Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots April 5, 2019 - QB Comps: Westeros Edition

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome, welcome, welcome to a Friday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for Friday, April 5th, 2019. Did you miss me yesterday? I hope you did. Had some things come up, couldn't quite get to do in an episode. That's one of the drawbacks of trying to do a show five days a week. If something comes up, look, you just don't get a chance to get to the microphone and record some takes. And also, look, you know, it was going to be a take Thursday. There weren't that many takes out

there to respond to. So no show on Thursday, but I'm going to make up for it with a fun Friday show. And you might've heard, some of you might've recognized at the beginning there, that music, that is The Light of the Seven by Ramin Djawadi from the incredibly well done season finale of season six of Game of Thrones. And as I said, we're going to have some fun today. And those of you who are not fans of Game of Thrones or maybe are fans but have not caught up to where the show is right now. Look, season eight's right around the corner. You better get to it, April 14th.

You might want to store this one. You might want to just say, look, Mark, I'll catch up with you on the flip side because there are going to be some spoilers. The night is dark and full of spoilers because what we're going to do today, what I'm going to do today is we're going to do some comps that matter. And I'm going to take my top 10 quarterbacks and compare them to a character on Game of Thrones. And this might seem silly, and it might be. However, at this point in the draft cycle, we've pretty much said all there is to be said about all of these quarterbacks. Those of you have followed my work heard me on other shows you know that i'm not really the

biggest fan of comparisons because they're hard to do especially for quarterbacks and i never feel like i get them right but when i get a chance to sort of have some fun with comparisons i'll take that opportunity and that's what we're going to do today again comparing to my top 10 quarterbacks to game of thrones characters i've got a piece going up over our Matt Waldman sites going into this some more. I'm going to talk about it a bit with Michael Kist on the QBsco show. Basically, I'm taking this fun idea and milking every little bit of content I can out of it. Before we dive in, though, 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, part of the SB Nation family of websites, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Sko Show with the one and only Michael J. Kiston, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. So let's dive in. We're going to work our way up. We're going to do three, three, and then my top four. Kind of back load the show a bit. Get you to pay attention. Get you to stay to the end. You know, kind of like they do on other radio shows or things like that. Yeah, we're going to have a great draw and a prize giveaway. Listen in the third hour. So kind of do something like that.

And let's kick it off with Gardner Minshew. And the quarterback comp, I mean the character comp here is Oberyn Martell. The Red Viper himself. And look, for a lot of these comps and a lot of these players, we all have to admit that we hope they don't meet the same fate, obviously, as some of their characters do on the show. For example, we don't want to see Gardner Minshew get his head squished in by a rather large human being.

We don't want to see that. But the reason why I make this comp is this. One of my favorite things about Gardner Minshew is his confidence and his footwork. And those of you that are still with me right now, you've probably watched the show, so you are up to date and you know in that Tyrion trial by combat, Martel's confidence and his footwork just jump out at you. Tremendous footwork. He's doing spins, flipping all over the place. His confidence is through the roof but it kind of burns him in the end

it's one of those look I mean you can see it interior space dude you've won this thing just stop dancing around don't worry about you just finish him so it's a bit of a double-edged sword

for the Viper that confidence matter but it can be at times with Minshew but I love his footwork I love his confidence so it's a bit of a double-edged sword for the Viper that confidence matter but it can be at times with Minshew but I love his footwork I love his confidence talking to Minshew down at the senior bowl was might have been the highlight of my week down there in Mobile and so Garner Minshew I'm going to comp him to Oberyn Martell the Viper. Now let's do Ryan Finley. And I struggled with this one a bit. I almost went the Ned Road. I almost went Ned Stark. But I went with another member of the Stark family. And I went with Brandon Stark. And this is not a knock on Finley's athleticism or

lack thereof. Because look, Brandon Stark had an unfortunate incident at the start of the show, start of the books. It's left him unable to walk. But this is not a knock on his athleticism. And matter of fact, it is a nod to Finley's process and speed and his ability to see everything. If you're with me right now, you know Brandon Stark kind of is a powerful guy. I've been digging binge mode. I'm not a big podcast guy, partly because, look, I feel like I'm always on a podcast. So I'm always doing a podcast. Technically, I'm kind of always listening to one. And so I don't really do the podcast thing.

But some people have gotten me into binge mode. I'm a big fan of it right now. And going through the episodes, and they talk at length about how Brandon Stark is a very, very powerful dude who might not know yet the full extent of his power. Finley might be similar in that vein. I love him from a mental perspective. I love his ability to see everything on the field, particularly when the defense spins the safeties at the snap or when he's making that play action fake with the back to the defense and you lose sight of what's going on in the secondary but then you have to come out of that play fake decipher what the defense is doing recalibrate your diagnosis of a defense and then make a decision he's got that ability to almost see everything on the field and it might stem from

his experience look he is an older player i've talked about him to the patriots and other teams and every time it seems like every time i write about Ryan Finley, I get hit with, well, he's going to be 38 by the time he's in the league. Calm down, everybody's 24. You know, it's not like life in Westeros where 24 means you've lived a long and happy life. Be thankful, you know? So Ryan Finley, Brandon Stark, that's kind of where I am with him. And look, the other thing is Finley has an incredible sense on timing and rhythm plays. So did Brandon Stark. You want to talk about a character with good timing, ask Littlefinger about Brandon Stark's timing. Chaos is a letter. Just leave that out there. Last one we'll talk about in this segment, Tyree Jackson.

This was an interesting one. I had some fun with a lot of these, and Tyree Jackson's comp is one of the ones I had some fun with. We're going to go with Jamie Lannister, and this might seem a little bit outside the box, but let me break it down for you. Jamie Lannister, a member of the Kingsguard, the Kingslayer, looks from the outside to basically have everything, right?

He's the heir to Casterly Rock, one of the best swordsmen in all the land, has the Valyrian steel sword. But he might right now have a fatal flaw that maybe doesn't get exposed yet, but could down the road. He's lost a hand thanks to the boltons when he was captured by them it's now he's forced to fight with one gold fake hand and one actual hand and he has to relearn how to fight and it could be a fatal flaw for him we just don't know yet he's got some good training but we've yet to see it truly tested we did did see it down in Dorne, and he kind of struggled a bit. Tyree Jackson, I've talked about him. I've talked about his mechanics.

Seems to have everything but that mechanical issue in his lower body. Can he work through it? Can he learn how to correct that? Or will that be his fatal flaw? Obviously, the season yet to come might tell us a great deal about these two men characters character man whatever and whether their issues right now are fatal flaws or not so Tyree Jackson Jamie Lannister up next my next three quarterbacks and then the final four the top four and yes I'm doing it that way because you all know who my QB4 is and I want to make sure I save them to the end

because I know everybody's waiting to hear who I comp Brett Rippin to we're having some fun today here on this Friday installment of Locked On Patriots Mark Schofield back with you now doing some comps let matter Game of Thrones edition taking my top 10 quarterbacks taking some

Game of Thrones characters and throwing out some comps that yes I think that there is some true relationship between the comp and the player and all that stuff and the character. Also gives us a chance to have some fun on a Friday because we're getting close to the draft. Everything's been said about these players. I'm not going to break any new ground or cover any new territory when I'm talking about my

top 10 guys, but throwing out some comps to Game of Thrones, man, that's fun. For most of you, some of you, if you've made it to this point and you haven't seen the shows or read the books, well, kudos to you for sticking around. Maybe this will be the impetus to go read the books, watch the show, listen to Binge Mode. You could do it on the great new podcast platform, Himalaya. We love it over here at the Locked On Podcast Network. I'm a huge fan of it now. Personally, I use Himalaya to listen to this show from time to time to make sure I don't sound like an absolute fool, as well as the Bleeding Green, the QB Scosio with my friend Michael J. Kist and I, where we have some fun.

And we're going to probably go into this as well on that show this week. I also listen to Binge Mode, as I've been saying, getting caught up on that, getting myself ready. I sat down and re-watched the entire series to get ready for season eight. And once I did that, I was like, I got to do this more, but I can't re-watch it again. I mean, that would be really crazy. I mean, I'm just kind of crazy. And so Binge Mode has definitely helped fill that void on the brand new podcast platform, Himalaya. Let's get back into it now. Going to get to my QB7 here. That player, Jarrett Stidham.

The comp, Padraic Payne. Perhaps the show's greatest enigma meets perhaps the greatest enigma of this draft class. And let's talk about Pod for a second, because he first comes to us as a squire to Tyrion when the diminutive Lannister was serving as the Hand of the King prior to the Battle of the Blackwater. And during that battle, the young squire actually saves Tyrion's life when a member of the Kingsguard, Ser Meryn Trant, at the direction of Tyrion's sister Cersei, tries to kill Tyrion

on the battlefield. Podrick jumps in, saves his man, and as a reward, Tyrion offered his squire some female, shall we say, companionship, courtesy of some of the King's Landing's finest establishments. But when Podrick had completed the task in front of him, Tyrion found his money returned to him. The employees of some of Cynzalandin's finest establishments felt there was no need to be compensated. You can fill in the blanks. After Tyrion gets charged with the murder of Cynjofri, Pod leaves King's Landing in the service of Brienne of Tarth, and at first seems like he can't handle the duties of a squire. After all, his biggest task with Tyrion was to refill his glass of wine.

But over the course of his time with Brienne of Tarth, Podrick develops into a more capable squire, swordsman, and potential knight. We see him when he and Brienne come to the rescue of sansa and theon slash reek in the sixth season and suddenly he's on horseback he's battling some of ramsay bolton's knights he's more than holding his own and you're like patrick where did this come from that brings us to stidham you don't know what you're going to get with him if you get the quarterback we saw down at mobile and at times while at Baylor and Auburn, you might be getting one of the steals of this draft. If you get the quarterback that we saw more often than not over the past couple of seasons at Auburn, where he was perhaps miscast in that Gus Malzahn offense, maybe you aren't

getting the quarterback you hoped for. And so Jaredrett Stidham, Padraic Payne, two enigmas. You don't know what you're going to get, but if it pans out, you might have something pretty impressive on your hands. Wow, that was an awkward little pun there, but let's move on. Quarterback six for me,

Daniel Jones. And the comp here is the one and only Jon Snow slash Eon Targaryen. Now, his might be the tale and the song of ice and fire that this entire series, the entire series of books is based upon. It might be his story that is unfolding before us. And he certainly looks the part of the true hero. Good looking, albeit in a brooding sense, a man who tries to do the right thing at every moment

and aspires to the ideals instilled in him by men such as Ned Stark, Aemond Targaryen, and Lord Commander Jorah Mormont. He looks the bit of the prince that was promised. However, when you dig a bit deeper, you might find his decision making lacking at times i mean one of his first acts as a member of the night's watch is to forgo his vows and fall for a member of the free folk then when he becomes lord commander of the night's watch he allows the free folk to pass south through the wall which results in a mutiny and his own murder at the hands

of his brothers brought back to life he tries to retake his childhood home with his sister Sansa, but at the Battle of the Bastards, he is goaded into charging early and only Sansa's deal with Littlefinger saves him in the Army of the North. Now he stumbles into another leadership role, now as the Kin in the North, but quickly decides to bend the knee

and almost ruins that peace meeting that takes place in King's Landing at the end of Season 7. So, to put it all together, looks the part, questionable decision maker, Daniel Jones. Also looks the part, crisp mechanics, good athleticism, some arm talent to back it all up. Also has a relationship with a revered figure in his field. Not a former warden of the North or Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, but Dave Cutcliffe, a man viewed as a quarterback guru who helped mold both Peyton and Eli Manning. Now,

both men could put it all together in the wars to come. John might be the prince that was promised. Jones might be the quarterback that was promised. But until they put it all together, either on the fields of Westeros or on the fields in the NFL, I will maintain some skepticism. Of course, look, I won't deny it. I am rooting for Tyrion, Jon slash Aegon, and Daenerys to be a three-headed dragon. I'm rooting for perhaps Jon slash Aegon and Daenerys to be the prince slash princess that were promised. If you listen to Binge Mode, you'll kind of understand where I'm going with that. Maybe it was a princess that was promised. Who knows? But just, I am rooting for them,

but I maintain skepticism because if reading these books and watching this show has taught me anything and it's taught you anything, you probably know that, look, all men must die. So there you go. Now, finally, my QB5, Matt Waldman's QB1. Kind of interested to talk to Matt about this one.

Will Greer. And the comp here is Sir Bron of the Blackwater. This is another one that I had a lot of fun putting together. And let's talk about Sir Bron. A brash, confident salesman who goes about his business in an unorthodox manner. not always look ideal but he understands the situation around him applies the appropriate amount of aggression necessary for the moment but also smart enough to live to fight another day if he is outmanned we first meet him out in the Vale he takes up the cause of Tyrion at his first trial by combat accused by Catelyn Stark of the attempted murder of her son Brandon Tyrion demands a trial by combat at the Eyrie. Without Jaime to ride to his rescue,

Tyrion taps Bronn to fight in his stead. Bronn squares off with Ser Vardis, a talented knight who insists on wearing heavy armor and carrying a large shield. Bronn relies on quickness, forgoes the armor, using the terrain and obstacles to even the playing field. Eventually, Bronn wins, dispatches Ser Vardantes through the moon door,

and when confronted by Lady Erin for not fighting with honor, Braun dryly replies, no, but he did. And that sort of brash confidence combined with an understanding of the situation and how best to handle it, I think you can apply that to Will Greer.

I've described him before as a quarterback that has a great understanding of what we call appropriate aggression. He understands coverage, leverage, and knows how to take some appropriate risks. You might watch him, for example, and you might say, look, why did he make that throw? Why did he do that? That's a risky throw. But then when you take a step back and break the play down again, you realize he knew exactly what he was doing. And that throw was completely appropriate and it was the right reading decision given the situation.

And so, Sir Bron, Will Greer, I love the comparison. It might be my favorite in this one. So there you go. Up next, my top four quarterbacks. And perhaps what might be an interesting comparison for each of them. That's ahead on this Friday installment of Locked on Thrones. Mark Schofield back with you now. I'm going to close out this Friday installment of Locked on Thrones

and going to do my top four quarterbacks here. And we're going to start with, of course, Brett Rippin. My QB4. Yes, you know, my draft quarterback crush in this class. I know. I know that I'm setting myself up for a heartbreak on this one, but I'm still all in on Brett Rippin. This has been basically Brett Rippin week for me. Got a piece over of Pat's pulpit on him.

Got a piece over of Matt Waldman's RSP on him. It's been a Rippin week. And we're going to close out here with my Game of Thrones comp for Brett Rippin. And it's Lord Peter Baelish, a.k.a. Littlefinger. Why? Manipulation. It's one of my favorite things that Rippin does, his ability to move defenders with his eyes. Littlefinger's manipulative machinations are basically an undercurrent to this entire story and series. The whole thing gets set in motion by him.

He convinces Lady Arryn to murder her husband and help frame the Lannisters, which sets in motion the events that lead to the War of the Five Kings. That's not where it ends. He betrays Ned Stark. He conspires to murder Joffrey and perhaps frame Tyrion. He married and then murdered Larry Arryn. He likely had a hand in the rise of the Faith Millington. He saw Sansa married to Ramsay Bolton.

And that's just a portion of what he pulls off. He's a master manipulator. It finally catches up with him. Sansa and the rest of the Starks bring them into the Great Hall at Winterfell. She lists the laundry list of charges that Littlefinger believes are going to be levied at the feet of Arya Stark

because they brought Arya in last and it looks like she's getting charged. Sansa goes through the list of everything that's been done and she says, and how do you answer these charges, Lord Baelish? And the look on Littlefinger's face is just, what? That's going to be the look on my face when Rippon doesn't get drafted. But I digress.

So Brett Rippon, Littlefinger, Lord Peter Baelish. That is the comparison there. The ability to manipulate those around him, whether other houses or defenders in the secondary. Next call. MyQB3. Drew Locke. The Night King. And let's just put it this way.

A rocket right arm, ideal for the vertical passing game despite poor upper body and lower body mechanics. I think we're done here, right? That pretty much covers it. But if you want to get into it a little more, I mean, the thing with the Night King is

part of us are wondering who he is. Who is the Night King? And on Binge Mode, there's sort of an entire idea that it's kind of really nobody. We saw who the Night King is. When the children created the White Walkers to help them win their war against the First Men, we saw it's this little spoiler hint.

It's the same character that we see get that dragonglass shoved into him that plays the Night King. But, of course, there are other schools of thought out there that Brandon might be the night king or John himself might be the night king so who knows but you're still quite uncertain as to who the night king really is and you could say that about Drew Locke we don't know exactly what he's going to be and yes all these draft quarterbacks are projections in one way or another but you don't know similar to what we talked about with Jared Sinem,

what you're going to quite get with him. And so I think it fits that way as well. Quarterback two on my board is Dwayne Haskins. Quarterback one is Kyler Murray. And when I sort of released these comps early this week to those on the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, there was some, shall we say, joy. I don't want to say joy, but people appreciated the fact

I didn't go with the easy Kylo Murray is Tyrion because of their height comparison. Because no. No, no, no, dear listener to the show. My comp for Dwayne Haskins is Tyrion Lannister. And let me tell you why. Two men largely regarded as perhaps the wisest among their peers make this the comp for me. Tyrion's wit and wisdom have placed him in trouble at various moments, but have also given him the ability to get out of

some sticky situations. He's always seemed to have together a pretty good plan, like his plan for the Battle of Blackwater Bay. He was also able to talk his way into the inner circle of Daenerys Targaryen to eventually service her hand as well. And with Haskins, you can see as well the process, the mental side is there. But at times, both of these individuals can suffer in the execution phase. Take, for example, Tyrion's time with Daenerys. He reaches a tenet of peace with the slave owners of Astapor, Yunkai, and Volantis. But they almost immediately go back in the agreement, and Tyrion needs Daenerys to save him and the city of Meereen out of the blue. Then, in season 70, he convinces Daenerys to invade Casterly Rock, the seat of House Lannister,

and that fails spectacularly. The Lannester Army has previously just abandoned Casterly Law because there's no gold in the mines. Tyrion doesn't know this. And they are already en route to Highgarden where they overthrow House Tyrell, raid the city's gold stores, and send Olenna Tyrell to her fate. Execution lacking. It's the same thing with Haskins. Despite the knowledge and the impressive process, there are times when Haskins fails to deliver on opportunities downfield in the passing game he'll make the right read move defenders with his eyes have his team in position to make a huge play and then just miss the throw now that might be a mechanical issue with him that he can clean up but until he does cautious optimism cautious optimism i have for

both figures remember i said, I'm kind of hoping that Tyrion is one of the members of the Three-Headed Dragon. Just saying. And let's close it out. Kylo Murray, again, the easy comp would have been Tyrion. You know, he could have said, oh, hi. Ser Beric. Ser Beric Dondarrion. Kind of out of the blue. Let me tell you why. A knight initially sent down one path to hunt down the mountain, who emerges reborn as one of the leaders of the Brotherhood Without Banners.

Sir Beric's escapability is the inspiration here. The Lord of Light has brought him back from death six times. And for Murray, his ability to escape death in the pocket is one of his best traits as a quarterback. He is incredibly adept at escaping pressure, keeping those eyes downfield, and making an impressive throw. Berrick fights with a flaming sword. Murray pairs his escapism with a tremendous arm,

the ability to make touch throws downfield, velocity throws to all levels, and everything in between with almost perfect accuracy. Now, if he comes out of the tunnel, Kyler Murray, one day with that right arm sort of in flames, I'll just drop on the spot. That would be fantastic. The comparison would be complete. But still, Sir Beric for Kyler Murray. So there you have it.

My top 10 quarterbacks. They're Game of Thrones comps. Comps that I'm sure everybody's going to love or hate. Either way, it's a little different. And sometimes when you get to the end of the draft process, different is good because you can't hear the same stuff over and over again. So we had some fun with it today. We will be back Monday. If you want to send in some mock drafts for Monday, I can talk about some more of your mocks. Otherwise, I'll go through one of my own. Breaking down your mocks. I had a lot of fun doing that last Monday, so we can do that again. If not,

I'll have one either way. I will be back Monday. Have a fantastic weekend everyone. And keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Thrones. Thank you.