Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 27, 2019 - Day Three Recap

Episode Date: April 28, 2019

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a special Saturday night installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for Saturday night, April 27th, 2019. Get some time to do just one quick final show here to sort of try to put a bow at least a partial bow on the 2019 nfl draft we had day three rounds four through seven today there's undrafted free agency stuff flying around right now and so there's still landing spots to be found for players but given the fact that the drafting is, I figured it was time to sort of hop on the mic, talk a little bit about the players that the Patriots drafted today,

including one in particular, talk a little bit about some of the other picks that were made league-wide. We're not going to go through it pick by pick for four rounds of the draft, but I'll probably highlight a couple of different players that I thought had some interesting Landon spots. And then at the end of the show, we're going to do three things we learned, or I think we learned about the Patriots, as well as I'm going to take some L's.

Always good to be transparent. Always good to be, always good to own up to some of the mistakes that you made. And yes, there's still a lot of time for players to sort of rebound, but at least in terms of where I valued players, I had some big misses, including one in particular that I can't shy away from.

But before we do any of 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, Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, and Pat's Pulpit, three of the SB Nation websites. Let's talk quickly now about the players that the Patriots picked. They made five selections on Saturday, addressed a couple of different positions. And let's start with the pick they made,

the first one they made in the fourth round, a pick 118. They go offensive line from the University of Arkansas, an interior offensive lineman, center and guard type player. Yelda Froholt from Denmark originally comes to the New England Patriots. A very sort of athletic type of interior lineman. When you sort of read about him, learn about him, you're going to see a guy that has great movement skills, good body control, gets to the second level extremely well,

natural type of athlete up front, very sharp, had experience of both guard and center can navigate the line of scrimmage isn't the most powerful guy isn't the most physical of guys but he has great lateral mobility to mirror rushers in the past game and that great lateral ability to sort of move whether it's on pullers and pull blocking designs on power or gap plays or even moving laterally on zone blocking type of plays. He's going to have to get more physical. He doesn't have the play strength and power.

He's more of a technician in terms of taking good angles and finishing blocks. But if he adds a little bit of power, he could be even better, more well-rounded interior offensive lineman. He can use his hands well. He has good balance. And again, the versatility is something that the Patriots like. And everybody you read about him, whether it's people at the Draft Network, Lance Erlein, or others,

they say that his mobility and that lateral movement is probably his strength. He's from Denmark. He came to the U.S. during his sophomore year. Was quickly a top defensive tackle prospect. He was on the D-line for Arkansas before he moved to the offensive line where he started for three seasons. The guys on the D-line for Arkansas before he moved to the offensive line where he started for three seasons.

The guys at the Draft Network said he is upside as a starting center in a zone-blocking scheme, and it might take some time to season and develop. But they had him pegged as a fourth-round value, and they nailed it. The Patriots get him at 118. So I like that selection. Then at pick 133, Jared Stidham, the quarterback from Auburn. And yes, we knew who my favorites were for the Patriots,

but Stidham was among the players that I strongly considered for them. I think the scheme fit makes a lot of sense. And yes, when you watch him, you have some of the issues with the offense he was running at Auburn, even sometimes the offense he was running at Baylor. But I do think that a time and a rhythm offense could be a very good fit for him. He has the ability to throw downfield. He has some athleticism. He can move in the pocket. When I saw him down to the senior role, I thought this was a player that if you get him in the right offense, he could just thrive. He was running Kyle Shanahan's offense, ran it extremely well.

And so I think this was a very good selection for the New England Patriots now is it a situation where he's going to be tasked with playing right away no which makes it an even better situation because he can learn I think he's instantly the number three quarterback on this team you know I'm not a huge Danny Etlin fan. I think people know that. But I think it's an instant upgrade at the QB3 spot, and he can push for QB2 next year, and who knows what happens after that. And so I do like this pick. I've really sort of grown to it. And, of course, it doesn't hurt that if you go to my Twitter feed right now,

the header photo is me and the new Patriots quarterback. So I'm cashing in on that a little bit on social media because, hey, listen, I'm taking some lumps. I'm taking some L's over the weekend. I'm going to take the W's when I can get them. Next pick they made, it was a 159 overall in the fifth round. Brian Cowart, defensive tackle for Maryland. And when they made this pick, I was like, that name sounds familiar. And then I remembered

I saw him intercept a pass against Michigan State. It was a game that I went to to scout Brian Lauerke live. Lauerke did not play well, but he had a pick in that game. He's got good size, good strength. He was a five-star

prospect, a can't-miss type of guy. Flopped at Auburn. I got Lancer lines right up on him in front of me because obviously I didn't study this guy in depth. He did not pan out at Auburn, but he transferred to Maryland, made the best of it. Good size, good positional

flexibility, good at the point of attack, good job at stacking and shedding blocks. He's got the ability to make some bull-r rushing moves and use those as a pass rusher. Good pad level on most moves to the inside. But you do sort of wonder about, look, this was a five-star athlete who crashed out at his first school. He never really sort of panned out to what he was going to be or what people thought he might be. He started all 12 games for Maryland and was named an honorable mention for the Big Ten, for all Big Ten.

38 tackles, 5 for a loss, 3 sacks, 2 interceptions. So he had 2, not just the one I saw. So you do wonder if maybe this could go one of two ways. Maybe he is sort of an underachiever type guy, or he's going to have a huge chip on his shoulder now. But he was an All-American and Florida Class 6A Player of the Year, rated the number one recruit in the country by some outlets in 2015. So there's certainly some talent there.

Maybe the Patriots will be able to tap into that. Then in the fifth round, I'll pick 163, Jake Bentley, punter from Stanford. That's right. The Patriots traded up to get a punter. Now, they just re-signed Ryan Allen to a one-year deal. Perhaps this is a bit of a punter competition. If you go on my Twitter timeline, you'll see an 84-yard punt against Cal. Just incredible stuff.

Of course, it rolled into the end zone. It must be better. I would much prefer an 83-yard punt in that situation. But, you know, beggars can't be choosers. You can't be nitpicky about it. But you do wonder if there is a bit of a punter competition away underway at least the tricky thing about this one he's right-footed belichick seemingly always preferred the left-footed punter because it spins differently now you get a right-footed punter maybe he's softening on his stance on that one who knows but patriots drafted a punter from Stanford. And finally, Ken Webster, a cornerback from Mississippi.

Absolute athletic freak. I mean, that's the thing that jumps out when you talk about Ken Webster. You know, he is just an athletic freak. When you look at some of his numbers, his athletic testing and things like that, he is just somebody that just jumps off the charts. For example, when you look at his relative athletic score, that was 9.79, which puts him into the elite category. He measures in a 5.10 and 7.8, 203, but runs a 4.4340. And as a pro day, you saw a 20-yard split of 2.59 and a 1.56 10-yard split.

18 reps on the bench, which was elite for a corner. 43-inch vertical and an 11-foot broad. I mean, that's big-time explosiveness. And so, raw athlete, getting him in the seventh round, not a bad selection. Take a chance on somebody with that kind of athleticism. And I think that's somebody you can see playing a role on special teams at the bare minimum, if not becoming something more. So that wraps it up.

Those were the day three selections that the Patriots made. Up next, we're going to talk about some of the picks that were made by other teams on day three and a little bit later. Three things we learned about the Patriots. Three things I think we learned about the Patriots, as well as, well, some losses that I got to take. That's all ahead on this Saturday night recap show here at Locked on Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now on this Saturday night edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And let's quickly take a spin through the rest of the picks that were made on Saturday. We're not going to go pick by pick, but I'm just going to highlight as we go through some of the picks that jump out to me. The day began with two or actually three really interesting picks. I think you had Hakeem Butler finally hearing his name called at 103 to the Cardinals. Cardinals loaded up on wide receivers. I think they had a very good draft. The Bengals

then move up to 104 and they draft Ryan Finley so he hears his name called right at the start of day three and then the Saints Chassie Garner Johnson the safety finally hears his name called at 105 the Niners they take the first punter of the day at 110 the Niners take Mitch Wyschnoski the punter from Utah who apparently had just a tremendous pro day workout. It was either a pro day or a private workout. I think it was a pro day workout, but people were raving about it. People were calling it the best punter workout since the punter right now for Dickinson, the punter for Seattle.

Saying it was the best punter workout in a long time. The Titans at 116, a money hooker. The safety from Iowa, That's a player we were talking about a lot on this show. He hears his name called by Tennessee. I think that's a good pick for them. Riley Ridley, the wide receiver from Georgia. A lot of people had him high on their boards early in the process, but he fell a little bit. He didn't have the best workout or combine portion of the draft process. He goes to the Bears at 126. I think that's a pretty good fit in Matt Nagy's offense.

Drew Tranquil, we talked about him a lot on the show. He goes at 130 to the Chargers, the linebacker from Notre Dame. They're building a nice young defense. I think he's going to fit. He'd play some special teams as well, the kind of player that he is. The Raiders get a tight end. A lot of Patriots fans have their eyes on Foster Moreau, the LSU tight end. He comes off the board at 137 to the Raiders get a tight end a lot of Patriots fans have their eyes on Foster Moreau the LSU tight end he comes off the board at 137 to the Raiders round five starts off with the Cardinals making another good pick Deontay Thompson the safety from Alabama I know some

things came out that you know maybe there's a degenerative condition in his knee that might be a problem for him might sort of limit how long he's going to play but he's a good player smart player you know to play safety in a's a good player, smart player. You know, to play safety in a Saban defense, you're basically NFL ready from the mental standpoint. So I think that's a very good pick. Going through the rest of this draft, Amani Aware, the cornerback from Penn State. A lot of people had him as one of their top three corners in this draft. The Lions get him at 146 in the fifth round.

Probably a very good pick. Some other fifth round picks that I liked. You did have Hunter Renfro hearing his name called at 149 to the Raiders. Oakland getting a nice little wide receiver there. A slot type guy. People dug up some old tweets from Derek Carr himself about how

he was always open. So now he's going to get a chance to throw at him. Cleveland drafts linebacker Mack Wilson from Alabama again this is a player Saban thought should have stayed in school and so maybe he should have listened but if you play in linebacker in that Saban defense you're going to know some things about playing in the NFL and so I think the Cleveland Browns got a pretty good one right there Charles Omenahu I was talking about him 32. Comes off the board at 161 to the Houston Texans. I think that's a very good pick for them. They could use his length on the outside. They

can kick him inside. I still am a huge fan of his. Maybe I was just way too high on him. Maybe I was buying into some of the hype, but he comes off the board in the fifth round. Some quarterbacks to talk about here in the fifth round at At 166, the Chargers. Easton Stick from North Dakota State. I talked about him as being at least bare minimum, absolute floor for him in this draft. It was the seventh round to the New England Patriots because of his three-cone.

Chargers see something more in him. And I said on this show, other places, throws to the seam route very well. Very good pro- style quarterback doing that under center deep play action drop type of stuff if that's what you want as a qb you're going to get it with easton stick then at 167 the very next pick clayton thorson from northwestern to the philadelphia eagles this one surprised me a bit not that he got drafted but the team and the fit because i thought another quarterback gardner minchu was, was a better fit, a more almost perfect

fit for them. But Thorson can do some of the stuff that they're looking for, some arm strength, some foot mobility in the pocket, some pocket movement type stuff, and some decision making. It's an interesting pick for them. I would have gone in a different direction, but they must have seen something in him. Let's kick it to the sixth round. Again, Arizona, Keison Johnson from Fresno State, the wide receiver great market share numbers arizona had a very good draft we'll get into team by team recaps as the weeks roll on here but i think arizona is in the conversation for one of the best drafts of the week then caden smith the tight end from stanford comes off the board at 176 to the 49ers saquon hampton the

safety goes to the saints at 177 so there you you go. Get the Saints sort of double-dipping at the safety spot with two names, two players linked to the New England Patriots throughout this process. First was Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and then Saquon Hampton. 178, Gardner Minshew. He comes off the board to the Jags. They're going to be running some West Coast stuff with Flip.

DiFilippo, now their new offensive coordinator. I think that's sort of an ideal fit for them. Very good pick. Big fan of that pick. I think that's sort of an ideal fit for them. Very good pick. Big fan of that pick. I think it's a very good landing spot. Another quarterback, here's his name, called Trace McSorley at 197 to the Baltimore Ravens. I don't know about McSorley's long-term viability as a starter in the NFL,

but in the right offense, he could be a backup, and this might be the right offense. I was on the radio out in Portland, Oregon before the draft, and I was talking with that host about potentially Trace McSorley sticking as a backup to Russell Wilson. But I think this might be another ideal situation where they could look at him as a backup. But also, John Harbaugh said they're going to consider him in sort of a Taysom Hill-type role because of his athleticism. So stay tuned.

You might see more of Trace McSorley on the field before some of the other quarterbacks that were drafted this week. Got to mention it. Obligatory pick 199. I mentioned Colts draft linebacker Jerry Green from Mississippi State. I know absolutely nothing about him and I'm not even going to take the time to look it up. I just have to mention it. Pick 199, the Tom Brady pick. We're going to do that. Let's see. Going through. Kelvin Harmon finally hears his name. Called a 206 to the Washington Redskins.

Hem and McLaurin. I think those are two very nice picks for the Washington Redskins. And I hope you saw. One of the best parts about draft week are the videos that you see when players are picked. I watched the McLaren one. It was like three minutes long, but it was worth it. The emotion when you hear your dream realized and you're on the phone with your new head coach, your new boss, and emotional stuff.

Always good to check out those videos. But Kelvin Harmon finally hears his name called at 206 here in the sixth round. Yeah, we're going to be talking about him in a minute. As far as the rest of the other six-round picks, nothing really jumps out, so let's roll to the seventh round. Working our way quickly through the seventh-round board, Isaac Nauta comes off the board at 224

to the Detroit Lions. He was a player we were talking about for the Patriots maybe earlier, as well as another tight end, Alizie Mack, a 231 to the New Orleans Saints. So two more tight ends that go away from New England. Some other seventh round picks that sort of catch my eye scrolling through it. Mr. Irrelevant, Caleb Wilson,

tight end to the Arizona Cardinals, tight end from UCLA. And so there you go. That's basically day three in a nutshell. Some of the quarterbacks that went, some of the other picks that really jumped out at me. Another fun, fun draft in the books. But up next, three things I think we learned about New England

as well as some L's that I got to take here at the end of this long and winding road that was the 2019 draft season. And yes, a teaser of the 2020 draft class of the quarterback position because you know I'm going to do it. That is all ahead. To close out draft weekend here at Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now

to just close out draft weekend here. Kind of just close out the 2019 draft weekend itself. We will do more recap shows and go sort of team by team, division by division and things like that. But will do more recap shows and go sort of team by team, division by division, and things like that. But I do want to talk about a couple of things here before we just shut it down for the night and for the weekend. The next time you hear from me, it will be on Monday.

But three things I think we learned about the New England Patriots, or at least how the Patriots view their roster right now going into the draft. Number one, they're clearly not as worried about the tight end position as we all were on the outside because we were thinking they would double dip a tight end. They would at least draft one. Maybe they would trade up to get one of the Iowa kids or for 32 or 56, they would draft somebody.

They didn't draft a single tight end. Well, not a one. And I said this a couple of times as this draft process was unfolding. Maybe this means that they have a plan for a Kyle Rudolph situation. Maybe they really believe that between Matt Lacoste and Jacob Hollister and Ryan Izzo and Austin Safarian-Jakins, they can staple together enough of the tight end position. Maybe they're anticipating some bodies being available come cut down time. But they clearly were not worried about the tight end position at all. Unless they drafted this punter from Stanford to play tight end.

They're just not concerned about it. And so it's a good reminder that on the outside looking in, we always have a tendency to start thinking about a team or a need or a position of weakness. The organization, they get more information. They know what Ryan Izzo is doing. They know how Jacob Hollister is progressing. They know what they're getting in Matt Lacoste. And even though I was very intrigued by him,

I still thought tight end was a need. And we thought tight end was a need before the Gronk retirement. But apparently, the organization just feels differently. So there's that. Two, the punter competition. Ryan Allen, they re-signed him for a year, but they draft a punter. Now, the interesting thing about this is the Patriots always seem to acquire a punter anyway. They wanted to train in camp last year with two punters, Corey Borquez, the kid from Mexico State. They had him. Obviously, Ryan Allen won the job, but it seems like they'd like to have two punters. And you just wonder if part of the reason that they do that is for practice purposes, if nothing else.

It was funny when that pick was made, Justice Mosqueda, at J-U-M-O-S-Q on Twitter. He tweeted out, the Patriots just traded up to draft a punter, making it seem like the punter is the best available option in this class. Go spend some time with your family. They miss you. I thought that was a pretty funny tweet, but we might have a punter competition on our hands. I guess we'll do four things. How about that? Because we thought linebacker might be a sneaky depth spot. They didn't draft a linebacker. We thought safety might be a sneaky depth spot depth spot. They didn't draft a linebacker. We thought safety might be a sneaky depth spot for them.

They didn't draft a safety. And so again, it goes back to sort of the first point. How we feel about this team on the outside doesn't always match up with how this team feels on the inside. Now maybe they were looking at those spots, but it never sort of fell away. For example, Javi Tahai, the kid from Hawaii that apparently they spent a lot of time with.

Bill Belichick himself spent a lot of time with him. They were going to draft him, but I was told that they were going to draft him. But the Lions came in and traded up to go get him. And so maybe they were going to do something at the linebacker spot, but it does seem like, again, tight end, safety, linebacker. We sort of overstated what we thought the needs were.

Now, finally, last thing I'll mention here, the work on defensive backs. Obviously, they draft Joe Juan Williams early. They come back to Ken Webster late. Again, similar sources told me that when Belichick was on various campuses for pro days and things like that, all he wanted to talk about was defensive backs. And so maybe he saw something in this class. Maybe he was worried about that position. That's something that maybe on the outside we were thinking, oh, corner is fine.

Maybe the organization is a little bit more worried about it than we expect. But it's also one of those situations that in today's NFL, you can't have too many corners. And so they addressed it twice in this draft alone. And so something else to sort of keep in mind. A couple of other things, some whiffs. Kelvin Harmon, I mocked him at 32 in the Locked On NFL Draft Show, Locked On Draft podcast. I made Kelvin Harmon the pick at 32, and he was a six-rounder.

So apparently I missed on that. Chauncey Garner Johnson, he was also one of my top five safeties. He doesn't hear his name called until late. Same thing with Hakeem Butler, doesn't hear his name called. I'm going through my top five rankings. Stanley Morgan, he doesn't get drafted. Greg Dorch, Penny Hart, they don't get drafted. So I missed on some of those guys as well.

Blake Cashman and Mack Wilson, they don't get drafted until late, so some of those guys as well um blake cashman and mac wilson they don't get drafted until late so i kind of missed there same savrion smith so there's some dax raymond who signed with the bears so there are some misses and there are always misses and you try to learn from them and move on but of course the biggest miss of all is brett rippin and it would be somewhat cowardly of me to not at least address that. My quarterback four doesn't get drafted and he signs with the Denver Broncos who, by the way, drafted Drew Locke. They traded for Joe Flacco

and they have Kevin Hogan and Garrett Grayson on the roster already. When you're a player and it gets near the end of day three into that sixth and seventh round range, that's when you start crossing your fingers that you don't get drafted because you can pick your spot.

And he picks a place that already has four quarterbacks on the roster. There were probably some other advantageous situations he could have gone to, which has me wondering, was that the only option he got? Was that the only option? So it's going to make me have to sit down and sort of reevaluate if I did indeed miss on ripping and sitting here right now, it certainly looks like I did. Obviously there's a lot of football left to be played for him,

you know, and this could be a situation where maybe in the future I end up vindicated or maybe not. And maybe this was fully a miss. How did I miss? And so that's going to be part of the process. I'm going to be writing my revisitation of the 2017 class the mahomes and watson and trubisky class and i had watson one mahomes two trubisky either three or four i think trubisky four and kaiser three and in that class and i feel okay about how i did that

so far but brett ripping a qb4 not getting drafted is something I'm going to have to do some thinking about. It seems like I missed it. Again, I wasn't alone on him. A lot of us on the outside thought very highly of him, and he doesn't get drafted. And I said I was very interested to see if the gulf that seemed to exist between how the NFL and people around the NFL viewed him and how draft media viewed him would remain or if they would somehow get closer because he would get drafted, say, in the fourth round. And there's, okay, well, he wasn't a high prospect, but there was enough people that liked him.

No, he doesn't get drafted. And so that's something I'm going to have to think about and revisit and go back on my film. Did I dig my heels in too much? Did I miss some things with him did i buy into it too much i don't know so that's gonna take some thinking but like i said i will be back monday before i leave you though nate stanley i've been watching him i'm starting to work on the 2020 class and yes i know we all last thing anyone wants to hear about is a 2020 quarterback class

again on paper it looks like it could be good but who knows tua herbert from eason fields stanley costello the werky the kid at utah state jordan love who can absolutely sling it cole mcdonald some people's quarterback one already it's it has the potential to be a fun quarterback class so i'm excited to get into it as i said i've already been watching these guys and you know as the spring turns to summer there will be more time for 2020 quarterback takes but this does on paper have the potential to be a good one but remember development is not linear i've often said this finally the next time anybody will hear from me is after the battle of winterfell for those who will be observing from me is after the Battle of Winterfell. For those who will be observing

the Game of Thrones Battle of Winterfell on Sunday night, I wish you all good fortune and the wars to come. Until next time, take it away, Pod. High in the halls of the kings who are gone, Jenny

would dance with her ghosts. The ones she had lost and the ones she had found and the ones who had loved her the most. The ones who'd been gone for so very long she couldn't remember the names. They spun her around on the damp old stones, spun away all her sorrow and pain. And she never wanted to leave, never wanted to leave Never wanted to leave

Never wanted to leave Never wanted to leave Never wanted to leave Never wanted to leave