Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 29, 2018 - Hoyer, Patriots Takes and What I'm Reading

Episode Date: August 29, 2018

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

Hello and welcome everybody to Lockdown Patriots for Wednesday, August 29th, 2018. Mark Schofield is back in the big chair, happy to be here hosting your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at places like insidethepylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score NFL, get a new piece up over at The Score that I'm going to be talking about, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, mattwaldmanrsp.com, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation Network covering the New York Giants and the quarterback

position. Loaded show for you today. We're going to talk some Patriots timeline takes. I got two things I want to get into in that segment. A little bit later, we're going to do what I'm reading. I got some pieces I'm going to talk about there. We're going to talk a little bit of the air raid. We're going to talk a little bit about Michael Hurley and a piece he wrote,

Three Throws That Should Make Everybody Calm Down, about the New England Patriots wide receiver room and offensive woes, as well as a piece that I put up over at The Score talking about rookie quarterback schemes. But at the outset, I want to do something a little bit different, and I want to pose a question. Do the Patriots have a quarterback problem? And obviously, when you look at the New England Patriots, you don't have a starting quarterback problem. But the question I want to pose to listeners today

and then try to answer is whether the Patriots have a backup quarterback problem. You know, this was an offseason, as everybody here well knows, where myself and almost everybody else under the sun was speculating that the New England Patriots were going to address the quarterback position. You have Tom Brady nearing the end of that window, nearing the end of his career, we all assume. You have Brian Hoyer currently on the roster as your backup quarterback. And then that was it.

And so there were expectations, again, from myself and others that the New England Patriots would be in on a quarterback, perhaps early in the draft. We all heard the Josh Rosen rumors, the Baker Mayfield love, perhaps some later round guys, some mid-round guys, the Kyle Waletas of the world,

the Logan Wood sides of the world, the Chad Knopf's of the world. But the Patriots decide to go in a different direction and they go with Danny Etlin in the seventh round out of LSU, a player that not too many people had on their draft boards. And I think it's safe to say at this point in the preseason that barring something strange happening, he's not making the active roster. He might be a practice squad stash type player. That wouldn't surprise me. But I think people would be hard pressed to project Danny Etlin making the 53-man roster.

I don't think that one's in the cards. And so you start to wonder about a missed opportunity. So then obviously you look at the next man up. Veteran journeyman quarterback Brian Hoyer. And the question becomes this. The question becomes if Brady goes down for an extended period of time, what is your level of trust in Brian Hoyer to run this offense? And now, whereas say in February, in March, in April, that question is perhaps being asked in a vacuum. Now we have some context to it.

And the context is this, as we're going to talk about in the second segment of the show. Looking at the weapons on this offense, if Tom Brady goes down for an extended period of time, how confident are you in the Patriots offense under Brian Hoyer?

Because when you look at the Patriots offense right now, and again, we're going to spend more time on the offensive weaponry in the second part of the show, a lot of rebuttals or retorts to how talented are these skill guys tend to begin with, as long as they have Tom Brady, it doesn't matter. As long as TB12 is out there, they've got a shot. He's won with worse. But what if he's not out there? How confident are you in Brian Hoyer? And I want to start by stipulating at the outset that, look, Brian Hoyer knows this offense inside and out. And you would be hard-pressed to find somebody on the street, via trade, at this point,

that knows the offense better than Brian Hoyer. And that might be the critical component here. That might be the non-negotiable for the Patriots offensive coaching staff when it comes to this backup position when it comes to the backup job yeah there might be better guys out there available come cut down day a guy like Tredi Bridgewater might be available via trade and he has had a great preseason.

But how well does he know the offense? Well enough where you'd be comfortable with him coming in and taking over should Tom Brady go down? The traits might be there for a Teddy Bridgewater over a Brian Hoyer. But what about the scheme? What about the fit? What about the knowledge base? And so that might be the answer. But again, I want to move beyond that.

Because when you look through Brian Hoyer's preseason to date, there is an issue that stands out to me that gives me pause. And I want to run through some plays from his preseason debut against Washington. Are you ready? New England's third drive of the game. Third and eight. Comeback route late to Chris Hogan, slightly off target. Next offensive drive, third and six. X slant, backside slant route, slightly high and incomplete. X slant. Backside slant route. Slightly high and incomplete to Chris Hogan.

New England's fifth drive of the game. Third and six. Hoyer pressured. Climbs the pocket. Tries to hit Devin Lucian high and behind. New England's seventh drive of the game to open the second half. Second and seven, quick out to Devin Lucien from Hoyer. Okay decision, high throw, better catch.

Have you caught on yet? The ball placement from Brian Hoyer this preseason has been spotty at best. You look at Eric Decker's best route and potential play of the preseason, he gets a vertical route, he gets behind the defense against Carolina. Deep ball from Hoyer, leads Decker out of bounds, passes ruled incomplete. And it would have been a virtually impossible catch to make. And so that's what I want to focus on here in the remaining minutes as we talk about Brian Hoyer. Are you confident not just in Brian Hoyer,

are you confident in his ball placement right now? Because I've talked about non-negotiables at the quarterback position on this show and elsewhere. And for me, accuracy, ball placement, that's a non-negotiables at the quarterback position on this show and elsewhere. And for me, accuracy, ball placement, that's a non-negotiable. You can learn things like reading defenses. You can improve your mechanics to get added velocity on throws. You can learn to be more conservative. But accuracy and ball placement is one of those non-negotiables. Yes, you can tinker

with mechanics. You can get better at reading defenses and so you know or have a better understanding of where to put the football. But it's one of those traits where if I'm not seeing it in college, if I'm not seeing it early on, I'm hard-pressed to see it get better and develop and become refined as you get to the NFL, as you get into your and extend your career. And so that's my level of concern right now with Brian Hoer. If Tom Brady goes down for an extended period of time, my concern isn't that he knows the offense. I know that he does. My concern isn't that he knows how to read defenses. I know that he does. My concern isn't that he knows what route to throw on any given pass combination that Josh McDaniels is going to call. I'm fine with all of that stuff.

I am completely fine with Brian Hoyer from the moment he gets the play call to the moment he releases the football. It's that next step that I'm concerned about right now. And maybe it's a function of not being on the same page with a lot of these guys. You know, you heard some different names there. Chris Hogan, Devin Lewson, talking about Eric Decker. He's been thrown to a bunch of different guys right now. Once we get into regular season practice type reps, he's not going to get a ton of reps, but he'll be getting reps with guys that he's more familiar with

if he's ever pressed into action. So maybe that's the thing that I will cling to. But right now, if you ask me if the Patriots have a quarterback problem, maybe I don't go that far. But on the list of concerns for this team right now, it's on the list. Up next, we're going to do Patriots timeline takes. I just got two things I want to get to a little bit later.

I'm going to do a little bit of what I'm reading. That's ahead. Before I go, though, I want to remind everybody about the great things we have going on at the Locked On Podcast Network, including our expansion into the college game. We've got a lot of new college shows that everybody should be aware of. We are not just an NFL job right now. We are not just an NFL gig right now.

We've got shows like Locked On Alabama. Really excited to see everybody get up to speed on those. We've got another great new show for you, a new fantasy football show. The crew from Fantasy Football 24-7, they are now locked on Fantasy Football 24-7. Willie, Derek, and Ethan, they've got an injury expert in Ethan Turner. It's a fantastic show, so check that out as well. And some of the college shows I want to throw out there.

Locked on Alabama, Locked on Tennessee, Locked on Penn State, Locked on Baylor, Locked on Kentucky, Locked on BYU, Locked on Oregon, Locked on Oklahoma.

There's a lot of shows for you to check out. So check out all the work going on the Locked on Podcast Network. Up next, Mike Reese and his 53-51 man roster projection.

I want to talk about that. And the Patriots wide receiver room. There's a national voice saying that it's a cause of angst and frustration for TB12. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Don't tell me his wife's a supermodel. He can afford a pay cut. It's about respect. It's about respect. It's about respect. You know, Aaron Rogers said, R-E-L-A-X. How about R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

I'm taking pay cuts here. Everybody's getting a refill in their coffee. Tom's like, hello, waitress over here. Nope. Nope. Sorry. Danny Amendolaola we can't afford a nickel to keep him and Minnesota's given Kirk Cousins to Fawn Diggs they've already got a star back a star tied end a star defense yeah Brady's ticked off do you blame him all the headlines all the theatrics oh that his coach won't give him a heads up in a Super Bowl. They won't add anything. They won't draft a wide receiver. By the way, Big Ben in the last, my staff gave me this this morning.

This is an interesting stat. Big Ben, I mean, by the way, have you noticed what Atlanta, Matt Ryan, Big Ben, Juju Smith-Schuster, Breeze, they're drafting running backs, Alvin Kamara, wide receivers. These teams just keep spending top picks year after year on receivers and backs and left tackles. Good God. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Look at the weapons added this year to the star quarterback.

This is for my television audience. On top of the weapons they have, and they won't pay Danny Amendola? I'm going to make an argument right now. Is that because Julian Edelman's not playing in September, in September, without Edelman, New England's got the worst wide receiving core in the league. You keep talking about the Cowboys. Alan Hearns would be their best player right now on the perimeter.

You've got to be kidding me. They'd die for Cole Beasley in September. So congratulations. Eli Manning is now 3-0 against Tom, 2-0 in Super Bowls, and 1-0 in the 2018 offseason. He gets Pat Shermer, Nate Solder for the next four years, Saquon Barkley for the next four years. Good lord.

It's amazing. He has every right to hang up on people. That right there is Colin Cowherd, obviously. With a bit of a rant, you might say, on the Tom Brady and the weapons at his disposal. And I played a good portion of it.

It's about a six-minute clip. You can find the whole thing online. And I wanted to start there because whenever a national figure like Colin Cowherd goes in on the Patriots or goes on a rant about Brady or Belichick or whatever, it generates some attention. And Cowherd's angle here is that Brady is angry that all the drama and the consternation on Monday about him handing up on EEI, it's getting to an underlying issue.

And that underlying issue is the fact that Tom Brady is angry because he looks around the league, he sees Eli Manning get in Nate Solder. He sees Eli Manning getting Nate Solder. He sees Eli Manning getting Saquon Barkley. He sees Eli Manning getting Will Hernandez. He sees Eli Manning getting Odell Beckham, who's just got a big pay raise, so he's going to be keeping him. And he says, look, that's Eli Manning.

He's definitely on the back nine of his career. He's had some down years the past couple of years. Where's my help? And I think Cowherd conflates some issues in here, I'll say. He talks about pay cuts. Well, I mean, Brady takes some pay restructures. He's done some things from a cap finagling perspective that allows New England some cap relief.

It's not like he's given up monies per se. Is he perhaps underpaid? I mean, you could probably make the argument that Brady is slightly underpaid given what he has meant to this organization for so many years. But looking at Tom Brady right now, yes, his base salary of $4 million is change for what he's worth, but a prorated bonus of $12 million, a roster bonus of $1 million, other bonuses of $5 million

gets him to a cap number of $22 million. And yeah, there are guys that are getting more. A lot more. Tom Brady's average per year is $20 million. $20.5 million. Matt Ryan's is $30. Kirk Cousins is $28. Jimmy Garoppolo is $27.

Matt Stafford, $27. Not counting too many Super Bowl wins as a starting quarterback. Obviously, Garoppolo's got one. He's got two. Backing off. Guaranteed million. Guaranteed millions.

Now, Tom Brady's guaranteed portion of his contract is $28 million. Kirk Cousins, his entire contract is guaranteed is $28 million. Kirk Cousins, his entire contract is guaranteed. $84 million. Matt Ryan, $94.5 million is guaranteed. Now look, with Brady, you're just talking about a couple of years, so those guys have longer terms, but with Cousins, it's fully guaranteed. And so the argument that Brady's sort of giving up money, it's around the edges.

It's not really right down the heart of the plate, I'd say. The bigger thing that I want to talk about is this notion that New England has the worst wide receiver group in the league, which I'm not so sure you can really get in on. And forget Dallas for a second. Let's pull up the New York Jets right now. Because I'm not so sure you could even make the case that the Patriots have the worst wide receiver group

without Julian Edelman in the division. Robbie Anderson, Jermaine Curtis, Quincy Inunua, Terrell Pryor, Trey McBride. Those might be your five wide receivers for the New York Jets this year. And if those are the five, you're looking at two picks

from the 2017 draft not making the team. Chad Hansen and Adarius Stewart. You know, Coward makes this point where they're not drafted wide receivers in the first round. I'd advise you to go back and look at the hit rate on first wide receivers the past couple of years. They're not all

gold mines. They're not all hits. You bust on a lot of these. The Patriots have busted. We just did this summer a recap of Patriots draft classes. When they go early on wide receiver, you sometimes miss. Because I'd say often, or too often, people when evaluating wide receivers,

they look at speed. They look at 40. They forget scheme fit. And even the guys that look like a pure scheme fit. Amari Cooper in that draft class was my wide receiver one, ahead of Devontae Parker and Kevin White. Why? Because I thought that guy would give you every single route in the route tour on day one. And he can do that. Harry Cooper in that draft class was my wide receiver one ahead of Devontae Parker and Kevin White.

Why? Because I thought that guy would give you every single route in the route tour on day one. And he can do that. But he has been having some issues catching the ball. And sometimes you miss stuff like that because when you're a wide receiver at Alabama, you're constantly wide open. Not having to make a lot of contested catch situations. And so wide receiver evaluation is tough. But this idea that, again, the Patriots have the worst wide receiver group in the league,

I'm not so sure I'd get on board with that. Look at Buffalo. Calvin Benjamin. Andre Holmes. Jeremy Curley. Rod Streeter. Zay Jones. Corey Coleman.

Those are your top six right now. Corey Coleman, who they just got on the trade from Cleveland, who might not make the team. And then sure, when you look at New England, you take Julian Edelman out of it. Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett, Cordell Patterson. Are you really trusting those other teams over this group? Even without Edelman?

I'm not so sure you would. And so I think this idea is a little bit overblown from Cowherd. I understand why he's making an argument here. I get it. It's easy to say that Brady's probably frustrated. I understand why people might think that. But helping Tom Brady can occur in a number of different ways. Helping Tom Brady might include helping out this defense, getting guys in like Adrian Claiborne,

getting guys in that can help you get off the field on third down, that can help this defense be not just a bend-but-don't-break defense, but be a don't bend at all defense that doesn't even give up field goals. So Brady doesn't have to win shootouts. So Brady doesn't have to put up 500 passing yards in a Super Bowl. That's how you help him as well. And so I think the Patriots are trying to get Tom Brady help all across the roster.

And let's not forget, they try to give Tom Brady help when it comes to scheme design as well. You know, look at how teams are, like the Giants are handling helping their quarterback as opposed to Tom Brady. Which of those two quarterbacks do you think needs more help on a roster type basis in the offensive huddle? And so I get what Colin Coward is trying to say there, but I'm just not so sure I would more help on a roster type basis in the offensive huddle. And so I get what Colin Coward is trying to say there, but I'm just not so sure I would go all the way down that road.

Just briefly now, I want to talk Mike Reese. Mike Reese has his final roster projection. I want to get into that just for a second. Because when you're looking at what he's got as the guy's getting in, there is some overlap between what he has and what I've got going on. But what he does, which I think is very interesting,

he only has 51 guys on it. Making the call that he's thinking they're going to add some guys. So he's leaving room for that. Standouts. Well, I want to look at offensive line. Trent Brown, Joe Tooney, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon, Adrian Waddle, Ted Karras, Matt Tobin.

We are right step for step on that one. Danny Shelton, Lawrence Guy, Malcolm Brown, Adam Butler, your interior defensive tackles, step for step there. Defensive end, Flowers, Claiborne, Rivers, Wise, Keonta Davis, step for step there. He does have a couple of differences when we get to the linebacker spot. He has Hightower, Van Noy, Bentley,

Landon Roberts, and Nicholas Grigsby leaving off Marquise Flowers. I have Flowers getting in. At corner, he has Jason McCourty out. All the others are the same, though. He has them keeping six. Gilmore, Rowe, Dawson, Jonathan Jones, J.C. Jackson, and Keon Crossan. So he also has the young guys getting in.

So that's what he's got going on and finally we'll look at the safety spot he's got the four McCourty, Chun, Harmon, Richards he lists Ebner as a specialist but those are some Patriots time-lites with Reese I was interested to see who he's got I think it's very crafty what he did there

leaving off two open spots and anticipating that the Patriots are going to add somebody. Up next, we're going to do some What I'm Reading. We're going to close it out quickly here with some stuff you should check out. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Wednesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Just a reminder, tomorrow is your game day edition of the Patriots closing out the 2018 preseason with a tilt with the New York Giants. We just kind of get done talking about the New York Giants and hey, there they are. Imagine that. We're going to start though with a piece about the air raid.

That's right, the air raid. That's right. The air raid. I get led down a sort of football schematic black hole the other day. Thanks to one of my great followers at cleat elite and fro at C L E A T E L I T E A N F R O. Sent me this piece from vice dated November 17, 2016. So it's an older piece from Tim Casey titled, How a Forgotten Offensive Guru Changed College Football. And it's a piece on University of Houston coach John Jenkins and how he sort of installed that run and shoot offense.

So guys like David Klingner and Case Keenum would just throw the ball all over the lot. And it's a very sort of nerdy type football piece. The kind of stuff that I love. So I would strongly recommend that you check it out. It goes really deep into the schematics of the X's and O's

behind the area, the numbers that they put up and how that gets kind of spun forward into today's offenses. So check, offenses, excuse me. So definitely, definitely check out that piece. Also, another piece to check out, Michael Hurley over at CBS Boston has a piece titled Three Plays from Tom Brady that may help ease concerns of Patriots weak spot at receiver. Again, that sort of weak spot at receiver. But he highlights three plays from that game against Carolina. That quick screen to Julian Edelman that helped them convert a third down.

And smoke route to Philip Dorsett on the next play where they took advantage of that off coverage. That's something I talked about a lot on the post game show. I loved seeing New England take advantage of those off coverage moments. Hurley highlights one in this piece. And then a little bit later that throw in the crossing route to Cordell Patterson when he was

the lone receiver on the left. For those that shallow crosser he has Captain Munderland right in his path. But he's able to get around him using speed. And Hurley's argument is basically that, look, that's the potential of what this offense can be. The fact that you can convert a third and eight with Edelman on that quick screen. The fact that you can then take advantage of a quick throw when you've got the off coverage and then you see that speed, that burst, that acceleration from Patterson that

allows you to get a simple throw and turn it into a big game. If you're worried about that wide receiver group like perhaps Cowell and Coward is, look at these three plays and you might feel a little bit better. Finally, I'm going to plug my own stuff here. I've got a new piece going up over at the score. Probably going to be up in the here got a new piece going up over at The Score probably going to be up in the next hour or so depending on when you're listening to this looking at the rookie quarterbacks and some of the schematic

stuff that we've seen from them I had started this piece I wanted to see more from these guys and now we've gotten a good glimpse of it with Baker Mayfield you're seeing some air raid concepts with Sam Donald you're seeing more of that West Coast offense, that West Coast style of play. With Josh Allen, surprise, surprise, he's slanting it downfield.

I think we all could have expected that one. With Josh Rosen, he's in a bit more of a timing and rhythm offense, and he's been taking advantage of some holes in the secondary under Mike McCoy's offense, making some timing and rhythm throws, which have been really impressive. And then finally, Lamar Jackson, are you surprised that Baltimore is getting him on the move a lot?

Boot action, play action, doing some zone read stuff as well, using his legs and then it's athleticism. A lot of this stuff we expected, but it's always nice to see what you've predicted and what others predict from a schematic fit standpoint

actually pan out once the games start playing. So that will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow, Thursday, your game day edition. I'm going to have my thoughts and expectations for the preseason finale and then a chat with Taylor Kyles. Again, always look forward to talking with him. Friday will be your recap show.

It will probably get posted late Thursday night. And then don't forget, Saturday, special show this week. Breaking down the 53-man roster or perhaps the 53 or 51-man roster. Depending on how the Patriots go in that direction. And so that's the week ahead. Then next week we get into our week regular season routine. We're going to have that extra show on Sunday mornings, that Sunday morning tailgate show.

Going to be a fun season. Ready to get back to it. Until next time, everybody, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you