Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 26, 2019 - First Round Recap/NE Drafts a WR

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into the, I guess, official start of the 2019 season as round one of the 2019 NFL Draft is now in the books. It is after midnight here on the East Coast, but we got work to do, baby, because we had to get through what happened in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft, including the Patriots. Yes, they did not trade out. They did make a pick. It was a position that we all sort of hoped they would address,

and we'll have more on that in a moment. But before we do that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio. I hope some of you had a chance to catch the Football Guys live stream

that I was a part of tonight. Me, Sigmund Blum, Matt Waldman taking you through basically the back half of the first round, including the Patriots pick at 32, where I had a lot of thoughts on there that I'll again share with you. There was also a lot of making fun of the New York Giants at 6. More on that in a moment.

Also, speaking of the New York Giants, I also write for a trio of SB Nation websites, including Big Blue View, where I do have a piece tonight that dropped after the pick, comping Daniel Jones in that pick to something from Game of Thrones, believe it or not. I even worked in another Game of Thrones reference. Also, Pat's Pulpit, and of course, Bleeding Green Nation, where I am the co-host

of the one and only QB Scotia with the venerable Mr. Michael J. Kiss. But let's get into it right now, because the Patriots, they addressed a position of need at 32, and it was amazing watching this board fall throughout the night, because when you got to their pick at 32, there were still some very intriguing players available for them at positions of need. Players that we've talked about. Jawan Taylor and Dalton Risner, two offensive linemen still available. Now, Jawan Taylor was an offensive tackle one for many people. So the fact that he was still available, maybe it lent some credence to an injury concern.

That was some of the speculation we engaged in on the Football Guys livestream. So maybe that was the concern there. Dalton Risner was a fringe first, second day guy. So maybe that was the reason they didn't go with him. On the defensive side of the ball, you had a lot of the big name front type players come off the board already.

There was a thought, a glimmer of thought in my mind that maybe a Montez Sweat would be available, but he didn't make it to them. Interestingly enough, two safeties had gone, but the safeties of the more downhill, the more in-the-box type, we had Darnell Savage, part of a trade. The degree of McPacker's coming, we'll have more on that in a minute, but he comes off the board at 21, and then Jonathan Abram, who had been linked to the part of a trade. The degree of McPacker is coming up. We'll have more on that in a minute. But he comes off the board at 21.

And then Jonathan Abram, who had been linked to the Patriots a couple of times, he comes off the board a few picks prior. He comes off the board to, I believe, the Oakland Raiders at 27. There were some tight ends available. You had Jay Sternberger, although probably more of a day-two guy. And, of course, Irv Smith, who many people had mocked to the Patriots at 32, tight end from Alabama, was available as well.

And then you had, again, like I said, some of the safeties. A Juan Thornhill, a Chantagano Johnson, he was available. And Sir Adderley was available. And then, yes, the wide receiver spot.

You look at the wide receiver spot, they had some wide receivers that were available. Maybe a Paris Campbell, who got some recent buzz for the Patriots at 32. You look at Adibo Samuel. You look at Hakeem Butler was available.

A.J. Brown. Players like that were available. And then finally, yes, I would throw in the quarterback position because Drew Locke was available at 32. And yes, Brett Rippon. But the Patriots go in a different direction. Keneal Harry, wide receiver from Arizona State, they draft him with a 30-second selection,

and I will say, at first blush, you might think A.J. Brown was probably the better all-around wide receiver, but, and this is the case that I sort of wound myself up, talking myself into it live on air, live broadcast, and there's nothing like it. When you look at the Patriots' overarching philosophy of player evaluation, what is the phrase that we always use?

What can he do, right? That's the phrase we always use. I talk about it so often on this show, anywhere else I go. That's how they look at player evaluation is what can he do? And when you look at what Harry brings to the table, big physical type of receiver, a receiver that can win at the catch point, that maybe doesn't get the kind of separation on a consistent basis with his route running. That you would like to get from a receiver. But right now what he does is win at the catch point.

He can be a boundary type player. He can bail the quarterback out at times. He can play with a physical presence on the outside that the Patriots, let's face it, don't quite have with Josh Gordon's status up in the air. Can that work with what the Patriots need right now? Look at the rest of the Patriots offense. Look at the rest of the Patriots receiving group. Obviously, Julian Edelman is more of a, while he can do some stuff on the boundary, he's more of an interior type receiver, more of a slot type receiver.

Philip Dorsett, Bruce Elliton, Braxton Berrios, whatever they get from him. These are more slot inside type receivers. You're slot type guys. You're potentially Z type guys. Maybe we'll get Demarius Thomas, some of that ability at the X, but that's unclear.

Josh Gordon, again, some of that ability at the X, but that's unclear. Josh Gordon, again, some of that ability at the X, but still unclear. And so what you get in Harry is a guy that can fill that role, that can beat press at times. And so there's a schematic element here. And there's also the two things that matter to the New England Patriots in terms of the receiver position. Process and speed and the Brady circle of trust. Now, in terms of the process and speed, this might be a bit of a curve for him because we know the Patriots playbook, they ask a lot of their wide receivers from route adjustments and conversions to reading defenses and things like that. So there will be that, but you can picture a route tree that he could run right

away where maybe that isn't asked of him so much as it is the other guys on the field. There are plays in the playbook where there are receivers that don't need to do much in terms of conversions. It's all the other guys. So there's that part. And then there's the Tom Brady circle of trust. And this is where I sort of want to focus for a minute because we know the Brady circle of trust can be a tough circle to break into for newer receivers. Some receivers never get there. Other receivers get there and get there early. Malcolm Mitchell being a prime example. What can a receiver do to get himself into that Tom Brady Circle of Trust? Winning at the catch point is a great way to do it.

If you know that if you throw a 50-50 ball, your receiver is going to skew the odds of that 50-50 well in his favor. You're going to trust that guy. And that's what Harry does. And if Brady is going through stretches, and we've seen them at times, he had some last year, where the ball placement isn't ideal. Remember those throws to the left

that I kept yelling about? But you have a receiver that's still going to make catches for you in those moments, that's a way to get yourself into that Brady circle of trust. And so I think when you piece it all together, it was a position of need. It was a fit that they needed, a boundary type guy that can win at the catch point. And he brings that to the table. And that's what he can do now.

Then there's the issue of, do you believe he can grow beyond that and i think when you look at him on film you realize that this is a player that if he develops nicely he can help tom brady now but he can certainly be a much more well-rounded receiver down the road and help tom brady's replacement in say the next two three or four years. And so when you put it all together, I think with the way the board fell, the positions of need, and the areas they can now address with the five picks they have sitting here right now on day two, this is a perfectly reasonable and smart pick by the New England Patriots.

And so, Neil Harry, the new wide receiver of the New England Patriots, I'm a big fan of this selection. I think it was a great position of need that they needed to address, and it does certainly seem like they did that. Now what we're going to do tonight, we're going to take you through the first half of the draft, and then later the second half of the draft. We're going to talk about some of the picks I like, some of the picks that I didn't like. But before we do that, look, what is the draft process? It is a process of evaluating people. It's basically the world's longest and strangest job interview. You have all these sort of area scouts that are out there meeting with players and looking at them

and evaluating them. And then eventually at the end of this long process, you, the decision maker, have to sit down and say, this is the guy to fill that spot. This is the guy we're going to give a job to. And it's one thing if you're a multi-million dollar football team with all sorts of resources at your exposure and an army of area scouts to do it. But what if you're a small business? What if you're just a smaller company? You don't have those kinds of resources at your disposal, but you still need to hire people. You still need to go out there and find somebody to fill a position for you. You have to find somebody and answer that question. What can he or she do?

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That's ziprecruiter.com slash L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. ZippyCruiter.com slash LockedOn. ZippyCruiter, the smartest way to hire. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Friday post round one edition of the LockedOn Patriots podcast. And having covered what the New England Patriots decided to do on Thursday night, let's get into the rest of the draft. And I feel like it's important to sort of say at the outset that when I woke up, say on Thursday morning, you know, I do what I usually do.

First thing I do is I reach for the phone and I start going through the texts, the Twitter DMs, and I woke up to a venerable treasure trove of information, some stuff that made me feel that this was going to be somewhat of a crazy first round. Information that the Detroit Lions were probably going to go defense, although that didn't pan out as we'll get to in a second. Information that more teams than I expected had Daniel Jones as their top quarterback on the board.

And yes, a reaffirming that the New York Giants indeed viewed Daniel Jones as their top quarterback on this board. And in addition, some more thinking that maybe Kyler Murray would not be the first overall selection. So it was a very strange day to watch it unfold. I did a number of radio spots, and everyone I was on, I was like,

I don't know if Kyler Murray's going first overall. And what do you know? Kyler Murray goes first overall. And so the draft unfolded the way we sort of expected it to. The first three picks, no real surprises. We get Kyler Murray going to Arizona. And I think, look, if you're going to build Cliff Kinsbury's vision of an offense, he might be the better quarterback to run it instead of Josh Rosen.

So I understand it. I wouldn't have done it. I would have built around Josh Rosen. We're watching in real time his draft stock sort of take a dip, his trade value, excuse me, sort of take a dip. And so we'll see what happens. Rumors are that that will be addressed today on Friday. He will get moved.

And so we wait to see if that happens. Then you get Nick Bosa at two again. It makes some sense. Premier edge type player. Might be the best edge prospect in this class. At least the cleanest edge prospect in this class. That gives San Francisco a very good pass rush rush situation so you do like that pick and then quinn williams to the jets the afc east teams in the first half of this draft did some good work as we're going to get to and so those three made some sense then you get the first surprise of the

night clinton farrell the defensive end goes off the board at four to oakland first surprise of the night. Clinton Farrell, the defensive end, goes off the board at four to Oakland. First surprise of the night. Yeah, he's your prototypical 4-3 defensive end type. Good first step, good bend, solid type prospect. But there were other edge types that might have made more sense here. Other edge types that went later in this first round. Other defensive guys that went that might have made more sense here. So this was the bit of a surprise, the first one. A lot of people let their jokes fly on Twitter that, oh, you want the scouts home, so they didn't see this one coming. But he's a player that I like. I thought he was going to come off the board at 16 to Carolina. Thankfully, when I was on the radio in Charlotte yesterday morning, the player they did draft at 16, I talked about a lot. So give myself a little pat on the back for that one. Then at five, you get Devin White, the linebacker. I thought they would have gone Ed Oliver.

I thought Ed Oliver would have made a lot of sense, a lot of sense for them. But Devin White, the linebacker, you need him after you lose Quan Alexander. So it makes some sense. Then we get the boomlet. Then we get the big surprise, the one that had Twitter buzzing, the one that forced me to actually have to write something on Thursday night. Daniel Jones off the board at six to the New York Giants. And what I wrote, you can check it out over at BigBlueView, I basically made the two sides of the coin argument. There's a best case scenario and a worst case scenario, and I tried to outline how I viewed those. What I said was basically this.

It can work if they have the solid developmental plan in place that I wrote earlier in this year and anytime I was asked about Daniel Jones I said the team that needs the drafts him is going to need to have that solid developmental plan in place and with Eli Manning you at least have a situation where you've got somebody that can play this next season. Jones might need some time. I also said that the scheme fit and landing spot might be extremely important for him because I viewed him as a one-read, quick-game type of guy. And so you look at what they're building.

Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate. what they're building sterling shepherd golden tate maybe they are starting to put together that kind of offense around whoever is going to be playing quarterback and so if they're truly going in on a west coast type of offense jones might be the guy there's a way this could work now that being said i have serious misgivings about jones as a prospect he He is a singular read quarterback. 72.6% of his dropbacks, to put that in quotes, were zero to one step drops, which means that's quick game stuff. That's one read type stuff. He's a singular read quarterback. That's when he's at his best.

The decision making when you get downfield, when he's asked to work through reads, that's when you see him struggle. And so if they're truly going all in on a mirror of the Duke offense, this could work. The other thing to remember is this. If they were really drafting because of the David Cutcliffe connection, well, let's not forget. Yes. Yes. He coached Peyton Manning. Yes, yes. He coached Eli Manning. Here are some of the other players that he coached that made it to the National Football League. Heath Shuler, who was drafted early but never panned out.

Eric Ainge, Thaddeus Lewis, Sean Renfree, and now Jones. And that doesn't inspire confidence. You look at those kind of numbers, and it's like 50-50 at best. And the two guys that really made it, the two man-ins, were probably going to make it anyway. And so, like I wrote in the piece, it's like that expression, every time a Targaryen is born, the gods flip a coin and the world waits with bated breath to see which side it lands on madness or greatness

David Gediman flipped a coin tonight in my opinion and we all wait to see how that pans out after Jones you get two

three straight very good picks I think Josh Allen the edge to Jacksonville I was watching some of the stream before I came on Matt Waldman

Sigmund Blum and they talked about how this is them going all in on a strength that is already a strength of theirs, the defensive side of the ball. So that makes sense for Jacksonville. T.J. Hawkinson, again, I was told they were going defense, not tight end. But if Hawkinson fell to you at eight, I guess, why not?

So Hawkinson off the board to Detroit. Ed Oliver, I think, is a great pick for Buffalo. Then we get our first trade of the night. Pittsburgh comes up. They go get a linebacker, Devin Bush, the linebacker for Michigan. I think that's an ideal fit for them, very smart pick. And then Cincinnati, they don't go Haskins. They go Jonah Williams, my favorite tackle in this class,

first tackle off the board. Makes a ton of sense. Rashawn Gary, this one a bit of a surprise, I think. I thought Gary might have waited a little bit longer to hear his name called, but he comes off the board of the edge, comes off the board of 12th at Green Bay. Then a very good pick, Christian Wilkins at 13 to Miami, a player that I liked a lot, interior defensive tackle type, but he can do some stuff. I think that's a very good pick. I think that is a very good pick for the Miami Dolphins. And when you sort of look at Christian Wilkins, you look at a guy that, you know, he's got some quickness.

He's got some athleticism. He's got some production. Three technique type of player. Character type guy. Leader type player. Face of the franchise type of guy. They're looking to build the culture down in Miami. This is a guy that can do it on the defensive side of the ball.

There's three great picks by the three other AFC East teams with Quinton Williams, with Ed Oliver with Christian Wilkins, all defensive guys to get after Tom Brady so we keep that in mind as the draft rolls on then a player that I mocked to New England at 32

comes off the board at 14 Chris Lindstrom, the BC offensive lineman, he comes off the board at 14, which earlier than I expected, but David Archibald pointed it out in our discussion, the ongoing chat we have with the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Great zone fit. Falcons run a ton of outside zone, so the scheme fit makes a ton of sense. And then finally, at 15, we had Dwayne Haskins off the board to Washington. We were hearing that they were going to have to go up to

get him. Now they just look. Haskins falls into their lap at 15, and they get the quarterback to address their quarterback situation. So an interesting top half of the first round. I think some teams made some really good picks. Of course, there's the Giants one, which is a question mark, but we just have to wait to see how that pans out. So going to hit the pause button for a second. Up next, we'll do the rest of the first round. That's all ahead on this Friday recap show of the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft here at Locked on Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now. I'm going to close out this Friday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Let's look at the first round of the NFL draft. Look at the back half of the first round now. We've made our way through the first 15 picks as well as what the Patriots did at 32. Because again, this is Locked On Patriots. You want the Patriots stuff up front. And then you can listen to the other stuff at your leisure.

Don't forget, we have the ongoing conversation in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. It was hopping all night long. We even get a monkey wrench thrown. One of our great listeners and friends threw out AJ Brown when the Patriots were on the clock and we all got excited for a second and we realized that was just

what he was hoping for. Not mentioning any names, you know who you are. But again, if you'd like to be a member of that, please hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield or send me an email at mark.schofield.insidethepylon.com.

We will be tracking the rest of the NFL draft all week long, all weekend long, over the logs on Patriot Slack channel. Let's finish this show, though, with a look at the back half of the first round. Brian Burns at 16 to the Carolina Panthers. Love it. Absolutely love it. They needed to address edge. I was on the radio down in Charlotte Thursday morning saying Brian Burns would be a the Carolina Panthers. Love it. Absolutely love it. They needed to address edge. I was on the radio down in Charlotte Thursday morning saying Brian Burns would be a great fit for them.

I feel like I finally got something right in this draft. And so, like that pick. Dexter Lawrence. Now, I had made the case here and elsewhere that maybe Dexter Lawrence would make sense for New England at 32. Yes, a shade nose tackle type guy. And you can see where the Patriots would use a player like that. You know, they run a lot of bare fronts.

They use a traditional nose guard at times. You think about Ted Washington and Vince Wilfork, and they've used players like that, Malcolm Brown. And so Dexter Lawrence at 32 was something I was kind of slowly talking myself into. I would have been okay with it. But Dexter Lawrence at 17 to the New York Giants. You get the sense, and I said this on the Football Guys live stream,

it almost feels like Gettleman was just making picks out of spite. He's going to draft a guy to hand the ball off, and he's going to draft a nose tackle to stop the run. He really is going all in on the old school. But Dexter Lawrence at 17. Garrett Bradbury I think is a fantastic pick. The NC State interior offensive lineman to Minnesota. Jeffrey Simmons to Tennessee at 19.

Interesting, interesting pick. They have other needs. They have other more immediate needs. They feel like a team that needs to win now, but Simmons will certainly help them get at a top five, top seven type player at 19 is a good pick for them. Noah Fant to Denver. Obviously, look, Denver and that Kubiak style offense

they're going to run. You love the tight ends. That's a good pick. Now, will he fit with Flacco? That I'll have to wait to see on, but I do like that. Darnell Savage at 21. that trade, Seattle trades out. Green Bay comes up.

Interesting that Savage is the first safety off the board. He was somebody that went from a day two pick to first safety off the board in the blink of an eye. But Parenthem and Amos is going to be interesting. They're both box-type guys, down near the line of scrimmage-type guys, but that could work. Then you get another trade, and this was interesting. You get the Philadelphia Eagles coming up to 22,

training with Baltimore to get ahead of the Houston Texans. And, of course, they draft an offensive lineman, Andre Dillard from Washington State. And I like the schematic fit because Eagles do a lot of West Coast, a lot of air rate type stuff. That's the environment that Andre Dillard is coming from. The interesting thing was I had heard early in the day that the Texans were seriously considering going up and trading for getting up so they can draft Andre Dillard, moving up in this draft, moving up from

23. And so they're probably looking at the draft board. They see the Ravens are on the clock at 22. We all know the Ravens were to take a wide receiver. And they're probably looking at the draft board they see the Ravens are on the clock at 22 we all know Ravens were to take a wide receiver and they're probably thinking we got Andre Dillard gonna fall into our lap at 23 won't have to move to get him and then Howie Roseman comes up and takes Andre Dillard which means at 23 they still address offensive line Titus Howard Alabama State small school guy was probably more of a day two pick, but maybe they really liked him. And this is when you really knew something's wrong with Jawan Taylor.

And so we wait to see where that shakes out. At 24, Josh Jacobs, the running back to Oakland again. Another pick I expected to see. Everybody sort of linked John Gruden with Josh Jacobs. And so there you go. At 25, Baltimore now on the clock. They get their receiver, Hollywood Brown. I think that's a great fit.

Watch Hollywood Brown and Lamar Jackson work magic in scramble drill situations. That's going to be fantastic. Montez Sweat comes off the board at 26. Washington makes another trade. They get their edge. This was a very good draft, very good first round for Washington. They get Haskins at 15 without having to move. They they come back up and they get Montez Sweat after he falls through the potential heart situation now they gave up a second round pick as part of this but

still I think that was a nice fit for them Jonathan Abram comes off the board at 27 to the Oakland Raiders and I think the Savage pick by the Packers and the Jonathan Abram pick by Oakland that tells you tight ends you got to stop them and so especially look if you're Oakland you're facing now Noah Fant twice a year you're facing Travis Kelsey twice a year Hunter Henry whatever you're going to get from him you got to stop the tight end and so I think that's an inkling towards that type of player you need that type of box type safety that can still be athletic enough to carry tight ends on those routes

that's why you see those two safeties coming off the board first they might be more valuable than your traditional middle of the field center fielder type guys in today's NFL Jerry Tillery comes off the board

to the Chargers I loved this pick it hurts as a Patriots fan because he would have made a lot of sense for New England guys in today's NFL. Jerry Tillery comes off the board to the Chargers. I loved this pick. It hurts as a Patriots fan because he would have made a lot of sense for New England, but I think this is an ideal pick for the Chargers right there. LJ Collier, Seattle had back-to-back picks at 29 and 30. They make the first. LJ Collier, the edge from TCU. So the Seattle Seahawks get some edge help after losing Frank Clark in that

trade. And then another trade, the Giants come back in, and this was a hilarious moment on the live stream. The trade gets announced, and we're all like, Matt Waldman said it first, oh, the Giants coming back in, and they get drafted Drew Locke here after they had already drafted Daniel Jones. But no, DeAndre Baker, the corner from Georgia, first corner, and only corner off the board in the first round.

And then we get another trade atlanta coming in to 31 rams trading out that was something we expected with bradbury off the board with lindstrom off the board they were probably thinking either interior or then maybe addressing defensive tackle with the way the board had fallen rams thought look don't like this they come out atlanta comes back. They address offensive linemen again. Caleb McGarry, the right tackle from Washington, might have to kick inside, but they're probably not going to do that

having just drafted Chris Lindstrom. You're not going to draft a guard and then draft an offensive tackle to kick inside the guard. So they go offensive line, offensive line. And then the Patriots on the clock, they go with Harry, the wide receiver. And so those are kind of the picks. Let's talk some big pitcher storylines.

Daniel Jones, I think, is going to move some headlines tomorrow. Very surprising that he was the second quarterback off the board, although with what I've been told, he was going to be the Giants pick anyway. And so, look, again, if he was your top quarterback, get him at six. Don't let the gods decide. Drew Locke falling out of the first round is a bit of a surprise to me. I thought he had established himself as a first-rounder. Maybe Arizona takes him to start things off tomorrow.

No, that's not going to happen. But speaking of Arizona, the Josh Rosen situation now is going to have to play itself out. I think the Chargers and the Dolphins seem to be in the mix. Maybe the Patriots kick the tires on that. It's interesting. The reporting seems to be everywhere. Hearing some reports that the Patriots kicked the tires on that. It's interesting. The reporting seems to be everywhere. Hearing some reports that the Patriots didn't like him at all. Hearing other reports that they thought he was the smartest quarterback in last year's draft.

So that issue still lingers. I think if you look at this draft overall, this was a trenches draft, right? A lot of offensive linemen. Maybe not the names we expected not seeing joan taylor drafted but you know you look at jonah williams coming off the board lucas chris lindstrom coming off the board at 14 when we thought he was maybe a fringe first rounder and then you look at garrett bradbury coming off the board at 18 when you thought he might be there at 31 andre dillard team trades up to get him. Titus Howard as well.

And so Caleb McGarry sneaking in the first round. It's a lot of offensive line helping and obviously a lot of defensive front players with Bosa, with Williams, Farrell, with Josh Allen, with Ed Oliver, with Rashawn Gray, Christian Wilkins, Brian

Burns, Dexter Lawrence, Jeffrey Simmons, and Montez Sweat, Jerry Tillery, LJ Collier. Yeah, 13. 13 players up the defensive front, and that's not counting off-ball linebackers because you also had Devin White and you had Devin Bush. So that gets you to 15. That's almost half of the draft in the defensive front players. It sort of tells you where the value is when you look at the offensive line. You probably get into

the 20s and combine an offensive line and defensive front players. And so that's where the value is in the first round. As we get later into this draft, you see more wide receivers. You see that tight end depth come into play. And yes, some quarterback depth, I think, as well. And so that's going to be interesting to watch. Maybe the running back position as well. We still got the one first-round running back, the one many expected in Josh Jacobs. So interesting first round. The meat of the draft, I think, comes tomorrow night.

And, of course, I will be here with you throughout all of it. I will hop to the mic when the Patriots make picks, and I will, of course, have a wrap-up show when it all is said and done. But that will do it for today. Next time you hear from me, we will be at some time Friday, maybe when the Patriots draft. Rip it at 56. I kid, mostly.

But it's going to be fun either way. Until next time, until Friday. It is Friday by the time you listen to this. But until later on on Friday, keep it locked right here. To me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.