Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 15, 2016 - What to make of Jimmy Garoppolo, Joe Thuney as Pats welcome Bears for joint practices

Episode Date: August 15, 2016

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe breaks down the Patriots' offensive performance from the preseason opener against the Saints, with a heavy focus on Jimmy Garoppolo and the offensive line, and spins it forward to Bears week. 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. What's up, everybody, and happy Monday. This is Locked on Patriots. I am your host, Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald. This is my eighth season covering the Patriots, and this is my third week hosting Locked on Patriots, your new daily Patriots podcast. It's August 15th. And as promised Friday, if you listened Friday, this is going to be an offensive breakdown from Thursday's game against the Saints.

And if you didn't listen Friday, jump back on iTunes or Audioboom. Try to find it. It's all over my Twitter page, at JeffPHao. And get your friends involved. The numbers are doing great so far, getting a lot of new listeners over the course of the last couple of weeks. And let's keep this thing going. Let's get this momentum rolling. We can take over the internet here. Tell 10 friends and tell 10 of your friends to tell 10 of their friends and then tell their

10 friends to tell another 10 friends. And all of a sudden we've got a whole bunch of new listeners. We can take over the world and who knows? Maybe I can run for president in 2020. But that's for then. This is today. And let's talk about some offense. Again, if you want to hear a defensive breakdown, check Friday's show. But this is all about the offense. And your main guy right now, you know, Jimmy Garoppolo.

How is he going to fare? How is he going to improve over the course of August all the way up until that September 11th opener against the Cardinals? And it's really tough to take some decisive takeaways from that opener against the Saints because he didn't get a lot of help. Now, it started with some offensive line breakdowns, and I'm going to go into the offensive line soon. But the offensive line breakdowns didn't help him through his first three drives. And he made some ugly throws too. He missed James White wide open in the flat early in that game. Later, he, I don't know if he was throwing to Malcolm Mitchell or Aaron Dobson,

but when you're throwing, moving off your back foot a little bit, you throw the thing over the middle like that, you're going to get a starting NFL safety he's going to pick that off almost 100% of the time you can count on it Jimmy Garoppolo has got got to cut down those types of those types of throws I don't care if it's the preseason practice whatever that throw can not be made in the regular season especially when you're deep on the opponent's side of the field but he's a guy who's made a lot more decisions than bad decisions I'm not too too worried about that the one thing do like, he threw a ball to Martellus Bennett that Bennett was covered and he allowed Bennett to go there and make a play. And that's something that we've seen from Garoppolo at practice. Now, there are times you've got to take calculated

risks. And when you're throwing to guys like Martellus Bennett, and then eventually when Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman and guys like that come back and are working with him in the regular season, you want to allow those guys to make some plays because they deserve it. And it's going to make your life a whole lot easier. So you just throw the thing up there. And again, if it's a calculated risk, if it's a one-on-one matchup and the defender's head is turned, you give your guy a chance to make the play. You don't do it when you're just kind of lobbing one toward the end zone over the middle of the field because he got away with one right there. But those are just a couple of the mistakes. I think he did some decent things when the pocket started to hold for him. Now again, it's hard to say that he was great. It's hard to say he was bad. He was just, he wasn't working

with his guys. So aside from the offensive line issues early in the first quarter, DeAndre Carter and Chris Harper, who have both had nice training camps, but are still very much outside the roster bubble, they weren't getting a lot of, not entirely on them. There are veterans ahead of those guys. It's an uphill battle for Carter and Harper, but they just weren't creating a lot of separation. And that started to change when Malcolm Mitchell came out. You know, Malcolm Mitchell was their best wide receiver in that Saints game on Thursday night. He created separation and he looked really good after the catch. Garoppolo threw a beautiful ball to him down the left sideline there when he created some space behind the cornerback. So

Malcolm Mitchell got off to a good start. It did end gruesomely for him with that dislocated elbow. And it's good news that he's only going to miss four weeks with the dislocated elbow, considering how bad it looked and how those replays really kind of grossed a lot of people out Thursday night. But ultimately, that's a tough blow for the Patriots or it's a tough blow for Malcolm Mitchell because these are four important weeks for him if he can't be out there running those routes getting the timing down with the quarterbacks and learning on the fly you know it's one thing to to sit there and watch plays from the sideline or to just attend meetings and kind of hear the play call but it's an entirely

different thing for a young guy whether you're a rookie or going into your second year we saw how much Aaron Dobson's growth was stunted because he missed his entire second offseason or his entire offseason going into his second season so it's tough to miss those four weeks but again so much talent so much promise that we've seen from Malcolm Mitchell so far we'll see how he bounces back but no I think it's there's been a lot of the general reaction is oh he dodged a bullet because he's only out four weeks and not the entire season based off of how horrific that injury looked but again you just you don't want to dismiss how important these four weeks are for him so that's a tough break for Malcolm Mitchell but he also he made Jimmy Garoppolo look like a better quarterback and I absolutely foresee that happening when Julian

Edelman, Danny Amendola, Chris Hogan, Rob Gronkowski, and Dion Lewis are all back out there on the field with him and I think you're going to see a lot more success when I believe assuming Sebastian Vollmer comes back, he's going to solidify the right tackle position, and that's going to help the offensive line. So, again, some good things, a couple mistakes, but ultimately hard to take any overriding takeaways with Garoppolo's first performance against the Saints.

It's just something you want to see him continue to build off of. And with three joint practices with the Bears this week, two that matter Monday and Tuesday those will be some fun practices Wednesday is going to be a walkthrough that'll be a good time to take a nap so not it's a good week for Garoppolo to to get some more controlled reps Monday and Tuesday and then of course to get more chances to go out there Thursday night against the Bears we'll see if he starts again we'll see if Bill Belichick wants to get Tom Brady some game out there Thursday night against the Bears. We'll see if he starts again. We'll see if Bill Belichick wants to get Tom Brady some game action at some point this preseason. I wouldn't hold it against him either way if he didn't.

Tom Brady's been lights out so far. Clearly not a guy you've got to worry about when he comes back in week five. I don't think the speed of the game or too much of the timing or anything like that is really anything that he can get right now that he hasn't already built up into his arsenal over the course of his career but we don't really need to get into Tom Brady we know that he's a given and he has not looked any any bit whatsoever like a 39 year old quarterback no reason to worry about Tom Brady come week five I want to get on the offensive line because again

they didn't have their they had some tough moments and especially in their first three series and really it kind of bled into just about each series at least while the starters were out there it got better they were more consistent as their time went on but i tracked the starters and how they fared in the passing game. Nate Solder allowed one sack early in the game, his third snap. You know what? It wasn't a good play by Solder, but it was his third snap since he tore his biceps in, or his pec in Dallas in week five last year. So, I mean, it was the guy's third snap since October. Not the end of the world that he gave up that sack, in my opinion. He just, you talk about the timing of the game and a guy having a layoff and stuff, you know, that's tough

for Solder to come back. He'll be better. There's no question in my mind about that. I gave him a half a sack for the second sack that Garoppolo ended up taking because it was Solder's guy who ended up taking Garoppolo down, but he was also asked to block for roughly five seconds and that's you can't you take those with a grain of salt I mean if you're a left tackle and you're blocking for five seconds eventually you're just going to start to get beat you gotta ask for help elsewhere so if if a play extends that long I'm not going to crush an offensive lineman for ultimately losing that battle. So the reason why I gave him half a sack is because it looked like, now I'm not 100% sure,

but it looked like because Joe Tooney pulled from the left guard spot over to the right, it looked like David Andrews was supposed to slide to his left, and he didn't. So he ended up blocking a guy that was also taken up by Shaq Mason at right guard. That allowed a rusher to get into the backfield and disrupt Garoppolo instantly. They missed a blitzer right away, or they missed the pass rusher right away, so that threw off the entire play. So while Garoppolo was scrambling, Nate Soldier was fighting off his block, and eventually Soldier lost that battle and Garoppolo went down. So I gave Andrews a half a sack for that play too, just because his guy threw off the play so much that I just, that's why I had to give it to him. Now there is the smaller possibility. I'd be surprised if Joe Tooney screwed up that play.

It looked funny that he was pulling on that play, but because we didn't get to see the entire play develop the way it was supposed to I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and just say that Tooney was probably supposed to be pulling and that's why Andrews was supposed to slide to his left the way that Shaq Mason did and again that's why I think the breakdown happened on that play Shaq Mason gave up a pressure Marcus Cannon gave up two quarterback hits David Andrews gave up that half sack and Brian Stork uh I Brian Stork this was not on the passing game but Brian Stork got beat in the play when Brandon Bolden lost two yards so not his best effort on that play either uh there were some positives you know I don't like to just highlight the negatives, but ultimately that's what it comes down to in the pass rush. You don't

really get positive grades if you're an offensive lineman for just standing there holding your block. It's just the nature of the position. It's a very thankless job, but clearly as important as just about any job on the football field. But David Andrews sprung Brandon Bolden for his 24-yard run, and Shaq Mason, after Aaron Dobson's crushing block, was the guy who led the charge during James White's 56-yard screenplay. So Mason, he's the best screen blocker I think they have. He's so athletic. He gets out into space.

He's able to single up. The guy that he's supposed to go after. Gotta love what he does there. Shaq Mason like I said he gave up the pressure every now and then he just gets caught maybe a little flat-footed maybe just misses something on his technique and gives up you know a tough play or isn't it's just not perfect but going into a second season also missed the entire offseason workout program, so that's not going to help him too much.

Doesn't affect you as much as it would for a wide receiver, but Shaq Mason is so, so close, in my opinion, to being a very good offensive lineman. And we'll see if he's able to hold off Josh Klein in that battle for that starting right guard job. I don't think you can lose if you're the Patriots in that scenario, assuming both guys stay healthy. If all things are equal, I give it to Shaq Mason just because I think his ceiling is so high. But if it's Josh Klein who wins that job, he was so dependable last year before the shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery. Josh Klein's a good player. And if you don't have him in your starting lineup, man, that means you've got a really good guard or a really good interior guy coming off the bench and that's a good position to have it's a it's a

good problem to have at that position Joe Tooney was my goodness Joe Tooney was outstanding that was in my opinion a flawless performance in his preseason debut. The third round pick was outstanding. He is solid as a rock, really difficult for pass rushers to get off of him. So strong. He can really engage. And look, I, I tweeted this out on Friday and I hope this isn't one of those things where it's just, uh, you know, trying to look for a big take because you know, if you guys have followed my work for a while, that's not my style. I'm not just out there trying to throw stuff against the wall. I say it if I believe it, and when I say it, I do believe it.

Joe Tooney, off of the last three months, has looked like a first-round draft pick, and I don't think this is an overreaction. And if you're new to the podcast or if you haven't followed me on Twitter or you haven't followed me on twitter or you haven't followed my work for for a long time again i'm not just throwing this out there because i just want to draw attention to a take or anything like that joe tooney has basically been a starter since week or since day one since he walked on the campus and started working with the veterans and a lot of that was because of injuries now trey jackson and shack mason and josh klein

were all out for the first handful of months that tooney was out there so somebody had to start so it was tooney and it was jonathan cooper who was brought in in the chandler jones trade now i really just assumed all right these are probably two placeholders we weren. We have no idea how good Jonathan Cooper is because he busted in Arizona and then got hurt during the first padded practice. So we have no idea. I have no clue. I can't tell you if Jonathan Cooper is going to be a good addition for the Patriots or not. And I couldn't have told you the same thing about Tooney until that first full padded practice on that first Saturday of training camp

when you could see the strength, you could see the athleticism and you could see why he was out there as the starting left guard. And he's not going to give that up. Assuming his health remains intact. He is really good. He's going to be the week one starter. And I just, I haven't seen the inconsistency that would make me say, all right, you know what, maybe you shouldn't jump out to such an overriding conclusion right now. Joe Tooney's been really good. He's been solid, and he's going to be the starting left guard in week one. In terms of the center battle,

David Andrews had a better night than Brian Stork. So the Patriots did a little rotating. They had Solder, Tooney, Andrews, Mason, and Cannon from left to right to start the game for the first three series. The fourth and fifth series, they subbed out Andrews for Stork. And then the sixth series, which was the final series of the first half that the starters played in, they brought Andrews back in at center, and then

they used josh klein at right guard in place of shack mason now stork wasn't great does that mean that david andrews is absolutely the better center i think right now he has the nod but i don't know if stork is just out of sorts because he missed some time with that concussion i really don't know again i'm not going to jump to any conclusions there because we saw him for two series they Stork is just out of sorts because he missed some time with that concussion. I really don't know. Again, I'm not going to jump to any conclusions there because we saw him for two series. They weren't two great series. And then Bill Belichick put David Andrews back in at center. So I think that tells you all you need to know about the way that competition is going right now.

Stork could absolutely come back and win that job. If he's able to establish some more momentum. david andrews falls off i don't know but right now i i think it's probably 60 40 in favor of andrews now that both are back on the field we'll see how this thing continues to develop we know stork is an extremely strong player and did some good things for them in 2014 so i'm not saying this battle's over it by any stretch of the imagination but right now it's absolutely David Andrews' job. And I don't know if I want to say it's his to lose, but if he continues to play well, he's in good standing.

So the Patriots are in a good spot with their young interior offensive linemen. I think Sebastian Vollmer and whatever offseason surgery he had is starting to be a concern because Marcus Cannon didn't have a good night. And he hasn't had a good camp. So you need Vollmer back out there. And I don't think you can – you definitely cannot count on Sebastian Vollmer to play all 16 games this year. He's only done it once in his entire career, and that was in 2010.

So a guy with bad ankles coming off an off-season surgery six years removed from his only 16 game season you know what are we we can't fool ourselves and think that Sebastian Vollmer is going to play all 16 games they're going to need to count on Marcus Cannon at some point for maybe even for an extended period of time during 2016 but right now the Patriots have to be hoping that Sebastian Vollmer can get back as healthy as possible, as quickly as possible. And you know what? If he's not ready by, let's say, the third preseason game,

which the Patriots are about a week and a half away from right now, then you have to start to wonder if he can be ready for week one, just in terms of conditioning and all that stuff. Now, you can look back to Brian Waters from 2011 when he came in off the street, basically, and was kind of rotating at right guard. And then Dan Koppen goes down in that season opener in Miami, and they needed to shuffle their line a little bit.

Brian Waters came in basically after a week of practice and took the job and held it and was a pro bowler for his only season with the Patriots so it can be done you know the conditioning thing is is a possibility but again it's just it's a lot to ask so you wonder as camp goes on day by day by day by day when is Sebastian Vollmer going to be ready or is he is he a legitimate candidate to start the regular season on the physically unable to perform list so again that's probably the biggest unknown right now in terms of the Patriots training camp situation so those are again those were the two biggest takeaways that I had in in the preseason opener the quarterback play and the offensive line play both are really two huge huge areas in terms of the Patriots

potential for success this year I think they have the most talented roster in the NFL I thought the same last year before injuries really sabotaged their season especially late but if their offensive line turns into an issue then you've seen how quickly other teams can make up ground against them. So Jimmy Garoppolo is in for another big week with the Bears coming in Monday, Tuesday, and then Wednesday is a throwaway practice, and then Thursday night's game at Gillette Stadium before the Patriots finish the preseason on the road at Carolina and at the Giants. So this is Garoppolo's last chance for a couple controlled practices with some semi-live reps against a Bears defense before the Patriots really internalize things

and start to work on stuff more behind the scenes. They start to game plan. They start to look ahead a little more to that regular season opener in Arizona, but I still think there's a lot of promise for Garoppolo. You just want to see him hit a little more consistently. I'm going to continue to look to see how he handles the pass rush this week when the Bears are in town. If he is continuing to keep his head downfield, and if he does that, I think he'll be just fine. His arm is electric.

I really like the arm strength. The quick delivery. And when he's, again, when he's keeping his head down the field in the face of that pass rush, he keeps all of his options open as opposed to just focusing on a check down guy. So it's, the problem is, are we going to see rob gronkowski in the preseason right now signs point toward no the patriots discussed this months ago during the offseason workout program keeping gronk out of the preseason they kept him out of the opener he was the only

guy who had a uniform on and didn't play tom brady and and Julian Edelman were kept out of the opener. And it's, if Jimmy Garoppolo is out there without Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski, then the offense is just, it's impossible to know what the offense is going to look when it's entirely together. Same, same with Dion Lewis. I don't know how much work he's going to get before the regular season opener. Chris Hogan, I think, has worked his way back and is probably going to get out there this week. He's been really good, very strong route runner, has some quick feet, gets open over the middle of the field, and has some wheels down the sideline. So that's going to help Garoppolo a little more,

so he's not just getting the snap and then looking for Martellus Bennett or maybe looking for wide receivers who aren't getting open as much as Malcolm Mitchell did before the injury. So, again, these are some things that I'm going to continue to look for this week, but I wanted to set the tone by just continuing my two-day recap of that Patriots-Saints preseason opener. Again, if you missed the defensive portion of that segment, of this breakdown, check out Friday's podcast.

Everything is bookmarked on iTunes. You can subscribe. You can check everything back on Audioboom. Again, I've linked to every single one of these podcasts multiple times if you've followed along and given me the appropriate amount of crap for it. I'm not talking about anybody specifically, Matt Chatham, but you know who you are.

And again, I'm just having fun with it. I want to make sure you guys are listening. And again, the numbers are suggesting that this thing is getting more and more popular by the day, by the week. So go tell your friends. And if you want to advertise, hit me up at jeff.how at bostonherald.com. That's Locked on Patriots for Monday, August 15th. I'll see you guys tomorrow. in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business.

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