Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Aug. 8, 2016 - Injuries impacting battles for starting jobs throughout depth chart

Episode Date: August 8, 2016

Jeff Howe discusses the Patriots' key injuries and how they've impacted certain areas of the depth chart. 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. Happy Monday. This is Locked On Patriots. I'm your host, Jeff Howe, and this is week two of Locked On Patriots, your new daily Patriots podcast. Five days a week, Monday through Friday, until we burn down the internet. So make sure you follow me on Twitter to get all the links to these podcasts, at Jeff P. Howe, or you can follow along on Audioboom, or you can subscribe on iTunes. You can call your local cable provider and make sure they hook you up. I don't care. Just make sure you follow along because it's only going to get better. At some point, I'm going to become more technologically savvy than a spatula. So maybe we'll add some music. Maybe we'll get some guests.

We'll do things that I don't even know exist on the internet right now at this point. But right now, it's just me talking into a microphone because, quite honestly, that's the only thing I know how to do. For this episode, again, Monday, August 8th, I want to get into the injuries that have hit the Patriots roster, both the ones that they had going into camp and a couple that have come along during the course of their first nine practices that have shaped some of the positional battles at this point. And I think there are two key positions that have been hit by injuries more than the others. We'll start with the offensive line. Everybody loves some good offensive line talk. That's how you reel in the podcast listeners. You talk about offensive linemen.

As I hear you people just turning the dial and running away. But anyway, I know the hardcore football fans love this offensive line stuff. And the Patriots started out undermanned. Clearly, Shaq Mason came back very slowly at the start of training camp. Trey Jackson still has not practiced. He's still on the pup list. Jonathan Cooper and Brian Stork both went down during the first of training camp. Trey Jackson still has not practiced, is still on the pup list. Jonathan Cooper and Brian Stork both went down during the first padded practice. Sebastian Vollmer hasn't practiced yet because he's on the pup list.

Josh Klein, who was, I keep saying it, and it's because I mean it, was their best offensive lineman through 10 games last season before he hurt his shoulder, has worked his way back somewhat slowly. So there's been a lot going on and I think the biggest benefactor of that has been Joe Tooney the rookie out of NC State the third round pick who has been fantastic extremely strong has been plugged in at the starting left guard spot since the spring really almost since day one since he arrived at Gillette Stadium looks the part and at this point, unless it's an injury

of his own or somebody comes back and lights the world on fire, Joe Tooney is going to be the Patriots' starting left guard in week one of his rookie season, and he deserves it. Moving over to his right at center, David Andrews is capitalized in that battle with Brian Stork that really was a dead heat until Stork suffered his fourth diagnosed concussion in as many years. Now I've heard from people who think that Brian Stork, these are people outside the organization, the fan base on Twitter, has hit me up and said they think Stork should retire or seriously consider that. That's not in the plans right now. In fact, Brian Stork has been working out over the last couple practices off to the back of the field, trying to get himself onto the

field as quickly as possible you never know how quickly a guy is going to recover from a concussion especially one with as long of an injury or a concussion history as Brian Stork has so David Andrews is assumed the role as the starting center and we'll see if he gives it up he's played well Tom Brady loves him we know Tom Brady's not starting the season but tom brady loves david andrews and that carries a lot of weight around gillette stadium i've heard the backup has been a mix between josh klein and ted karras i don't think they've really sorted out who they want to be their backup center at this point i don't know if it really matters quite frankly because we've seen stork out there so there is a chance that i would think that he's back by the regular season and if that's the case then you kind of push ted karras and josh klein down to third or fourth in the pecking order at center if both of those guys are still around

then you move over to the right at right guard shack mason was the starting right guard on sunday during the team's second consecutive inter-squad scrimmage. And that's important because Shaq Mason was a really intriguing rookie last year. And if you combine Shaq Mason and Joe Tooney at the two guard spots, one, you're set up fantastically for the future, I think. I really am high on Shaq Mason and his ceiling as a right guard. Very powerful, extremely athletic. And if you've got those two guys at guard, those are probably your two most powerful guys on the offensive line at least in that interior

spot there where you've got six seven guys vying for three spots so i think that would probably be a best case scenario if shaq mason can win the right guard battle at some point over the course of camp but again you can't rule out Josh Klein. I think right now a guy who's hurt himself more than any is Trey Jackson because, again, he hasn't practiced. He had the off-season knee surgery. The knee was an issue for him at times during his rookie season. It's just going to be tough for him to beat out the guys

who are ahead of him on the depth chart. So it could be a redshirt type of season for Trey Jackson because this injury has buried him not dissimilar from aaron dobson's situation when he entered his second year missed the entire offseason workout program and and basically turned in had nothing had nothing to show for it during his second season so you don't want to see a guy at this stage of their career have to deal with what trey jackson is dealing with just because you get buried on the depth chart and it's really hard to win your job back especially on a roster that's as loaded as what the Patriots have right now Jonathan Cooper another

guy we saw him out there really quickly on Sunday during the walk three walk through portion didn't really take part in anything else he's got that foot injury not sure how long he's going to be down but he's again it's it's going to be tough for him to come back and beat out Shaq Mason who has more experience in the system and one thing I want to mention with Cooper is I made a mistake during Friday's podcast and I actually mentioned it a little earlier in the offseason too I just didn't realize so his 2.39 million dollar cap hit is significant it's uh about four times more than the other the younger interior lineman on the patriots roster which i thought as i incorrectly said if the patriots cut him they'd save that money i was wrong if they cut

him they don't save any money uh there is a zero cap savings by cutting jonathan cooper my point for saying that earlier the offseason as, as well as Friday's podcast, was if he didn't win a starting job, I thought the Patriots would probably cut him just to save that cap space. But that is a completely moot point. I just wanted to make sure I corrected that point. And then moving over again, one spot to the right, a right tackle, Sebastian Vollmer. Not entirely sure what he had the surgery on this offseason.

I do know he's got bad ankles really bad ankles uh it could be that who knows it could be something else he's a guy who's dealt with injuries over the course of his career and he when he's healthy he's going to win that right tackle spot there's no doubt in my mind nor should there be in anybody's mind especially when Marcus Cannon is his chief competition but I do want to bring up Cannon and La'Adrian Waddle because something really stuck out to me on Sunday during their second straight scrimmage. Waddle has only played at left tackle so far.

He's been the backup left tackle throughout training camp, and Marcus Cannon has been the starting right tackle throughout training camp. Now, this leads me to believe because Waddle is not playing as a swing tackle, which I thought he was capable of. Maybe the Patriots just don't like him on the right side. I thought Adrian Waddell, if he was able to play left and right tackle,

would really put Marcus Cannon in a tough spot to make the team. But because Cannon has stayed on the right side and Waddell's been on the left side, it really leads me to believe that the Patriots think that Marcus Cannon is safe, could be the third tackle on the roster. Cannon also did appear to injure his right arm during Sunday's scrimmage. So if he misses any time, who knows if he will. I'm not sure if it's severe or if it was just something that kind of got banged up and he'll be fine by Monday's practice. But I really want to see if Cannon goes down for any period of time if they think Adrian Waddell can be a swing tackle because if he goes over the right side I think the Patriots would have a possibility of only carrying three tackles Waddell's played well and I think has some pretty

good upside the Patriots gave him the extension this offseason they want him around I believe right now four tackles are going to be on the roster. But again, because Waddle has only stayed on the left side, it leads me to believe that Cannon is safe on the right side. Now let's go to the second most important position in terms of injuries. It's wide receiver. I mean, these guys were comically injured at one point late last week when they practiced without Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Chris Hogan, Keyshawn Martin, Nate Washington, and Malcolm Mitchell.

All of those guys missed the same practice at one point. I mean, I think they only practiced with five wide receivers, and it's a miracle they had that many on the field with the amount of guys who were down. But Julian Edelman came back on Sunday, did not participate in the scrimmage. He's going to work his way back into the mix, I would say, strategically slowly. But clearly your number one guy. Danny Amendola, when he comes back but clearly your number one guy Danny Amendola when he comes back as your number two guy Chris Hogan is having a fantastic camp is wearing the red non-contact

jersey still but has produced he had eight catches during Saturday's Friday scrimmage excuse me and was Tom Brady's favorite target a little tangent there pretty funny to see Bill Belichick on Sunday just take all of Brady's guys away Brady and the blue team really could have run up the score on Friday but Belichick kind of called some touchdowns back made him work on some stuff closer to the goal line Belichick took Chris Hogan Martellus Bennett Malcolm Mitchell James Devlin and LeGarrette Blunt off of Brady's team and put them on Garoppolo's team during Sunday scrimmage. Those guys caught 19 of Brady's 25 completions on Friday. So Belichick left Brady with scraps.

Guys who are not going to make the 53 at receiver. Some tight ends who quite possibly won't make the 53. And then Brandon Bolden was the only running back on Brady's team who was truly guaranteed I would think I don't want to say guaranteed but because he's such a valued special teamer Bolden's pretty much the only skill position guy that Brady was throwing to who has a legitimate chance to make the roster Brady still came back and had a game-winning drive to end that thing so anyway the the wide receiver position is interesting at the bottom of the death chart

nate washington has not participated in team drills since the first day of camp when he left after he was puking and has completely sabotaged his chance to to sneak in as the maybe the fifth or the sixth guy if they do carry six uh but he's you can basically write him off he's got virtually no chance to make the team and had made some noise during the otas and mini camp but just again has been hurt hasn't come back that has opened the door for a guy whose name you continue to hear throughout camp aaron dobson he's playing well and at this point if he continues to play like this throughout camp clearly there's another four weeks to go before they have to make roster cuts but if Dobson keeps this up I think the Patriots keep six wide receivers just because it's going to be so hard

to get rid of him especially since he's had a really good chemistry with Jimmy Garoppolo Aaron Dobson has 18 catches off Garoppolo passes through the first nine practices at camp in team drills. And that leads the team. The next is Martellus Bennett at 16. So Aaron Dobson's playing well. And you kind of filter down. Gronk has 13 catches from Garoppolo. Chris Harper has 12.

But Harper's not going to make the 53-man roster unless there's a bunch of injuries ahead of him or some serious injuries. James White has 15. I'll get to that in a minute. But Dobson, from the receiver standpoint of guys who are absolutely going to make the team, has far and away been Garoppolo's favorite, most consistent target throughout camp. So again, I still see, I don't think the coaches are going to have an easy time cutting Aaron Dobson if he continues this pace and doesn't get injured. So he is a guy who has really benefited from the injuries ahead of him on the depth chart. We just want to see what it looks like. Again, assuming he stays healthy, and I understand that's a strong assumption given his injury history, but if he does stay healthy, you want to see how he produces when Edelman and Amendola are back in the mix.

And Hogan said he will, quote, definitely be ready for full contact when the Saints come into town on Tuesday. So once these guys are at full strength, you just want to see how consistent Aaron Dobson can be. That can be, it has been an issue for him. Malcolm Mitchell, another kid who looks, he's got just tremendous skills. Awesome hands. He can really flash them late.

Quarterbacks love that stuff uh and looks really good he's locked onto the roster there's no question about that but just seeing him play i mean you see him go up for a ball you don't see the jersey number if it's in traffic it's on a sideline you got some guys in front of you you know it's malcolm mitchell he's just got a certain style about him that sticks out you can be 100 yards away like i I was at one point Sunday on a ball he couldn't even come down with actually over by the sideline. It was a little too far out of bounds for him. I knew it was Malcolm Mitchell, even though I couldn't see the jersey number. Again, he's just got a certain smoothness and style about his game that sticks out. And I think that's important, even though it's hard to really

describe what it is. Keyshawn Martin, I want to get to now, is a guy who I keep bringing this up because it's important, but he was signed to an extension in January, the morning the playoffs started. $600,000 signing bonus. I've been over this before, but if you're new to the show or if you're just not familiar with my work, it's pretty much a general rule. If you get a signing bonus of $150,000 to $200,000, the team wants you on the roster. They want you on the 53. Martin got that extension before the Patriots really needed

to overextend themselves for him. He was going to be a free agent in March, but they wanted him around. They gave him the $600,000. He's been hurt. He's had some hamstring issues in the past. Not entirely sure what the injury has been over the last week or so of camp we have seen him a little

bit so he's closer to coming back but look he's a guy who is going to have to be on the fields and if if he comes back too slowly it's gonna you know it's gonna put the Patriots in a tough spot to carry him even though it would be a huge surprise if they did ever cut bait but it's just it opens the door for another one of those guys down the depth chart like DeAndre Carter who's having a really good camp a surprisingly good camp Chris Harper's had a good camp too but you're just not going to be able to keep those two guys I think the Patriots would be ecstatic if they got both of them to slide through onto the practice squad but it's hard to guarantee that especially if either one of those guys goes

off during a preseason game so that's the receiver situation and how that's all sort of played out. I want to get to a real quick one under the radar. Nate Ebner, this is not an injury situation off with the rugby team in the Olympics, but he hasn't played, and I think that's opened the door a little bit. Their special teamers are solidified, but Jonathan Jones, the undrafted rookie cornerback who was playing well, now this has nothing to do with defense, but Jones has played pretty well on special teams. He's shown up a bit as a gunner in kickoff coverage, too, and has played well enough at corner to overtake Darryl Roberts as the fifth guy on the depth chart.

He got the start for the backup defense during Sunday's scrimmage that went against Tom Brady's group. So Jones is doing some nice things in camp. And again, with Ebner out, it's given Jones, among a handful of other guys, not that he plays the exact same position as Ebner, but again, it just opens the door for another guy on special teams to go out there and make plays. And if you're the fifth cornerback on the roster, you better damn well be a good special teamer and right now Jonathan Jones is showing up a little bit in the kicking game so good for him to take advantage of those opportunities another one a little below the radar Jonathan Freeney's been down with a shoulder bruise for a handful of days not serious he he'll

be back sooner than later Jonathan Freeney's locked onto the team in my opinion probably the third linebacker the first backup really behind hot high tower and and jamie collins there but with freeney out camu gruger hill has been pretty nice he had a pass breakup when he ripped the ball out of martellus bennett's hands uh bennett really should come down with it but gruger hill made a nice play on sunday during the scrimmage to break it up and he's gotten some playing time on defense. Fast guy, athletic. We'll see how it translates when the Saints come in,

especially when the preseason opens up. And, you know, it's tough for a low-round rookie to come in and make an immediate impact or anything like that. But this is a guy who could be the fourth linebacker on the Jets chart, and he's showing up from time to time. So he is a guy who has kind of taken advantage of jonathan free and he's short absence we'll go back to uh the running back position dion lewis it's i was told over the weekend or maybe it was late last week that it's highly unlikely that he'll start the season on the physically unable to perform list he's ready to go out there and

practice right now he could go he feels physically ready enough to go out there and practice right now. He could go out. He feels physically ready enough to go out there and practice today. If he wanted to, the Patriots are taking it as slowly as possible with Lewis because they just don't want to have a setback. Remember the surgery, the ACL was torn in November. He had the surgery right after that. That's a really quick turnaround for a guy to come back as quickly as Lewis potentially could. And I still think they're going to give him a limited workload during the season, but that has opened the door for a guy for a guy like Donald Brown now Brown's dealt with his own injury over the last week missed three full practices was a limited participant Sunday did not take part in the walkthrough so he appears to still be you know maybe a day or two away at best before he's back out of the field but Donald Brown's looked good and I had very very low expectations for Brown

when he came in but he runs hard between the tackles or at least i should say harder than james white so i thought that he had a chance to really sneak up that death chart and compliment lagarrette blunt at least during the preseason or however long it takes the patriots to decide they want deon lewis to play in another game if he's ready for week one great then you're looking at the the battle for basically the second third rep of reps on the depth chart and if that's brown i think the patriots will be happy bill belichick had some some great things to say about brown last week so a guy who has really caught everybody's eye now james white i said i wanted to come back to him he's got 15 catches on garoppolo passes so far in camp.

14 of those have come in the last four practices while Donald Brown hasn't participated in team drills. Now, this isn't really a James White point because he's looked good in terms of catching the ball as much as it is a Garoppolo point. It's just a slight issue I've had with Garoppolo over the last week or so, a little too reliant upon his running backs. Now, that's not a slight issue I've had with Garoppolo over the last week or so, a little too reliant upon his running backs. Now, that's not a bad thing if you can spread it around to the perimeter, to your tight ends.

As long as he's able to do that, that's fine. Tom Brady completed, what, 11 balls to Shane Vereen when they won the Super Bowl a couple years ago. You can throw the ball to your running back and have success. You can't lean on your running back as a young quarterback and have success. You can't lean on your running back as a young quarterback and have success though. There are too many good defenses that are just going to gravitate toward James White or Donald Brown who had eight catches from Garoppolo passes before going down early last week. So again, you just you want to see Garoppolo spread the ball

and then come back to the running back as opposed to maybe looking at the running back just a little bit too much. So that's my quick tangent on James White and the success that he's had which is good for him but it's it's not something that you want to see you just want to see Garoppolo look down the field a little more he's been good throwing the ball down the field so far at camp I just it's been a trend over the last four days that I think has made the last four practices that I think has made me just a little bit uneasy so we'll see what happens when the Saints come in again is he going to continue to do that or is he going to go down the field to his receivers and his tight ends and have the success that he had earlier in camp with those guys and again sticking with that position

without Lewis Tyler Gaffney is a guy who has played fairly well i guess if you want to say that in camp you know these guys aren't hitting each other but you can tell gaffney runs hard and i just want to see what he looks like in a preseason game we haven't seen him the guys had two injury marred seasons out of college and we you can't guarantee anything with him i'm sure. I still think he's below the cut line. He's not going to make the team unless he really goes off over the next four weeks, which I'm not ruling out. I just want to see what he's made of when the lights are on on Thursday night against the Saints. And another guy who is further down the depth chart than I thought he would be.

I was really looking forward to seeing what DJ Foster had at the start of camp. And to this point, you know, he might be a little nicked up because he missed a practice, missed a little time. Just we haven't seen anything out of him. Now, he could be a Deion Lewis type in the sense that he could go off in one or two of these preseason games, and that could springboard him to a strong finish to the summer. But so far, lewis and with

brown missing some time it's it's we haven't seen it from foster that's sort of disappointing because he's got electric footwork and could be a really interesting player if you can get him the ball in space i just want to see what he's like between the tackles and to this point we just haven't seen that the last position i want to hit is a tight end clay harbor was activated off the pup list on sunday so we're finally going to get to see him soon he didn't participate in the scrimmage so again we'll see once he's able to participate in team drills what they've got out of him he got hurt late in the offseason workout program and again hasn't participated in training camp yet or at least in the team drills he was a guy who was penciled in as a third tight end but in his absence aj derby has looked pretty good

sixth round pick from last year who spent pretty much the entire season on ir bryce williams who was dealing with his own injury over the last few days shown up a little bit uh still a long shot to make the roster but it's at least given bryce williams a chance to go out there and make some plays and then i wonder how they really view james devlin they continuously call him the best fullback in the nfl but how much are they going to use a fullback devlin has participated with the tight ends and positional drills so do they view him as a tight end do they view him as a fullback slash running back? They love Devlin. Brady was really on him for some good things that he did during Friday's scrimmage.

I'd be very, very surprised if they decided to cut Devlin. But I don't know who is he really competing against for a roster spot. Does Clay Harbor's absence help Devlin's case? Is Devlin really competing to be a fifth running back type? Again, it's a question that I have. I don't know how to answer it, but he's a guy who's having a good camp. If Harbor is an H-back type and Devlin is an H-back type, is there room for two of those guys on the roster?

Harbor was paid to make the 53, so we'll see what they can get out of him once he's healthier and able to participate in team drills. So those are the injury situations that have really stuck out so far through the first week and a half of camp. The Patriots are back on Monday, their 10th practice of camp. They've already gotten into double digits. This thing is flying by.

They've got their first game on Thursday after a couple days worth of joint practices with the Saints. So it's going to be a huge, huge week for the Patriots. We're going to learn a whole lot more about the team, the quarterback situation. Garoppolo's been outshined by Tom Brady. Not that that's a surprise or even a bad thing. I mean, everybody gets outshined by Tom Brady

when they share the field with him. But how is Garoppolo going to rebound or recover when he's going against a Saints defense that is probably going to attack him a little bit more? Or is he going to get the upper hand because they just don't know him as well? So we're going to learn a lot more about Garoppolo this week too.

But those are the injury situations that have stuck out. And again, Monday through friday we're going to hit you every single day on this podcast if you want to advertise hit me up at jeff.howe at bostonherald.com any suggestions for the show you can hit me up on twitter at jeffphow we'll see you on tuesday what you doing ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye singing dog. Bye goal. Bye wedding ceremony.

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