Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 11, 2016 - Jimmy Garoppolo isn't the only big storyline in the preseason opener

Episode Date: August 11, 2016

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe discusses what to expect in Jimmy Garoppolo's start against the Saints, but there are plenty of other players and positional battles to study Thursday night. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, where are you going, Jim? The elevator's over here. Taking the stairs. But our meeting's up on 8. Yeah, I know. But that's 8 floors up. That's like 8 times... I don't... a lot of stairs. That's the point. I've already lost a few pounds and earned almost $100 in wellness incentives. Whoa, you're getting rewarded for working out? Yeah, I know. I'm just as surprised as you are, Bob.

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. Good morning. This is Locked On Patriots. I'm your host, Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, and it is Thursday, August 11th, which means it is the morning of the Patriots preseason opener against the Saints at Gillette Stadium and with that in mind let's dive right into it the first time we're going to get a chance to see the Patriots in uniform but it won't be with some key players Tom Brady is not going to play the Patriots are also going to sit down Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski it looks like Gronk is going to be on the same plan as last summer when they didn't play him in the preseason due to a series of healthy scratches just to

preserve him for the regular season. I don't think you're going to find any arguments here. Julian Edelman tweaked the foot a little bit this week. Just felt some numbness. It wasn't really an injury scare as much as just a, hey, what is happening here sort of situation. Edelman didn't participate in the team drill portion of Wednesday's practice. Rather focused on conditioning on the lower fields after he came out for the early portion of the walkthrough

when just the Patriots were practicing against the Patriots' defense. So this is a situation where we're going to see a lot of Jimmy Garoppolo on Thursday night against the Saints. The problem is, what are we actually going to learn about Jimmy Garoppolo Thursday night against the Saints? With Edelman and Rob Gronkowski out again tonight and very possibly the entire preseason, Chris Hogan is in the red jersey or has been in the red jersey for the last week, so he's not expected to play.

Danny Amendola is on the pup list. Dion Lewis is on the pup list. Sebastian Vollmer is on the pup list. So you've got some pretty significant members of this offense who aren't going to dress for the Saints game. And you've got Garoppolo coming off of a tough week where he hasn't even completed 60% of his passes in practice since Friday, which is really, that's a poor number.

You really want to be up around 70% to 75% of a completion percentage when you are in practice because these things are geared toward offensive success so garoppolo is going to get a chance to go out there and start and this is again i keep going back to his rookie season when he had a bunch of just terrible practices in rookie camp mini camp camp, training camp, and then came out completely out of nowhere and played well against the Redskins. He did that with backups. He's going to have to do it tonight against the Saints, largely with backups. What I'd like to see, and I don't know the answer to that, but I guess we'll just assume that some of the offensive, the starting

offensive linemen are going to get a chance to go out there, is just to see what he can do when he's got a little protection. He's had a really nice rhythm with Aaron Dobson. I wonder if Martellus Bennett's going to get a chance to go out there, or if Bill Belichick is going to take the approach of, hey, all these key starters on offense aren't playing. Maybe he carries that across the board to a number of other healthy starters on offense and gives them the night off too. So we'll find out. I mean, it's kind of hard to dive into this preseason opener without knowing the true availability of all the starters. If you're going to throw Jimmy Garoppolo out there with Aaron Dobson and DeAndre Carter

and Chris Harper and Tyler Gaffney and the backup offensive line, I mean, seriously, what are we going to find out about Garoppolo tonight that we didn't already know? Or can you sit there and if Garoppolo struggles, can we blame him? Or can we blame the guys around him? If Garoppolo comes out and plays really well, hey, you know what? That's a good sign. But the problem there is that's a good sign that

he's playing well with guys who probably aren't going to be on the 53 man roster so we need to see Garoppolo really sync up with this starting skill position players and when they all start to get healthy or when they can control that practice environment next week again when they return Sunday to practice against themselves and then they welcome the Bears midweek before the second preseason game then again that's another important chance to see what Garoppolo is made of the joint practices this week were uninspiring I went over this earlier in the week the Tuesday session was the Patriots sloppiest workout of the entire training camp really really, 12 practices deep now. The offense was terrible.

They had eight drops. Brady threw an interception on a screen play. Garoppolo was 10 of 22. He had an interception on a ball that he led Aaron Dobson too far to the inside, and the cornerback had a fairly easy time of it, picking it off. So, again, just not a good practice. And then they came back Wednesday with a glorified walkthrough so there was not a thing that you could learn from that these guys are going half

speed at best so this is again it's it's good that we're going to get a chance to see Garoppolo in some live reps a game action some guys trying to rip his head off as opposed to practice when they're all playing nice and you're going to get a chance to see him handle the face of the pass rush and there is some some importance some relevance to that because Garoppolo has had some issues he's been inconsistent when the pass rush is closing in on him he has relied too much on his checkdowns looking at James White too much over the last week Donald Brown a little too much earlier in training camp when he was healthy so when the rush is closing in I want to see Garoppolo keep his head up push the ball down the field like he had done a handful of times with Aaron

Dobson earlier in camp like he did during a beautiful throw during Tuesday's practice to Chris Harper in the end zone so again the good thing is if he's playing a bunch of reps with a backup offensive lineman is they're going to get beat because that's what backup offensive linemen do in the preseason. It's usually pretty ugly for the backup quarterback in these preseason games because they just don't get a lot of help. I mean, how many times did we see Brian Hoyer turn into a lawn ornament over the years during his time as the Patriots backup when their offensive their backup offensive line was in my opinion worse than the backup offensive line that they have right now they've actually got some pretty good camp battles going on in the

offensive line and that's a nice little segue right now because again I think I've given you all I all I can really say on Garoppolo I mean we could turn this into a six-hour show and I could break down Garoppolo a number of different ways, but I think the bottom line is you know my feelings on Garoppolo, especially if you've been listening to the show and reading some of my work over the last week or two. So we've done as much as we can on the quarterback. Let's go to the offensive line. I would assume Nate Solder would play at left tackle, but if Bill velichick wants to give him sort of a veteran's night off i'd

understand that that would put leadrian waddle at left tackle joe tooney the rookie third rounder at left guard quite possibly the best offensive lineman we've seen at camp so far since they put the pads on and that's that's outstanding just a tremendous development for the Patriots. Joe Tooney, again, looks like a week one starter and can hold on to that job for as long as he possibly can because he looks like the real deal. They look like they got a really good one out of NC State in the third round in this draft. At center, David Andrews has handled that job

since Brian Stork went down the first Saturday at camp with a concussion. Stork has since come back. He participated in team drills on Tuesday, so I would think that he would be available in the preseason opener, but again, due to lingering concussion issues, do you put him out there when you could also rotate Ted Karras and Josh Klein as the backup centers? So Bill Belichick has a decision there too. David Andrews has been fine, but you want to see him out there at the undrafted rookie from a year ago. You just want to see what he's capable of.

And getting a little chemistry with Jimmy Garoppolo. A little more chemistry with Jimmy Garoppolo. The big question now is at right guard. Because you've got a bunch of guys who have played well at times during camp, but injury situations have kind of thinned out that roster, or that position. Right now, Josh Klein, if, you know, tonight, I would think Josh Klein would get the start,

assuming Josh Klein is going to be able to go out. Now, you know, he's sort of a veteran, or he's a veteran among the group, I would say. So will Bill Belichick give him the night off? Let's assume they won't. So that puts Josh Klein as a starting right guard. Shaq Mason did get some work on Wednesday as a starting right guard for the second time in camp that he's been the starter in team drills.

And really, I mentioned the injury situations. Those were two guys who came out of the gate slowly because of their respective offseason surgeries and had to work their way up the depth chart, which has since been made possible because Jonathan Cooper went down and the Patriots just are kind of have been in scramble mode. Cooper you've allowed probably the two best offensive linemen at least returning from last season to get their crack at winning that right guard job and because Ted Karras has played so well you've got two guys who I think the Patriots should feel very comfortable with whichever one wins the job quite honestly I think they're in good shape Klein and Shaq Mason it's kind of two different upsides for me Sha Shaq Mason, I think, has a long-term future as the Patriots starting right guard. He had a really impressive rookie

season, looks powerful, and I've said earlier, not today, but earlier in podcasts and in the Boston Herald, if Shaq Mason and Joe Tooney are your starting right guards, I think that's your most powerful combination, and it's got to be exciting for Bill Belichick because they're young players who can continue to grow in the system. Now, if Josh Klein wins the job, it gives you some veteran presence on a young offensive line. Andrew's in his second year. Tooney is a rookie, obviously.

So it gives you a little more solidarity, I guess, some level-headedness from your offensive line. And Klein, as I've said over and again, was the best offensive lineman last year on the team until he hurt his shoulder in about week 10 or week 11. So I think the Patriots are in good shape there. And when Jonathan Cooper comes back, hey, we'll see if he can make another push the way that he started to in the offseason in the first week or so of training camp, or the first couple days of training camp before he injured his foot. Right tackle, right now that's Marcus Cannon's job until Sebastian Vollmer comes

back I haven't seen I don't know when Vollmer is coming back I don't even know what the offseason surgery was I haven't seen that reported anywhere so we we have no idea when to expect Sebastian Vollmer back but they need him as much as they need anybody because Marcus Cannon just hasn't been good so far practice has been getting beat by pretty much every starting caliber defensive end the Patriots or even the Saints have thrown his way. So that's going to be an issue there. We'll see if Cannon plays. If he doesn't because of the veteran status and the lingering question there,

then you're going to see Cam Fleming play at right tackle. He's probably going to get most of the reps at right tackle tonight anyway, even if Cannon does go out there and get the start so we'll see again those guys are going to break down at times and it's going to put pressure on garoppolo and it's going to be good to see how he handles that you also want to see this is a great game to see which guys have a chance to really make a name for themselves and we're getting cheated out of the DJ Foster experience the undrafted rookie running back looked really electric in the spring but has been injured again in training camp hasn't participated in team drills since the first few days of camp

which makes it highly highly unlikely that he's going to play against the Saints not entirely sure what the injury is right now he had hamstring issues in the spring it's possible those resurfaced but again i don't really know i'm just guessing there but it's unfortunate for foster because he's got an uphill battle to make the team simply because of everybody's veteran status uh ahead of him on the depth chart and he's just he's like a dion lew Lewis type you want to see him in live action and if he's uh if he's able to go out there get the ball in space he's going to be electric he's going to have some highlight plays and he have he'd have a chance to separate himself for the time being that's on hold so I think you're going to see a lot of Tyler Gaffney I wouldn't be

surprised if he got the start and played the majority of the snaps at running back. And it's a good story for him. He's in his third year. He was injured on his very first play of his rookie season at camp with the Panthers before the Patriots claimed him. Then last year, his second training camp, he got injured on August 1st and eventually went on IR. So this is the latest into the season that Gaffney's made it.

And the Patriots have given him the first carry in a handful of recent practices, which leads me to believe he's probably going to start. And even if he doesn't start, let's say they give the ball to LeGarrette Blount for the first series and then take him out, you're going to see, I think, Tyler Gaffney get the vast majority of the reps because why would you put Brandon Bolden out there for a number of plays? Why would you put James White out there for too many plays now it's not to say those guys aren't going to play Bolden would be a guy who would deserve that veteran treatment to get some time off

especially since he's been out a couple times during training camp but you know I wouldn't be surprised if it's a lot of Gaffney and a lot of James White because Donald Brown is also probably not going to play because he hasn't participated in team drills since about August 3rd right around that time so another injury situation that has thinned out that running back depth chart then a wide receiver I mentioned DeAndre Carter and Chris Harper you guys know already about Chris Harper had a nice training camp as a rookie last year and then had that huge huge mistake against Denver in the regular season fumbling that fourth quarter punt which kick-started the Broncos comeback and essentially allowed the Broncos to host the AFC championship game you can arguably say that was

the most important play of the Patriots season that at least led them back to a return trip to Denver but Harper's looked good Carter is more of a surprise because we just didn't know a lot about him. He came in last year as a rookie. The Patriots eventually brought him in mid-December. He's stuck. He's got good wheels. He's a shorter guy who can play in the slot. But because he's got good outside athleticism,

he can really play across the line of scrimmage. Neither one of those guys is going to make the team or it would take something dramatic for either one of those guys to make the team just because they're so solid with veterans ahead of them well-paid veterans and well-established veterans and then really aaron dobson's been better than both so if they're going to carry a sixth or if there is a guy in that group who can beat out Keyshawn Martin in the unlikely event that somebody beats out Keyshawn Martin then right now Dobson has the the lead in in that regard and you know I didn't mention Malcolm Mitchell yet but

as a fourth round pick he's locked onto the roster too so what are we going to see out of these young guys I would expect Carter and Harper to play wire to wire. I wouldn't be surprised if Dobson got a good amount of playing time before they eventually pulled him off. And then you want to see what Malcolm Mitchell's got. He's a guy who looks really, really good physically and has worked hard to understand the playbook. He has not gotten a ton of run with the first team which makes me believe that it's a playbook thing you know i'm saying he's working hard to get the playbook but when you've got deandre carter who's been in the system since december and chris harper who's been in the system for a full year now those guys just know what they're doing better than malcolm mitchell

would and understandably so you want to see mitchell rise up the depth chart a little quicker but for now uh he's a little behind those guys. But again, he's a guy who, in these preseason games, when you're getting backups against backups, the physical tools usually separate some of these kids, especially at the skill positions. So you could see Malcolm Mitchell go off and do something special tonight. I wouldn't be surprised with that one bit. And then on the other side of the ball, just looking at the defense uh you know real quick at wide receiver Devin Lucien really hasn't stuck out too much at training camp he's probably the last wide receiver on the depth chart at this point

uh him and Nate Washington or I guess Nate Washington's probably the last receiver on the depth chart but uh Devin Lucien the seventh round pick pick, is, you know what, we just haven't seen it. Maybe we'll see a little more out of him tonight. Again, sometimes one of these young guys has a good preseason game, and it serves as a launching pad for the rest of the summer. We'll flip it over to the defense now. Jamal Sheard's been unblockable. Dante Hightower and Jamie Collins look like they should be right where they are,

or are right where they should be, I should say. Malcolm Brown is having a really good training camp these pieces are in place if the Patriots play their starting front seven or their starting defense maybe with a few exceptions then they're going to wreak havoc on the Saints Drew Brees told the media on Wednesday that he expects to play a series or two so I wouldn't be surprised if the patriots tried to have some competitive football while the saints starters are out there with their defense it'd give everybody a chance to see what this pass rush pass rush is made out of they have absolutely the talent to be one of the two or three best pass rushes in the nfl it's going to be the strength of their defense

so we'll see. They're probably not going to get too creative, not as creative as they had been in their practices earlier in camp or back in the spring. Even though they weren't hitting, you saw that they were able to get a little more creative. They weren't vanilla. It wasn't just, hey, line up in the 4-3 and, you know, the front four rushes and the linebackers just kind of sit there in coverage. They're loading up. They're gearing up to get creative, to work on their pass rushes and the linebackers just kind of sit there in coverage they're uh they're loading up they're gearing up to get creative to work on their pass rushes to coordinate their blitzes and i think it's going to be a really exciting group to watch we'll see if we get to see them tonight for a

series or two uh it'd be again i i think you're going to see jabal sheared in the backfields and if you get a chance to see d Hightower and Jamie Collins blitz, that's always fun to watch. And considering the way that they left the field last year, both of them nodded 100% physically, this is the first chance to see those two guys working in tandem, feeling fresh, and seeing what they're capable of. When they come off, you talk about guys to watch.

Jonathan Freeney's been in the red jersey, so he's probably not going to play. That gives you a chance to look at Kamu Gruger-Hill, who has been around the ball a little bit. A young rookie linebacker who has good athleticism, has made some plays in camp, so we'll see what happens when the lights turn on with him. He's a guy who I could see making a handful of plays, especially in coverage, just because of his athleticism. I wouldn't be surprised if he is the third linebacker if the patriots do play uh if they put their base defense out there

with hightower and collins uh gruger hill is a guy who could mix in there with them and then when hightower and collins come out for the night i wouldn't be surprised if gruger hill gets a chance to call some of the plays in the huddle either him or a Landon Roberts another rookie so it'd be a good valuable experience for those two guys to get some of those headset responsibilities to communicate with Matt Patricia and then to relay the calls to the defense I move it up a level the the young crop of defensive ends Trey Flowers has again been the best one of the group that includes Rufus Johnson and Gino Grissom Trey Flowers had just an the best one of the group. That includes Rufus Johnson and Geno Grissom. Trey Flowers had just an outstanding preseason last year.

Only played three games, but had a sack, three quarterback hits, three pressures, a batted pass, and just wore down. He had shoulder and knee issues last season that made him, he was a game day deactivation 10 times that was the most out of anybody on the team those injuries just set him back and then by the time he was healthy it was tough for him to leapfrog Gino Grissom who was held in high regard really until he blew that responsibility in the punt team against the Eagles but with Jabal Sheard and Chandler Jones and Rob Nikovich on the team last

year again it was tough for those young guys to really rise up and eventually Trey Flowers was put on IR December 1st he said on Wednesday that was the longest layoff he's ever had in football since he started playing as a seven-year-old so he's added a little muscle he looks pretty good he looks like he's been in the backfield quite a bit during training camp so I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a couple plays against the Saints in the preseason opener. Whether it's with the starters or the backups, it doesn't really matter. You're going to get to see Trey Flowers out there,

and I think he's going to be a guy who's going to benefit the most from the Rob Ninkovich injury that's going to keep him out until at some point in September as a best-case scenario. So, you know, it's going to be tough for Flowers to... Javale Sheard's their top defensive end. There's no doubt about that. Then you've got Chris Long, Shane McClellan, and then I think Trey Flowers is fourth right now. So we'll see what they're able to do with that group and how much they give the young guys. The young guys are clearly going to dominate some of the reps tonight. But yeah, we'll see if they start some of these veterans,

Chris Long and Shane McClellan, what those two guys are capable of because there's only so much you can really learn from line play when the the contact is live but it's not nasty and these guys need to get nasty to show what they're really capable of how healthy they are how electric they can really be so it'll be fun to watch that group and then going into the secondary jonathan jones is a guy who has you know i've spoken about him already fifth cornerback on the depth chart has overtaken daryl roberts for the time being fast fast as all get up i mean he was a sprinter in high school in georgia uh just i believe he was a state champion really really fast kid when he's around the ball he's pretty good at getting his hands on it and I think he's probably going to make some plays in coverage

on special teams I wouldn't be surprised if he knocks down a pass or two because again that's what we've seen out of him in camp so he's a young player you're really going to want to see tonight the best of the undrafted rookie cornerbacks so far so he's a good one brock vereen safety who has gotten his hands on some balls so far during team drills and camp i've been a little quieter over the last few days and it's going to have a really difficult time making the 53 man roster because the safety depth chart is pretty well secured with the way that they've invested in or devon mccordy and patrick chung deserve the top two spots jaron harman deserves the third spot jordan richards has gotten a ton of play he's the fourth safety when nate ebner comes back he's the fifth safety but really more than anything you know he's

a quality special teamer and my goodness what a performance he had in the olympics even though team usa bowed out early and won't won't medal i mean nate ebner wow he had he had some exciting plays out there that's the the i have already exceeded my rugby talk for the entirety of this podcast uh that's as much as i know i know we looked good i don't even apparently a touchdown is a try in rugby but again let's let's knock it off on off into a tangent of how little i know about rugby i know when a guy looks good on the rugby field and nate ebner he was outstanding so the patriot hey you know what give him the ball hey bill give him the ball let's see let's see what he's capable of when when nate ebner comes back i want to see the ball in his hands just for fun just to see what he's

capable of the patriots loved watching him in the olympics i wouldn't be surprised if they're lobbying to get him the ball for a trick play or two at some point, too. So this is the time to do it. Let's have some fun out here before the games really count. And if he goes out and plays well, I mean, if you give him the ball and he makes some plays, hey, why shouldn't we see it? Because I think we saw a side of Nate Ebner over the last week or so or the last few days that we didn't really know existed.

So that was at least a fun little element of Nate Ebner's rugby experience. But why was I talking about Nate Ebner? Because he's the fifth safety on the depth chart. Why was I getting into that? Because Brock Vereen is going to have a hard time making the roster as, at best, the sixth safety right now. I just don't see them being able to carry six safeties again. And count Brandon King as a safety, as a linebacker, whatever.

He should be on the team too because he's just a freakishly gifted athlete and another outstanding special teamer so again i mentioned brock vereen because he's made some plays he'll probably make a play or two against the saints but it's just he's looking at a at the practice squad at best just because the depth chart is so good up ahead of him the rest of the guys you know you know cyrus jones their top pick has we're gonna see what he's gonna get a chance to do as a punt returner that should be some fun to watch he's had some issues muffing some punts over the last week or so he said he's trying to study the wind it's a different

wind pattern up here in comparison to what he faced down south at Alabama and at those SEC stadiums so I think that's giving him an issue once he gets the ball in his hands watch out he's a fun kid to watch in the return game and he's probably going to get a lot of run as a cornerback too I mean if Malcolm Butler plays it's what a series or two Logan Ryan's had the red non-contact jersey on so I wouldn't be surprised if it's justin coleman is the starter across from malcolm butler coleman's played well so far in camp played well again last season when he was healthy so i i think he could probably see cyrus jones stepping in as the starting nickel corner if that's the type of look the patriots give the saints tonight so there's a lot of stuff to watch. It's not just about Jimmy Garoppolo. It's not just about the guys

who aren't going to go out there and play. This is an important game, especially for guys who are going out there and trying to make the roster or at least trying to create a little noise for themselves in their candidacy to go out and make the team. And we'll see when this preseason opens up.

I'll be back to give you all my observations on Friday morning after the preseason opener against the Saints. But for now, this is Locked On Patriots on Thursday, August 11th. My name is Jeff Howe. I've been covering the team from the Boston Herald for the last five seasons,

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