with his prospectus. Joe Marino is going to release a prospectus.

Benjamin Solak over at NDT Scouting has a quarterback contextualizing quarterback guide that he put together. Matt Waldman's great RSP, Rookie Scouting Portfolio. The thing about the ITP draft guide is it's not just one person's vision on players.

It's not just one person's takes on players. It's not just one person's takes on players. This is a true team resource that we've put together. We assembled a team of scouts, multiple people at each position. So you're not just getting my thoughts on quarterbacks, you're getting my thoughts, you're getting Tim Chow. You're getting Ted Wynn, Kurt Kalin, Joe Ferriola. Everybody chimes in. Dan Hattman, Dave Archibald. We work through these players position by position. We have debates.

Part of those debates and discussions are included in the profiles of each player. We have 185 full reports in with a vertical board of 185 players, but we've included write-ups on some of the other players that didn't quite make it into the guide, into our top 185 because of the work that we did. We didn't want it to go to waste. What I want to do is I want to talk about four players that have been linked to the Patriots and talk to you about how ITP sort of looked at those guys. I want to start with two quarterbacks, two guys that I was the lead scout on, but not the only scout. First being Mason Rudolph. Rudolph makes it into our guide as QB6

after sort of the big five of Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold. Then you get Mason Rudolph. And basically our quick little summary of it is a former spread quarterback that attacks zone and off-man coverage with good decisions before the play, has an outstanding deep ball, but needs time to develop to increase his processing speed

to attack smaller throwing windows and that's kind of been my knock on Rudolph is that when he sees off coverage when he has chances to take shots downfield he's great but when he's asked to sort of challenge narrower windows that's where he struggles a bit that's where I want to see some more development. As we write in the guide, he functions best when he can attack zone coverage and or off-man coverage looks and has the ability to identify weaknesses in zone coverage looks and roll throws in or out before the play. He shows pretty good touch on the deep ball with successful throwing down the field,

perhaps due in part to having receivers like James Washington and Marcel Atman strengths on him beautiful deep ball great timing for single side routes great at attacking zone coverages great on those curls those comeback those hitches routes weaknesses accuracy on intermediate throws there were times when he would struggle on those band-aid post routes those quicker end cuts there's a throw that sticks in my mind, the bowl game that they had against Virginia Tech. He had an open post route, just threw it five feet behind the receiver. I want to see some development there. Functional athleticism and play strength, those are areas I could see some improvement from him on his ability to create. You know, Josh Rosen gets knocked for sort of an inability to create as a playmaker.

I think a similar thing could be attached to Rudolph. You know, but when we got down to our discussion, there's a cross-check conversation that I had with Tim Chow in there. We were basically on similar grades. We were also sort of underwhelmed on him. As Tim put it, he can do some really good things and has enough arm strength. He can throw a beautiful deep ball.

But Tim felt like his mobility, his pocket movement, his creative abilities just aren't on par with a top-tier prospect. And my bottom line on him was, look, I'd banned the table for him for the grade that we gave him, a 6.99, which we have our grading scale in the draft guide, because I do think that he has a decent-ish floor,

and QB2 is worth something to a roster. So he was our QB6, somebody we've heard linked to the Patriots. Also a guy we've heard linked to the Patriots, a guy we've heard linked to the Patriots Kyle Lauletta Who ends up RQB7 right after Rudolph A touch bit of a lower grade Our snap judgment on him An experienced quarterback from the FCS

With starter potential Who has impressive accuracy in the short and intermediate areas But lacks top level arm talent Downfield velocity And has a tendency to stare down his targets I think that pretty much sums up Lauletta to a T top level arm talent, downfield velocity, and has a tendency to stare down his targets. I think that pretty much sums up Lauletta to a tee. In the guide, we also have one and three year projections on each player. And for Lauletta,

that one year projection, an accomplished quarterback coming from the FCS who has the process and speed, athletic ability, and arm talent to succeed as a backup early in his NFL career. Should earn the starting backup job as a rookie in the NFL. Should be in a position to compete for a starting job his second year in the right offensive system. In his third year, Lauletta should be a starting quarterback by his third season in the NFL. Has the potential to develop into a mid-tier starter by the end of his rookie contract. And that's kind of the way we view La Letta. You know, Ted Wynn, during the cross-check portion on him, Ted, whose opinion I trust on quarterbacks completely,

I think he's intriguing, has a lot of intangibles. I do have questions whether he has enough of them to make up for the lack of arm strength. Now, we've talked about the arm strength issue before. I think it's a schematic component, not a full limitation on him, but I understand Ted's point of view. But that's just a snippet of two quarterbacks from the grad. Up next, I'm going to talk to other players that have been linked to the Patriots,

one that maybe we're not as high on as other people are right now coming out of the combine. And one that we're really high on on a position of need. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now talking through some of the players

in the InsideThePylon.com draft guide that have been linked to the New England Patriots. We just got done talking about Kyle Oletta and Mason Rudolph. Now we're going to talk offensive tackle for a minute. Ever since the Combine ended, a player that seems to be rising up draft boards a bit is Colton Miller, the offensive tackle from UCLA.

He knocked it out of the park at the Combine. One of the things you get with the ITP draft guide is the relative athletic score from at the math bomb on Twitter at Kent Lee Platt, who does tremendous sort of, you know, analysis from an athletic profile of all of these players.

He's just been, you know, contributing over, doing some stuff for Detroit. I covered the Lions. You know, he's a great follower on Twitter, somebody you should definitely be following. And he includes his RAS score and all of these players. And from Bill, it's off the chart, 9.99. Just a tremendous elite sort of prospect from an athletic profile. But he was

scouted by our lead scout, Marcus Johnson, on the offensive line, who is somebody you should follow on Twitter. He's at TheMarkJohn, at T-H-E-M-A-R-C-J-O-H-N on Twitter. Give him a follow. He ended up our OT4, behind guys that you might know, Connor Williams, Mike McGlinchey,

who are guys that are considered two of the stronger offensive tackles in this class. That you might know. Connor Williams. Mike McGlinchey. Who are guys that are considered two. Of the you know. Stronger offensive tackles in this class. And then OT3 for us. Was somebody. Martinez Rankin. From Mississippi State. A name that you haven't heard talked a lot.

Haven't heard talked about a lot. Man I'm a little rusty here. But we'll get back into it. But when it comes to Colton Miller. Here's our snapshot on him. A plug-and-play prospect in the run game, but he struggles with his hand technique and pass set and pass protection. His elite length,

excellent athleticism, and very good play strength suggest he can correct these issues. Basically, when Marcus comes down on him, is that his athletic ability is going to be enough to get him by at the start. His one-year projection on him will be a starter based on his athletic ability, size, and potent traits. Natural traits will keep him afloat while he continues to develop and adjust to the speed of the NFL. Really has to work on his technique and needs help from a good patient coach. Has to be

willing to work hard on his flaws while being willing to take the coaching in order to develop around his intriguing traits by year three he has the potential to be a pro bowl player with the right coach who can develop his traits his versatility at both tackle positions will help him stay on the field while he continues to bona fide it to develop into a bona fide tackle in the National Football League. But we also include, I mentioned that RAS profile

from Mathbomb. Top offensive tackle combined performances according to that RAS score. Miller is second of all time behind only Taylor LeJuan. Now with the Tennessee Titans. He's ahead of guys like Sebastian Vollmer, Lane Johnson, Joe Staley, Nate Solder, guys that have been good tackles in

this league. And now it's from an athletic standpoint. A lot of those guys were first round picks. Taylor LeJuan was the 11th overall pick. Lane Johnson was the 4th overall pick. Joe Staley, the 28th overall pick. Nate Solder at 17. So you're talking about some guys that were good talents in this league and that went early in the draft. And people have been mocking Miller to the Patriots at 31.

And from a need perspective, I get it. But as you can see from the projections that we have on him from Marcus Johnson, our offensive line scout, there's going to be a need for patience and a bit of a learning curve with him. Some things he struggles with. Struggles to get his feet set in pass protection. Struggles to get to his set point in pass protection, does not have a good kick step at the snap. He struggles with use of hands in pass protection. He keeps his hands outside and uses a bear hug at times

instead of punching, getting a good jab into the chest plate of defensive players. So those are some things he's going to have to work on. But Colton Miller, our offensive tackle for, somebody that's been mocked to the Patriots. If you want to see more on him, more on our thoughts on him, ITPDraftGuide.com. You can check out the entire guide and our report on him. Next name we're going to talk about is a player that seems to fit the Patriots from a number of perspectives.

And that's Sam Hubbard, edge defender from Ohio State. Obviously, you know, people, we've talked about Hubbard a bit on this show. We talked about him with John Ledyard. Seems to sort of fit the Patriots from an athletic profile perspective. Has the lacrosse aspect to him.

A position conversion. He was a safety when he went to Ohio State. Now he's playing on the edge. Our lead scout on him was Nick Falato. You can follow him on Twitter at Nick, N-I-C-K-F-A-L-A-T-O. And he was our edge three. Obviously, everybody knows Bradley Chubb, who's edge one. Howard Landry, edge two.

Then we got Sam Hubbard behind him, edge three. Next little quick snap on him. Hubbard's length, first step, change of direction skills, and pass rush plan make him an excellent edge rushing prospect. He also offers the movement skills and awareness to play in space. Former lacrosse player and four-star recruit out of Cincinnati, Ohio that provided excellent versatility for the Buckeyes by lining up as a 4-3-5 technique and a 3-4 outside linebacker while playing in space often.

We talked about the athleticism with him that RAS the score on there is 8.97 from Mathbomb 9.0 is what we consider to lead that's what we can what Kent considers a lead at that position so you're basically looking at an elite athletic profile

three cone drill of 6.84 and the athleticism that you see on the three cone and the test and drill transfers to the field. Good at converting speed to power, has an array of pass rushing moves that consist of an excellent rip, swim, arm over mood, and very good push pulls, rip slides, stabwn arms, and power clubs while utilizing his very good and powerful hands. Very good flexibility in his hips and ankles to corner and soften the edge of the top of the arc. Rare ability to change direction and accelerate in the twist game.

That's from Nick's profile on him. Basically, he's our edge three. We are in on him. One-year projection on Sam Hubbard. Hubbard can start day one in a 4-3 or 3-4 scheme at the next level. He is heralded for his leadership and intelligence. He is a rare athlete that will have immediate value as a pass rusher and an edge setter. He is tough, smart, and physical, and he will have a strong impact year one against both the run and the pass. And if that doesn't sound

like somebody bill belichick wants in this draft if that doesn't sound like somebody the patriots need then i have been watching the wrong team for the past year or so because that sounds like a guy that the pats need and need now so if he's on the board at 31. If he's somehow on the board at 46. Excuse me. Whenever the Patriots pick again. 43, 44. Again guys.

I'm rusty. If he's there at 31. I'd give it a serious consideration. Because this is somebody that look. The Patriots need. He fits a lot of what they desire right now on the defensive side of the ball. But that's just four guys that have been talked about perhaps going to New England in this draft. 185 players in the ITP draft guide. 431 pages.

Just a ton of work went into it. An absolute labor of love. If reading about all these guys and learning more about these guys sounds like something you're interested in, again, head to ITPDraftGuide.com. Check it out. Up next, we're going to spend a final few minutes

on some quarterback scheme stuff. I'm going to talk a little bit about a piece that came out while I was on vacation. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield in Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, in Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you now on this April 2nd edition of Locked On Patriots. Good to be

back. As you can see, working through a little bit of rust, but that's what you know. You recharge the batteries, you kick off the rust, you get back into it. We're going to be full-on sprint mode here until the NFL draft. And speaking of the draft, didn't want to highlight here before we close, a piece I wrote over at Inside the Pylon just last week.

It came out while I was on a little break. Titled, One Drive with the 2018 NFL Draft Quarterbacks. And basically what I did was I put together a situation. You're down by six. You're down five, excuse me, under four minutes to go. You need a touchdown. You have every single draft quarterback at your disposal. You have a playbook, a world of football plays at your disposal. What are you going to do with each player? What types of plays are you going to use? Are any quarterbacks going to see the field more than once? Are you just going to use

one guy the entire drive? What are you going to do? And what I've tried to work through here was some of the schemes and plays and designs that I have in mind when I watch these guys. And the piece is up over at insidethepylon.com. I'm not going to go through the entire thing, but for each guy, I give you the situation, the quarterback, the play with the play art, ripped right from a playbook. For example, the drive kicks off with Baker Mayfield on an RPO concept. And one of the things I love about Mayfield is his process and speed in those situations. How he reads defenses, reads defenders, and reacts to what they do, mistakes they make, moves with them with his eyes.

And then I show you a clip of the quarterback in question running that design. So you got, you know, right off the bat, Mayfield running a little RPO concept. You get to a second and short on the next play, assuming that Mayfield does his job. What I like there, Kyle Lolleta on that boot action stuff. I love when Richmond used him on the move. Had flashes of a young Matt Ryan with what Ryan was able to do with Kyle Shanahan two seasons ago

when they went to Super Bowl 51. That's kind of some of the things we worked through. We talked about Mason Rudolph earlier. I combined two of the things that he does so well for the play that I picked for Mason Rudolph. It's called Bandit Left 63 Semi. It's out of a Steve Spurrier playbook. And what it is, you get the Z receiver, the slot receiver in this case, on a deep post. You get your other boundary receivers on deep out routes. It combines two of the things that Rudolph does best.

Throwing that deep post route when he gets to use touch on it over the top of the defense. Or if he sees off coverage on the outside on the boundary, throwing that deeper out route with timing, with anticipation. Those are the two areas where I loved what Mason Rudolph does as a quarterback. He combined them both into one play. Perfect example. So I'd invite you to check out that piece. Again, it's up at InsideThePylon.com.

And it's just a way to work through some of what I envision about these quarterbacks. But that will do it for today's show. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you missed me just a little bit again up in Boston spending some time with the family it was great to be back home for a little bit of time

having grown up in Waltham got to spend some time at the Burlington Mall where I spent so many Friday or Saturday nights as a kid we got to eat at the Chateau again got to eat at Legal's again got to see my little niece. I think I saw her eyes maybe once. Babies, man.

They're easy. When they get a little bit older, that's when it starts to get tough. But all in all, a great trip back. But it's good to be back with you. We're going to be rolling right onto the draft. We're going to be getting some guests back on and getting back up to speed. But we'll ease back into it again because, again, it's just early April now.

We're getting close, though. Closer each day. Again, it's great to be back. Always follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Hit me up with questions over there. Look for that debut piece over at Pro Football Weekly. It's weird when you grow up reading something

and then your name's in there as a byline. It's what a long, strange trip this has been. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Thank you.