Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 20, 2018 - Looking at EDGE Options

Episode Date: April 20, 2018

Mark Schofield examines EDGE options for the New England Patriots.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, welcome into Locked On Patriots for Friday, April 20th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for this Friday edition of Locked On Patriots. We are back to five days a week, getting you ready for the draft. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com. Rolling through my top 20 quarterbacks in this draft with QBs 5 through 1 to be unveiled next week. You can also check out some of the recent work over at Pro Football Weekly. As I said, we're here on Friday.

We're going to go through the edge class and our sort of edge preview here. We're going to go through the Patriots draft board, talk about some potential edge prospects at each of New England's picks in the 2018 draft. Going to keep it quick and tidy here for this Friday show. Get you in, get you out, get you on your way to wherever it is you're going today, whether it's work, school, anywhere else. Maybe you're headed away for a nice long weekend. Bring Locked On Patriots there with you. Let's get down to it here.

Start looking at this edge class again, a position that the Patriots will probably address. If you listen to Locked On NFL Draft with John Ledyard, Travis Sikama, you might be hearing in the next couple of days my appearance on that show. They're doing an Inside the War Room over there. I came on and dropped my thoughts on what the Patriots might do at 23 in the sort of mock that they have going.

And the way I felt the board fell in that mock, it was a rather interesting position for the Patriots because the big five quarterbacks were off the board, but you had a lot of value there for the Patriots at that 23rd pick. I ended up going Connor Williams, the offensive tackle, but I considered some edges there, so you can check that out over at LockedOnNFLDraft. But let's dive into this edge class, and one of the guys I did consider at that 23rd spot,

it's a guy I think the Patriots should consider at 23. And that's Marcus Davenport, the edge defender from UTSA. You might be thinking, look, I've heard some top 10 buzz on him. Why would he be there at 23? And for a couple of reasons. One, quarterbacks, they might make players fall. They might make players get pushed down the board. Two, I think some of the sort of early top 10 hype on Davenport was a bit sort of, you know, eyes bigger than the stomach kind of situation.

I think when he went down to Mobile, it displayed down there, his performance down there showed that he was very athletic, but very raw. Now, when I watched him briefly, both, you know, getting ready for Mobile and getting ready for the show, I watched him again. One of the things that jumped out at me was his pad level. Definitely plays very tall, very upright. That's a concern for him as he looks to transition to the National Football League. He does seem powerful, very athletic and explosive player, but there are times when he was slow off the line.

He was more of a two-point upright stance type of player. When we scouted him over at the Inside the Pylon draft guide where he was our edge five, Bo Bell, our lead scout, basically described him as a tough explosive athlete with terrific size and length. He will need to improve his pad level and pass rush plan to excel as he moves from Conference USA to the National Football League.

The high pad level is a concern that Bowe found as well. He sometimes struggles against double teams, sometimes has poor play strength at the point of attack. And yeah, the pass rush plan, sometimes he comes in with one move that he's going to use on a given route. Can't string double moves together. Can't follow up one move with another. But again, athletic and explosive.

Athletic testing was sort of off the charts. A 1.62 split in the 10-yard dash. Bench press, 22. Vertical leap, 33.5 inches. 124 inches on the broad jump. So again, an explosive athletic kid. Very raw, very toolsy, but somebody you think the Patriots might want to consider there at 23 because you get a chance to bring him in and mold him into the pass rusher he could become. Might be great value there at 23 because he does have sort of what you might consider

to be top 10 tools to him. It's just a matter of putting it all together. At 31, a name that's been linked to the Patriots throughout this process, Sam Hubbard, the sort of outside backer, edge type guy from Ohio State, a player that when I watched him, watched his bowl game against USC, a very sort of assignment sound, gap sound, seemed to be a smart defensive player, always knew where his responsibilities were. Always seemed to execute his responsibility quickly.

He was a guy that we liked at ITP. He was our edge three. Nick Filato was our lead scout on him. Said that of Hubbard, his length, first step, change of direction skills, and pass rush plan make him an excellent edge rushing prospect. But he also offers the movement skills and awareness to play in space. Excellent versatility on him. Lined up as a 4-3-5 technique for Ohio State,

a 3-4 outside linebacker where they put him in space often. He was a safety convert for the Buckeyes. Has excellent, excellent change of direction and lateral agility as well as quickness off the line of scrimmage. It just seems like Hubbard might be that sort of player that's right in the Patriots' mold, a guy that can fill a couple of different roles for you. You can put him right on the edge on the line of scrimmage.

You can use him as an off-ball linebacker if you want to. You can put him in space. You can have him on field in third downs where he can sort of be a big slot-type guy. It seems like he would be a great fit for the New England Patriots. Also very effective in the twist game when nick graded him over at itp he gave him a grade of one in the twist game which is the highest grade we give and that is something that fits with new england because

we talked about this last year during the season they did very well with the twist game with you know whether it's trey flowers and dietrich wise and some of the other guys, Butler up front as well. And so they might need that again. And so if you want a guy that can help you in that area, very good at push-pulls, rip-slides, stab in the long arms. He can put moves together. He can come into a rep with a good plan of attack, and if he gets beat on his initial move, he can adjust during the repetition to beat the defender. And so Hubbard, I think, is a guy that makes a ton of sense for New England. And if they want to address edge, they don't have to.

It's a common position that the Patriots have been linked to because they always need pass rush. I believe you can never have enough pass rushing in today's National Football League. So if they sort of want to wait and address it, say, at 31, Sam Hubbard might be a very good fit for the New England Patriots. Let's talk some day two options. You get to that pick at 43. I think I got

to sort of consider at that pick at 43. And they can go in a couple of different directions here. If you start getting into the second round when you're looking at edge guys. But Lorenzo Carter is a guy that I think has been linked to the Patriots. There's a variety of opinions on him.

There are people that wonder if again he's going to really sort of be a where do you put him in the National Football League because he was used all over the place for Georgia he was on you know off the ball 4-3 outside linebacker a 4-3-5 technique they put him a middle linebacker they used him in the slot at times you know very sort of twitched up athlete as Nick described him over at ITP. Again, the production wasn't there, but speed, explosiveness, toughness, he can help you on the edge. He can help you in an off-ball linebacker role as well.

A lead testing that we saw at the combine, 36-inch vertical, 130-inch broad jump, 1.56 split, 10-yard split in the 40-yard dash. When you talk about them from a technique phase, excellent long arm technique. It could also give you a rip move, a club and an arm over move, good flexibility at the top of the arc as well to sort of bend and run the arc when you're attacking the opposing passer in the pocket. They put them in the middle of the field. As I said, they put them at middle linebacker at times.

They put him at outside linebacker at times. And they could use him in sort of sugar and egg gaps and have him blitzing on the inside, get him matched up against guards and centers inside. And when you see the end of Super Bowl 52, you wonder if the Patriots could use some versatility there. We loved him over at ITP. Nick Falata loved him.

We had him as edge four, what's shaping up to be a pretty solid edge class, you know, but I think if you get into that second round and he's on the board, he's definitely worth a look. Now, I know there are some that do wonder about him. Greg Cosell over at NFL Films has some questions about him. No, so definitely check out what Greg said about him, but I think he'd be a good fit in New England, especially at 43. Let's talk now, Arden Key, that second pick in the second round. There are some question marks. We had John Ledyard on earlier this draft season about him. Poor weigh-in, multiple injuries, a leave of absence. So there's some off the field concerns there. When I watched him,

I took another look at his game against Florida before recording this. Sometimes it seemed like the recognition was a little bit slow. But then there were other times when he seemed to be very assignment sound. He was willing to stay home on the backside of plays, didn't want to give up on a potential reverse or end-around type action flowing back to him. When you've seen a lot of spread stuff and guys releasing to the flat, if that was his responsibility, he would do that.

He wouldn't chase down plays if that was not his responsibility. When you watch him, you see some good explosiveness. You see some good acceleration. Sometimes when he's facing reach blocks, he can beat those using his length. He prevents offensive tackles and tight ends from crossing his frame. He has a good pad level. That's something to contrast with him and Mark Stavenport. He uses his pad level much better, much lower. He uses the center of gravity well. The issue with him though, sort of the off the field stuff. There are some mistakes that he's made in terms of conditioning, some off-the-field stuff, seems to lose effectiveness towards the end of games,

towards the end of drives. There are times when if he gets beat at the point of attack, he might even give up on a rep. You have seen that as well. And similar to Marcus Davenport in the sense that pass rush plan seems to be a bit of a question mark. Stratton moves together. But when you get into that second round, there's potential there.

There's athletic ability, upfield burst, and the ability to set the edge, which is something he does well in addition to some of the other strengths we've mentioned. And so, look, there's some flags here. There are a number of flags here. In our cross-check conversation, a great line from the great and wise Dave Archibald, who you should be following on Twitter at Dave Archie Dave said we are going to have to nickname Arden Key quote theme park because Nick Jansen gave him six flags which is a pretty good line but he did have a lot of issues there he took a leave of absence from LSU seemed like he was going to walk away from the game

but then he came back so there are concerns him, but there's an upside there. And if you haven't addressed Edge yet and he's there on the board at the end of the second round, a guy to consider is Arden Key. Up next, we're going to go through the rest of the board talking about the Edge prospects. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now working our way through the New England Patriots picks in the 2018 draft with an eye on the edge prospects now.

We're into the third round here, looking at that pick at 95. And as we look at this edge board, there are some guys here in this sort of range of the draft that might be very good options. But a name that you've probably heard linked to the New England Patriots at some point in this draft is a guy from Rutgers, Kimoko Ture, edge defender from Rutgers University. And he's a player we looked at as edge 11 over at ITP. He's not your prototypical edge bender in terms of a pure pass rusher, but he does have some nice tools, according to Bo Bell over at ITP in our draft guide, length, strength, and speed.

To reach his ceiling, he must refine his use of hands and his pass rush plan. Look, he has great sort of height and arm length for the position, lean body, good athletic ability with acceleration while in chase, the quickness to make inside moves, the balance to avoid cut blocks, and the ability to change direction after the path that the ball carrier has changed. Now, issues with him, though. The use of hands. I mentioned it at the outset. There are times when he can shed blockers, but there are other times when he just uses his hands poorly.

He struggles to get separate. He can use his arms to get separation, but he doesn't have the ability with his hands to escape and shed the blocker on a consistent basis. He will flash it at times, but you want to see consistency there. but he doesn't have the ability with his hands to escape and shed the blocker on a consistent basis. He will flash it at times, but you want to see consistency there. He has an average rip move, but most of his moves come from more of speed and flexibility and cornering. Power moves don't seem to be in his forte right now.

Bowe described him as somebody that lacks a plan of attack at the top of his rush, and his average use of hands showing rip moves at the top of the rush, which sometimes gets him pushed upfield. So that's an issue with him. If you want to use him as sort of a guy that plays in space, that's going to be an issue as well. Doesn't seem comfortable dropping into coverage

and reading route patterns. He has the athletic ability to do it, but you wonder if he's going to develop that in the National Football League. He's a guy with great athletic ability. He could be a good fit in a defensive scheme that can use a strong-armed offensive, excuse me, edge defender that can set the edge in the run game. So, I mean, that's the issue there. Is that going to be the guy you want? You know, if you're looking at edge and pass rush, there's some questions there. But there's an athletic ability component to him that I don't think you should overlook. There's a length to him and the ability to set the edge,

which will fit with what New England wants on defense. So, Toure's a player to consider with that pick at 95. Then we're going to drop down the board. Remember, the Patriots not on the clock again until the sixth round. And there's a player that I think ITP is a little bit higher on than others. And so that's where we're going to go next. We're going to go with Jeff Holland. He's a, you know, a pass rusher here that we're going to talk about here. Player that we, when we studied, we sort of liked him over at ITP.

For us, Holland was our edge 17, which might be pretty high on him given some of the issues with him in terms of lack of ideal height. The athletic testing was not great. So there's an athleticism component that's a question mark here. But he's a player that can win with a great get-off at the of scrimmage good strength moves hand usage and intelligence his football intelligence is pretty good for an edge player here bo bell was our lead scout on the player from auburn jeff holland they described him as again outstanding physical toughness and outstanding initial get off with good power and quickness at the top of the rush showing good ability to bend and corner

with good flexibility good use of hand stays active at the top of the rush. Showing good ability to bend and corner with good flexibility. Good use of hands. Stays active throughout the rep. Throughout the rush. Swipes at the punch to get himself clean. Displays a good rip move to clear and get pressure or a sack. He can also use a bull rush. He can also convert speed to power.

Hasn't shown a sweep move. But that might be a height restriction. Tough to get that up and over movement as a defensive edge player. When the guy is taller than you. He does struggle with balance at times when he's trying to fight through traffic and fight through trash up front. Sometimes gets knocked off his lane. Contact balance is an issue there. But he's a player that when you look at him overall,

plays with good quickness, outstanding initial get-off in the pass set, can stress offensive linemen into the pocket. Does struggle with balance. But the strength at the point of attack, his football intelligence to read, key, diagnose, and decipher is very impressive from him. So when you get down into that sixth round, there are concerns. But in the cross-check conversation we have on him, Bo Bell and Nick Folato had a nice discussion on him that's in the Inside the Pylon.com draft guide. There are no real fatal flaws. You know, he, Bo really liked him,

had him on the higher end of the tier of where we graded him because of his pass rush ability alone. He doesn't possess outstanding athletic ability, but it's good enough to play for most defenses in the league again in the sixth round another play we liked out of kansas doris armstrong jr edge rusher from kansas nick falato our lead scout on him he did mention that look he's got poor run defense that's going to keep him off the field but in terms of pure you know a pure third down type pass rusher, that's going to give him a big sort of check mark for a lot of defenses. His speed, agility, and close and burst give him big upside as a pass rusher. Excellent change of direction, speed and open space, lateral agility, and close and burst.

Excellent long arm technique, rare pursuit as a backside defender, always trying to strip the ball. Those are some things in the plus column for him flexibility and the ability to corner the arc and his past Russian ability is going to keep him sort of Relevant and on the field in third down situations, but the weaknesses are there struggles In the run defense part of the game limited Eliminated ability to anchor himself against down blocks to easily wash down the line of scrimmage. Adequate ability at best to set the edge.

Gets sucked too far inside or he shoots too far upfield while eliminating himself from the play and showing marginal gap discipline on zone reads. Always trying to make a big play in the backfield rather than keeping the continuity of the defense intact. So you do wonder about him in terms of how that would play with a Bill Belichick defense. He played the majority of his snaps as a 5 technique

in a 4-3 defense in a 3-point stance. But they also dropped him down into the A-gap as a middle linebacker at times. They also put him in a 4-point stance on the edge. They moved him all around up front. Nick looked at him and said his ideal fit is a 3-4 weak side outside linebacker where he can use his close and burst and his pursuit speed to clean up on plays on the back side.

So Dorrance Armstrong Jr., interesting player to think about as we get into the sixth round here looking at these edge prospects. Finally, last player to discuss, Darius Johnson, small school star from Jacksonville State, somebody that might face a question about his ability to transition from the FCS stage to the National Football League, but he dominated at FCS with his burst, his quickness, and awareness. The lack of size and the weaker level of competition does raise the question about his transition to the nfl he was the fcs defensive player of the year in 2017 over his career started in 34 games played at 50 contests broke jacksonville state's career record for sacks and tackles for a loss versatility another big thing with him played primarily as a stand-up

outside linebacker close to the edge, a wide five, you know, that nine wide alignment, a five technique, a six technique, and a 3-3-4 or even a 3-3-5 defense. His strengths, explosiveness, initial burst, athletic ability, flexibility, against the run, mental processing, keen diagnose, leverage, quickness, change of direction, and center of gravity. His list of strength is one of the longest we have over at ITP at any position. But then the weaknesses, you know, the level of competition and his pass rush plan. He was able to sort of dominate against lower competition using a minimal skill set as an edge rusher. You wonder if he's going to be able to do enough on a consistent basis against NFL offensive tackles. And the athletic

testing was very much subpar. You know, we've been talking about guys with a score of, with an RAS, that relative athletic score as put together by Math at Math Bomb on Twitter, Kent Lee Platt. We've been talking about anything nine and above as elite, while Jackson's RAS, 0.85. Not great, friends. So there's a bit of an issue there in terms of his athleticism. He also has an issue with jumping off sides at times. He looks to be a snap jumper, can be too aggressive, timing the snap. That's something he's going to have.

You wonder if he struggles with that at the NFL against tougher competition. That might be an issue. But when you get into that seventh round, you might want to take a flyer on a guy with the ability to dominate against competition because when you study players, you study any position. If they're at a low level of competition, that's what you want to see. You want to see them dominate that because it does speak well to their ability to transition to another level and have some level of success.

That will do it for today's show, this Friday edition of Locked on Patriots, working our way through some of these edge prospects. Again, Patriots could go a number of different ways in this class, given the fact that they're getting Derek Rivers back, given the fact they're getting Dante Hightower, who they used basically as an edge rusher for most of the 2016-2017 season. They add Adrian Claiborne, so you do wonder how much of a need it truly is,

given who they're getting back. So you wonder if they would address it early. But if the right player is there, like Marcus Davenport, like Sam Hubbard, they might address it. Or they could wait and draft some of the guys we talked about in the later part of this episode. But that will do it for this week. I'll be back Monday with a mock draft. The final mock draft before the real thing.

And then we'll get through the rest of the defense. That's in the week to come here at Locked on Patriots. you