Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 19, 2016 - Tom Brady cut, so now what?

Episode Date: August 19, 2016

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe discusses an eventful night at Gillette Stadium for both Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, as well as what it might mean for them in the next two weeks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. What's up, everybody? This is Locked On Patriots. I am Jeff Howe of the Boston Heralds, and this is your podcast for Friday, August 19th, the day after Tom Brady was cut and sent home. Now, obviously, that sounds a little worse than it really is. Tom Brady is just fine. He is still gainfully employed by the New England Patriots and he is still going to be their starting quarterback in week five but there are oh so

many possibilities so many endless ways to really describe what happened last night but ultimately what it comes down to is after Tom Brady had to sit out the second preseason game which he was scheduled to start what do you do with Tom Brady for the rest of the summer and that's what this show is going to be all about Tom Brady Jimmy Garoppolo and then the decision with both of them over the next two preseason games before Brady's suspension kicks in from weeks one through four. Jimmy Garoppolo played really well. This was the Jimmy Garoppolo that we have really been talking up earlier or had been talking up earlier in camp before we dipped a little bit.

Wasn't getting a lot of help. Against the Bears, he was rock solid. Yeah, he had a couple throws he'd like to have back. His worst throw of the night back his worst throw of the night was his last throw of the night so didn't go out on the highest of notes but you saw in Jimmy Garoppolo against the Bears what has made everybody so optimistic about his future in the NFL whether you're just discussing weeks one through four with the Patriots in the 2016 season or any time beyond then when you're thinking about,

remember an episode we did earlier in the Locked On Patriots podcast about Jimmy Garoppolo's value, both in terms of a contract that could approach $20 million a year and trade value in terms of what the Patriots can get back. You're talking about maybe a first-round pick, probably a first-round pick, and then some, especially if he continues to play like he did against the Bears in those first four weeks of the regular season. So, before we get to Garoppolo, what do you do with Tom Brady? The plan, there had been a plan that was discussed before the start of the preseason to keep Brady out for all four preseason games.

Now, that was just something that they were kicking around. It wasn't anything that was finalized. There wasn't a dramatic change in opinion or anything like that. It was just something that they considered because Tom Brady was so good in training camp and has been so good in training camp. And when you're talking about a month-long layoff at the start of the regular season, what is the extra activity in a preseason game really worth for a 39-year-old, four-time Super Bowl champion, two-time NFL MVP, who has seen it all and really probably doesn't totally need the extra handful of series in a preseason game to just say all right well you knock the rust off in week three in August

so you should just you should be just fine the first week of October I don't think it works like that so that's why the Patriots had considered that. Now again, clearly that plan was just a discussion, and it went by the wayside when they decided to start Tom Brady against the Bears. And that all fell apart when Tom Brady caught himself in the locker room before kickoff. And they basically had to announce, or tell Jimmy Garoppolo hey you're starting about 30 minutes before the game was set to begin and Garoppolo went out and handled himself well but looking ahead now the Patriots have a long week eight days until the Carolina game the week three preseason game that obviously all the starters play as deep into that game as they will at any point this summer and if you throw Brady out there you kind of derail a little momentum for Jimmy Garoppolo if you don't throw Brady out there

you give Garoppolo a chance to go out against the Carolina team that is coming off a Super Bowl appearance and on paper is one of the two three four most talented rosters in the NFL we'll see how they bounce back of course from a Super Bowl loss that has been so difficult for a lot of teams to recover from the following season but at least on paper you've got a Carolina team at home in week three of the preseason which is actually going to be their home opener of the preseason they're going to be juiced up and that's going to be a really good test for Garoppolo and if you want to simulate an environment like the one he'll see in week one in Arizona man this is a good opportunity for him now I look at this in one of two ways and I'm kind of going to talk in circles here but the point is it kind of

bleep there are two points that just bleed into one another starting with Brady let's say he plays what three series let's say he plays the first quarter and then you you give Garoppolo the second and third quarter of that Carolina game and I'm not entirely sure how they would dole out the reps if both of those quarterbacks decide or if they decided both of those quarterbacks would play but let's just say it's that formula because it's such an important game for Garoppolo that you're not just going to put Brady out there for two and a half quarters and then say all right Jimmy go finish it out with the second stringer so that does Jimmy Garoppolo no good at all so are you going to look

at Tom Brady and say, like I said earlier, all right, because you got that chance to go play one quarter on August 26th, you're going to be that much better the first week of October, week five against the Cleveland Browns. You get what I'm saying there? This guy has been through it all, has overcome some serious stuff over the course of his career in terms of on the field adversity came back this summer has been lights out doesn't look like a 39 year old quarterback in his first real practice with Jimmy Garoppolo with Julian Edelman completed a pass in the

corner of the end zone that made it look like those two had been working together every single day on the field and actually probably have at least when the cameras were off so it's not like the timing's an issue now i'm not going to sit here and say that training camp speed is the same as pre-season speed which is the same as regular season speed because it'd be stupid to make that point but it's tom brady you're talking about so if there's anybody who deserves the benefit of the doubt you know like rob gronkowski has now not played in 15 consecutive preseason games hasn't hurt him so i know quarterback and tight end are two different positions but do you really need are you really going to go into that regular season week five game and say, all right, Tom Brady's ready because he played a quarter in Carolina. No. Are you also going to go into that week five game and say, I'm not so sure

this Tom Brady guy has it right now because he didn't play in Carolina, didn't play in the preseason. What are you going to do? Just wipe out the fact that he had a really good five, six weeks of training camp before the start of the regular season and say well yeah but he didn't get a few series against an opponent in the preseason so that's what i'm saying there for brady now you flip that around and let's say tom brady does play the other side of that argument is well now you're minimizing the chances for jimmy garoppolo to go out there and get as much work as possible. And the counter to that argument is very similar. Are you going to sit here in week one in Arizona and say, well, I felt confident about Jimmy Garoppolo all summer,

but he didn't get a chance to play those first three series against the Panthers in week three of the preseason. And I really feel like that'd be the difference between three and one and two and two or between four and oh and three and one or between two and two and one and three so again I don't know if those three series are a massive deal for either quarterback I think it would be more beneficial for Jimmy Garoppolo to get those early series and to get that start in Carolina than it would be more beneficial for Jimmy Garoppolo to get those early series and to get that start in Carolina than it would be for Tom Brady to go out there and play. But if Tom Brady

talks himself into the lineup, like I'm guessing he did against going into the Bears game, then what do you do if you're Bill Belichick? You say, all right, you know what, you're Tom Brady, you want to play a football game before you go out there I see it Tom Brady's a maniac on the football field I mean just watching Brady during Wednesday's walkthrough he broke off to the side field with Julian Edelman and Chris Hogan they were running routes on air Tom Brady was standing at the five or ten yard line going into the end zone and threw a ball at about Edelman's knees when Edelman was running across the back baseline of the end zone. And Edelman couldn't corral it. Brady was so bad that he missed the throw to Edelman when they were playing a glorified game of catch.

That Brady just started to jog after the ball as it kind of squirted through the end zone behind Edelman. You know when you're playing pickup basketball and you throw a pass so bad or you airball a shot so bad that you're just like, oh man, I got to go get that one. That's what Tom Brady was doing there. And then a member of the Patriots staff happened to be in the area and picked up the ball and tossed it to Brady, who then walked back toward his spot. I don't know, call it the huddle if you want to. And unleashed one hell of a scream. As loud as any scream as you could hear from Tom Brady and he does it a lot over the course of the summer because he missed a target by about a foot and a half when throwing to Julian Edelman who was running against air in the middle of a or to the side of

a walkthrough the day before a game. I mean, that's, so that's what Tom Brady is at this time of year. He wants to play. And if he does want to play, I get it. But I don't think their usage in week three of a preseason game is going to have any sort of effect on their wins and losses in the regular season. So that's why I'm sitting here and I'm saying to the Patriots take that plan that they discussed not had in place but discussed earlier in the preseason and say you know what it might be best to sit Brady down because are

you going to go out there again and play him in week four against the Giants? Now, there have been occasions when Brady's gone out there for a series in the preseason finale, but different type of situation. And you know what? If the Giants aren't playing any starters, although the Giants tend to sometimes play starters too in that game, a series that is dated back 10 plus years now, 12, 13 years. The two sides are very familiar with each other, even though Tom Coughlin's no longer down there.

You know, Belichick's going to talk to McAdoo, or I would assume Belichick would talk to McAdoo before that game and just say, all right, what's your plan with your starters? Here's what we're thinking. Let's try to sync up here. But I wonder, honestly honestly if Belichick even plans on playing Garoppolo in that preseason finale against the Giants that could be the Jacoby Brissett's uh show Brissett's played really well too in the preseason or has had his moments I

shouldn't say he's played really well but he's had his moments and I think he played better against the Bears than he did against the Saints but this is not the Jacoby Brissett show. This is, it might be in week four, but this podcast is not the Jacoby Brissett edition. So you just look ahead to the last two games and you say, all right, well, you know, Brady missed his chance to play in week two. Now, how much is it really worth it to play him in week three or week four of the preseason before you send him home for a month or to parts unknown for a month? So the Patriots have an interesting decision on their hands there. Now let's get to Garoppolo and the breakdown of his night.

Really, really strong night, in my opinion, against the Bears. He was a lot more consistent than he was in the preseason opener against the Saints. Completed 16 of 21 passes for 181 yards and a strike of a touchdown to aj derby in the two minute drill the patriots take these two minute drill situations very seriously they run those just about live every single day in practice so you know know it was important to Garoppolo. Talked to Chris Hogan after the game. He said it was important for them to execute in that situation. And of course, you know Bill Belichick says it's important for them to take those situations that they take so seriously in practice

and then apply them into a game, especially for Garoppolo when he's trying to get as caught up as humanly possible in this stretch here. So Garoppolo was 5 of 7 for 57 yards in that two-minute situation. I even liked one of his incompletions, that ball that he soared to Hogan in the end zone that went off Hogan's right hand. Hogan really had no chance to catch it. But what I liked was Hogan was covered. He had a guy on his hip,

and then there was also a safety in his own situation uh the zone look the safety who jumped and just missed the ball but garoppolo delivered the ball over both of those defenders to a point where if anybody was going to catch it it was chris hogan but because hogan didn't catch it the clock stopped with 21 seconds to go and it gave the patriots and garoppolo a chance to huddle. So there was a lot going on there. But to even like an incompletion that Garoppolo had, I think it was just, it just sort of stuck out to me. Now, Garoppolo made a lot of good throws.

And yeah, they got off to a slow start as an offense, but it wasn't on Garoppolo. He was two of three for nine yards in the first quarter. On paper, that's not a good first quarter quarter but they went three and out in their first series because Aaron Aaron Dobson dropped a ball on third and two I think it was but either way it would have been a first down conversion now it was a tricky catch Garoppolo could have put the ball in a better area but that's a ball that Aaron Dobson absolutely has to catch any wide receiver has to catch that ball and then the second drive carried over into the second quarter and that's when Brandon Bolden fumbled the ball on the three-yard line when

they were going in for a touchdown or at worst a field goal so this is remember when Jimmy Garoppolo started his dip it was that first of two scrimmages the Patriots had in their second weekend of training camp. The weekend before, they were set to welcome the Saints for joint practices. And I was telling you guys, yeah, Jimmy Garoppolo didn't look great, but he wasn't getting a lot of help either. You know, guys were dropping passes on third down. Dobson had a ball broken up by EJ Biggers on one of those third downs. AJ Derby dropped a pass on one of those third downs. And then Rob Gronkowski was called to throw a pass that was intercepted by Devin McCourty early in one of Garoppolo's first series.

It might have been his second series. So, you know, you liken that to the bold and fumble at the goal line. You look at the drops, and again, one carried over into the preseason game so these were just situations where and i'm not i'm really not trying to make excuses for garoppolo but these aren't situations that you can blame him for so you look and you say well two of three for nine yards in the first quarter and they're down 11 nothing uh yeah i'm not saying garoppolo played a perfect first quarter maybe there were throws that were more available to him that he overlooked on two of those completions. Maybe he could have pushed it downfield a little more, padded those stats.

I don't know. But the bottom line was he wasn't getting help. So this is something that is going to continue to improve once he is able to throw live passes to Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman and eventually, at some point, we don't know when, but Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell after that dislocated elbow heals up, Deion Lewis once he's back in the mix. So things are going to get better for Garoppolo.

He had a nice rhythm with Chris Hogan. He's blended in well with Martellus Bennett. So with Hogan in the lineup a couple more an extra piece to kind of rely on if you're garoppolo and i think that also played into why garoppolo was a bit more successful against the bears than he was against the saints and hogan led all of garoppolo's receivers with four catches for 53 yards now there, there was a third quarter series, or actually, I want to bring it back to the Patriots' first scoring drive when Garoppolo made a nice throw to Hogan

on a quick slant that went for 20 yards. A real BB, right over the middle, perfect timing with Hogan, and you'll like to see that. Now, the rhythm that Garoppolo was in was impressive because it allowed him to make a bunch of different types of throws. It wasn't, sit in the pocket you've got time go through your reads okay this guy's open I'm gonna hit him these were differently designed plays they all looked a little bit

different and Garoppolo was able to do different things so this wasn't a situation where the Patriots were saying all right you've got a quarterback who I don't want to say is struggling but isn't at the top of his game or hadn't been at the top of his game for the previous couple weeks of practice you know let's just find one or two things that he does well and put him in those situations it wasn't that type of scenario so he had a pass to Clay Harbor for 21 yards in the third quarter when he rolled out right had a blitzer in his face and garoppolo immediately dumped it off to harbor who again gained a bunch of yards up the flat some of the a bunch of those got called back due to a holding

call but a a gain that stood nonetheless in the stat book gar Garoppolo's 25-yarder to Chris Hogan was another one, play action, where the play was designed to go to Hogan to Garoppolo's blind side. Hogan was running to the left, and as he went for the play fake, had to turn around, readjust, and bang. There was a pass rusher right in his face. Garoppolo moved up into the pocket and found Hogan down the field. Hogan bobbled it a couple times, almost gave that pass away, but the completion was made and they got 25 yards down the field.

Earlier in that drive, Garoppolo and Aaron Dobson hooked up for a 10-yard outrow. So those aren't always the most fun passes for a quarterback to throw, but they made that one look easy because of the off coverage by the cornerback Garoppolo trusted the throw the receiver bang 10 easy yards those are important throws to make over the course of a game so I'm highlighting these throws and then you know what just back up again that touchdown to AJ Derby was fantastic he hit Derby in between two defenders up the left left side, skinny post there, and couldn't have thrown the ball any better. Derby took a hit to make the catch. And look, I've discussed Derby's rise and how he has been the third best tight end in camp,

and probably deserves a roster spot at this point. But this is a Garoppolo show and that was just that was a tremendous throw now two of Garoppolo's mistakes he missed Derby earlier in the game up the right side when the ball was thrown a little too low a little too late Derby couldn't hang on to it in the end zone and then the worst throw in the night was his final throw in that third quarter after the completion to Dobson after the the good running catch by Harbor, and after the completion to Hogan, Garoppolo looked up to James White, who's running an angle route out of the backfield. Linebacker jumped the route and should have picked it off, might have even taken it all the way back for a touchdown if he did catch it, but Garoppolo got away with one there. So those are some of the situations, some of the bounces

that a quarterback is going to need to fall in his favor. Tom Brady throws the occasional ball that should have been picked off in a regular season game too, and has gotten away with it. Those things happen. As they all say, that's why that guy was on defense. Even still, Garoppolo's going to watch the film, and Josh McDaniels and Bill Belichick are going to watch the film, and heck, even Tom Brady's going to watch the film, and theyDaniels and Bill Belichick are going to watch the film and heck even Tom Brady's going to watch the film and they're all going to say man what were you doing there you sold that one way too early with your eyes and that's the type of situation where you know the the play was designed for James White and that was a designed route but if the book is out there that Garoppolo is going to stare at his running backs at times

you're going to see talented linebackers more talented than john timu jumping a route like that and doing some damage with it so again you just want to make sure you stay away from that sort of stuff you want to know what the linebackers are doing and you definitely want to be aware if they're going to start jumping those routes. Because then you can take advantage of that stuff too. You can start asking your running backs to do double moves. You can pump fake. You can sell a ball with your eyes. Get a bigger gain out of it.

So these are all things that Garoppolo will eventually learn with more experience. But all in all, a really good night. And I think you've got to watch that game against the Bears and see Jimmy Garoppolo as a guy who is absolutely capable of leading the Patriots to a winning record in September. Before they get to September, or before they get to the games that count in September, the Patriots have two more exhibition games. They're at the Panthers, at the Giants. And again, the big question, what do you do with Tom Brady?

I'm not entirely sure I know what they're going to do but I think sitting him has to be an idea that they revisit just because at this point how much more is there for Tom Brady to gain in one of these games now if he plays he plays but it's a decision the Patriots are going to have to make in the coming days the important thing is it's a decision the Patriots are going to be able to make because that cut hand is not a big deal Brady walked out of the stadium without a hand even wrapped so he looked just fine there is no cause for concern not a situation where you got to worry about Brady's hand in the near future or of course even into September but uh it still, a very interesting night, a bizarre night,

because Tom Brady was supposed to start, and then all of a sudden disappeared while the rest of the team was on the field. But ultimately, what it came down to was Tom Brady was just fine, and now the Patriots have to look at their quarterback situation in the next week or two, and decide how they want to continue to divvy up their reps. Because week two against the Bears was a very, it was a productive week for Garoppolo. It was an interesting week for Brady.

It was a busy week for both. And that's going to carry over through the rest of August. That's Locked On Patriots for Friday, August 19th. You guys have a great weekend. I'll see you on Monday. Whatcha doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal.

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