Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 3, 2019 - Mocks, Hats and Kickers

Episode Date: April 3, 2019

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

Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a Wednesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield sliding back into the big chair for today, Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019. Got a couple of different things we're going to do today. We're going to talk about hats. Yes, hats. We're going to talk about the AAF for a few moments because we got some news on that front. We're going to talk kickers. Believe it or not, we're going to spend some time talking about the kicker position. But first, since I had so much fun on Monday sort of breaking down some listener submitted mock drafts. What I thought I would do was take a couple minutes here at the start of this show

and talk about what the experts are saying. We've got some expert mocks that are in. We've got a whole collection of them, sites like Patriots.com, WEI, other sites. They're all sort of collecting the mock drafts, and so there are ways you can sort of see where the various experts have their heads about the Patriots pick at 32. So I thought it'd be good to take some time a few minutes here at the start of this show and run through where people on this sort of inside are looking at New England's pick at 32 before we do all that though reminder to follow me on twitter at Mark

Schofield check out the work at places like ins InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, MattWaldmanRSP.com. A trio of fantastic SB Nation websites include Big Blue View, Pat's Pulpit, and Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scope Show with the one and only Michael Kist. Also, a little bit of news here on sort of the Eagles front, believe it or not, but the Monday after the draft, I will be hosting an AMA and ask me anything on the Eagles subreddit of all places. So I'm kind of excited about that.

I'll have more details on that a little bit later. You can get in some questions, maybe trash some Eagles fans. Who knows? That could be, maybe don't do that. Don't be mean guests. Okay? Be welcoming guests. Friendly guests. You know?

You don't want to break bread with people. You know, you offer the food and the salt and all that stuff and then go turn your back on. You know? No other phrase in this mix. All right. So, let's get into sort of this mock draft roundup here. And I'm working off of a piece over at WEI, Ryan Hannibal. Well, I do have one that's not listed here that I do want to get to because it might be my favorite pick at 32.

And it's a friend of the show, a listener to the show. So I want to give him a shout. But let's sort of run through these. First up, this is a name that you will hear a lot and we've heard a lot. And that's Irv Smith. And Mel Kuyper has mocked him to the Patriots at 32. And in his first mock draft, NFL media's Charles Davis mocked Irv Smith to the New England Patriots at 32. Again, we're just going to talk that pick at 32 here. And obviously, with the loss of Gronkowski, the Irv Smith one makes sense. I do want to pass on something interesting.

A lot of you heard the show about a week or two ago with my good buddy Shane Alexander he contributed to InsideThePylon.com and some other places he's also an Alabama guy lives down in Alabama, loves Alabama, etc. and he dropped in some

thoughts in the InsideThePylon Slack that Shane, I hope you're listening because I'm just going to copy them right here, I think it's very wise and apt. And here's Shane. I think it's too clichéd. I think the Patriots are going to take Irv Smith 32 just because they lost Gronk. I think it's much more likely that they would go against the green and actually trade up for Fant or Hawk if either were to fall

than it is for them to force the Irv Smith pick. I like Smith, but he showed up undersized, and he didn't test particularly well as I thought he would based on his film. If they could get him in round two, have at it. Though I really like Knox from Ole Miss. He tested closer to how I thought Irv might. And I like Foster Monroe and not.

He's tough as hell. Plus, I'm sure Bill Belichick kind of knew losing Gronk was possible. So I don't see him all of a sudden be like, oh no, and scrambling to get his priorities in order. And that gets to perhaps one of the underlying points. And I talked about this with Steve and Murph over at One Patriot's Place.

I was on their podcast. It's going to be coming out soon. We recorded it on Tuesday. And we all know that Belichick likes to zig when everybody else zags, et cetera, et cetera. And everybody's expecting the tight end pick. He might go somewhere else. He might trade up like Shane says.

And so, Eric Smith, I get why people are doing it. Maybe it doesn't happen that way. CBS Sports, Pete Prisco and Chris Trapasso. I like Chris. Got to see him down at Mobile. Great guy. Jalahachi Poli from Florida. I would just say no. it's not going to happen

it's an eat the tweet moment if that happens I will eat the tweet that promotes this show I don't see them drafting him yes some of the film is there but the measures have been bad everything I'm hearing is that

the meetings have gone bad he was bad with the media at the combine. It just doesn't seem like the team meetings went well. So I would be stunned, S-T-U-N-N-E-D, stunned if he's the pick. CBS Ryan Wilson, as well as NFL media's Bucky Brooks. This is one to pay attention to. Bucky Brooks tends to know kind of what he's doing, and he's pretty plugged in. Christian Wilkins, the defensive tackle

from Clemson. We're all thinking wide receiver or tight end of that spot. Maybe we're not thinking wide receiver so much because they've missed on some first round wide receivers or early wide receivers at least. Wilkins does seem to make some sense. So I do think he's a name

to watch. In a similar vein, Will Brinson over at CBS says, Jalen Ferguson from Louisiana Tech. I would be very wary of that pick here, him at 32. That three cone, agility drills just have not gone well for him. Didn't go well for him as a pro day. People were saying the surface was slick. Yeah, the production is there.

I don't know if that's a guy you drafted 32 given some of the measurables and some of what we know the patriots value in terms of change of direction i think you can wait on a edge type guy and get omena who at 56 or 64 or even that pick in the seventh round on the not the seventh round it's a pick in the 70s in the third round and so i'm wouldn't be on board with that. Chad Reuter, NFL Media. Hakeem Butler, big body type wide receiver. If they go wide receiver, I could see that. Some people, Ted

Wynn, for example, I think he has him wide receiver one. Ted Wynn over the athletic. And so that might make some sense. Led Zerline, Jeffrey Simmons, Mississippi State. I've been warning people on and offline if you want to sort of steal yourself

for a Belichick-like pick, steal yourself for the top 15 talent that has some off-field issues and a medical issue, it would be a redshirt situation as rookie season. If he's there at 32, I get it. Again, a top 15 talent.

He might not be there at 32, though. Or you could go with a guy like Tillery if he might not be there at 32 though or he could go with a guy like Tillery if he happens to be there at 32 if it's Simmons and Tillery at the pick of 32 I think you take the guy that can play right away even though Simmons might be the better talent who knows maybe he doesn't come back from the ACL could be a Dominique Easley type situation all over again

Matt Miller over at Bleacher Report safety Jonathan Abram from Mississippi State we know he's going to meet him with the Patriots, so that kind of makes some sense. I can see that. But I did say that there was another mock that I wanted to throw out there.

Phil Perry over at NBC Sports Boston. Nasir Adderley at 32. But not to the New England Patriots. This one, Phil, buddy, it stunned when I saw this. but not to the New England Patriots this one Phil buddy it's stunned when I saw this I love Adderley and I get it would make a ton of sense for the Patriots but seeing him at 32

that stings I mean it would make a ton of sense for the Seahawks excuse me but seeing him go to a different team that stings a little bit I like Adderley a lot but as I said there's a trade and there's a but coming the Patriots

do what Shane says they trade up in Phil's mock to 21-2 draft TJ Hawkinson Phil Perry buddy tremendous shout out to you my friend I love it yes I did a little switcheroo, a little bait and switch there.

Gave you guys a little bad news. Oh, Adderley at 32, but not to New England. But yeah, I hit you with the T.J. Hawkinson pick. Phil, I love it. I love the mug. Fantastic stuff. Look, if they go up and get one of the Iowa guys, I think everybody would be on board with it.

You know, and as Phil writes, Hawkinson won't replace Gronkowski, but if he can give the Patriots something similar to what Hawkinson's Iowa teammate George Kittle has given the Niners, he'd be a worthwhile selection here. His size, his testing, indicate he's more than ready to contribute right away.

Physically, he's played under former Belichick assistants. They've drilled into him fundamentals. They should translate to the pro level. There is upside throughout the draft class of the tight end spot, as Phil writes, but Hawkinson quote, looks like the only one who is a hit-the-ground-running dual threat.

The Patriots don't have much time for projects. Their championship window at Tom Brady is short, and trading up to get Hawkinson would help them continue to make the most of it. Close quote. Phil, again, love it. Check out the entire mock over at NBCSports.com just fantastic stuff. Again, trading up to get Hawkinson. Phil's on

board. Shane's on board. I'm getting to be on board. Hopefully people at Foxborough are getting on board as well. Up next, we're going to talk a little AAF action. We're going to talk some hats. Yes, hats. H-A-T-S. Hats for bats. Keep bats warm. And a little bit later, we're going to talk about hats. Yes, hats. H-A-T-S. Hats for bats. Keep bats warm. And a little bit later, we're going to talk about kickers.

Ahead on this Wednesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Wednesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I missed a mock. I was going to get to it. I got caught up in the Phil Perry, Shane Alexander, trade up, get Hawk, whole thing there. I was on a roll. Look, I was on a roll.

Just let me go. I know who I am. I get going. It's like the big train going downhill. You can't stop me. You hope for that little drive-off type situation, but I couldn't find one, so I just kept going. Charles Davis had another mock that he dropped on Tuesday

that had Dalton Risner, the offensive tackle from Kansas State, going to New England at 32. I like Dalton Risner. that had Dalton Risner, the offensive tackle from Kansas State, going to New England at 32. I like Dalton Risner. I love Dalton Risner. I think he's a plug-and-play type guy at a couple of different spots on the offensive line for many teams. Played center guard and tackle at K-State. There's a lot to like about him.

I don't know if he would be the need at 32. Again, if you're talking 56, 64, sign me up. I'm a great football player. But I think they could address some other needs at 32. So I did want to get that in there. We have to talk about, I know this is locked on Patriots. We're going to get into Steven Gostowski in a minute because there are some rumblings there.

But there's a couple of things that we've got to get into. One is something that's kind of breaking right now, so I'm just kind of reacting to this on the fly. The timeline is all Twitter about it, as it were. Russell Wilson making some rumblings, like giving the Seahawks sort of a deadline for a new deal. And it's sort of touched off a discussion. You know, what would Russell Wilson's worth be? Damian Woody, for example, said, would you give up, you know, two first rounders, say, for a Russell Wilson?

And for most people, that seemed to be a yeah like that's what we'll do kind of situation you know there was one notable sort of QB name QB watcher of note that said no no I don't I wouldn't do that but that that person can show me name nameless and I would do it for most teams I mean mean, if you're a team, like, if you're a team that is going to need a quarterback in this draft class, say the New York Giants, and you need a quarterback, you could trade for Rosen. That might cost you $17.

You could draft Daniel Jones at $17. Or you could give up $ 17 and a first next year for Russell Wilson and get a top five quarterback. You give up six and 17 and go get Russell Wilson and say, Eli, thanks for the memories.

I mean, you're getting as close to a top five quarterback as there is in Russell Wilson. So yeah, I think it'd be worth two first rounders. He's the quarterback you win because of, not that you win with

or you win in spite of or something like that. And so I think for most teams, not new england i think teams that are set a quarterback don't need to do that kind of move but if you're a team that needs a quarterback i think to damian woody's question you give up two first for russell wilson if defensive ends and edge rush edge rushers are getting two first uh pretty much elite quarterback should as well. So I did want to mention that. The AAF, and this sort of came out of the blue. It was first reported by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Alliance of American Football will suspend operations

after an eight-week season in which its primary investor had made several ominous comments about the league's ability to survive without an agreement with the NFLPA that would provide a pipeline of players. I'm reading from a piece from Doug Farrar over at Touchdown Wire. Tom Dundon, the league's majority owner, recently told USA Today that there was a need for the ability to use players from the NFL in a developmental sense. If the players' union is not going to give us young players,

we can't be a developmental league, Dundon told Kevin Allen and Mike Jones. We are looking at our options, one of which is discontinuing the league, and it seems like a bad situation. Now, there's two dark parts to this story that I will sort of throw out there. One, Albert Breer of MMQB put forth a proposition that Dundon had invested in the AAF for the rights to the gambling app being developed. And there are some rumblings about that sort of on the Twitter sphere. You know, looking around, say, Ben Kercheval, for example.

He writes for CBS Sports on both college football and the AAF. He says, source confirmed what I previously thought. He tweeted this out there. The idea that Dundon brought the AAF to steal its technology is out there. There will be lawsuits if he does. So that's one thing to sort of put out there. Another thing is, look, there is a personal story here. There are players that were chasing their dream that had it taken away from them you know i know

for example uh cole thompson um who is at mr cole thompson on twitter now he was doing you know media and public relations type work you know social media type stuff for the san antonio commanders you know and i talked with him briefly via twitter i'm not going to share a lot of what he told me because personal conversation but it just seemed like this was a very tough situation for some of these players you know you're you're chasing your dream you're getting another crack at it i mean look at for example johnny manziel a guy that this might have been his last shot. Now he's out here tweeting, if you're an AAF player and the league does this all, the last check you got will be the last one you get.

No lawsuit or anything else will get you your bread. Save your money and keep your head up. It's the only choice at this point unless something drastic happens. It's kind of ominous. You know, it's a difficult situation for these players, for these people, and you do sort of feel for them. It's a risky proposition to put together an upstart football league. And it looked like they had something here with the AAF.

And I was writing about it. People were talking about it. It got people excited. We all like football. If you're listening to this show, odds are you kind of like this sport. And so more football is usually better. So it's an unfortunate

situation. Now, there's also some rumblings that maybe this is a negotiated ploy in a sense. And that, you know, Dundon is basically trying to get the league to buy into the developmental aspect, to buy into the, look, we need the NFLPA to sign off on it,

the NFLPA to let us use some of these players. And so maybe it's a leverage thing more than anything else. Benjamin Albright put that out there. I don't know. This does seem bad. And so, you know, you hope for these stories that for these players that it all works out for them. But it does seem like a bad situation. Now, let's talk hats.

I know. Strange. Strange sort of story here. But the league and New Era have sort of announced and put out there the draft day hats. And let's just say the reviews have not been pretty. Now, 31 of the 32 hats were unveiled. The Jets are going to unveil theirs on Thursday when they announce some new uniforms. Now, looking at all of these, I can just say, look, there are a couple that I

would legitimately wear. The Bears one, it's nice. It's simple. It's got the Navy. It's got the Bear. That's it. Nice, simple, tastefully done. The Patriots one is also, you look around social media, people like the Bears one, people like the Patriots one. It's very simple. It's basically all blue, and it's got the Patriot, Pat Patriot, flying elvi look. It's got Foxborough, Massachusetts, 1971. It's just like very simple. So I like that one. I would make a case also for the Chargers one.

It's a little, it's weird in the sense that it's white up front with sort of what looks to be like tiger teeth and they get the Charger blue and the black with the yellow lightning bolt across the front. It would have been better if those were just all the Charger blue, the powder blues. But still, out of all of these,

it's not bad. The Seattle one isn't bad. It's blue with the 12 and the Seahawk the 12 might be a little off putting but you can roll with it some people like the Atlantis that's okay but the majority of these

are just not good they're not good the Saints one has the Florida Leafs like three times up front the Panthers one, it's got, you know, it's got both North and South Carolina flags referenced on there.

The Panther is just on one half of it. It's just weird looking. The Giants one is weird and let, you know, it's got the NY up front. It's white, but then it has a little weird rope looking design. The Eagles one,

the Eagle looks great. It's all green, but on the brim, it's got, I don't know what. You can make some Eagles jokes there some bird dropping type jokes but it's not good the Dolphins one is weird the Browns one it's got some stars behind it the Ravens one I think is okay because you've just got you know the Raven up front the Chiefs one is weird it's got these like black arcs on the back behind the Kansas City Arrowhead.

I guess the Texans one, it's kind of on the brim. It's blue and red, and then you've got a white and blue on the front of it with the Texans logo, so that's not too bad. But people were talking about, look, these hats, for the most part, aren't good. And odds are, I guarantee, A, there's

a prop bet on this, and B, I'm going to hammer the under. How many guys actually put these hats on when they hear their name called? I'm betting most go with the hold the hat, bring up the shirt kind of situation. You know, you go in, you're going to be handed the hat. You'll, like, wave it as you come out onto the stage. You've got the jersey. You'll be holding that, too.

Give Goodell the bear hug, and then you kind of hold him up. I'm curious to see how many guys actually put these on. Eh, they're not great. Maybe that segment was great. I don't know, but people were talking about it, so if people were talking about it, I've got to talk about it on the show. Up next, we're going to talk about kickers, something else people are talking about. Steven Glastowski, New England Patriots.

Are they going to reach a deal, or are we going to move on to our next kicker? That's ahead on this Wednesday installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield here to close out this Wednesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I'll throw out the clarion call, as I usually do. We'll do a Take Thursday show. If you've got takes, questions, whatever,

send them on over so I can hit that. Friday show is probably going to be a little bit fun. I've submitted a piece that I'm excited about that's going to be up on Matt Waldman's website. So I'm going to hit that. I think it'll be a fun thing to do on Friday. Spoiler alert. The night is dark and full of spoilers.

I'll just kind of throw that out there about Friday. Give you a little bit of hint as to what I'm talking about here. Some of you in the Locked on Patriots Slack chat don't know what I'm going to be getting at. Now, we had a little bit of kicker news, believe it or not. Mark Daniels, Michael Giardi, tweeted that, for example, Mike Giardi, NFL.com, a source says, not much happening between Patriots and kicker Steven Gostkowski. Money is still an issue, though there's still plenty of time.

Now, Mark Daniels hops on that and says the Patriots have enough draft capital to try someone like LSU's Cole Tracy if it doesn't work with Steven Gostkowski. Now, I'm not here to sort of rehash the Gostowski debates. I know there are people that are very pro-Steven Gostowski. There are people that are anti-Steven Gostowski. People might say he's missed some big kicks. The extra point, for example, in the 2015 AFC Championship game kind of changed the complexity of that game. Had he hit that, look, they're not going for two at the end. He's hopefully kicking that next PAT, and they're playing for overtime. But he has made some pretty big field goals over the years, so he's had some moments where it's been good,

some moments where it's been bad. But now we're coming up against a contract situation. And look, we all know how the patriots operate you know he signed a four-year 17.2 million dollar contract with the pats six million sign-on bonus this was back in 2015 um six million dollar sign-on bonus 10 million guaranteed average annual salary of 4.3 million he's probably looking for something in say you know maybe the five to six million range maybe you know this was a front-loaded deal he signed it was 8.1 in yearly cash up front in that first year then 2.6 3.0 3.5 last year now you could probably get a kicker in this draft like cole tracy for example who you know very good down at lsu you know you look at what he did while he was with the tigers you know very productive

college kicker and so you know that might be a name that they would consider you know he had a bit of an up and down week at the senior bowl. When you look at, you know, what he did last year at LSU, 42 for 42 and extra points, 29 of 33 on field goals. And in terms of his splits, look, last year, nine for nine from 20 to 29, seven of eight from 30 to 39, six of seven from 40 to 49 and three of 5 from 50 plus that's pretty good you know and he's also somebody that you know planted an assumption, division 2 for finally going the graduate transfer

route to LSU and very intriguing type guy so there are some options there's probably some street free agents, some guys like your Brennan so the Kostelski situation maybe it ends up working out, but there are some options out there and Tracy is certainly one of them.

So certainly an aim to keep in mind. Just wanted to hit the kicker stuff briefly. We know how the Patriots, again, we know how they do business. And if they don't get the money to work out, they're going to find somebody that can do the job. That's the way they do it. So that will do it for today. Closing out this show. Again, please send in some questions for tomorrow.

Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield. And Locked on Patriots.