Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 28, 2018 - Mason, Pleasant, Brady versus WEEI and Roster Projections 3.0

Episode Date: August 28, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, August 28th, 2018. Mark Schofield is back in the big chair for this Tuesday installment of 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. You can check out work at

Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, MattWaldmanRSP.com. The Score, where I'm an NFL Features Contributor, TheScore.com, TheScoreNFL. Check out The Score app as well. Pro Football Weekly, Big Blue View.com, thescorenfl. Check out the Score app as well. Pro Football Weekly, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation Network.

And Minnesota's Rivals website. You can check them over at minnesota.rivals.com. Got a piece that went up yesterday about P.J. Fleck making the decision to start true freshman Zach Aniksted at the quarterback spot. I got a film breakdown of him, so you can check that out as well.

Loaded show for you today. Roster projections 3.0. This is it. This is my chance to see if I've truly got the chops to guess what Bill Belichick and company are going to do with the Patriots' final 53-man roster, which will be finalized, has to be finalized, got to be done by 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. As I told you guys yesterday, I will be back with a show sometime shortly thereafter. Once the Patriots roster is solidified, once final cuts

are made, I will hop to the mic and help break it all down for all of you. So we're going to do that today. Some news and notes at the outset here. A couple of big sort of developments in Patriots Nation. One, this was something that we were wondering about as Shaq Mason was entering a contract year. But news breaking yesterday afternoon from Mike Garofalo over at the NFL Network. The Patriots have agreed to terms with guard Shaq Mason on a five-year extension worth up to $50 million. Sources informed of the agreement tell me former fourth-round pick gets top-ten guard money.

I think this is a win-win for both player and team. I'm excited to get Shaq Mason back in the fold for the next up to five years, which is fantastic. The money details yet to be solidified. The magic word's up to. So, of course, the first person to think of is our good friend Miguel Bedzon at Patscap on Twitter, who instantly tweeted, Yes, with three, count the one, two, three exclamation points. And then he says the use of quote up to most likely means that incentives were involved.

Nice way to end my lunch break. I reached out to Miguel and asked him if he had any sort of rough stab at sort of big picture implication for the cap and beyond coming out of the Shaq Mason deal. His response, number one, anytime a team signs its best offensive lineman to an extension, it is good news. Number two, I'm hoping this finally ends. The Patriots will not extend a player talk because he's going to get a large contract. Doubt that it will happen, though. So there's that, too.

I am curious what this will see, what this will do to the Patriots' salary cap overall once this gets broken down. But great to have Shaq Mason back in the fold. Love seeing this extension. Some other news and something we'll be talking about a little bit more when we get into the roster projections 2.0. Eddie Pleasant, veteran safety, who perhaps was pushing Jordan Richards out of town, was released by the New England Patriots. So now, for those of you hoping to get some good news

in terms of Jordan Richards making or not making this team, whichever way you break down on this, that might come into play here. But we're going to talk about the safeties and Jordan Richards, some of the other potential safety spots, some of the other potential safeties on this team when we get into roster projections of the defensive side of the ball. That will be in the third segment of today's show. Finally, I've been ducking this one,

but I guess I've got to address it. Tom Brady, WEI, the war of the words continues. Well, not so much the war of the words, but more the war of the hang-up. Obviously, there was the blow-up with Alex Reimer, with a comedy made about Brady's daughter. That was last year, New Year.

Same sort of angst between Brady and WEI. Brady was calling into the Kirk Callahan show Monday morning, making his usual Monday weekly appearance. And he was asked a series of questions about none other than Alex Guerrero, Tom Brady's personal trainer. And it has been a point of contention, obviously, throughout the past couple of weeks and months,

whether Alex Guerrero would be allowed around, the relationship between him and Tom Brady, him and Julian Edelman. And they asked him about it on EEI. Kirk Manahan began it, we saw the reports this weekend that Alex was on the team playing, which he wasn't for the second half of last year, I guess, and not on the sideline. Is that accurate? Brady, yeah, he was with me last week. So it was, yeah.

Manahan, what changed with him not being on the team playing last year and this year was that just communication back and forth was that understanding of other things what led to that being able to happen this year brady you know i don't want to i'm not getting into all that there's the first instance where he's like no i'm not going to talk about this man okay when i ran into him guerrero at the super bowl last year minneapolis i remember talking about it at the time. When I talked to him there, he said, in his opinion, all this stuff had been overblown, that he and Belichick had a pretty good relationship even then.

Would you say that was true? Brady, I said I don't want to get into it. That's twice. Minhan, okay, go ahead. And he talks to his co-host to ask another question. Brady then chimes in. Yeah, everyone knows it's well documented how the work he and I do together.

Now, maybe you might make the case that Brady perhaps opened the door to more questions, but Menehan chimes back. No, I understand that. I'm just trying to figure it out because I saw the reports this weekend that he was traveling with the team. Was he on the sideline Friday?

And that's when Brady responds. Yeah, all right, guys. Have a great day. I'll talk to you later. Hands up. Now, you might make the case that look, and that's when Brady responds, yeah, all right, guys, have a great day. I'll talk to you later. Hands up. Now, you might make the case that, look, Brady opened the door again when he chimed in with that statement about how it's well-documented, how the work he and I do together.

But then Minahan comes back with a question that, if I were back in my lawyer days, I would rise to my feet, objection, Your Honor, asked and answered. That question, was he on the sideline, had already been asked. Brady had already answered it. And a lot of people going back and forth saying this is bad luck by Brady. He's not talking about it. It's just going to make it worse.

He's a media savvy guy. A, I don't really care about this stuff. I don't. If this is the stuff you want to talk about, if this is the stuff you want to talk about, if this is the stuff you want to hear about, there are other shows, there are radio shows you can go to that would talk about it more. I like to hit this stuff quickly and move on. I know people will be talking about it,

but I like to focus on the on-the-field stuff more than anything. But since people are going to be talking about it, let me just say quickly, Brady addressed it twice. He said he didn't want to get into it. He said that once. He said he didn't want to get into it. Said that once. Said he didn't want to get into it. Said it a second time.

I understand why the EEI guys, Menehan and company are going to ask these questions, but you can't expect it after being told two times that he's not going to go in there, that he's just going to go there eventually. I understand they're doing their jobs, but if the interview subject doesn't want to answer, either you move on or you run the risk of this happening to you. Now, this is twice now where Brady and EEI have had some issues.

So, if you're out there and you're a member of Tom Brady's camp, if you're Tom Brady yourself, consider this an open invitation. You can come on Locked On Pats. We can talk Beaten Cover 3. We can talk beating cover three. We can talk about route adjustments and, you know, route conversions against different types of coverage.

We can do super nerdy football stuff. We can talk about whatever you want. This will be a drama-free Zoom. Because that's what I like to keep this show as. Because there are places, if that's what you're interested in, you can go get here at Locked on Pray Tits. I want people to know and care and love about the game to learn

more about the game. So that's what I'm going to keep the focus on. But look, that's the issue there. Those are my thoughts on it. I understand why the EA guys asked the questions, but you know, if you put your hand close to the flame you might get burned at some point, particularly if you inch it closer and closer,

even though you know it's getting hotter and hotter. Additionally, friends, if the nerdy football stuff is stuff you like, then remember, I have created now. It is up. It is running. The Locked on Patriots Slack channel. If you want to be joined, want to join up, be part of the conversation, be part of the network with other Pats fans, other football fans, me, chat during games, chat during the week, whatever. You can just drop in, you know, drive-by comments, stuff you want to hear talked about on

the show. Hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter. You can reach out to me, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com via email. You could even call or text the Locked On Patriots hotline, 240-670-6016. Let me know an email for you. I can get you signed up, get you in there, get you interacting with me and other Patriots fans. I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you. I want to do some more of that as much as possible

because, as I've said, day in and day out, this is your show. I'm just the caretaker, lucky enough to be keeping the big chair nice and warm here. Up next, we are going to do roster projections on the offensive side of the ball, and then a little bit later, roster projections on the defensive side of the ball. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you now on this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots,

your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Not your favorite Patriots podcast, I understand, because, you know, hey, there's lots of Patriots podcasts out there. I'm just happy that you guys let me into your homes, into your commutes, into your cars, your train rides, however you get to from work or about your day. I'm happy you guys let me in for a couple of, you know, 20 minutes or so each day.

Fantastic, fantastic that you do that. Remember, we hit 100 shows at the end of the big chair. Not 100 shows, more shows than that. We hit one year of me in the big chair yesterday. If you want to give me an anniversary gift, I'd be certainly, certainly touched if you did that. The best gift you could give me, subscribe, rate, and review over on iTunes. That would mean the world to me. The more people rate and review, we are closing in on 100. The more likely the people listen to the show, it gets promoted out there more and more. We move up iTunes rankings. It makes everybody happy. So if you want to give me a gift, there you go. Subscribe, rate, and review

on iTunes. Five-star interviews if you would. Offensive projections now. You don't have to give a five. It'd be great if you did. We've got mostly five stars. There are two one-star reviews and they're for previous hosts. I've got all four and five stars, which I'm fantastic and I'm elated about. It's great. But you don't have to. I mean, four is great. Three, whatever.

You win it, you know, if you would. Anyway, roster projections 2.0. No surprise that the quarterback position, not a lot of changes on the offensive side of the ball. Here we go, quarterbacks. Tom Brady, I think he's going to make this team. Maybe the EEI thing rubs somebody the wrong way and Belichick says, look, we can't have you handing up on people. You're fired.

No. Tom Brady's making this team. Brian Hoyer's making this team. Danny Etlin's probably not making this team. I can't see a reason for keeping him in. He's probably a practice squad type guy. Running we're going with six no changes again rex burkhead james white sony michelle jeremy hill brandon bolden and we are counting james devlin as a running back as you will see for reasons soon to be announced wide Wide receiver. We're pairing this down. Okay?

In roster projections 2.0, I had a name here that is gone. We are going lean at the wide receiver position. Remember, Julian Edelman on suspension. So Chris Hogan, Phillip Dorsett,

Cordell Patterson, Riley McCarron. I think he's going to make this team. I think he's been running with the ones. I liked some of what he did against the Panthers last Friday night, so I got him in, and Matthew Slater. So there are your five wide receivers. Tight end.

We do have a change. Robert Gronkowski is not going to make this. I just, no. Gronk is in, obviously. Hollister is in. And I'm sliding Dwayne Allen back into a roster spot for a couple of reasons. I mentioned the Devlin thing.

I've been talking. Others have been talking about how Devlin's been working with the tight ends. I think it's Doug Kayette who still has, in his roster projection, Devlin listed as a tight end. I think unless they make a move at wide receiver, a Dez Bryant type thing, or bring off somebody else who gets cut come Saturday, I think we're going to see multiple tight end packages a lot this year. I think that's going to be their way at least through the first four games.

Now whether it's 12 with Gronk and Hollister, whether it's 13, whether it's 12 with Devlin and Gronk, they might do some stuff like that. So if you're going to have a lot of multiple tight end packages, it's okay to have James Devlin working with the tight ends, but you'd like

to have an extra tight end, an actual tight end there as well. So I think because of stuff like that, Allen's going to find a way on his roster. That brings us to the offensive line. I've got no real changes from roster projections 2.0. The way I'm looking at this group right now, Trent Brown, Joe Thune, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon. Those are your starting five, left to right right up front in front of TB12. Adrian Waddell, your swing tackle, Ted Karras, your backup center,

perhaps interior lineman. And the third guy I'm bringing in is Matt Tobin, who I've been watching and pretty high on since, say, the first preseason game against Washington. He's been getting some work at guard. He's been getting some work at guard. He's been getting some work at tackle. You know, they had him at left tackle coming in after Trent Brown. And so while they've had some other guys, whether it's Croston,

whether it's Ferenc, you know, whether it's Ulrich John, I think these are the eight. And so there's your offense. What are your thoughts on this offense? I think, obviously, you got TB12, you got 87, you got a shot. But I think, all in all, it's an offense that will give defenses matchup problems because of the versatility of some of the running backs, because of the versatility of a guy like Hollister.

They can do some different things. They can show you some different looks. You could see them coming out with a package of Gronk, Hollister, Hogan, Dorsett, and Rex Burkhead, for example. You could go a package like that and a 12 personnel package and you could go empty. You could go a similar look with Gronk, Hollister, one receiver maybe, other than Burkhead and Devlin. And you could go I formations, you could go five wide. And so there's going to be a lot of different things they can do from a schematic standpoint to really sort of dictate how drives will start, to dictate what the defense will be in personnel-wise,

but then they'll have the flexibility with these guys to do different things. And so that's where it is. Up next, the defensive side of the ball. I think a lot of familiar stuff, not a lot of changes up front. A couple of tweaks at the second and third levels that we're going to get to. Obviously, the big question, Jordan Richards.

That will be answered. Ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you to close out this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Doing some roster projections 2.0. Excuse me, 3.0. Get that wrong. Apologies for that.

Reminder though, check out the rest of the work going on at the Locked On Podcast Network. We've got a new slate of shows. We've got some college shows. Adding Locked On Alabama. You know, a lot of college stuff. Also, don't forget Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson. This is going to be Locked On NFL Experts. Basically, you're having guys like Sage Rosenfeld, Mike Renner, Mike Sando.

Every single week coming in. Every Monday, Matt's going to have different guys, different hosts from the Locked On NFL shows. Guys like myself, Jeff Lloyd over at Locked On Browns, for example, coming on talking about some local stuff. So that's going to be a great show. Check that out. Locked On Browns, for example, coming on, talking about some local stuff. So that's going to be a great show. Check that out, Locked On NFL with Matt Williamson. And, of course, we've got a new fantasy show too,

Locked On Fantasy 24-7. Check that out. And can't give out shout-outs without mentioning my boys over at Locked On NFL Draft, Trevor Sigema, John Ledger there crushing it as well. Lots of great stuff happening here at the Locked On Podcast Network. Let's get into roster projections 3.0 up front.

Your four interior defensive linemen. This group, other than Brady Hoyer, is the only group. The only group. Brady Hoyer, this group of interior defensive linemen, and the three specialists are the only position groups that have not changed in any variation

of these roster projections. Malcolm Brown, Danny Shelton, Lawrence Guy, Adam Butler. Those are the four interior defensive linemen. Vince Valentine, I think, is on the outside looking in. This is how I see these guys. I'm a quarterback guy, so maybe I get it wrong. But that's how I see them. Edge defenders, no change from last week.

Trey Flowers, Adrian Claiborne, Derek Rivers, Dietrich Wise, Keonta Davis, I think gets in because of what he can do. Sub packages, which we all know are so important. You want to tell me sub-Russian packages aren't important? Rewatch Super Bowl 52, just maybe one of New England's last couple

drives in that game, and tell me sub-Russian packages aren't important in today's NFL. No, go ahead. Go ahead. I'll wait. I'll wait. Can we get the Jeopardy theme playing? Seriously though, they're important. Keonta Davis, I think, makes this team. Linebacker,

we do have a change here. I'm giving up another ghost. I gave up the Braxton Barrios ghost. I wasn't even going to mention him. It's going to be like persona non grata here. I hope he does make the practice squad though because I don't want to really whiff on that one. So please get him on the practice squad. Please, please, please. Anyway.

We're going with six. Dante Hightower, Kyle Van Nooy, Landon Roberts, Juwan Bentley, Marquise Flowers. I think gets in. I like his athleticism. I think he gets in. And the other guy I think gets in, Nicholas Grigsby over Christian Sam. Now, you could tweak around the edges here. I've seen other people leave off

Marquise Flowers as well and go with other guys. I've got a soft spot, I guess, for Marquise Flowers. Maybe this is just, oh my God, I don't know. But I've got a soft spot for Marquise Flowers. I've seen, for example, Brandon King get in over Marquise Flowers I've seen for example Brandon King get in over Marquise Flowers but these are my six Hightower, Van Noy, Roberts, Bentley Grigsby and Flowers I'll go with this group I like some of what I saw from Grigsby

in past coverage against Carolina on Friday night so that's why he's getting in now it gets fun cornerback I'm going with 7 and we'll see why in a second but I'm going with Stephon Gilmore

Eric Rowe, Jason McCourty I'm bringing them in Duke Dawson, Jonathan Jones and I'm bringing on the two young guys JC Jackson and Keon Crossan now you'll notice no Cyrus Jones I went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth on this one. And I know Keon Crossan has had some up and down moments.

Some people might say some more down than up. But there's something there with this kid. That competitive toughness where he has some penalties, has some mistakes, gets beat, but then keeps battling, keeps fighting. And again, that pass breakup against the Eagles on the goal line, I loved that play. Even though he had some mistakes early against Carolina, had those two breaks up on slant routes,

which were just picture-perfect technique and coverage. So I have Keon Cross getting in. JC Jackson, look, if you're a corner that's willing to play and run support, you're going to make friends with Bill Belichick. And so I've got him coming in. And I've got Jason McCourty in there as well. We saw him at safety, and I think that's going to help him as we see here next. When we get to that safety level, you're thinking,

Eddie Pleasant gone, Richards in, right? No. They're going to roll the dice. That's my, perhaps it's my wackiest prediction here. They get rid of Pleasant, and they're going to move on from Jordan Richards as well. Nate Ebner, Patrick Chun, Devin McCourty, and Deron Harmon. So you're basically keeping your three starting safety type guys in a special team.

Why? Because you've got now Jason McCourty who's shown you he can play a little bit of safety. Maybe I'm wrong there. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's crossing out and Richard's still in because they're worried about safety depth. But

with Devin McCourty getting some talk at safety, getting some action at safety, playing a little bit safety, I call it a hunch. Call it a hunch. But that's where I see that going. So there you go. Roster projections 3.0. Did I get it all right?

Of course not. I'm sure there will be mistakes. If there are, please, you know where to find me, at Mark Schofield on Twitter. You can hit up the Locked On Podcast phone hotline, 240-670-6016. Again, I got a great, great, great idea that I haven't really dove into yet about doing some stuff in written format.

When we get into the games and I do some more hardcore X's and O's stuff, I will be doing that again. Your home for all of that will be at insidethepylon.com. Another quick little announcement. You might have seen yesterday's show on Twitter was also put up in a quick little blurb over at insidethepylon.com.

All of my Patriots focused writing this year is going to be over at ITP. So you might want to bookmark ITP if you're a fan of the show, if you're a fan of the Patriots. I'll be putting up some stuff throughout the week, throughout the season, X's and O's, breakdowns, and some nerdy football stuff over there as well. So you want to have ITP bookmarked. I'll be putting the shows up over there as well, so definitely check that out,

as well as all the work we're doing over at Inside the Pylon, nerdy football stuff there. 24-7, 365. We love it. You love it too. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. We'll do some what I'm reading.

We'll do some Brian Hoyer stuff. A little bit later in this week, our game day edition on Thursday. Taylor Kyles will be back. Excited to talk to him about roster cuts, his thoughts on who's in, who's out, things like that. Friday, your recap show. And then Saturday, don't forget, I will be back with a show sometime after final cutdowns, break down the 2018 Patriots roster.

Until then, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you