Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 27, 2018 - News, Decker Retires, the WR Room and More

Episode Date: August 27, 2018

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Hello there everybody, welcome to Lockdown Patriots for Monday, August 27th, 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. Pro Football Weekly, where I'm a scheme analyst and contributor over there. The Score, where I'm an NFL features contributor. Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, MattWaldmanRSP.com.

If a website is talking about football or featuring football in some way, chances are I'm writing about football for them. We have a loaded show for you today. I'm going to get to that in a second. But as most of you listening to the show have probably heard by now, another tragic event down in Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday at a Madden 19 tournament. A gunman opened fire. Reports are that four people were killed by this person.

The gunman killed himself. A number of injuries as well taken to local hospitals. Obviously, our thoughts and our prayers are with all of those affected, all of those down in Jacksonville. Our hats go off to the first responders, the nurses, the doctors, and everybody doing fine work down there. Keep these people in your prayers. Keep these people in your thoughts.

I've talked about incidents like this before, and I don't want to get too into it today. Just all I can say is these issues, these moments, these incidents, they hurt. Then we move on. Try not to move on. Try to keep remembering these incidents. We can't just let this become another thing. We can't just let this become another thing we all move away from. Don't let it happen. We can't just let this become another thing. We can't just let this become another thing. We all move away from. Don't let it happen. We can't let it happen.

And the other thing I just want to leave you with. Just hug your loved ones. Okay. Because when this happened. My wife and I were waiting for our kids to come back. They had spent the night at my parents house. Thanks again to my mom and dad for watching the little jackals. Let my wife and I have a night out.

Hugged them a little bit tighter when they came back. And try to do that with your loved ones. Let's get into it. We loaded a show for you today. We're going to talk a couple of things about the wide receiver room in the second segment. Third segment, we're going to go outside the Patriots for a bit. I'm going to revisit for a moment Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and the decisions facing those two teams,

two New England rivals, as we get into the regular season. But let's kick off things with some news and some notes, both about the New England Patriots and about the Locked On Patriots podcast. And let's start with a little pat on the back to myself. Ladies and gentlemen, today's the one-year anniversary of me stepping into the big chair. That's right. A year ago today, I slid into the big chair, introduced myself, and talked about Philip Dorsett. Well, guess what?

I'm going to talk about Philip Dorsett again today. Come in full circle, everybody. But hard to believe that it's been 365 days of me in the big chair helping bring you your favorite Daily Patriots podcast. It has been an absolute blast and an honor to be here. Really excited about the next 365. And to that end, I want to sort of outline for everybody

how the rest of this week's going to look. And then when we get into the regular season, going to try to have a little bit more structure because I know the people out there, now that we get into the season, people like having structure to the season. So I'm going to try to deliver that. So here's what you can expect for the rest of this week We'll do this show today

Tomorrow we're going to do Roster Projections 3.0 Wednesday I'm going to talk a little bit about Brian Hoyer I've been studying Brian Hoyer's preseason I have some thoughts on that As well as some timeline takes Patriots edition What I'm reading segment That will be Wednesday's show

Thursday is your game day edition I'll have my thoughts. I'm going to chat with Trevor Kyles from Pat's Pulpit. He's going to make a return to the Locked On Patriots podcast. Friday, your post game edition. My thoughts on the final preseason matchup. And then Saturday is cut down day.

I will have, once all the roster announcements are done, that's supposed to happen by 4 p.m. Eastern. I will have an episode for you sometime Saturday afternoon, Saturday night, breaking all of it down for you, breaking down the roster movements, the roster projections, who's in, who's out, who's on the practice squad, all that kind of fun stuff. So that's the week ahead.

Once we get into this season, here's what you can sort of expect on a week-to-week basis. Monday morning slash Sunday night, depending on when the Patriots play, that's going to be your instant reacts post-game show. Hopefully glorious victory edition after glorious victory edition. The good, the bad, the awful, the ugly, however we term it. That will be Monday's show. Tuesdays will be typically your all-22 recap where I get into some nerdy

football stuff, breaking some stuff down for you. Wednesday's show is going to be guest-heavy. I'm going to try to get a guest on every single week, whether it's a Patriots beat writer, somebody else from around the league, somebody else that writes about football, talks about football, get some other takes for you. Thursday's show is going to be takes slash crossover. We'll have some timeline takes type stuff,

usually set aside some time for some crossover stuff about the upcoming opponent for the Patriots that week. Friday, your game day show. Obviously what to expect, what I'm looking for on the game that weekend. And finally, I'm introducing something new for you guys for Sundays

for the lovely men and women listening to the Locked On Patriots podcast. I've found that Sunday morning is a nice time to sort of get yourself reacclimated and ready for the game. So I'm going to drop, you know, Sunday morning tailgate for you guys. It's going to be a quick 15, 20 minute quick hitter type show. That's going to be maybe a couple of things that we talked about during the week. Maybe reintroduce something, a segment or a guest that we had on.

Some interesting stuff for you. And then some other news and notes that have broken either over the weekend or that morded about either its injuries or other stuff around the league. So look for that as well. So we're going to have basically you covered six out of the seven days a week with new stuff here at the Locked On Patriots podcast. So that's some of the stuff we're going to be doing

for the weekly lineup. Also want to let you know, I'm going to be introducing something over the next week or so that I think is going to help kick this community up a different notch, a nice new notch. And that is a Locked On Patriots Slack channel. If you want to be a part of that, you can hit me up on Twitter. You can reach out to me, mark.scofield, at insidethepylon.com.

I'm going to start. I'm going to open up a Locked On Patriots Slack so all the listeners, we can chat throughout the week, during the games. You can hit me up for ideas, whatever you want. More and more growth in the community, bringing people together, talking about the New England Patriots, a team that we love. So I'm going to be setting that up

in the next couple of days or so. If you want to be part of that, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield or mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Closing out this opening segment of News and Notes with some Patriots news and notes. The biggest thing that came down this weekend, Eric Decker decided to hand him up. Decker releasing a statement on his Instagram coming out of basically saying that, look, it has been

absolutely the joy of his life playing the football, playing the game of football, playing in the National Football League, but it's time to hand them up. Decker's saying, It has been my childhood dream and my passion to play the game of football. I was very fortunate and blessed to have had the opportunity to have those dreams fulfilled and to have played with such extremely talented and hardworking teammates, coaches, and staff. This has been a passion inside of me since I was a little boy,

but now I know it is time to hand my helmet up and start a new chapter in my life. I love football and always will. It will continue to be a part of my life. I'm looking forward to spending more time with my wife and kids. I want to give a special thank you to my family, friends, and fans for all your support on this incredible journey. It's been an amazing chapter in my life. I look forward to the future and the many adventures ahead.

A couple of things about this. It makes the wide receiver room a little bit thinner. It makes the decision process at the wide receiver room a little bit thinner, makes the decision process at the wide receiver group a little bit easier for the Patriots, and it makes my job a little bit easier because I kid you not, everybody, I re-watched that game against the Carolina Panthers, and in the next segment when I talk about revisiting the wide receiver group, I came loaded for bear. I had identified a bunch of plays where Eric Decker just really did not execute his assignment. And so I was loaded for bear.

I was going to do something I usually don't do. Loyal listeners of this show know that I don't lay into people and crush people because it's easy to crush people. I was going to do it. I had stuff loaded. I had a play where he missed a block on a smoke screen. I was going to go nuts. Not had stuff loaded. I had a play where he missed a block on a smoke screen. I was going to go nuts.

Not going to kick him when he's down. So Eric Decker, congratulations on a fantastic, fantastic career. I wish you all of the best in retirement. Now the Patriots have to piece together a wide receiver room without Eric Decker, without Brandon Cooks, without Kenny Britt. We'll talk about that in a minute. Finally, one thing I want to touch on from Bill Belichick's press conference,

his telephone conference with the media on Saturday, it's on Jason McCourty. Because when I went back to rewatch, when I read some other stuff, saw some other things that people were talking about this game, Jason McCourty got reps at safety against the Carolina Panthers on Friday night.

That's an interesting development. And Belichick was asked about it at his teleconference with the media. What did you see from Jason McCourney in training camp in the game yesterday about how he fits in playing safety? Answer, well, Jason's a very experienced player and he understands football concepts and a lot of just basic defenses, past defensive run force concepts and the responsibilities that go with that. So he's taken more reps at safety, and those were good steps for him.

He had some opportunities to play there in the game and had some positive plays, had a couple of good tackles, made a good tackle on the goal line, a play that we highlighted in the postgame show, some good run force, and was involved in some coverage plays. Like every player who played last night, there were some things that he'll learn from and he'll see on film and we'll correct,, there were some things that he'll learn from and he'll see on film and we'll correct. And there were some things that he did well that we can build on and he can build on.

It's a combination of those. We'll see how that process unfolds going forward, how much more we play him in those spots. And again, a lot of the playing players in different positions in the second, third week of preseason, even fourth week of preseason, just relates to building depth on our roster when we only have 46 players on the active game list in the regular season. Sometimes those things come up in practice where we don't have depth at a certain position in practice and a player has to be ready to back up at that position

or maybe has to be ready to play at that position. And having a foundation and a background in it in training camp when you have a little bit of extra time to try to build that can be valuable so that you're not spending so much time on some very basic things when you get into the season and you have less time. We'll see how all of that unfolds going forward, but I think it was a good experience and hopefully whether he does or doesn't play safety down the road, even just the opportunity to do that might help him have a little better awareness of that position when he plays corner. So I think it's

all positive. First of all, fantastic answer from Bill Belichick there, breaking down why you sometimes see Patriots players plugged in at different spots into the preseason, throughout the preseason. Because let's remember, limited practice time once we get into regular season because of the new CBA rules. So if there's a situation where Jason McCourty makes this team, but then they get somebody banned up at safety, they can move him in there

and they don't have to spend so much time on practice time teaching them the basic coverage rules and the basic run fits and the basic run responsibilities and coverage responsibilities that you would have to if he hadn't been there before. So that's a fantastic little bit of insight into how Belichick handles things like that

during training camp. Another important thing to consider here, by having Jason McCourty work at safety, that tells you, again, that versatility for Patriots players is so critical to their ability to be active members of this team and their importance to building a roster. And so as I look forward to projecting this cornerback group, my next 53-man projection, I see something like that. I think, look, McCourty's probably got a roster spot locked down so I thought I'd share that with you some interesting incredible insight from Bill Belichick up next we're gonna talk wide receiver room some more time on Philip Dorsett what Belichick said about having that Saturday conference call as well as

my thoughts on revisiting his tape from Friday night against the Panthers a little bit later I'm going to talk again about Sam Darnold and Josh Allen. Some interesting thoughts on what those guys did over this weekend set of games. Darnold playing on Friday night, Allen playing on Sunday, and the decisions that those two organizations face. But speaking of decisions, friends, now that we are getting back into the regular season, I usually get hit with a bunch of questions involving decisions.

Questions regarding, look, if you had to pick between the Texans and the Pats in week one, who are you taking in that game and why? What about that Thursday night opener? Obviously a big sort of playoff rematch between Philly and Atlanta. Who are you picking in that game? The truth is sometimes I don't know who's going to win. But if you think you know, you've got to check out my bookie. Remember, who you're betting on is just as important as who you're betting with.

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You play, you win, you get paid. Up next, the wide receiver group revisited. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you for this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. And I hope you caught all the news and the notes. Chances are you have. This isn't a live radio show. It's a podcast. But remember, we're going to be doing some great new things here at Locked On Patriots. We're going to be having the weekly segment that I laid out for you, that Sunday morning tailgate show that I'm happy to announce,

giving you some extra stuff Sunday mornings to get you ready for that slate of games. Also, the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Going to be setting that up in the next couple of days. You can check that out as well. Interact with me. Interact with other Pats fans, other football fans. That should be a lot of fun to put together. Really excited to drop that in the next couple of days.

Let's get into wide receivers now. And as I said at the outset, I came loaded for bear today. I was going to do something I don't usually do. I was going to crush a guy. I was just going to unload on Eric Decker because I went back, I rewatched that game from Friday night. I had my notes. I was ready Friday night. I had my notes. I was ready to go.

I had all this stuff on Eric Decker. Eric Decker jumping off sides. You can't do that. Eric Decker drifting on his routes. You can't do that. Eric Decker selling routes short, coming up short on routes. You can't do that. Even the play that I was most agitated about was a smokescreen to Riley McCarron

where they used a little short motion from McCarron where, you know, they used a little short motion from McCarron. He was split outside. They motioned him in towards a bunch. Throw a little quick screen to him. Decker can't use his eyes to isolate the defender he's responsible for blocking. Whiffs on the block. McCarron gets chopped down for a loss in one. I was going to lose my mind and say there's no way this guy should make the team and alas he retired so i don't have to spend that much more time crushing this guy because again it's not something i like to do mostly because if i'm wrong then i'm gonna get crushed and i don't like getting crushed i'm a fragile little man with a fragile little ego so let's move on and talk about philip dorsett

because i mentioned the bill belichick media availability, his media call on Saturday, and he was very, very positive on Philip Dorsett. The first question in that conference call, could you talk about the improvement you've seen in Philip Dorsett in terms of his route running and how he has worked on time and with Tom Brady and how important that is as a receiver? Great question there. Belichick, right. Well, the timing in the passing game between the quarterback

and all the receivers, tight ends, and running backs is obviously critical. Sometimes just one split second makes the difference between a completion or a big play and a bad play. It's something that they all work on. Phil, again, has had an opportunity to start at the beginning of this year, the offseason program, OTAs, the beginning of training camp. It's a lot different than at this time last year when he wasn't even on our team a year ago today at this point. He's way ahead of that, and we still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do, but he works hard at it. He's a smart guy that can play multiple positions, and he's been out there every day working hard. Again,

some of the Belichick catchphrases and those little things that Belichick says, that when you hear them, you know that he likes a player. Smart guy? Check. Can play multiple positions? Check. Been out there every day working hard? Check. So that was some of the stuff that Belichick had to say about Philip Dorsett. I wanted to highlight just one play. Just one play from that game on Friday night. And it comes, it's a first and ten play. Patriots have the ball at the Carolina 46-yard

line. Second quarter, there's about four minutes and 54 seconds left in the second quarter. And the Patriots come out. They put Tom Brady in the shotgun. They've got James White to his right. They've got Will Tye, the third string, four-string tight end, and a wing to the right with Julian Edelman split wide to the right. Riley McCarron in a slot to the left with Phillip Dorsett split wide to the left. And the Patriots run a little two-receiver route combination to the left. With McCarron, he's running this quick little short sit route, just a three-step curl-type route.

And Dorsett runs a little bit of an in-cut over the top. More to depth about five yards. Brady takes the snap. Flashes his eyes first to the left. But then comes to the right. Because he's got a big curl from Ty in the middle of the field. An out route at the top right on the screen from Edelman. And then James White releases the flat.

All of those routes are covered. Luke Keekly rotates over to the tight end. Thomas Davis takes the swing route. And they've got basically a two-man bracket over Edelman on his route to that side. So Brady comes off of that and comes back to basically his fourth and fifth reads now, where he's got Riley McCarron again with a defender over the top of him. And now on that in-cut, Philip Dorsett, who by this point is expecting the ball to be out, but it's not out. So Dorsett does such a masterful job here at working with Brady. Comes down the line of scrimmage, keeps

his route alive, keeps himself alive as a target, and makes himself available. This is one of those sort of nuanced scramble drill type moments where you might see newer players in an offense sort of struggle to pick up their responsibility, what they're supposed to do. But Dorsett makes himself a target, makes himself available for Tom Brady, who does a masterful job here of, again, getting through reads one, two, three, four, and then five, keeping his feet alive in the pocket, making an accurate throw. Dorsett goes up to catch the ball. It's just a simple gain of eight yards. But it was such a great moment between quarterback and receiver. Because as a

receiver playing with Tom Brady, you have to know that Brady in most cases is going to extend plays the way he does, sliding and moving his feet. And if you're a guy like Philip Dorsett, you can't just sort of give up on a route. You got to know that you can work your way across the line of scrimmage, work your way down the field work your way parallel to tom brady and he's going to find you you know it's not like playing with some other quarterbacks where you know they're only getting through one or two reads brady's a guy that can get through four or five full field progression reads and so to see a moment like that we're seeing and more and more people are writing and talking about the fact that philip dorsett is

earning tom brady's trust in a wide receiver group that's filled with question marks right now. And I've seen, for example, Phil Perry over at NBC Sports Boston basically has them keep in Hogan, Dorsett, Patterson, Slater, and then Edelman coming back. That's it from the wide receiver group. They may go that route. And if they do, Dorsett's going to have to play a huge role. But no matter what, Dorsett's going to be asked to carry a big load for this team this year, and that play right there gave me a lot of confidence for Philip Dorsett coming into the regular season here. So I wanted to touch on that briefly. Up next, we're going to talk AFC East rookie quarterbacks again, because Josh Allen, Sam Darnold,

one or both of those guys might be starting week one, and it's probably pretty sure, you can probably bet on the fact, maybe over by my bookie, maybe they have a little teaser bet on this, that the Patriots are going to see both of those guys this year. So I thought I'd revisit them. But first, before I do that, I wanted to remind you guys of Locked On NFL. Matt Williamson doing a great job over there. He was kind enough to have me on last week. I know he's got Jeff Lloyd from Locked On Browns,

another show you guys should be checking out on tomorrow's show, today's show, actually. So check out Locked On NFL. Matt Williams is doing a great job. They're going to have some great guests throughout the season as well. Mike Sando, Mike Renner from Pro Football Focus. So check out Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson as well. But up next, rookie quarterbacks in the AFC East.

That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you to close out this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. Back to business, back to the work week, back in the big chair. And last week of summer for a lot of people, this is the last week of Danny and Owen day camp. I saw Owen start school, start second grade a week from tomorrow. Man, the time flies. But let's get into a couple of closing thoughts here on the two AFC East rookie quarterbacks, Sam Darnold and Josh Allen, both of those guys were in action over the weekend.

Somewhat different experiences for those two quarterbacks because you look at Josh, excuse me, let's start with Sam Darnold. You look at Sam Darnold and a fairly solid night. 8 of 16 for 86 yards and a touchdown against the New York Giants. A little crosstown rivalry action. And so he looks like he could be the best quarterback on that team. Maybe.

You do sort of have the question mark about what they're going to do with Teddy Bridgewater. Because Teddy Bridgewater has played extremely well as well. I mean, you look at the stats from that game against the Giants on Friday night, and while Donald did some nice things through a touchdown pass, Teddy Bridgewater was 11 of 15 for 104 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions. But again, 11 of 14, 104 yards pass, an average 6.9 per attempt.

Both those players played well. Now let's look at Josh Allen, who got the start Sunday against the Bengals, didn't quite get to finish it the way he wanted. Allen went 6 of 12 for 34 yards, just an average of 2.8 yards per attempt, and he was sacked five was pressured often he took a sack knocked his head on the turf and was taken out of the game for evaluation for a head injury nathan peterman comes in and hits five of his first five passes for 62 yards for an average of 12.4 yards now he didn't finish that strongly but that was how he started out of the game playing with a similar offensive line you know segment similar offensive line, you know, segment, similar offensive line lineup and rotation in front of him. And so I've been asked a ton about Josh Allen, both on Buffalo Radio and elsewhere. And as I've said on this show, I've said on other shows,

and maybe there's an injury here that they might be able to use as a reason for this. But you didn't draft Josh Allen if you're Buffalo for week one of the 2018 season. You drafted Josh Allen for the next seven, eight, ten years. And so they need to make the smartest decision for the organization as a whole, including Josh Allen. And when you're looking at a situation where a rookie quarterback who had some question marks about processing speed and decision making and whether he can make reads and decisions fast enough for the National Football League, putting him behind what could be a porous offensive line. It might not be the most conducive environment for him to succeed, to develop.

I'm getting a lot of David Carr vibes. David Carr obviously played behind that Houston Texans offensive line that struggled to protect him. He took so many hits, took so many sacks, it never panned out for him. You don't want to replicate that if you're the Buffalo Bills.

As I'm recording this, Nathan Peterman just hit his sixth pass of the game for a touchdown. So he's now 6 of 6 for 79 yards, average of 13 yards per attempt, and a touchdown for a quarterback rated of 158.3, which I think is perfect or pretty close to it. Again, Josh Allen, 6 of 12, 34 yards, 2.8 yards per attempt.

And so if you're the Buffalo Bills, you have to do what's right by your first round pick. If that means taking Nathan Peterman and throwing him to the wolves until you can solidify that offensive line, until you can get some cohesiveness there, until you can protect him better, you don't want to then do it because you don't want to ruin Josh Allen. He's a very talented quarterback. His arm talent is elite. His athleticism is elite. His arm talent and athleticism might bail him out of a lot of instances. But on some of these plays so far today, he hasn't

had a chance to set up or if he started to set up, he didn't get the ball out fast enough. And it could be sort of a snowballing type of situation where if he's a step slow on one play, it speeds up, it screws up his timing when he tries to speed it up the next time, and then he's ready to throw and rounds out there. Hard to tell without the All-22, but from what I'm seeing right now, a tough outing for Josh Allen. And they have to do what's best for him.

As Patriots fans, obviously we all want the Patriots to sweep those two series against both of those teams. But as a quarterback guy, I want to see the Bills do what's best for Josh Allen, and that might be sitting him for a couple of weeks until they get some cohesiveness up front. And if you have to take a redshirt year with him, you take a red shirt year with him.

Because you've made a big investment. You don't want to ruin it. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. As I said, tomorrow we're going to do Roster Projections 3.0. My final crack at it before Saturday. And remember, Saturday is cut down day.

I will be bringing you a show sometime Saturday afternoon, Saturday night. You're getting ready to go out. Labor Day weekend type thing here in the States. I know our Canadian fans. I don't know if there's a Canadian holiday. I don't know if you guys have a bank holiday or something like that on this upcoming Monday. Maybe Eric Aproll, our great friend up in the great white north, can let me know.

Maybe you guys are doing something. You get a long weekend too up there. Don't worry. I will be here for you. When the Patriots make their final roster decision Saturday afternoon, I will cut a show for you as soon as I can and get out to you guys, breaking out my thoughts on the final Patriots roster, some success. Maybe they can stash some guys over on the practice squad.

But roster projection 3.0, that's coming tomorrow. Then a little bit later this week, we're going to have some fun stuff for you as well. Going to do some Brian Hoyer analysis on Wednesday along with some timeline take stuff and some what I'm reading. Game day show for you Thursday as the Patriots close out the preseason at MetLife Stadium against the New York Giants. Taylor Kyles from Pat's Pulpit will be joining me for that postgame show. That will be coming to you either late Thursday night

or perhaps early Friday morning, probably late Thursday night because I like to get things done and get them in the hands of the loyal listeners to the Locked on Patriots podcast. And like I said, that cut down show on Saturday. That will do it for today. I will be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots. you