Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 24, 2018 - Gameday Edition Featuring Evan Lazar

Episode Date: August 24, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome to a game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for this Friday installment, your game day edition. New England Patriots taking on the Carolina Panthers tonight down in Charlotte. Going to be the third preseason game, the quote-unquote dress rehearsal. We've got a locked and loaded show for you, which we'll get to in a second. Before we do, a 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. Pro Football Weekly, where I'm going to be the Matt Nagy, Mitchell Trubisky, soothsayer of sorts. The Score, where I'm an NFL features contributor. Places like Matt Walters, Mitchell Trubisky, soothsayer of sorts, the score-aware NFL features contributor, places like Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, mattwaldmanrsp.com, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation Network, covering the Giants and the quarterback position over there, and a host of other places.

As I said, loaded show for you today. We're going to talk to Evan Lazar from CLNS, both on his expectations for tonight as well as what he's seen from the New England Patriots so far throughout training camp and the preseason, first two preseason games. Also, I'm going to have my five big questions and what I'm watching tonight. But first, a couple of personal notes. Long-time listeners of the show probably know that I've talked about Dog Watch Tavern down in Fells Point in Baltimore. It's a place where the Baltimore area New England Patriots fans get together to watch games. If you are headed to Dog Watch tonight, a quick tip.

I heard that there was some sort of technical difficulties trying to get the game to fully play when you're watching on NFL Game Pass. Quick tip to those over at Dog Watch as well as anybody else who's trying to watch the game on NFL game pass Google Chrome as your browser incognito mode NFL game pass is Notorious for cookies getting stored in your browser which then caused instability in the website So if you're watching the game tonight, whether a dog watch out on fellas point or anywhere else Google Chrome incognito mode when you're watching the game tonight, whether at Dog Watch, out on Fellows Point, or anywhere else, Google Chrome incognito mode when you're using NFL Game Pass.

That will allow the website to work properly. It will allow you to stream without the website crashing. Trust me, as somebody that spends an inordinate amount of time watching stuff on Game Pass, it is the only way to go. And those of you who are thinking about heading to Dog Watch, down on Fellows Point, please do check it out. Let them know that I sent you here at the Locked on Patriots podcast. you who are thinking about heading to dog watch down in fells point please do check it out let them know that i sent you here at the locked on patriots podcast also one more personal note i

want to give a a shout out to one of the very loyal listeners the locked on patriots podcast ian mcdonald at ian c m a c d o n a l d i've talked about him a lot he's one of the very loyal listeners to the show i love and appreciate each and every one of you. He had reached out about some stuff that he's got going on. I just wanted to let you know, buddy, I am thinking of you and the family. I'll be pulling for you, thinking about you guys. Hope everything goes well, and you're in my thoughts. Let's get to it now.

My five questions for tonight. I've got two on the offensive side of the ball, three on the defensive side of the ball. There's some sub-parts and stuff to all of this. Let's start with an area of concern that I think everybody sort of has for this New England Patriots offense right now, and that's the wide receiver position.

Brandon Cook's out. Kenny Britt now out. Julian Edelman suspended. You know, this wide receiver position, you look at this room, after guys like Edelman, after guys like Hogan, after a guy like Philip Dorsett, where are we truly going to see production? Or is this going to look more like the 2011-2012 Patriots, where we see a lot of 12 personnel,

a lot of two tight end looks? Are we going to see a lot of involvement from Hollister? Is Jacob Hollister going to be the Patriots' de facto third wide receiver? Are we going to see 12 personnel packages with Rob Gronkowski, Jacob Hollister, and then Hogan and Edelman, or Hogan and Dorsett when Edelman is suspended? Maybe some stuff with Cordell Patterson in there as well. Is that going to be the offense of 2018? With tonight being sort of the dress rehearsal, with tonight getting more of a flavor of the Patriots offense,

who the guys are, who Brady's going to count on in those third and seventh situations, I'm curious to see if we do see Rob Gronkowski, if we do see a fair amount of 12 personnel with Gronkowski and Hollister on the field with Hollister more of a move tight end slash bigger body wide receiver type so I'm curious to see that or do we see somebody emerge from the back half of this wide receiver group does Eric Decker finally show up Riley McCarron does he make a play for a roster spot? Dare we say Braxton Barrios, although I wish I was confident right now.

I'm more confident in me, I think, getting a wide receiver spot for this New England Patriots roster than Barrios at this point. I'd love to be wrong, but I just don't know anymore. Do we see something wild like Dez Bryant? I talked about him in yesterday's show. If you approach things like the Patriots do, and not caring so much about what a guy can't do anymore, but what he can still do,

and a guy like Des Bryant, you do wonder if Bryant could find a home on the New England Patriots. I know a lot of people have sort of poo-pooed that idea. I wouldn't rule it out just yet when you look at sort of how the Patriots have handled guys like veterans like Bryant and others in the past. A lot of people have already made the Chad Ochocinco comparison, and I get that in a sense, but I think when you look at how Chad Ochocinco won as a wide receiver compared to what Dez can still do, I think there's potential here. I think

it does make sense. But again, I'm just a guy sitting at his dining room table with a microphone in front of his face. But that's big question number one for me, the wide receiver group. How does that shake out? Big question number two is the tight end slash running back room. And I say tight end slash running back because as you've heard me talk about this preseason so far, the Dwayne Allen question, the James Devlin possible answer. So there's that aspect to it. And then the other thing I want to look at is the running back room itself. Has Jeremy Hill solidified a spot? Has Mike Gilleslie found himself on the outside looking

in permanently? Can they sneak Ralph Webb onto the roster or do they even want to? Has Brandon Bolden locked down a spot my boy Murph would say, yes, Mark, yes, he has. Stop asking that question. Shout out to boy Tim Murph, T-M-U-R-P-H-2-0-7 on Twitter. And so that's the running back room. I am curious to see how that shakes out. So those are my offensive questions.

Defensive side of the ball. Guys up front. Not a lot of spots. Probably left up for grabs. There might be one or two. Vince Valentine. Keonta Davis. Adam Butler.

Who's fighting for those extra interior defensive line spots. And then the linebackers. You know, has Juwan Bentley earned his spot? I think so. Has Christian Sam earned a spot? Perhaps not. Others seem to have him on the outside looking in. When you look at their roster projections, I've still got them in.

Maybe it's a Berrios-type situation where I'm seeing things that aren't there. So I've got Christian Sam in. Curious to see how much play he gets tonight against the Carolina Panthers. Specifically, as we're going to get to question five, you start thinking about week one of the NFL season. You start thinking about having linebackers that can perhaps chase down Deshaun Watson. Cornerback death, that's question four.

We've got two slots that we know are locked down, Gilmore and Rell. After that, a bit of a question mark. People believe Duke Dawson is in. I get that. People believe Duke Dawson is in. I get that. People believe that Jonathan Jones is in there. I get that too, even though he's been hurt. Jason McCourty, Cyrus Jones, Keon Crossan, J.C. Jackson, Jamal Welts, Ryan Lewis.

Who ends up earning the final cornerback spots on this team? So I'm very curious to see who gets to play early tonight. I'm very curious to see who gets the majority of snaps a corner tonight because they have to lock down the back half of this cornerback room given the two guys at the top. And finally, Handel and Cam Newton, they call this game the dress rehearsal for a reason. They call it a dress rehearsal because third preseason game, that's when you're going to see the majority of snaps from your starters. That's when you see some game plan-ish type stuff. Obviously, they're not giving too much stuff away, but you see some game plan-ish type stuff.

And so I want to see how they handle an athletic quarterback like Cam Newton, given the fact they're going to see one in week one, given the fact you're going to see a fairly athletic quarterback, although not a Newton or a Watson, but Blake Bortles in week two. And generally speaking, when you look at this Patriots schedule and you look at the teams they're playing and the quarterbacks they're facing, you're going to see Watson. You're going to see Bortles. You're going to see a Tannehill in week four, a Luck in week five, Mahomes in week six, Trubisky in week seven, probably Josh Allen in week eight, Marcus Mariota in week 10, you know, Allen again, Josh

Allen in week 16. You know, you're going to see some athletic quarterbacks throughout the course of this season. So I want to get a sense tonight of how the Patriots are going to defend athletic quarterbacks. Now, obviously the Carolina Panthers approach this game like they don't want to get Cam Newton hurt. And so maybe you don't see as much of that from Cam Newton. But I do want to see the ability to sort of keep contained on an athletic quarterback in the pocket because given the number of athletic type quarterbacks

the Patriots are going to be facing this season, that could be a huge difference between this defense being good and this defense being great so I want to see some of that tonight and finally obviously not so much a question but it's a non-negotiable you don't want to see injuries tonight you want to see everybody get through get healthy all the ones all this top guys, healthy and ready to go come week one when the Houston Texans come to town. So that's what I'm looking for tonight. Up next, my chat with Evan Lazar from CLNS about his thoughts on the Patriots preseason, his thoughts headed into tonight, and some other stuff included his continued man crush on Derek Rivers.

That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you on this Friday game day edition of Locked on Patriots. And really excited to be joined now by our next guest. He is a new, freshly minted beat reporter at CLNS covering the New England Patriots. He is Evan Lazar. Evan, my friend, welcome to Locked on Patriots. How are you doing, buddy? Thanks, man.

New guy on the block. New guy on the block. New guy on the block. How's that going? Would you, you know, rubbing elbows with the guys like Reese and Volan and Greg Bedard? Like, how's that feel? It's pretty surreal, honestly, to be in the locker room, to be around those guys. You know, the guys that you mentioned are guys that I grew up reading and, you know, emulate and have kind of put my career in towards their direction of being, you know, reporters and stuff like that. So it's pretty wild to be

in the same room as them. It's pretty wild to be in the same room as Belichick and Brady and Gronk and Edelman and all these guys. You know, it's surreal. Well, it's fantastic, man. And you do fantastic, fantastic work. If you don't follow Evan, please fix that on Twitter. He is at E-Z-L-A-Z-A-R. Every time he posts something, video threads, things like that, I always learn something. So definitely, definitely follow him. And Evan, let's hop into a Patriots,

the dress rehearsal tonight against the Carolina Panthers. But first, what's your overall state of the Pats as we sit here right now? Yeah, I would say that the team has been pretty good so far through these first months or so of training camp or preseason practice or whatever you want to call it. But the biggest thing here is I think that it's pretty obvious that the players and the coach are a little disappointed that they didn't have these joint practices that they've had in the past. So these preseason games, I think they're treating them pretty important in terms of getting live reps and competitive reps against other teams. And these practices have been relatively light because, you know, they're out there not trying to hit too much and trying to get anybody hurt

on their own team. So obviously these preseason practices, or preseason games, excuse me, are a big deal, I think, for the team. You saw last week Brady play the whole first half of the second preseason game, which you don't see too often. Yeah, and it's interesting, Evan, that you mentioned the lack of joint practices. We've heard that. Brady at some of his press conferences has specifically said that without these, you're really approaching these preseason games with a level of intensity

like you usually see in those joint practices and speaking of Brady you know how much Brady do you expect to see tonight do you expect to see him into the third quarter and how much Tom Brady do you want to see tonight well I don't want to see any Tom Brady to be honest I think he's going to play a significant amount, or at least until he feels comfortable with what, and Belichick feels comfortable with what the first-team offense has put out there. But I would not be surprised at all to see him play into the third quarter. Like you said, he mentioned in a lot of press conferences, both with us and on WEI with Kirk and Callahan,

that he feels a little rusty, and he hasn't since the Super Bowl had those live in-game reps without the joint practices. So I think that overall, Brady wants to play. feels a little rusty and he hasn't you know since the Super Bowl had those live in-game reps without the joint practices so I think that overall Brady wants to play I think that's kind of the message that we got when we spoke to him on Wednesday was that you know ultimately it's a decision that's up to Bill Belichick but he if it was up to Tom Brady he would play a considerable amount tonight you know what are the positions Evan and I'm sure you've noticed this as well, that the Patriots have some decisions coming up.

Is that running back group, how do you see that group shaking out? Has Jeremy Hill locked down a spot? Has Mike Gilleslie lost a spot? What about guys like Ralph Webb and Brandon Bolden? What are your thoughts on this position group? Yeah, it's interesting because I think that, you know, it all depends on where Sonny Michel starts the season, right? You know, is he going to start the

season on the ir boomerang or is he going to start the season on the active roster obviously we're all hoping that he's going to be on the active roster but if he's not then i think that there's a chance that you know brandon bolden or mike gillisley get that extra spot until he comes back i mean bolden we all try to cut him and then he's always, you know, back on their roster. We do these 53-man roster projections and everybody always leaves Bolden off and the Patriots are the only ones that don't. So I always leave Bolden on because I just kind of expect him to be on there until he's not on the team anymore. But I really think that Jeremy Hill, to answer your question, is a guy that has really surprised a lot of people at one Patriot place,

the coaching staff, the running backs group. And he's kind of played a little bit on special teams, which isn't something that you would have expected a veteran like him doing. And he's also played a lot of running backs. So I think that he's a guy that, you know, came in lighter, came in in better shape, kind of knew that his career was on the line here with the season coming up, and I think that he's earned a spot so far.

We'll see what he does tonight, if he plays at all with Brady. But overall, I think that Jeremy Hill is going to be on this roster, barring something going wrong in the next couple weeks here. You know, another position group that has Patriots fans kind of frazzled at this moment is the wide receiver room. Obviously, they trade away Brandon Cooks, Julian Edelman, four-game suspension, Kenny Britt now being released by the team this week. With this wide receiver group the way it is, do you see the Patriots making an addition,

perhaps a Des Bryant? That name's been floated out there. Or do you think it's going to be a situation, Evan, where they're going to roll maybe light at wide receiver and play a lot more 12 personnel with Gronkowski and whoever the other tight end might be? What are your thoughts there? Yeah, it's a million-dollar question right now. What are they going to do with this wide receiver room?

I think I wrote something about Dez the other day where I basically just said, can he help you on the field? Yes. Obviously, there's a lot of other things that go into the conversation. Money, attitude, fit in the locker room. Not that I think that the fit in the locker room and the attitude is necessarily a problem with Dez, as other people do, but, you know, that's something that you have to consider with every move. So I think that, you know, Dez, yes. Can he help? Yes.

Is he washed up? No. But at the same time, you know, there's some hoops that you got to jump through before you can kind of get there. But the guy that I kind of come back to as the guy that I think that they are expecting to take another step forward is Philip Dorsett. I really think that they're kind of expecting him to be a guy that is going to be a third wheel to Chris Hogan and Julian Edelman when the time comes and really kind of replace a lot of those deep targets and a lot of those deep patterns that they had Brandon Cooks running you know the the air raid stuff that they kind of have put in in the last couple years and some of the vertical routes on

the outside I think they want to give those to Philip Dorsett, and they're hoping that he's kind of going to take that position by storm. But the question is, you know, can he have that consistency that we haven't seen really throughout his entire NFL career? We know the guy's talented. We know the guy can run. But can he be a guy that Tom Brady can rely on is another question. Yeah, that trust level of TB12 is such a huge thing for this patriots offense and another huge thing not to make a horrible pun here is the status of the

offensive line you know they braid in trent brown he seems to have locked down that left tackle spot they lose isaiah win to an injury you know you mentioned 53 man projection i've seen people have eight offensive line and i've seen people go with nine how does this offensive line group shake out do you think they have to keep an extra guy because they lose win or do they go lean yeah well the one guy that I kind of come back to in terms of maybe keeping an extra offensive lineman is Oric John who's just had an unbelievable camp and he's a guy that's you know under the radar they kind of signed him to a one-year veteran deal and no one really looked into it but if you look at his tape from the first two preseason games,

he's probably been their best offensive lineman. Pro Football Focus has an insane grade on him in the preseason, something like 91.0 or something like that. Not too shabby? Yeah, the guy has really played pretty well. And, you know, he's a veteran that can play both tackle spots. And in terms of, you know, what happens if Trent Brown isn't the answer, do you really want to throw a guy like Cole Crust into the fire like that

who's kind of an undrafted rookie, second-year player actually, that they really haven't given a lot of live game reps to against ones at any point in time, whether it was last season, during the regular season, or during preseason. So the question is really, Trent Brown, I talked about him a lot. Everybody always asks me about him. And one thing I will say is that he has all the tools. I've been saying this since they really traded for him at the draft.

He has all the tools to be the left tackle. I don't think that there's any question that he has the talent or the ability to do it. But last week, we saw going into the second quarter, his technique, he started to get tired. Like everybody kind of tells us that, you know, he's a big dude. He gets worn down as the season goes on. Last week, he kind of started to get tired and his technique just went out the window. And towards the end of that second quarter, the end of the first half, it got a little bit ugly for him over there at left tackle. So that's obviously not something that you like to see. One thing that I harp on is that this offensive line, it's a tough offensive line to play for.

I mean, on top of the fact that Skarnecchia is probably a tough coach to play for at times. It's just they ask a lot of their offensive linemen, a lot of movement blocks, a lot of blocks, you know, in the screen game, a lot of blocks where they have to climb to the second level, get out on defensive backs and make blocks. You know, stuff that is not easy. It's not something that you're just pass setting with the guy right in front of you or run blocking with the guy right in front of you. You know, they're going to ask Trent Brown.

They asked him last week on Thursday night to get out in front of a couple screens, and it didn't go so well. He got one guy, he got a piece of a guy enough on that one that Cordrell Patterson almost took to the house. But a couple plays earlier, they tried to throw a screen pass to Philip Dorsett near the goal line to score a touchdown, and Trent just completely whiffed on his block and really made it you know a negative play so I think that those types of blocks are going to be a struggle for him to be able to do that

for 16 to 19 games at a consistent level so the question is is maybe do you start throwing those screen passes to the to the right and start just having Marcus Cannon and Shaq Mason take those responsibilities and kind of spare Trent Brown that way. But as we know, you know, the Patriots aren't, that's, they don't want to be predictable. So, you know, it's, it's kind of a tough thing there with him. And I just, I get worried a little bit from what I saw from that second quarter that the stamina and the endurance stuff is real. That's a great point, Evan. And I want to kind of follow up on that because we all know that the Patriots like to do so much tempo stuff as well. They like to, you know, if they catch a defense at base or if they catch a defense going small, they like to go tempo so they

prevent the defense from substituting, but do you think that might play a factor in, you know, how they do much and how much they do that given the stamina issues you just pointed out with a guy like Trent Brown? Yeah, I mean, it might it might because you know they can go hurry up all they want but if he's gonna whiff on blocks like he was doing last Thursday night because he's tired then it really does them no good and I know that really is where the injury to Isaiah Wynn which is going you know everyone's kind of like oh well he was kind of just gonna back up Trent Brown this year and maybe play some swing tackle and wasn't really going to be a huge factor as a rookie. I disagree. I think that by week 10 or 11, he could have been the starting left tackle. I mean, I loved Isaiah Wynn coming out of college. I still love Isaiah Wynn in terms of a prospect.

So I really thought that he was going to be a big part of this team, whether he was just a swing tackle or a 6-0 line or whatever the case may be. But, I mean, I'm sure you watched his tape. He was great at Georgia. I mean, really great offensive line, great technique, great head on his shoulders in terms of football IQ and stuff like that, and obviously had all the athleticism in the world that you would need to play the position as well. So I think that Isaiah Wynn injury might end up being, you know, it's something that not necessarily cost them a Super Bowl or anything like that,

but ends up being something in the long run that we see like they really could have used isaiah win to kind of spell trent brown here mark scoffield ever lazar from clns beat reporter for the new england patriots talking expectations for the dress rehearsal tonight against the carolina panthers and ever let's shift to the defensive side of the ball now and this was obviously an area you give a ton of yardage of 41 points at Super Bowl LII. People want to see this defense improve. Brian Flores coming in, the new play caller,

not the defensive coordinator, but he's calling the shots out there. And through two preseason games, I think people can say that the defense has probably surpassed expectations early, but maybe that's just me. What are your thoughts right now on this defense right now? Yeah, I mean, you always want to curtail expectations because it is the preseason, so you don't want to get too excited. But I mean, overall, it's hard not to get that, you know, more excited, at least than it was last year. I mean, they've added so many pieces to that

front seven, especially with Derek Rivers and Dante Hightower coming back you add Adrian Claiborne who's just been absolutely awesome from day one since he got in practice I mean this guy is one of the better pass rushers that they've had uh Adrian Claiborne I'm talking about in a long time uh you know just in terms of his knowledge of the rushing the passer and the hand fighting and the technique that he has you know Taylor Jones Chandler Jones was a great player and is a great athlete. And now he's kind of turned into an even better player maybe than he was in New England and Arizona because of their scheme and what he's been able to do there. But I think Adrian Claiborne might be one of the better passers we've seen

since like Willie McGinnis and Richard Seymour and the guys back in the day. I mean, he's really just come in and just dominated from day one. And in the games, we can see it, you know, last week with the strip sack and stuff like that. So I think that they have a lot more talent on this defense. So as much as I want to give Brian Flores a lot of credit, I think he's cooking with a lot better players than Matt Patricia was last year, certainly at this stage before, you know, there's any injuries, knock on wood, or anything like that. So it's hard not to get excited,

but at the same time, you know, it is preseason, so we'll have to see if it kind of translates into the regular season. But I talked to a lot of the players, and Dante Hightower is one of the better quotes in the locker room. A lot of the other guys toe the company line, but Hightower will give you at least a little something of an answer. And he said that the players flat out are just excited that Flores is kind of turning them loose a little bit more and letting them get after the passer and letting them blitz a little bit more and play more aggressive. And you can kind of see it on the field.

They're playing faster. They're playing more aggressive. They're getting after the quarterback. They have an insane pressure rate right now in the preseason, about 51% of the time they're pressuring the quarterback through the first two games, which is obviously not sustainable. But even if it's a 5% or 10% increase to what it was last year, it's an improvement, obviously. So I think that there's a couple things that they're looking to work on. Belichick mentioned to me that I asked him about the blitzing. Is this kind of a change in attitude, a change in approach,

or is this kind of just a preseason thing? And he just basically said that right now the time of year to him is about working on things that you're not good at. So obviously they identified over the offseason that they were not a good blitzing team last year, which is accurate. They were not a good blitzing team last year, which is accurate. They were not a good blitzing team last year. So this preseason, they've really worked on the blitzing packages, both in terms of designs, it looks like, and in terms of execution.

So I think overall that they're trying to kind of try some new things out, see what they can get done, and then they'll go from there. But starting week one, you have Deshaun Watson, and my guess is you're going to see a lot of contain rush and keeping him in the pocket is going to be the main goal. And you're probably not going to see them kind of get after the quarterback like we've seen in the preseason so far. A guy that has gotten a lot of Evan Lazar love lately and perhaps for the past couple of seasons or so

is Derek Rivers back this year off of missing last year due to an injury. And a lot of people were excited to see him come back, season or so is Derek Rivers back this year off of you know missing last year due to an injury and a lot of people were excited to see him come back perhaps contribute off the edge off you know as part of that pass rush and get it after the quarterback what have you seen from him yeah I keep on touting Derek Rivers I touted him big time in the draft when they when they drafted him I had him a top 50 player in that draft and they picked him up in the third round so i thought it was a huge steal i mean this is a guy that is a ultra you know freak athlete i mean he just absolutely blew out the combine uh he ran like a four six you know three cone under seven seconds i mean just a really good athlete so i i think that a lot of the people in pat's nation have always been saying

you know they need an athlete on the edge they need an athlete on the edge. They need an athlete on the edge. And I just keep saying, just wait. They have one. He just happened to tear his ACL on a kickoff coverage in a freak, you know, kind of play in the preseason last year. And that, you know, kind of ruined his rookie year, obviously. But the thing that I saw from him in this first game was he looked like a deer with his head cut off because, you know, chicken with his head cut off because he hadn't played in a game in a year. so he was really his technique was kind of sloppy and he his

awareness and the run game especially was all over the place he was rushing a lot with his head down which is something that i saw a lot on his college tape that i knew that they would have to coach out of him uh i i don't know what his instinct is with that but every every single time I see it happen, I'm like, well, that's the same thing he did for four years at Youngstown State. It's something that they have to coach out of him. But overall, you saw with that sack that he had against the Eagles last week, that's kind of the Derek Rivers that I was expecting. A guy that can bring speed to power, bend around the edge, really elite bend,

which obviously eliminates that space that he has to get around the edge, really elite bend, which obviously eliminates that space that he has to get to the quarterback, which means quick pressure, which is something that I think everybody would like to see. But he's got a long build. He's like 6'5", big guy, kind of your prototypical defensive end for the Patriots in terms of size and speed and weight and stuff like that. So overall, I mean, I'm very excited about him. He seems like a good kid.

He seems ready to go. He knows he's got a long way to go. But, you know, he's decent with his hands. I thought he was better in college than he has been so far in the pros in terms of his technique. But I think that, you know, some of that is just from not playing for a year. So I think that overall, what we're looking at is a guy that we've all been kind of clamoring for as Patriots fans, you know, that speed rusher off the edge. I think that you're

going to get it with Derek Rivers as long as he can stay healthy and kind of keep, you know, getting better in his awareness, get his awareness better a little bit here. But that sack against Philly was exactly the Derek Rivers experience that I saw him do 50 times at Youngstown State when he broke the record there. Before he even suited up for his senior season, he had the record through three years of play. So obviously a big leap in play from that school to the NFL. But so far, it's been a pretty good transition for him, I'd say. A guy that's got me excited is keonta davis obviously a guy that you know also coming from you know an fcs type of school and had the bulge of disc injury so he

doesn't get drafted probably the guy that was getting you know late day two early day three type grades on him and it looks like the patriots are trying to carve out a role for him as an interior rusher in sub packages do you think he can make the team are you excited about him or do you think he's just going to fall victim to a numbers game it's a numbers game for him for sure i mean the big question is is like do you want to keep some of the interior pass rushers that they have that are more defensive tackles like an adam butler or a uh or vince valentine or something like that or do you want to keep chianti and he had a great game you know last week against the eagles he played a lot but overall i mean he's a pocket pusher you know he's not a guy that i necessarily saw as as twitchy or or super athletic or something

like that and bill kind of talked about it bill belichick kind of talked about it at his press conference where he really hasn't played in the game in a very long time so his awareness and his instincts were kind of all over the place and he wasn't necessarily getting off the ball the way that they would like to see. And Belichick was kind of giving him a break on it because he hasn't played in such a long time. So I think that he's a guy that is definitely pushing for a roster spot. He's going to have to have a big third and fourth preseason game. This is kind of when we've seen a lot of these guys in practice at this point,

and they kind of have solidified themselves of what kind of players they're going to be in practice. So when the bright lights come on is really when they're going to have to make the roster, guys like a Keontae Davis. So tonight is a big test for him. Next week will be a big test for him too, I'm sure. In the fourth preseason game, you're not going to see a lot of the starters, Adrian Claiborne.

Trey Flowers hasn't played at all in the preseason. I wouldn't be surprised if Derek Rivers doesn't play very much next week. So that could be the Keontae Davis show. You know, he could have another 70 snaps or something like that, like he did against the Eagles these next two weeks. So we'll see what happens. But if he continues to play like he did against Philly, he's definitely going to make it tough on them to cut him.

And they seem to really like him. And they agreed with your assessment that, you know, he would have been drafted if uh if that wasn't for that injury so they i think they think that they have kind of a guy that you know maybe they circumvented uh a little bit here where they got him off the injury so they didn't have to waste a draft pick on him and now they can kind of put him in as the eighth or ninth defensive lineman you know a guy that seems to have passed a similar test is jawad Bentley, the rookie linebacker from Purdue. And, you know, this might be the prime example of, you know, that lesson, you know, scout the traits, not the scheme. Because when he was drafted, everybody said,

look, two down thumper, like, not sure he's really going to cover on a roll. But now we see him, you know, he was covered wheel routes out of the backfield. He's covered routes on the flat. I've been very impressed. I know you have as well. did we all miss on this guy or or did we miss i don't know but it seems to me like the only two people in the or you know two groups of people in the world that had juwan benley as being this good as pro football focus and in the patriots right you know pff had him as their highest graded linebacker in the fbs last year uh they had like a 91 point grader or something like that in their system. So they loved him from the beginning. But even them, I talked to Steve Palazzolo, who's, you know, the guy over there.

And even he was like, you know, I did not expect him to be this good in coverage. His coverage grade in our system was nowhere near as good as it's been in the pros. And, you know, it's kind of just, it's remarkable. And I asked Joanne, I was like, all right, did you you change your workout did you change what you're eating or did you work out more are you faster you know do you feel faster and he kind of laughed and he was just like what are you saying i was slow in college and i was like yeah kind of and you know he was like you know maybe there's some of that to your truth to that maybe uh and i think that really the big thing for him might have been that just it's a difference

when you go from doing it as a student to doing it as a professional. And now his full-time commitment is to being in the NFL and being a football player for the New England Patriots. So it's a whole different animal, different workout regimen, different strength and conditioning coaches, different diet. So maybe there is some of that in there where maybe he's just in better shape and that's a part of the reason but i had no one expected him to be this good i don't think the patriots i asked belichick about him a few weeks ago and belichick kind of acted like the patriots knew that he was going to be this you know coverage athlete that was going to be able to play in space and you know stop the run and do everything that they kind of need from that linebacker position

that they've been missing, I kind of call BS on that. I think that he's just kind of saying that because what else is he going to say? But overall, I mean, what more could you ask for the guy? He's just been fantastic. He's been able to – you can see the instincts from sideline to sideliner there. He has great reads in the run game, and he's able to hold up in coverage so far. Last week against the Eagles, I think it was the first play of the game, he gets flexed out against Wendell Smallwood, and they throw a go on him,

and he's hit for hit with the guy, stride for stride. I couldn't believe it. Everyone in the press box was just like, where is this guy coming from? This is what they've been looking for. They picked a guy up in the fifth round, and he's the answer. I mean, it's hard to believe. But, again, it's preseason. Sometimes these guys play really well in the preseason,

and then it kind of goes back to the – aggresses to the mean a little bit in the regular season once the schemes start going and the game planning starts flying. So we'll see what happens. Speaking of coverage, Everett, obviously a big issue facing this defense is the cornerback spot, particularly cornerback depth. I think everybody looks at Gilmore and Rowe as probably one and two, but after that, a bit of a question mark. And so how do you see that depth shaken out? Yeah, Jason McCourty has really been the, is the big X factor here. You

know, what do they do with him do they keep him on the roster he obviously doesn't have the special teams value as some of the other guys in the quarterback position at the back end of the cornerback position guys like cyrus jones or even jc jackson or keon cross and the rookies or or uh well jonathan jones i think is on this team you know i think that he's almost a lock so i I would say Rowe, Gilmore, Duke Dawson, their second-round pick, and Jonathan Jones are pretty much roster locks, and then Jason McCourty is pretty close. So I would say that those five are the guys that kind of make the roster,

and then maybe they keep a sixth. Maybe JC Jackson sneaks on the roster and keeps that UDFA streak going just because he's been able to play pretty well and he's been pretty good on special teams, too. So maybe that's the way it goes. But I think the big thing for me is, you know, I obviously trust that Gilmore is going to have a great season. I think their row, as long as you manage it and you do what the Patriots usually do, which

is allow Gilmore to kind of play on an island against his man, put a safety over the top of the other side of the field and, you field and bracket or play bail cover three or something like that to kind of keep things in front of Eric Rowe, then I think he'll be fine on the other side. So the question is, who's going to hold down that slot position, which was a revolving door last year and everyone kind of struggled. They gave up the second most yards to slot receivers in the league last year. So it's definitely something that they need to work on and need to make sure that they fix this year. So is it Jonathan Jones? Is it Duke Dawson? I don't know yet. I hope it's

Jonathan Jones because I think that he's probably the guy that's best suited for the job right now and is most pro ready for the job. So I talked to him the other day. He seems ready to go. Obviously, he said to help play wherever they put him him you know the good old patriots uh coaches speak you know wherever the coaches ask me to do i'll do but i think he knows that you know the slot is kind of the path for him to get on the field at least defensively he's obviously going to play on special teams a lot but uh i think that that slot position is more of a worry to me than uh than the outside cornerback spots because i really think as i said they've done it so much in the past where they kind of double the they double the one or

they have gilmore take the one and they bracket the two or something you know something like that and i think that's kind of what you'll see all right evan jordan richards there's always clamoring for jordan richards from patriots fans or corners of patriots nation for him to even not you know, make the trip back from Superbowl 52, for example. So can you tell the people what they want to hear, or do you have a little bit of dose of say some bad medicine for them? I, well, you know, I want to tell the people what they want to hear.

And I think that one thing that, you know, when I did my 53 man roster projection, this, you know, my first one the other day was that Eddie Pleasant is kind of Jordan Richards, but maybe a little bit better. So, you know my first one the other day was that eddie pleasant is kind of jordan richards but maybe a little bit better so you know i think that eddie pleasant's a guy that can really push him off the roster the question is is eddie pleasant you know catching on to the scheme is he catching on to the patriot way uh fast enough here you know as a guy that came in pretty late in the process to be able to do that. But Eddie Pleasant's a really good special teams guy, which Jordan Richards led the team in special team snaps last year,

so that's a big factor in this whole thing. And Eddie Pleasant has done that in the past. He's played a lot of special teams. And also I think he's probably a better safety on defense than not probably he is a better safety on defense. And you can see that on his film from last year with Houston. So I think that he's the guy that you kind of have to look for tonight, next week, to see can he, you know, do enough

and can he prove that he is, you know, in the system enough and able to understand the system enough at this point to push Jordan Richards off the roster because the Patriots are going to keep Jordan Richards on this team unless they feel like somebody has earned that spot over him. It's kind of like an incumbent thing, right? Or him and Landon Roberts are the same way. Until somebody comes in and physically pushes them off the roster

because they just outperformed them in practice in the preseason games, then we're going to see a guy on the roster. So what are you going to do? I obviously don't want to see Jordan Richards play safety any more than anybody else does at this point. But we're kind of trending in the direction, I think, of him making the roster, unfortunately. But, again, you know, it's a numbers game back there right now. And I would much rather see them hang on to, maybe even if it's not Eddie Pleasant, hang on to one of these young corners that they have that has played pretty well in the preseason.

Guys like J.C. Jackson and Keyon Crossan is a guy that I love to college tape. So I think that those two guys deserve spots on this team over Jordan Richards right now. All right, Evan, I'll get you out of here on this one. Perhaps the biggest question facing all of us right now, which is Tom Bradyady the new helmet what are your thoughts of the new riddell superflex and not to get so proper ish for a second but since he doesn't have to move to this into 2019

is this perhaps a hint that tom brady is not going anywhere anytime soon yeah i think so i think that at least we're safe through 2019. He's going to be out there because he basically said that he just wanted to get out in front of it. He knew he was going to have to change the helmet after the end of the year. So why wait was kind of his point of view. You know, I play a little football. I play a little lacrosse. So I have had a helmet on my head before with a cage and not that I'm Tom Brady. But as you can attest to, the eyesight is different when you change a helmet. You know, it's a different experience when you get a new helmet.

And, you know, I remember I didn't play football in high school, but I played lacrosse, and I changed my helmet in the middle of high school, and all of a sudden my eyesight was just completely different, which I'm sure you can attest to. And so I think that that's something that he's really adjusting to, and he said that he's tried a lot of different face masks on the helmet the helmet itself i think he finds very comfortable and he's and he's fine with it's the face mask that's kind of throwing him off a little bit because they can't put the same exact face mask that was on his vcr

4 onto this new helmet so that's kind of where it is i know all about helmets now i never like i i knew what helmet he wears before when helmet he's wearing now it's great it's it is i know all about helmets now i never like i i knew what helmet he wears before when helmet he's wearing now it's great it's it's like the number one conversation at training camp it's it's pretty funny and uh you know he's made a joke that the team said that he looked younger and faster and the new helmet i was like what else are they gonna say like tom brady asked them like do i look better in this? I don't think any of them are going to say no. Nobody's going to say no. Yeah. But I think he'll be fine. And, yeah, I do think that it means that he's at least planning on playing until 2019.

Which gives us another couple of years to talk about draft quarterbacks. He is Evan Lazar, as you can tell. He just crushes it all the time. Evan, before we go, let everybody know where they can find you, where they can find your work, and what's the best way to catch up with you on social media. Sure. So on social media, you can find me at E la zar and then uh clnsmedia.com gonna pump it all i can it's a great site me tracks uh alex barth we we all do uh you know

everything that we can down at foxborough there every day at all the games all that stuff so i'll go and follow the whole crew. I go follow Patriots CLNS, which is kind of our Patriots branch of the CLNS media network that's able to, you know, we pump everything on there, our articles, podcasts, you know, videos that we do from the games, from the locker room, all that type of stuff. So CLNS Media, EZ Lazar on Twitter. And yeah, that's where you can follow me. Excellent. Follow all those guys.

They do tremendous, tremendous, tremendous work covering the Patriots. That will do it for Friday's Game Day Edition. I will be back later tonight with a post-game wrap-up of what we saw in the dress rehearsal. Thanks to Evan for coming on. Until next time, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. here to me mark schofield and locked on

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