Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 10, 2016 - How the Patriots will manage injuries to Julian Edelman, Rob Ninkovich

Episode Date: August 10, 2016

Julian Edelman and Rob Ninkovich both went down during Tuesday's practice. Jeff Howe has the details of each injury and examines how the Pats will handle their situations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Fearless is full of surprises. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program. Learn more about our healthy benefits and sign up at fepblue.org slash choose blue by December 11th. What's up, everyone? This is Locked On Patriots. I'm your host, Jeff Howe, the Patriots beat reporter for the Boston Herald. And this is the show for Wednesday, August 10th. The Patriots are one joint practice down into their two days worth of joint sessions with the New Orleans Saints before Thursday's preseason opener. And I was going to take sort of a wide-ranging view of the Patriots after their first practice, but some important news came about during Tuesday's session. So we got to really hit that stuff hard. Julian Edelman and Rob Nikovich both went down within a couple minutes of each other early in the workout, and it kind of led to, I don't know how much that really played into it, but the Patriots had probably their worst practice of training camp so far. I'll touch on that aspect at the end of the show, and I'll probably open it up for, again, more of a wide

ranging, broader viewpoint of the Patriots on Thursday's show before that preseason opener, just in terms of stuff that I want to see. But we've got to talk about these injuries first. So here's what I know. Starting with Julian Edelman, he went down, again, early in the session after a couple phenomenal routes in one-on-ones, made some young safety look like Sean Payton should have just cut him on the spot there. He turned him around real quick. His ankles looked like applesauce. But really, after two good routes, Julian Edelman departed the field, went to the back, sat on the cart with trainer Jim Whalen, and after a few minutes decided to walk all the

way back into Gillette Stadium. What happened was Edelman started to feel some numbness, some pins and needles, some tingling in that surgically repaired left foot. Now we know that foot's been repaired twice now since November. So anything that happens with that foot is not ideal whatsoever. But there is no real damage to the foot. The Patriots aren't overly concerned with anything. There's nothing structural that they have to worry about. It's not serious. So now the Patriots really have to decide what they want to do from here. You got to look at this one of two ways. Number one, I think the most obvious approach is you want to be cautious with Edelman. You know how important he is to the team. That goes without

saying. So do you kind of just want to give him the Rob Gronkowski treatment, not play him at any point in the preseason, and really manage his reps over the next month. The regular season opener is a month from Thursday, a month from tomorrow. So how much do you really want him on the practice field? If this foot is any sort of a concern over the next month, then I think you kind of shut him down. You really pull that throttle back and you force a guy who looked really good. His footwork looked tremendous during the portions of the three practices that he participated in this week. Ran a beautiful route on a touchdown throw from Brady during Monday's workout. His foot speed looked pretty good Sunday when he came back. And again, just ran some routes that looked like Julian Edelman routes on Tuesday before leaving the field with the numbness in that foot.

So do you need to really push him over the next month? The second part of that is if there is really nothing structurally wrong with the foot, and what I've been told is the numbness, the tingling, that type of stuff is pretty common after you've had a surgery. The scar tissue starts to move and settle a little bit, so that's what kind of leads to the numbness and the tingling. So, again, if that's just sort of a common thing and the Patriots don't have to worry about it, then you bring him back out there, right? Doesn't that make sense? So you also, of course, want to get him as much in sync with Jimmy Garoppolo as humanly possible over the next month. You know how much Edelman means to the offense as a whole,

but he's going to be Jimmy Garoppolo's best friend during weeks one through four, especially if Jimmy Garoppolo has some issues with the pass rush. Nobody gets open quicker than Julian Edelman. Garoppolo is really going to need him. I mentioned that touchdown pass that he caught from Tom Brady during Monday's workout. That was a timing play. That was something that the throw was so perfect from Brady, the timing was so perfect from Edelman, and getting open, the trust was there. That's something that you're only going to be able to accomplish as frequently as Brady and Edelman do if you know each other as well as possible. Now, Garoppolo and Edelman, can they complete that pass one out every two times? Probably not. Definitely not if Edelman has to sit

the next month of the season. Now, I'm not saying that Garoppolo and Edelman have to hook up for these high-degree-of-difficulty passes in order for them to have success, but, again, in order for Garoppolo to be comfortable with where Edelman is, with how quickly he can get in and out of his breaks, and help him in the face of the pass rush that you would think those first four teams are really going to dial up as much as possible against Garoppolo, especially where the book on him is he's going to struggle under pressure as every quarterback, every young quarterback in the NFL does.

You want Edelman out there. So the Patriots have a really difficult decision to make. And I say it's difficult because we're on the outside looking in. The Patriots have more medical information, clearly, than I'm privy to. So they could have already made that decision. Maybe it's not difficult. But from what we know, the Patriots, at some point, are going to have to look at that when they're processing all of that information.

So I think Wednesday's availability is going to be extremely important. Now, let's say Edelman's back out there Wednesday. That really confirms the fact that this is no big deal whatsoever, and there's no concern with the numbness in the foot going forward. If he's not out there Wednesday, that would obviously mean he's almost certainly not going to play Thursday in the preseason opener. They're not practicing Friday, and I believe they're off Saturday too. So if he's not out there Wednesday, then you're giving Edelman four days off before they're back to work Sunday, and then Sunday's availability becomes important. So let's say they give him Wednesday off, and then you push that all the way to Sunday.

If he's also not out there Sunday, then you're looking at the Patriots definitely choosing option one there and saying, all right, not a major concern, but you still want to put this guy in bubble wrap for most of August before the games really count. So again, the next 24 hours and maybe beyond that, the next four or five days are going to be extremely important as we try to figure out how the Patriots are going to approach this Julian Edelman situation. Number two, Rob Nankovich went down a couple minutes before Julian Edelman left the field. And that was a tough one to see, because Rob Nankovich's durability is off the charts. He's missed one game since joining the Patriots in 2009 played I think it was 125 of 126 games that he's been in a Patriots uniform the only game he missed was a very minor

knee injury that he suffered in that first season in 2009 back there so to see him walk off and the look on his face you knew something was clearly. And you kind of feared a worst case scenario. What's going on here? Why would a guy like this leave the field? He's an Ironman. But tore a triceps muscle. And it's not as bad as that sounds, really. I was told weeks, not months. Now, my follow-up question to what, if it's weeks, not months, and the season opener is a month from Thursday, does that mean week one is in play? Well, I was told week one is unrealistic. So, I think what you're looking at right now, best case scenario, at some point in September, Rob Nink. It does turn into months. And then you're still, what, two months from tomorrow, he misses four games. And you can live with that. You don't need to, you know, I think if you start to get to the six to eight game range, like if the Patriots were really worried about this thing pushing into mid to late October, then you probably put them on IR

and then pull them off with the new IR rules. It turns into that short-term, the modified short-term IR rule. But again, if you're talking four weeks at worst in the regular season, then I think the Patriots just hold a spot on the 53-man roster for Nikovic. And that's not the end of the world. You know how valuable Ninkovich is to that team in terms of leadership and clearly production, but the Patriots are pretty well built at defensive end. Now, trading Chandler Jones isn't going to help, but elevating Jabal Sheard on the depth chart. Jabal Sheard has been essentially unblockable during portions, during the entirety of training camp. He blew up a screenplay yesterday, really had his way with the Saints tackles,

was in the backfield routinely. Again, JaVale Sheard, I think, is going to replace all of Chandler Jones' production from last season from a pass rushing standpoint. And JaVale Sheard was the Patriots' best run defender last year, too. So if you elevate his snaps from about 65% of his available snaps, aside from that three-week injury there, to the 90% range, you're going to get a really dangerous, productive Jabal Sheard. Across from him, you're looking at Shea McClellan and Chris Long as the two guys who I would think, because they're veterans, because they're free agent signings, those are the guys

that you're probably going to see a little more frequently with Sheard. And I think you're going to see Chris Long rotate inside a defensive tackle a bit too. And then behind them, you've got the trio of young guys. Trey Flowers has been the best one out of that group. He has been really effective as a pass rusher so far at camp. And then you've got Geno Grissom and Rufus Johnson. Johnson had a good camp last year. He was one of those guys who was sidelined. For him, it meant the season because of that illness, the virus that went around that locker room. So we'll see what Johnson's capable of. And Geno Grissom has been fairly unspectacular during the course of training camp. And he was a guy who Belichick liked last season,

and then he benched him, really, after he blew that assignment during a blocked punt against the Eagles. So Gina Grissom fell out of favor toward the end of the season. You want to see more out of him. He's gotten bigger. Clearly looks like he can take on more of a workload this year. But I think right now, taking Ninkovich out of the equation, you got the three veterans up front, and then Trey Flowers would be fourth on the defensive end depth chart, in my opinion. So Geno and Rufus Johnson are fifth

and sixth right there, whatever the order is. When you get to fifth on the defensive end depth chart, you're talking about potentially being a healthy scratch on game days for that 46-man roster. One side note I want to bring up now with Ninkovich, assuming they hold his spot, which again, I would expect them to, I would be very, very surprised if they put him on IR. Again, assuming the timeline holds true and my information's correct, they're not going to put him on IR to potentially save a spot for four weeks. So if that or whatever, whatever the low end of that return date potentially could be. So now you're talking about taking a spot on the 53-man roster that potentially goes to somebody else. Now, this is a storyline that I kind of brought up a couple weeks ago during Aaron Dobson's search, in that Tom Brady

is going to buy them a spot for four weeks because of his suspension. Now, where are the Patriots going to use that spot? Because the Patriots always typically carry two quarterbacks. That brings them back down to two with Garoppolo and Brissette. So where was that third spot going to be with them saving Brady's spot? I thought, assuming Aaron Dobson continues his pace of play, that really, his pace of production, that was going to give Belichick the luxury of carrying six wide receivers. And that might still be true if Keyshawn Martin doesn't get back on the field at any point soon, and they need to go to six out of necessity.

But let's say Keyshawn Martin comes back and starts to run stride for stride with Dobson, starts to play a little more favorably with Garoppolo. Dobson is still one of Garoppolo's favorite targets, so that counts for a lot. But let's say things even out over the next three or four weeks. Does that mean the Patriots are going to have to carry just five wide receivers? And does that mean Aaron Dobson is now expendable? Now, I know Aaron Dobson has his critics out there who think this whole point is great because they don't want Dobson on the team.

But the bottom line is this guy's producing. And the Aaron Dobson critics, who are also Patriots fans, you can't ignore the fact that he has been, again, Jimmy Garoppolo's favorite wide receiver in camp. So he's a valuable guy, and if he does continue to produce in the next three, four weeks and has a good preseason, maybe they can spin that into a draft pick and a trade if, again, they can't carry more than five wide receivers.

So again, I think the Ninkovich storyline here, the injury, it means a whole lot more for the defense, but way, way, way, way down the ladder there, way down the totem pole, I think it might have an effect, or it's definitely going to have an effect elsewhere as they make some very difficult roster decisions because the competition's so good all over the place on the depth chart now lastly i don't want to get into this too too much because i would prefer to come back to it on thursday but the patriots had a difficult practice i think it was their worst practice of training camp so

far as their 11th workout overall their first one with the saints the only one I would expect to be in full pads because they're not going to come out, or I would think they wouldn't come out in full pads Wednesday before a Thursday game. They've never done that to my recollection, but you know, maybe Bill Belichick says, hey, you guys weren't too good on Tuesday. You're coming back out in full pads on Wednesday. Yeah, I'm not. I give that about a 2% chance of happening, but they dropped eight balls, and Jimmy Garoppolo was 10 of 22 with an interception that was on him. He led Dobson too far to the inside. The DB came in and picked it off, but 10 of 22, and he was burnt by six drops. Tom Brady was 11 of 19 with an interception and was burnt by two drops. The

interception came on a bizarre breakdown on a screenplay, and Sheldon Rankins, their first-round pick, defensive tackle out of Louisville, was the guy who had the interception. So you're not going to see that too often from Brady. I wouldn't be overly concerned there. But the bottom line is it was sloppy from start to finish all across the offense. And without Nate Solder at left tackle, he missed his first practice of camp. The offensive line didn't have their best day in terms of protecting quarterbacks either.

I do want to highlight one throw that Jimmy Garoppolo made, even though he did have his struggles. He had a pass toward the end of practice, actually I think it might have been his last throw, when he was feeling the pass rush around him, both tackles seemed to get beat in the deep end of the field. Garoppolo felt the rush from the front and behind, stepped up in the pocket, continued to keep his eyes downfield. I think they were about 10 to 15 yards outside the end zone. Saw Chris Harper break free and delivered a dart for a touchdown pass. Those were the types of plays that Jimmy Garoppolo was making routinely

in the first seven practices of training camp. That is how Jimmy Garoppolo needs to handle the pass rush. Keep your eyes downfield, shuffle up, get a little help from the offensive line in knowing where the pass rush is coming from and knowing where the pocket is collapsing. Get that feel back, and I think Jimmy Garoppolo is going to recover from this little slump that he's had. So some important moments there. It wasn't all bad for the Patriots during that practice. I mentioned Jabal Sheard.

Had another great day. Jamie Collins, Drew Brees never looked at him. Check out Wednesday's Herald for my story on Jamie Collins, who I think is on the very short list. I'm talking maybe two, three guys who have the best chance at the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. Jamie Collins has looked outstanding yet again in this training camp. He's looked great. Dante Hightower has looked great. Malcolm Butler got the tough end of his one-on-one battles with Brandon Cooks, but did have a nice pass breakup. Cooks only beat him three times in team drills.

So I think it's been somewhat overblown with how much Cooks. Now, Malcolm Butler tipped his cap to Cooks and said, yeah, he had a better practice than him, which is true. He did get the upper hand, but don't worry too much. Cooks didn't. It wasn't a one-sided affair by any stretch. So a fairly decent practice for the defense, a very difficult practice for the offense, and I'm really curious how that impacts the way Bill Belichick handles his squad during Wednesday's practice. I would expect it to be in shells,

but I would also expect the intensity to be increased a little more and I would be really surprised if Tom Brady didn't come out and have a terrific day just to set the tone for the offense as they work their way toward Thursday's preseason opener but all eyes on Julian Edelman his availability not just Wednesday but through the weekend as I said earlier these two injuries were the two biggest ones the Patriots have faced so far at camp. We'll see how they recover, respond from the two in two different sort of ways. You know, they dodged a bullet or a scare, really, I should say, with Edelman. And Ninkovich, that hurts, but they're going to get through this because their depth chart, I think, is good enough around him him and only missing him for four games their defense is loaded up to the point where they can withstand a guy going down for a little bit of time one other thing I didn't mention there they've used Dante Hightower as an edge

rusher plenty of times they can do that again that that could help withstand the loss of Rob Nikovich so a very important day as the Patriots opened up their joint practices with the Saints. We'll see how they rebound on Wednesday. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst,

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