Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 23, 2018 - Patriots' Timeline Takes

Episode Date: August 23, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome to Locked On Patriots for Thursday, August 23rd, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair. Happy to be here hosting your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com where I'm one of the head writers. The Score where I'm a features NFL columnist over there. Pro Football Weekly. Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Matt WaldmanRSP.com. Steely's Depot. Big Blue View. If they're writing about football, chances are they've got me writing about it for them. Big show for you today on this Thursday installment

of Locked On Patriots as we inch closer and closer to the dress rehearsal. The dress rehearsal, the Friday night, New England Patriots on the road against the Carolina Panthers. Going to be interesting to see how the Patriots get a little flavor for Cam Newton, which will be a good little dress rehearsal for Deshaun Watson in week one of the 2018 NFL season. That horn you heard right there, I'm in the middle of a college football dynasty draft, so it looks like I'm on the clock.

That's going to have to wait for a little bit while I get you through today's installment of Locked On Patriots. Loaded show for you today, going to do a lot of Patriots timeline takes. We're going to talk other people's 53-man roster projections. That's where we're going to start. We're going to also start Brady Helmet. We're going to talk Tom Brady's rust against the Eagles. We're going to talk Des Bryant rumors.

We're going to get into potential breakout candidates and a bit of a head scratcher that somebody picked for the Patriots breakout candidate for the 2018 season. Also going to tell you about the coolest bobblehead ever. Period. Full stop. But let's start with that 53-man roster projection. Also going to tell you about the coolest bobblehead ever. Period. Full stop. But let's start with that 53-man roster projection. As you know, I released roster projections 2.0.

But you all know that Lockdown Patriots is not the only game in town. So let's dive into some of the other projections out there. I'm going to talk about two today. First is Karen Gurchin from the Boston Herald. And looking at hers, there are some differences. There are some similarities. You look at the quarterback spot, you get the same two guys in. Tom Brady, Brian Oyer. Then looking at the running back group, we both have the same five. White, Burkhead, Hale,, and Bolden getting in with Gillis and Ralph Webb on the outside.

She splits up running back and fullback. She has James Devlin listed as a fullback getting in, which I agree with. Wide receiver. She has five guys getting on with Edelman as a sixth and under suspension. Philip Dorsett, Chris Hogan, Matthew Slater, Cordell Patterson, and Kenny Britt.

That has a number of guys on the outside looking in, one of whom I have in right now as Riley McCarron. She has him out. I've got him in. She has three tight ends making this team, Jacob Hollister, Dwayne Allen, and Rob Gronkowski. There are argument in favor of Dwayne Allen. He has been dealing with an injury

that kept him out of the Eagles game, but he's been back at practice. And it looks like, in her words, the Patriots will bite the bullet with his $5 million cap bet. That's kind of where I diverge. She's obviously got a solid way to back that up. And okay, we'll go with that. Offensive lineman, she has some different names in than I do. We've all got Trent Brown,

Joe Tooney, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon, Adrian Waddell, and Ted Karras. My eighth guy is Matt Tobin. She has Cole Croston getting in. The respect to Croston, his versatility, the ability to play guard and center

labels him to get in over a guy like Matt Tobin, who's more noticed as a tackle. Now, I've seen Tobin taking some snaps at guard, and so it wouldn't surprise me to see the Patriots trying him there to see if he could play on the inside as well, even though, again,

he does have that versatility to play on the tackle spot. So that might be what we're going to come down to on that offensive line group. Cole Croston, Matt Tobin, maybe, for the last spot in So that might be what we're going to come down to on that offensive line group. Cole Croston, Matt Tobin maybe for the last spot in this offensive line group. Defensive ends are edge defenders Dietrich Wise, Adrian Claiborne, Derek Rivers, Trey Flowers.

She has Harris, Lee, and Grissom on the outside looking in. She lists Keonta Davis as a defensive tackle. Her four defensive tackles, Butler, Shelton, Brown, and Guy, those are the four I list. She has Davis on the outside looking in at this defensive tackle spot. She says that Keonta Davis was close to making this second projection.

The versatile lineman has been used both on the inside as well as the edge. That versatility could very well earn him a job with one final push against the Eagles. He recorded five total pressures. Even Patriots coach Bill Belichick said he liked what he was doing. But Adam Butler has also been impressive. It's really hard to keep Butler off the roster. For now, Butler stays.

Davis is the toughest one out. That might change next time. Vincent Valentine is another that he's played very well. Linebacker, she has seven make in the team. Brandon King, Nicholas Grigsbyby guys that i don't have on right now alanda roberts juan bentley kyle vannoy dante hightower marquise flowers with christian sam on the outside looking in i still think that sam gets in but maybe i'm in the wrong here safety karen has five harman chun mccordy richards and Ebner. I've currently got sort of Richards on the outside looking in.

Karen points out the fact that he is a core special teamer. When it comes to cornerback, there are some differences. Karen goes with Gilmore, Rowe, Jason McCourty, Jonathan Jones, Duke Dawson, and Cyrus Jones get it in. And the way she makes that case is without Riley McCammon and Braxton Berrios, Cyrus Jones fills the need for a punt return. That means guys like Ryan Lewis, J.C. Jackson, Keon Cross, and Jamal Wiltz, three of those guys, those last three guys, I've had in at one point or another.

She has them on the outside looking in. The other 53-man roster projection I wanted to run through is Doug Kyed's over at Nessun. And what I'm going to start with here is there are a lot of similarities between what I've done, what Karen has done, and what Doug Kyet has done here. And if you sensed a little hesitation in my voice just now, it's because as I'm sitting here recording this, we've got some Patriots news. Kenny Britt is reportedly being released by the New England Patriots.

At Rapsheet on Twitter, sources that Patriots are releasing wide receiver Kenny Britt. A fairly big surprise given the expectations coming into camp. So that will change things because, for example, Doug Kayet here and myself had Hogan, Dorsett, Patterson, Slater, Julian Edelman, and Kenny Britt as the guys getting on. With Britt being released, that means a couple of things. One, obviously Britt's not coming to town. Two, there's either a spot for a guy like

Riley McCarron to get in, Eric Decker to get in, Braxton Berrios to get in, or as we're going to talk a little bit later, maybe a big free agent coming to the Patriots. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Other things I want to note from Doug's roster projections 2.0,

he has the three tight ends, Gronkowski, Allen, and Hollister in, as well as James Devlin, who he lists as a tight end. At the offensive line, he has nine getting in. Trent Brown, Joe Thune, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, and Marcus Cannon as your starters. He has Wynn in, although this sort of comes out, obviously, before Wynn's injury.

And so there's that to notice. Adrian Waddell is in. Ted Karrasin is in. Cole Croston is in as well. Tight end, offensive line, defensive tackle. He's got Guy, Shelton, Brown, and Butler in with Vince Valentine on the outside along with John Atkins and Frank Herron.

Edge defenders in. Trey Flowers, Dietrich Wise, Adrian Claiborne, Derek Rivers out, Keonta Davis, Grissom, Harris, and Lee. Davis, though, probably might be in when we get around to 2.0, or 3.0, excuse me. Linebackers, in, Dante Hightower, Kyle Van Nooyen, Juwan Bentley, Landon Roberts, Marquise Flowers, Brandon King, Nicholas Grigsby, out, Christian Sam. King and Grigsby seem to be getting in based on the special teams aspect of things. Cornerbacks in Gilmore, Rowe, McCourty, Jonathan Jones and Duke Dawson out.

Everybody else. Keon Cross and JC Jackson, Cyrus Jones, Ryan Lewis, Jamal Wiltz. Again, I think the young guys, Cross and JC Jackson, get in. Maybe I'm on an island there. Final eight safety safety McCourty Chun Harmon Pleasant and Ebner he has Pleasant in over Jordan Richards Doug Kaya making the point that Pleasant can probably take on his special teams reps while playing safety at a higher level while we saw him get froze on a touchdown so maybe the higher level isn't quite here yet but those

are some other 53 man roster projections I wanted to throw out there. As you see, there are differences, particularly between mine and theirs. They're closer to the team. They're seeing stuff. I'm just watching games. We'll know who's right here in a couple of weeks. But up next, we are going to talk Tom Brady's helmet. We're going to talk Tom Brady's rust.

We're going to talk Dez Bryant. Does it make sense? That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield's back with you now on this Thursday installment of Locked On Patriots, and helmet watch rolls on. As noted here and other places,

Tom Brady does seem to be sporting the new helmet. He wore it against the Eagles, and he addressed the media about it recently talking about the helmet on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium.

He got into a little bit of detail about why he likes it. As Brady said here, it's probably why he never switched because it was always a little bit different than what he was used to. But they made it a pretty good helmet, Brady said. It's actually, I think there's a few more tweaks I'd like, but for the most part, it's really comfortable.

Now, let's not forget, it's not entirely a voluntary change. The helmet Brady's always worn, the Riddell VSR4, will not be allowed in NFL games after the 2018 season. So now, Brady's getting a jump start on the new helmet, the Riddell Precision Fit Speed Flex and as Brady says it's something that you've seen something as a quarterback through that field of vision through that face mask a certain way for a long period of time and Brady likes as much vision as possible the peripheral vision it's all important and on that older Riddell helmet you have

more peripheral vision you've got a little bit And on that older Riddell helmet, you have more peripheral vision. You've got a little bit more protection on the side of the face over by, say, the temples. You've got more protection there, so the field of vision is different. But the more vision you have, the better, Brady says. It's not going to be like the old Sean Landano on the old one bar, but it does provide enough protection. As Brady says, it's been a good transition, a smooth transition, which is all you can really ask for. As Brady noted, and this is something I even noted, Brady says he asked the guys and said,

does he look any younger or faster in it? And they said, yes, Brady said by the smirk. So he thinks he's going to keep it. So that's Brady helmet watch. I know you're all really excited about that. But more importantly, Tom Brady's comments on his debut against the Philadelphia Eagles. And Brady admits in that same press conference that he felt a little bit rusty against Philadelphia. And he also admitted that to Kirk and Callahan on WEEI

this week. As Brady told them, it was fun being out there. We've got a lot of work to do. You've got to take the preseason games for what they are. It's kind of a step in the preparation that goes along with a lot of the other things we're doing. But it was good. We haven't added any joy practices this year. So kind of being in those competitive situations, if you haven't been in those in a long time, which I haven't since the Super Bowl, you always feel a bit rusty. When Brady was asked about week three of the preseason, he indicated that he was looking forward to building off of last week, saying, hopefully we can build on it this week. We've had a couple of good days of practice. We have another two days ahead of us before we leave for Carolina. Guys are working

hard, trying to improve. There's a lot to improve on. It's a new team, new year. And hopefully we can use this week as another step before we get to things that really start counting. Now, it is a little bit surprising that Brady felt rusty. You know, he goes 19 of 26 for 172 yards and two touchdowns. And, you know, when I was watching the game live, when I was, you know, when I was watching the game live, when I was, you know, re-watching the game, it seemed to me like Brady wasn't too rusty. It seemed to me like he was moving around

in the pocket well. I was very impressed with his performance, particularly being in the first live game action he's seen. But look, nobody knows Tom Brady better than Tom Brady. And so if he feels rusty, if he felt rusty, then yeah, maybe he was a little rusty. But I'll take 19 of 26 for 172 and two touchdowns and a half of action. If that's rusty, give me rusty Tom Brady all season long. Now let's get to a bit of news, okay? As I noted in the first segment of today's Locked On Patriots podcast. Kenny Britt, apparently, reportedly being released by the team. Now, this brings into question,

who is going to fill what I and others thought Kenny Britt might fill, what kind of role he might fill. And when you look at, you know, Kenny Britt, he seems, in my study of him, to be kind of a big bodier, bigger type receiver candidate, works along the boundary, works along the sidelines, hitches, things like that. Now, with him gone, you look at the rest of this wide receiver group, a guy that could potentially, potentially, potentially fill that maybe is Eric Decker, but it hasn't seemed like that move has panned out yet.

I mentioned maybe Cordell Patterson could do some of that, and we've seen that, but I think they're really looking at Patterson as more of a Swiss Army knife, hat tip, Dave Archibald, at Dave Archibald on Twitter. That kind of receiver. They're going to use him in limited roles, limited packages. You're not going to really rely on him. Go out there and get 70%, 75%, 80% of your offensive snaps. So then you look at guys like Chris Hogan, Julian Edelman,

Philip Dorsett. Do they have the guy that you can look to on third and seven that can be trusted on to win against man coverage in contested catch situations? on to win against man coverage in contested catch situations. Not so much beating man coverage, but just winning in those 50-50 type situations. Dez Bryant does that. And yes, there are limitations to Dez Bryant's game as a receiver right now. He's not a guy that's going to totally

win in one-on-one situations in terms of getting consistent separation. He's not going to beat man coverage like he used to, but there are still things that Dez Bryant can do as a receiver that are valuable to an offense. Winning in those contested catch situations, winning on those back shoulder throws, those throws in the end zone, or along the boundary on a third and eight, or a third and 10. Dez Bryant still does that at a pretty high level.

And yeah, if you scheme him open, or if he does get a favorable matchup and wins off the line of scrimmage, I mean, I remember a slant route that he took to the house against the Giants last year. If you get him in a favorable matchup type situation, he can still contribute. He can still produce. And what do the Patriots like to do offensively? It's to get favorable matchups. So there's a potential here and it makes a ton of sense for the Patriots to

at least inquire. And for example, if you want to know what Dez Bryant's interested in, you know, look at his Instagram account. There was an Instagram post put up by Bleacher Report about what should the Raiders and Rams do about Khalil Mack, Aaron Donald, learn from Bill Belichick. And in the comment section underneath it, somebody sent an ad to Dez Bryant asking him to come to the Patriots and play with the GOAT. At Dez' response,

Tom Brady has always been my favorite player. True fact. Real fact. And so he also says Bill Belichick's strategy is one in a million in the same sort of comment section. Now, we've seen Des on hard knocks. You know, it looks like Cleveland did not sign him, given the fact that he's still available. So it at least makes sense for the Patriots to kick the tires on it. Now, Mike Florio, in response to all of this Instagram stuff, wrote, Here's a likely fact. The Patriots won't want Bryant for plenty of reasons. From a football standpoint, Bryant has spent eight seasons playing one position in one offense.

Learning the Patriot way on the fly would be a challenge that few could overcome. Still, the New England depth chart remains a work in progress. With an injury or two, they could at least have the conversation about whether Bryant could make sense. He doubled down Wednesday in a discussion with Peter King. I don't know that Dez Bryant would work in New England. It reminds me a lot of when Chad Johnson went to New England. It strips so much out of who you are as an individual. You just can't function.

I don't know that if Dez Bryant is expected to go robotic that he's going to be able to function in New England. Well, to one of those points, with an injury or two, Florio says they could at least have the conversation. Well, now with Britt gone, perhaps it's time to at least have that conversation. Because would Dez Bryant really be that much of a detriment right now given this wide receiver route? I think it's at least worth exploring.

You just have to remember. Remember how the Patriots approach things. You're hearing through Florio and through others, you know, the what he can't do type of thing. Remember how the Patriots approach it. They approach it differently. They always approach the pro scouting department with what he can do. And this is a lesson I learned when I went through the scouting academy with Dan Hattman, you know, former NFL scout with the Eagles, with the Giants and other organizations.

You know, he was taught by guys like Dave Gettleman, Lewis Riddick. I don't care. It's easy to tell us what a guy can't do. It's easy to just crush a guy and say, these are the 15 things he can't do. Tell me what he can do. And I just told you what Des Bryant can do. Can he do it for the New England Patriots? I think so. Would he be a help to the New England Patriots right now, given this wide receiver room? I think so. Yeah, the diva stuff and could he fit in and all of those things, it's a question mark, but that's the what he can't do. I'm telling you what he can do. And if you think that will help this New England team win, if you think that will help this offense put up points, then I think it's worth the discussion. That's why I am on it. Maybe people

agree, maybe they don't, but we'll see. Again, I'm just a dude sitting at his dining room table with a microphone in front of his face. I'm not sitting down at Gillette making a decision. They've got smarter people doing that. Thankfully, it's brought them five Super Bowl championships. Up next, we're going to close out the show looking at some breakout candidates as listed by Stephen White over at Bleacher Report. He's got an interesting one for the New England Patriots. And then I'm going to tell you about the coolest bobblehead in the world. That's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield, back with you to close out this Thursday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you to close out this Thursday installment of Locked On Patriots. On tomorrow's show, we're going to have Evan Lazar with us, a newly minted Patriots beat reporter. It's incredibly cool to see that. Evan, you know, I have been doing writing from Pat's pulpit.

I haven't co-hosted the Naked Bootleg podcast. Evan has now become a Patriots credentialed beat reporter for CLNS Media. It's fantastic to see. Evan's going to be on with us. Remember to follow him on Twitter at E-Z-L-A-Z-A-R. We're going to have our game day installment, what we're expecting to see on Friday night. Now, I mentioned breakout candidates for a number of different teams.

Stephen White, former NFL player over at SB Nation, wrote a piece listing a breakout candidate for all 32 teams. It's a tremendous, tremendous effort, and there are a lot of really interesting names in here. For example, James O'Shaughnessy with the Jaguars, who's a very interesting tight end to watch. You look at Steven Anderson, another tight end with the Houston Texans down in the AFC South, who could make a big leap with Deshaun Watson. That's the case that Steven makes in here. Johnny Holton, speedy type receiver that could help

the Oakland Raiders. Josh Doxson, maybe he's finally ready to be a number one type of receiver. You know, you go into the Vikings, for example, Laquan Treadwell. It's a very, very meaty piece, and he has very detailed write-ups on each of his picks. This was a tremendous amount of work from Steven, and he should totally be commended for it. You look at, he mentions Chester Rogers. He mentions Kenya Drake with the Dolphins.

Aldolphus Washington with the Bills on that defense. And then he makes a New England pick. And what's interesting about the New England pick is that he's somebody that, whether it's my roster projection, whether it's Doug Kyed's roster projection, whether it's Karen Urchin's roster projection, it's somebody that's not even predicted by any of us to make the team. And it's Vincent Valentine. And as he writes about Valentine,

Valentine was active and trying to get off blocks so he could try to get to the team. And it's Vincent Valentine. And as he writes about Valentine, Valentine was active and trying to get off blocks so he could try to get to the ball. One of the things that stood out to me, Steven, the most when watching his film was a salty demeanor. If a guy was fighting to stay up, Valentine was always trying to make the hit to finish off of those plays. And when you look at

his case for Valentine, one of the issues was quality depth on the interior of the defensive line. Valentine is one of those guys that could have helped them shore that up. New England still found a way to make it back to the Super Bowl in spite of their defense not being as strong inside as it could have been, but it does make you wonder how much better they could have been had Valentine been healthy. I know the Patriots brought in Danny Shelton,

which makes it unlikely that Valentine will start this season, but I still see him making a big impact. Even if he's only a backup, Valentine's technique and preparation should be better than it was when he was a rookie. Being that he didn't have to rehab from any kind of surgery or anything, Valentine should be in great shape this year, and that's all well and true. And he has been playing well, as Karen and others have noted. The issue is, though, I think the addition of Shelton, the play from Adam Butler, and some of the other guys that have fared well, when you look at

Malcolm Brown and Lawrence Guy, it makes it tough for a guy like Vince Valentine. And then when you kick in the fact that they've been using Keonta Davis as an interior pass rusher, maybe it's tough for him. Now, he still might get in, and Steven makes a bunch of great points about what Vince and Valentine does as a defender. It's just an interesting pick. But regardless of that, I highly recommend you read Steven's work on Vince Valentine

and the other 31 potential breakout candidates that he listed over at SB Nation. It's definitely worth checking out. Finally, before we go, you know, I've mentioned before on this show, I've mentioned on other radio shows, you know, by the way,

don't forget, I am on with my boy, Satin John, over at Sportsnet 650 every Thursday. I'm going to be on at 1.35 Thursday on East Coast time. If you want to listen,

you can check it out at Sportsnet650.ca. Do tune in. Show them some love because, look, they have me on every week. Let's give them some good numbers. You know, one of those help me help you type moments, right? You guys listen in. They get big numbers.

They get excited. They promote my stuff. It all goes full circle, rise and tide, lifts all boats, all that fun, fun stuff. And also, when you see me tweeting about it, retweet it, stuff like that. Help me help you, all that good stuff. Anyway, there are a lot of cool things that come with my new gig here, you know, where I just watch football and write about football and talk about football. And, you know, I'm kind of living the dream.

And, you know, I make no qualms about that. I'm a very, very lucky dude. And there are moments when I realized just how truly lucky I kind of am to do stuff like this on a daily basis. And I had one of those moments Wednesday afternoon. I had my son's home from camp for the last couple of weeks of summer before he starts school. And he's been feeling a little under the weather. You know, when we started off this week, you know, Wednesday, we went to a playground. We had soccer balls. We had basketballs. We when we started off this week, you know, Wednesday we went to a playground. We had soccer balls. We had basketballs.

We had footballs. I was, you know, teaching him how to throw a spiral. We played a one-on-one game of football an entire length of the field. I haven't done that since I was a kid. I was exhausted by the time that got done. But he's now been feeling a little bit under the weather, so we've been taking it low-key. We went to see Incredibles 2, which is a fun little film. Our nearby theater has full-on king-size recliners.

It was a fantastic little experience. And we come home and there's this big box waiting for me. And it's a box with a University of Houston Athletic Department sticker on the front. And I opened it up and I kind of had an inkling of what it was. And it was the Ed Oliver bobblehead. And it's Ed Oliver, this tremendously, tremendously talented, like, you know, number one overall pick type defensive tackle from the University of Houston. And it's a bobblehead of him on a horse named Oreo, who was a horse that he had growing up as a kid that, you know,

he says kind of made him the man he was today because of how tough that horse was to tame. So it's this bobblehead of Ed Oliver in pads, in uniform, on Oriole the horse. And the horse's head bobbles too. And it's just incredible. I actually tweeted out a picture of it. And, you know, I get stuff like this as a member of the, you know, the Football Writers Association of America, you know,

which covers college football. You know, I get stuff like I got, for example, Milton McKenzie. McKenzie Milton, excuse me, the quarterback at UCF from Hawaii, you know, UCF sent me a lay in black and gold, you know, so I vote for him for stuff at the end of the year. I get this at all for bobblehead university of Iowa a couple of years ago and gave some sweet, sweet notepads, which I used to make grocery lists on. But when it came to time to vote for awards, Josie Jewell and Desmond King,

they were certainly in the back of my mind because of that. And so it's super fun to get stuff like this. It's a reminder that I'm lucky to do what I do every single day. And I just want to tell you about that cool bobblehead. Also want to remind you, the Locked On Patriots podcast hotline is up and running, 240-670-6016. Get your takes in. Call, leave a message or message or text you know however you want to do it let me know your thoughts about Patriots preseason game three

what your thoughts are going in coming out of it I would love to hear from you we'd love to get some of that stuff in the post game edition or in Monday's installment and speaking about the rest of the week we will have a game day edition for Friday myself and Evan Lazar as I talked about and then after the game I will sit down and record for a late Friday night, early Saturday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Hopefully a semi-glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Hopefully an injury-free edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. So that's the rest of the week ahead.

We'll be getting into the final preseason week and closer and closer to actual games that count. And yes, closer and closer to my one-year anniversary as host of your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Probably not going to do anything fun or exciting. I'm just going to mention it because we're on to year two. How about that? That's all ahead. That's all next time. Until then, keep it locked right here to me Mark Schofield in Locked on Patreons