Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 24, 2016 - Pats cut Bryan Stork, which big-named vets could be next?

Episode Date: August 24, 2016

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe discusses the release of Bryan Stork, what that means for the center position and looks at other big names who need to have a good week before final cuts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. What's up, everybody? This is Locked On Patriots, Wednesday, August 24th, and I am Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald. Just want to start off by apologizing for the late start on this podcast on, again, Wednesday, August 24th. Look, I'm home with my daughter for the day and she's the boss so you're just going to have to deal with it but you're here now and

so am I so let's just make up and try to get along as best we can the one thing the late start is good for is it helps me break down the biggest news of the day the Patriots have decided although I thought they kind of decided this at least a week ago, that David Andrews will be their starting center. And from there, the Patriots decided to cut Brian Stork, who started Super Bowl XLIX for them back at the end of the 2014 season. A somewhat surprising move just because it's not like you could have predicted, I mean you could have predicted it, but it was unconventional to think that Brian Stork was going to get cut if he lost his job to Andrews. But he's got the injury history. That's the number one thing. And then I think a bit of an attitude problem has rubbed some coaches and team leaders the wrong way with his on the field stuff don't confuse that with off the field stuff because

on the field in the AFC championship game he got flagged for a personal foul for headbutting a member of the Denver Broncos he got ejected from a practice in June for fighting with teammate Woodrow Hamilton and then he got ejected again midway through August during the Patriots joint practices with the Bears again for headbutting. So it's one thing to be nasty and physical and violent on the field when it's controlled. It's another thing when you can't harness that tenacity, that anger, and it starts to hurt your team. And when those incidents start to add up then you put your team in a hole and that's just that's not what the Patriots need right now not in a competition

that David Andrews had really taken control of since the end of July when Stork went down with his fourth concussion in as many years David Andrews has been the starting center in practice and the preseason with every single first team period since July 30th. So this is something that had been building for quite a while. And Andrews and Stork are different types of players. Stork, when right, when playing well, can push the pocket better than Andrews. I don't think there's any doubt about that. He's stronger. he's more physical, but Andrews makes up for that with his mental capacity.

Tom Brady has really enjoyed the way that Andrews is able to call a game. You know how Brady goes out or gets under center or in the shotgun and calls out the mic. From there, it's up andrews or the center to call out any checks that have the line in place which way are they sliding who are they taking on and you know just pretty basic stuff like that another thing that i noticed during the 2015 season with andrews when he started the first 10 games was that he was able to handle the silent counts a lot better and I think you saw some of that in the AFC championship

game too but just basic stuff from Andrews being able to look between his legs at the center and see Brady raise his foot to signify the start of the silent count when he was in the shotgun as opposed to stork who needed his leg tapped by a guard so you kind of involve one more player in that process that's not like you know a huge deal it's something that they all practice but again I think it just kind of shows the difference from one center to another and then I thought it was interesting a few days ago when Bill Belichick brought up the difference between one center to another. And then I thought it was interesting a few days ago when Bill Belichick brought up the difference between Andrews in year one and year two, and he noted that Andrews' cadence is really on point.

Now that's not something you can really pick up if you're on the outside like us. If you're in the huddle, if you're a coach, or if you're basically on the roster, you kind of know what's going on. But because Brady likes to mix up the cadence and Andrews knows how to handle the cadence, knows how to get off the ball the right way, you know, that was just something that Belichick pointed out that I don't recall him pointing out about any other centers in recent history now that could have very well been the case with Dan Kopan and I was around for the end of Kopan's career with the Patriots I started covering the team in 09 Kopan's last season was 2011 with the Pats but his last full season was 2010 so we're going back a ways and I just can't

retain every Bill Belichick press conference at least in terms of the center's ability to handle the cadence. So that's why that really stuck out to me. So, again, David Andrews is the Patriots' starting center, and I think that locks in what we already knew, but it locks in Nate Solder at left tackle, Joe Tooney at left guard, David Andrews at center, and Marcus Cannon at right tackle because Sebastian Vollmer is not expected back anytime soon if at all in 2016 so that leaves the right guard spot up for grabs

and Shaq Mason assuming he comes back on par with his play in previous two weeks when he comes back with that from that broken right hand I would expect him to be the starting right guard. For the time being, it's going to be Josh Klein's job, I would think. Klein did appear to aggravate his shoulder in the second preseason game against the Bears. That's why I think you saw him struggle a bit, especially from a physical standpoint. But you've seen Klein out of practice this week. So the other thing is is we don't know how much Klein is actually practicing because we're getting shut off after 15 minutes so we'll see what type of playing time Josh Klein has Friday night against the Panthers and that'll be a good

measuring stick for the health of his shoulder the other wild card there is Jonathan Cooper haven't seen him since July 30th same day Stork went down with his concussion Cooper went down with a foot injury so he's another guy who could be in the mix at that right guard spot but again at this point you're talking three and a half weeks since we've even seen him on the field how much longer is it going to take for him to get back out there and at that point how much ground has he lost so you can probably cross off jonathan cooper from the the candidates to start right at right guard especially in week one we'll see as the season plays on not entirely sure what

that means you know is jonathan cooper a lock for the 53 man roster no but the patriots have already guaranteed the 2.39 million dollar contract for this season they're not going to save any money by releasing him so I wouldn't be surprised if they try to keep him just for that reason just to see what they get out of him when he's healthy so four-fifths of the starting line is in place and with the stork news it kind of caps off at least for now who knows what's going to happen by the end of the day wednesday or into thursday and friday but the stork news caps off a pretty crazy 24-hour stretch where the patriots are really starting to trim down their roster

they've also released nate washington on wednesday that's not a surprise because he's he had been hurt for most of camp and there was just no chance that he was going to make the 53. So this gives him a chance to catch on somewhere else in the next two weeks as roster cuts trim down to 75 at the end of August next Tuesday right before the preseason finale and then down to 53 the Saturday after the preseason finale against the Giants. So Washington not a surprise. What was more of a surprise somewhat was Donald Brown. He was released on Tuesday and another guy who was basically just sabotaged by injuries got off

to a really good start to training camp was working with the first team had a chance to be a three down player at least by the momentum that he created early in camp and and it dated back to his offseason work but was injured the Patriots cut him with an injury settlement and they had to eat the $300,000 in guaranteed money that they gave him this offseason $50,000 signing bonus $250,000 of the base salary was guaranteed on top of whatever they end up giving him for the injury settlement so an interesting stretch for the Patriots there I think the timing of the Donald Brown thing you know every now and then Bill Belichick will cut a veteran like probably Nate Washington with the nod to say you know what, go try to catch on somewhere else.

As for Brown, especially when you're talking an injury settlement, this was just a situation where they realized that Brown wasn't going to be able to contribute in time. Ultimately, they were just going to end up releasing him. So you might as well just get to it early and start getting down toward that 75-man limit. With the release of Stork and Washington, the Patriots are at 81. So not too much further to go until next Tuesday to get down to 75.

But there are some other guys you've got to watch for in the coming days. And I wrote about this earlier this week in the Herald. Just how salaries are going to play a factor and in some capacity in these final few roster decisions now it wasn't the case with donald brown as he battles with tyler gaffney to be the fourth running or battled with tyler gaffney among others to be that fourth running back i'm not entirely sure the Patriots carry four running backs. Right now, I think you're looking at Brandon Bolden, James White, and LeGarrette Blount as three guys who are going to make the team.

Deion Lewis is going to start the year on pop. But those are three guys who are going to make the team. Gaffney's not a lock, in my opinion. And DJ Foster's back at practice this week. If he does anything noteworthy in the preseason games against the Panthers or Giants, if he even plays, but if he does anything noteworthy in either of those games, I think it's going to be really difficult for the Patriots to cut ties with him because he's a human highlight reel type of player.

So we'll see what he's made of. We don't know really anything about DJ Foster, aside from the fact that he has tremendous athleticism and footwork, very electric in space not entirely sure what he's made of in terms of a between the tackles runner so patriots have some work to go there but in terms of the big money guys terence knighton is a guy who i believe is still safe but did play late in that pre-season game against the bears for what i believe was more conditioning purposes than anything else.

But with Malcolm Brown and Vincent Valentine as locks, and Brown because he's the top defensive tackle on the team, first-round pick last year, Valentine because he was a third-rounder, and that solidifies his spot during his rookie year, and then Alan Branch I would assume is safe, even though he's got that suspension. You would have to think that if the Patriots were going to suspend him before that Bears game

for a handful of days, they probably would have just gone out and cut him if they didn't think he was going to be on the team. So you got to count him as number three. Knighton would be four. Anthony Johnson had an outstanding game against the Bears. Told me it was the best game of his brief NFL career. That especially it was the first time that he had played uh as slimmed down as he had been so he's an interesting prospect to watch

it's third nfl season but uh it's a new and improved anthony johnson so we'll see if he's able to keep that momentum going and then you've got marcus coon who got 140 000 signing bonus and with the 6 000,000 workout bonus, has already gotten quite a bit of guaranteed money. Terrence Knighton got a $250,000 signing bonus, plus $106,000 in a workout bonus over the offseason. So the Patriots are already into it for $350,000 with Knighton. So what are they going to do there with Knighton? Clearly, you know,

I've made this point over and again, when you start to get $150,000 to $200,000 in guaranteed money, the team is paying you to be on the roster. Now they broke from the mold there with Donald Brown by cutting him a week before the cut down deadline, the first one, how many guys are they willing to go through with that in order to trim down? This is a deep roster. The Patriots don't have to worry about salary cap room or anything like that, but it's still, it's a loss that you don't really like to stomach, especially if you're in the front office or if you're a guy cutting those checks. You want to make sure that you are absolutely sure about that transaction that you're about to make on the back end of it if you're admitting a mistake that you made some five months beforehand.

So just to put it in perspective, you go back to 2012, the Patriots gave Robert Gallery $400,000 signing bonus and $100,000 workout bonus. So 500 grand right there. And then he retired early in August. That's a rare case. Same year they gave Jonathan Fanini a $3.5 million signing bonus over a three-year deal, but he ended up getting released and the Patriots sued him for the paid out portion of that signing bonus for undisclosed injury reasons. Then last year, Reggie Wayne got a $400,000 signing bonus for two weeks of work. He basically quit on the team. That was an extreme situation because he showed up at practice and thought that he should be a privileged player, didn't have to participate in every single practice rep,

was curious why he had to go out there every single play and give it his all, thought he could just show up on Sunday and basically take rest days, the other six days of the week, and he kind of assumed that would be the way the Patriots would do it for him. When he realized that the Patriots actually wanted him to work for that money, he decided to quit. So three extreme cases there where the Patriots gave big signing bonuses to players and it ultimately didn't work out the

same year of the deal right now you're looking at Donald Brown who was injured you're looking at Terrence Knighton who was in a tough spot again I think he's safe but still you know a good healthy amount of competition at defensive tackle. Same with Keyshawn Martin. $600,000 signing bonus when he got his contract extension, the two-year extension, back the morning of the playoff opener or the week of the playoff opener back in January. So the Patriots got out ahead of it there, didn't even let him get to free agency a couple months later, gave him $600, 600 grand right up front so same type of situation they expect him to be on the team Keyshawn Martin hasn't practiced in weeks and it's second year

that he's had an extended injury absence now what's working in his favor is the fact that Aaron Dobson has really tapered off over the last two weeks and or at least last week I can't say it's been the case this week because we haven't been able to watch practice but Aaron Dobson got off to a flying start for a few weeks and then came back to earth during Bears week and we'll see what happens against the the Panthers on Friday night but Aaron Dobson was playing well enough that you could say all right he could be your fifth wide receiver and you could live with getting rid of Martin but right now with Dobson coming back to earth again looking a little more pedestrian and not having the special teams value that Martin has when he's healthy then I think you basically now put Dobson outside the bubble continue to keep

Martin there as your fifth receiver and then you know you back it up one more step Danny Hamadola still has not been activated from the pop list, and I'm not entirely sure the Patriots have made that decision as to whether or not he's going to be available in week one. So if he's not, then you're looking at four wide receivers who are going to be on your week one roster, and that's Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, Malcolm Mitchell, who should be back from the dislocated elbow by week one,

and then Keyshawn Martin if he's back. Malcolm Mitchell, who should be back from the dislocated elbow by week one, and then Keyshawn Martin if he's back. Now, if any of those guys, if you're talking about Mitchell maybe needing an extra week or Martin, who knows when he's going to be able to come back, then you look at potentially keeping Aaron Dobson as your fifth healthy receiver or ultimately, if it's really bad, your fifth healthy receiver or ultimately if it's if it's really bad your third healthy receiver if you have to scratch either Mitchell and or Martin so again I think the the $600,000 thing with Martin has been tempered more in recent weeks just because the competition for his job has tapered off Chris Harper and DeAndre Carter have both had nice camps,

but neither one of them, I think, has gotten to the point where they've overtaken Dobson. And if they have, it's by a minuscule margin. But I don't think Keyshawn Martin has to worry too much about Harper and Carter at this point in time. So, and then finally, Clay Harbor at tight end. $400,000 signing bonus this offseason. Was viewed as basically a lock as the third tight end behind Gronk and Bennett. But hasn't done much. Was injured at the start of training camp. Hasn't stuck out one way or the other at practice.

Or didn't stick out one way or the other at practice or didn't stick out one way or the other at practice when it was still open to the media. Made some nice plays in that preseason game against the Bears, but they were late. So you want to see earlier, more consistent production from Harbor. And it doesn't help Harbor's cause that A.J. Derby has been outstanding. So again, a financial decision could come into play there if the Patriots are going to keep four tight ends you can keep four tight ends if you're only going to keep three running backs but what does that mean for James Devlin keep going back to that is James Devlin being looked at when they're carving out their first 53 is he a fullback or is he a tight end and the Patriots really want to cut a guy that they continuously refer to as the best fullback in football so there's a lot that goes on here but with the

Patriots raising some eyebrows over the last couple days with their roster moves you don't be surprised if there are aren't some more surprises at some point in the coming weeks you know Bill Belichick isn't afraid to cut a big name if he doesn't think he's one of his 53 best players. So far, he's gotten out ahead of that, but that doesn't mean it's over with yet. So that's it for Wednesday's podcast. We'll see you guys on Thursday, and I promise we'll be off to an earlier start. 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, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Others contend America has faced far more challenging periods and emerged strong.

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