Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 30, 2018 - Looking at the QB Draft Selections

Episode Date: April 30, 2018

Mark Schofield breaks down all of the QBs drafted in the 2018 NFL Draft.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning. Welcome on into Locked on Patriots for Monday, April 30th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair with you. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com as well as Pro Football Weekly, Bleacher Report, LockedOnPatriots.com, and many, many other places. Also, you can check out the videos I've done this past draft season over at YouTube.com slash InsideThePylon. There will be more videos to come over the next couple of weeks or months as I start looking into the 2019 quarterback class,

a group which Patriots fans might really have their eyes on after what we saw this past weekend. As for today's show, we are going to talk about quarterbacks because as you all know, that is my other sort of area of interest and evaluation, quarterbacks. And we're going to do a lot of sort of looking at this entire NFL draft over the next week or so. Obviously doing a lot of Patriots stuff, but we'll look at some of the other positions. But today I'm going to focus on the quarterbacks who were drafted, their landing spots, how I feel they'll fare as rookies, how much playing time I expect to see.

Talk about some of the guys that get drafted later on into day three as well. But we'll start at the top with Baker Mayfield, the first overall selection to the Cleveland Browns and a pick that I think surprised people. Given a lot of the talk that we had heard, that we had seen going into this draft, speculation about Sam Darnold, speculation about Josh Allen. And I think part of that speculation was when you look at Todd Haley and what he likes to do on offense. You look at Tyrod Taylor, in a sense, and sort of how he's a vertical passer. Perhaps that's what he does best.

People naturally assumed, myself included, that I count myself chief among the people that I'm talking about here, that Donald or Allen might be the better fits. But I think the answer to cleveland's plans a quarterback was staring us in front of our faces all along and that was jarvis landry who's been running in sort of a west coast offense under adam gaze he's a underneath slot type receiver yardage after the catch specialist we talked about jarvis landy a lot on this show on those shallow crossing routes and when they make the trade for a jarvis landry a lot on this show on those shallow crossing routes.

And when they make the trade for Jarvis Landry and give him an extension that made him a very highly paid receiver, one of the top paid receivers in the league, a lot of people didn't seem to understand why. Again, myself included, because look, if you run in a vertical offense, that doesn't make sense. But I think the idea is they're going to run more of a West Coast type of offense. And who does that fit? I think it fits Baker Mayfield. What are the Browns getting in Baker Mayfield? They're getting a culture change. They're getting a leader. They're getting a guy that's competitively tough. They're getting somebody that is insane in some senses. I think he's a very good quarterback. I think the idea of a West Coast-style offense is a great schematic fit, and it's what Tyrod Taylor ran last year with the Buffalo Bills. I think he's a very accurate passer.

I think he does very well both on and off script. I think Baker Mayfield made some strides over the past season on sort of anticipation throws. Did he play in the Big 12? Yeah. Was there stuff schemed for him by Lincoln Riley? Yes. Should Lincoln Riley be an NFL head coach someday? Yes.

It'd be tough to entice him away from Oklahoma, I think, but he should be in the NFL someday. So I think the Browns got this right. Of course, on all of these, time will tell. Time will certainly tell about our next passer, Sam Darnold, the number three overall pick to the New York Jets. And this was interesting because so many people assumed Darnold would be going maybe at one,

and Baker Mayfield would be going to the Jets at three, that we suddenly had to take a step back and look at Sam Darnold and how he might project into a Jeremy Bates West Coast type of offense, your more traditional West Coast offense. Donald certainly has upside. That's what the Jets are banking on here. You look at him, there are mistakes, there are flaws, there are mechanical issues, there were turnovers. The lower body can be a mess at times. Bad habits set in. But with Sam Darnold, as I've said before, relatively new to the position.

And I think a lot of the stuff that he has done, that he has shown from a mechanical standpoint, can be corrected. Ball security, being too careless with the football in and around the pocket, it can be corrected. I think he could fit well in this type of offense. I think he's got the potential to be very scheme diverse once he gets some of these footwork issues sorted out. And I think that this would be a good fit for the Jets. Plus, they do have Josh McAllen. They do have Teddy Bridgewater. They won't have to play him right away.

He's very young. He would be the youngest quarterback to start in NFL history if he started week one. So I like this pick for the Jets. I think both these teams got it right. The next team is the big question mark. That's the Buffalo Bills at seven coming up to get Josh Allen. And we've talked about Allen.

The issues with Allen have been beaten to death over the past year. Can it work? Yes. I was on radio in Buffalo early Friday morning when the 1 a.m. hour East Coast time to break this down and my thought looking at what the Bills did in the first round, obviously with the draft linebacker Edmonds, your draft Josh Allen, I think what they're trying to do is to sort of duplicate what we've seen from the Jacksonville Jaguars over the past year or so. When with defense, when with the running game, sort of minimize what you need to get out of the quarterback position. If that's their path forward with Josh Allen, a sort of ball control type offense under Brian Dable, which he's more of an Arn Perkins guy, but you can do some sort of

more vertical stuff in the passing game off of play action with a guy like Josh Allen. That might be their path. That might be their roadmap. Can it pan out? Yes.

Will it? I don't know. We're going to have to see. My level of confidence is low, but it's not impossible. And Josh Allen can certainly become a viable starting quarterback in the National Football League. A guy I think definitely will become a viable starting quarterback in the NFL? Josh Rosen.

Your scheme-diverse guy. Plug-and-play guy. I think he could start week one. I think he might start week one. I think he might start week one. And when I look at him, I see a guy that's going to come in and sort of take control of Mike McCoy's offense. And what was interesting about sort of this potential marriage, you get in Mike McCoy, a guy who was run out of multiple offenses, multiple teams, with a knock on his offense being that it was too complicated.

And who do you get? The quarterback that was viewed as too smart. I think it might be the perfect marriage of offensive coordinator, offensive scheme, and quarterback. And I think this will really pan out for the Arizona Cardinals. And finally, Lamar Jackson, a player that, as you all know, I was high on, hoped that the Patriots would draft. The Baltimore Ravens come back into the

first round to get Lamar Jackson another great fit. And he's going to get in some coaches, guys that worked with Michael Vick. You know, and Martin Mourningweg, he coached Michael Vick. He can, you know, has experience with a more athletic quarterback. You look at Greg Roman as well, who's going to be his quarterback's coach. Greg Roman experienced coaching Colin Kaepernick. So you have in place, you know, a coaching staff that, you know, has the experience, you know, with Greg Roman and Marty Mortenweg. Greg Roman, the assistant head coach and tight ends coach, excuse me there, I screwed that one up, but quarterbacks coach James Urban is the other coach that's going to be handling a lot

of Lamar Jackson's transition. But there you have, again, two quarterbacks, one that dealt with Vic, one that dealt with Colin Kaepernick. I think this could work out as well. So four of the five picks, I think were great. And honestly, I probably would have said that wherever Josh Allen ended up, that he was the one I would have the most questions about. We'll just have to see. Time will tell on that one.

Up ahead, I'm going to talk about the day two guys and then get into the day three quarterbacks. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now, working our way through the quarterbacks that's ahead with me mark schofield and locked on patriots mark schofield back with you now working our way through the quarterbacks drafted in the 2018 nfl draft one quarterback one quarterback comes off the board on day two and that's mason rudolph from oklahoma state who i think this was probably one of the better fits for him coming to the pittsburgh steelers because

when you watch mason rudolph you come away impressed with what he can do sort of in the passing game downfield. That's probably one of his strengths as a passer, the ability to make some bucket throws, the ability to do some stuff over the top of defenses, challenge defenses vertically down the field. That's been what the Steelers have done for years with Todd Haley. Obviously, there's a varied approach offensively, but think back to last year and how the Steelers wanted to get vertical. At times, they almost seemed to force the ball downfield early in that season to try to get the vertical game going. That's what they want to be.

And Randy Fichtner, their new offensive coordinator, has been with the Steelers for years. I expect the offense to look extremely similar. I think it's a great fit for Mason Rudolph and his strengths as a passer. I think it's a good fit that they bring in James Washington, a receiver he's comfortable and familiar throwing to. And as far as a quarterback to learn from, given Mason Rudolph's play style,

to be able to sit and watch and learn from Ben Roethlisberger, I think is ideal for him. I think this is a great fit. I think it's the question I had on Mason Rudolph from one of them was was he going to be in a situation where he could develop beyond what I see his ceiling be

and I thought he might have somewhat of a lower ceiling. I think this landing spot and fit puts him in a good situation to reach or perhaps even go beyond that. So I feel a little bit better about Mason Rudolph now than I did, say, before the draft. Kyle Lalletta, long linked to the New England Patriots.

He goes in the fourth round, the eighth pick in the fourth round, to the New York Giants. And I will say this. If the Giants under Pat Schumer run a more West Coast offense, which is Pat Schumer sort of trading his calling card from an offensive schematic standpoint, that's the ideal fit for Kyle Lolleta.

We just got done talking about a big-time vertical passer. That's not Kyle Lolleta. His strength is in the short and intermediate areas of the field. This is a good spot for him. It brings up some question marks about New York's plans at the quarterback position going forward, but I'll say this. I'm higher on Kyle Lolleta than I was on Davis Webb. I think Kyle Lolleta can win that backup job. It would surprise me if he didn't. I think he's a much better fit for what they're going to look like offensively than Davis Webb. Davis Webb is a nine-ball specialist. Kyle Oletta has more variety and depth to his game as a passer. And so I think that this was a very good pick for

the New York Giants. I think that Kyle Oletta is their backup, and he might be their next quarterback, which is kind of amazing if you think about it. You know, some of us maybe thought that they might go quarterback early. They might go Sam Donald at two. They might come back into the first round and draft Mason Rudolph. These were all things that I wrote at one point or another. But the Giants sit pat. They address other needs.

Then they draft Kyle Oletta. And I know that just as a quick aside, Dave Gettleman's draft has been knocked by some. I would recommend a piece by my good friend and colleague Joe Ferriola over at InsideThePylon.com where he broke down sort of their approach on days one and two of the draft. And, you know, you look at whether it makes sense to draft a running back or not at two, and obviously Joe gets into that, but he also gets into some of the other picks they made. That Will Hernandez addition.

If you've got that old-school mentality of establishing a run game, add in Will Hernandez in front of Saquon Barkley. It's a tremendous combination. Look at the left side of that offense now. Nate Shoulder, Will Hernandez, could run Saquon Barkley behind them. It's an interesting set of decisions, and I think it could very well pan out for the New York Giants. And Gettleman, rightly or wrongly, has been getting roasted over the past couple of days, especially with how he's made some comments about sort of analytics and things like that.

But I think you should read Joe's piece. Check that out at InsideThePylon.com and shed some light on it. Get Joe's take on that. Continuing through the quarterback board now, Mike White from Western Kentucky to the Dallas Cowboys. Now, I thought that Dallas was probably going to take a pick on a quarterback

at some point in this draft. There were some players that I thought would make sense for them. Nick Shimanok, I thought, might make some sense. Chase Litton, I thought, might make some sense. Guys that I looked at as more vertical-based passers that would fit in a downfield pass on offense. Remember, the Dallas Cowboys rooted in sort of air in a downfield pass on offense. Remember the Dallas Cowboys rooted in sort of air choreo downfield concepts. That's Jason Garrett's

offensive philosophy. Obviously Scott Linehan is more of an Art Perkins guy, but they've kind of meshed the two. They do a lot of downfield stuff. I wrote in the Inside the Pylon draft guide, and I wrote this over at insidethepylon.com as well, that Mike White has the potential to be a scheme-diverse quarterback, has the potential to fit in a downfield offensive system. He'll need to fix some footwork concerns there, because there are times when, if that's a clean pocket, he can make nice downfield throws, certainly has the arm strength for a downfield passing game. But when he's forced to sort of set and reset and then throw downfield, then it gets to be a little bit hairy.

And if he's forced to come late into his progressions and make downfield throws, then it gets to be a little bit hairy. But I think overall, there's the potential there for this to work out and for Mike White to come in and push Cooper Rush for that backup job, maybe even this year. So I'm not surprised that Dallas went quarterback. I'm on board with the idea of addressing that backup quarterback or the quarterback room, if not every year, then at least every other year. I like this move by the Cowboys. Get some competition in there for Cooper Rush, and I think Mike White could be a nice little fit in their system. Is he going to beat out Dak at some point?

I don't think so, but he might win that number two job, and that's an important role. It's a need that the Cowboys have, and they're a team that knows it well. When they lost Romo, they were done for that one season. So that gets us through the first five rounds of the 2018 NFL Draft. Up next, I'm going to look at day three. Later on into day three, some of the quarterbacks that we. Up next, I'm going to look at day three. Later on into day three, some of the quarterbacks that we heard come off the board.

I won't dive back into Danny Etlin. We've talked about him already, but I'll work my way through the rest of the guys. And that's ahead with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. We've got a couple more quarterbacks to talk about and their landing spots and their fits.

And we'll start with Luke Falk coming off the board In the 6th round, a pick 199 To the Tennessee Titans This is an interesting fit You know, I wasn't as high on Luke Falk As others were I still had a 4th round grade on him And he comes off the board in the 6th

And a more global point for a second here I do get the sense that i was much higher on this quarterback class than the nfl at large seems like the nfl class was a little bit more down on this group than i was we'll see you know two years years, who was right on it, who had the class graded out properly. I think with Luke Falk, you're going to get a quarterback that I think is going to really fit into what the Titans want to do now offensively.

They've written Matt LaFleur as their new offensive coordinator over this past offseason. And what's interesting about the LaFleur hire is that I've talked before about how this is a copycat league. Teams want to sort of emulate the Kyle Shanahan-Jimmy Garoppolo relationship,

the Sean McVay-Jared Goff relationship. And they're doing that now with LaFleur's 38 younger guy, now with Marcus Mariota, getting that young offensive mind to help mold the quarterback. Same thing with Matt Nagy, young offensive mind in Mitchell Trubisky. And you look through LaFleur's coaching history, his main influence basically is Kyle Shanahan. When you interview him, the guys that he lists off as offensive minds

that he wants to emulate, McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Gary Kubiak, this offense is going to have sort of a spread West Coast-type feel to it. And I think that's the fit that's best for Luke Falk. He doesn't have – it's similar to Kyle Oletta. It doesn't have that big power arm, the downfield type arm. But coming from an air raid system where he played under Mike Leach, I think it's a really good fit schematically. Obviously, he's not as athletic as a Marcus Mariota, but I think that from an offensive passing game mindset and standpoint, the fit makes sense for Luke Falk.

And so while I wasn't that high on him, I think this one makes sense. One that doesn't really make sense to me is the guy that came off the board four picks later at 203. That's Tanner Lee from Nebraska, who I wasn't high on. He was quarterback, I think, 18 for me, a player that made some mistakes, has a power arm. Schematically, I think it could fit because I think he would fare well in sort of a downfield passing game. Titans use a lot of play action. I mean, excuse me, the Jaguars use a lot of play action, throw the ball deep down the field a ton,

or at least percentage-wise, they did it at a pretty high clip last year. Passes over 20 yards or so. But Tanner Lee made too many mistakes for me too many times he was caught staring routes down too many times he was caught leading defenders to his eyes too many bad interceptions and partially yes my view is clouded a bit by being a Nebraska fan so I saw his struggles you know that's that story from Charles McDonald down at the Senior Bowl when he was watching Tanner Lee

basically right next to Jerry Jones and Lee was up for a rep. Jerry Jones turns to his son or somebody else and says, let's see what the turnover machine has in store for us. And Tanner Lee throws a pick. Jerry Jones leans back, still got it, he says. It's a great story from Charles

McDonald, that four verse on Twitter. And that was kind of the sense you got from him. Everybody the first day of the senior bowl practices wanted to see the big shootout between Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen. And for the first half of that practice, it was Tanner Lee who stole the show. He looked great. And then he started throwing picks, and it snowballed from there. And so I'm a little hesitant about this one.

There's potential there. It's an interesting quarterback room with Blake Bortles, Cody Kessler, and now Tanner Lee. I thought Jacksonville might have gone quarterback earlier in this draft. I thought they were going to go quarterback at some point. I'm not sure about this one, but they still have Blake Bortles in place at least for the next year, and they can sort things out between Kessler and Tanner Lee.

We'll skip over Danny Etlin. We've talked about him. Get to two of the quarterbacks I liked near the end of the process, including one of the guys that I had as quarterback aid. First, Alex Magoo from Florida International. They're getting a new offensive coordinator in the Seattle Seahawks, Brian Schottenheimer, and they're getting Alex Magoo. They drafted him with the second pick in the seventh round,

one right after Danny Etlin out of Florida International. Schottenheimer, more of a downfield, Coriel-type guy. Going to be a big offensive change from Darren Bevel in the West Coast system they were running last year or the past couple of seasons out in Seattle. But I think Magoo fits a downfield passing game pretty well. He's also a fairly athletic quarterback you watch him on RPOs and stuff like that got good bursts to him not the quickest guy but can kind of take off and go on designed runs on scrambles has a big enough arm I think to fit that downfield

type passing game and you know the Seahawks do have sort of a need at the backup quarterback position they had Trevon Boykin. They had to release him because of some off-field issues. They had Austin Davis. They had Stephen Morris. Not really sold on either of those guys. Alex Magoo is in a nice spot to perhaps win this backup job. I mean, you look at Austin Davis and his body of work.

Stephen Morris has been bouncing around for a while, but hasn't really shown much. Alex Magoo is in a nice situation here. He can come he can win this backup job he can learn that offense and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see he's QB2 for the Seattle Seahawks this season you get that in the seventh round that's pretty impressive so hats off to the Seahawks they get a quarterback I like and Alex Magoo out of Florida International and maybe I'm higher on this you know it does seem like I'm a fan of a lot of these picks, and I'm a fan of the next one too.

But that might go back to the fact that I'm still a fan of this class. Maybe I graded them higher than the NFL, but I still think a lot of these guys can play, and they're finding themselves in some good fits for them and some good situations. Same thing goes for Logan Woodside, who is the final quarterback drafted in the 31st pick of the seventh round. He finds himself on the Cincinnati Bengals. And I thought that the Bengals were kind

of a dark horse team to draft a guy like Kyle Lauletta a little bit earlier in the draft because beyond the Bill Lazor, this is going to have a much more, I think, West Coast type feel to it than it has the past couple of years. They've replaced the offensive coordinator early in the season last year. The quarterback room is interesting right now. You've got Matt Barkley there. You've got Jeff Driscoll there, who was a guy I also thought was suited for a West Coast offense. Barkley as well, suited for a West Coast offense.

And now you add Woodside to that group. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say Woodside's going to win this quarterback, this backup spot outright. But like we just talked about with Nogu, I could see it. I could see him coming in and beating out Driscoll and Barkley for the backup job. I think it's a very good fit for him. He's a great player to look at and evaluate and project to a West Coast type of passing game. Will he beat out Andy Dalton? Not this year.

But I could see that happening down the road. Now, will it happen? That's what the next three years will tell us. The next three years will tell us if I was right on these guys or not. But it's going to be a ton of fun to watch. That will do it for today's show. I will be back for a Tuesday episode of Locked on Patriots.

I'm going to talk about three picks that I liked the most in the draft overall and three picks that I'm the most sort of concerned about as well as some other news and notes as well. And then we'll get through, get some guests on, talk about some of the other positions because you guys are probably growing wary of me yapping in your ear for 20, 25 minutes or so each day. But that's my job, to yap in your ear every single

day until I can't do it anymore. But that will do it for today's show. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you