Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 30, 2017 - Matt Waldman

Episode Date: August 30, 2017

Matt Waldman from FootballGuys and the Rookie Scouting Portfolio stops by to break down the New England offense. Matt highlights how the Patriots use presnap motion, the idea of a "scout" for the field general Tom Brady, and Mark and Matt talk about bubble players Austin Carr, D.J. Foster and Jacoby Brissett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. This is Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. This episode is brought to you by our great friends at bus.com. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome everybody to Locked On Patriots for August 30th, 2017. This is the Wednesday episode. We are getting closer and closer to the kickoff of the NFL season.

Mark Schofield here in the big chair with you. And as I mentioned at the opening, this episode is sponsored by our good friends at Bust.com. Please check them out. As I promised in yesterday's show, my first here in the big chair, a big guest our our first guest here mr matt walden my good friend the man behind the rookie scouting portfolio portfolio which is something i highly recommend definitely get it each and every year matt does great work also does great work for footballguys.com as well he's here to talk a little patriot scheme stuff as well as some of their personnel matt always a pleasure to have you on always great great to talk to you, my friend.

Hey, Mark. It's great being on, and it's an honor to be in the guest spot with you in the big chair. Mark Schofield in the big chair sounds like a good thing. It feels like a good thing, but it feels even better to get you on because, you know, sometimes you and I, when we do quarterback stuff, we end up going for hours about these guys and we're going to talk a little bit quarterback at some point but we're going to talk some skeebs stuff which I always get excited about and you're getting excited as well I'm I've seen you on the timeline do some Instagram stuff some quick videos it's a joy to see you start breaking down

the game I'm loving seeing it appreciate that it's a lot of fun to do you know and i do it for footballguys.com as part of a weekly article i do called the top 10 i do it every monday night comes out every monday night tuesday morning um during the season and i just thought it would be fun to do a pre-season dress rehearsal um preview of the top 10 this year and there are a lot of fun patriots things to see from the lions game yeah and i kind of wanted to get to that matt because some of the top 10 this year. And there were a lot of fun Patriots things to see from the Lions game. Yeah, and I kind of wanted to get to that, Matt, because some of the clips you had up from that game were really sort of instructive with respect to what the Patriots do schematically. And so as a scholar of the game, as somebody that watches football all the time,

got a chance to watch the Pats against the Lions, what is it about what they do on offense that may get you excited as somebody that likes to break down the X's and O's? Yeah, I mean, if I could run an offensive philosophy, it would definitely be what the New England Patriots do, regardless of how great their personnel is. It's the idea that is we're flexible enough at personnel that we can have the same personnel on the field and we can run a variety of different alignments whether you want to run a two tight end set with guys heavy on one side and run it off tackle to the right and then spot the fact that the defense on that play was playing against you with personnel that's

more of a four three base or has that extra bigger linebacker in there and they're like you know what we can now we can hurry up to the line of scrimmage using the same people and run an empty set because we have guys like Rob Gronkowski and Deion Lewis who are great pass catchers. And that spreads the defense out, and the defense being put into a situation where the tempo's up, they can't change out their players without risking a penalty. They also have to try and figure out assignments that they're usually not

accustomed to having, or they're going to be in a mismatch situation with a smaller receiver, you know, a slot receiver like a Hogan or an Edelman guy who also can play outside. And, you know, unfortunately on that play that I'm referring to or the sequence of plays that Edelman got hurt on it for the loss of the season, but you

can still plug in guys who do really great work and so when you up that tempo and you vary the formations it puts defenses in a disadvantage because there's always a guy who can't handle somebody on the field and then Brady can then use motion to create those types of mismatches and to make the defense declare coverages in a way where he goes, okay, this is where I'm going to start because this is where the mismatch is. And this is the beginning place of where I try to manipulate the field and target a receiver. Yeah, Matt, with guys like, you know, Dion Lewis, James White, running backs that they can use to split out, do you anticipate New England doing a lot of up-tempo stuff

where they make the defense declare at the start of the drive, okay, we're coming out and say 11 personnel, what do you want to do? And then if they go, say, maybe a base or a bigger nickel, they start to spread you out. Or if they go dime or something like that, they're going to try to run the ball. Is that something you anticipate New England doing as we get into the season? Oh, no doubt. I think that's exactly what they want to do. And it's going to be with their collection of tight ends like Dwayne Allen and Gronkowski. But if they've learned that since

the whole Gronkowski, you know, late Aaron Hernandez success that they had, that when they couldn't find two to really work out, that as long as they had a good set of running backs, that maybe they could put one in the backfield and split one outside or have multiple running backs or multiple slot receivers, that they could achieve similar things in terms of that scheme diversity and versatility. So you're going to see a lot of that with White and Lewis. I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, to me, I look at the motion aspect of this offense. I kind of say it like where Tom Brady's the field general and either the running back or slot receiver is usually his scout. And he sends that scout on a little mission with pre-snap

motion to determine what he wants to do with the defense. And I think that when you have guys like White and Lewis and even Burkhead who are excellent excellent receivers but can do well between the tackles, especially when they're spread out, when the alignment's spread out enough that the defense has to cover the width of the field, it makes running lanes a little bigger and gives them that nice little component to run the ball on occasions where the down and distance situation is favorable and the defense isn't looking first at the run but first at the pass yeah matt you mentioned motion and i think that sort of analogy with brady as general motion man as scout is a particularly

apt analogy because patriots use motion a lot it gives the quarterback sort of pre-snap cue as to what the defense might show we saw that I know you watched that Lions game on both of those first two touchdowns to Hogan we saw some pre-snap motion that helped Brady identify the coverage what is it about that pre-snap motion look that is so important to offenses generally so important to quarterbacks generally and so integral to what the Patriots do on offense. Yeah, I mean, it's important because defenses are trying to disguise their intentions as much as offenses generally do. You know, sometimes it's not the 1960s where, you know, Vince Lombardi is saying,

this is what we're going to do, just try and stop us. The NFL isn't always like that anymore. In fact, it's rarely like that anymore, which is sometimes when you see a team play that power game, it's very enjoyable because it has that kind of a cheese mode to it where it's like, look, you know, we're just going to bully you. But the the the Patriots are more like we're going to trick you. We're going to you're going to let you show you show us first what you're going to do and we're going to manipulate you into doing it. And so with the pre-snap motion, what happens is, say, for instance, on the first touchdown, so Hogan, what you had there is that Tom Brady saw Hogan on the right side

and he looked at the coverage and wanted to make the coverage declare whether it was playing man or zone. So they motioned Hogan closer to the inside towards the formation and when he saw the cornerback follow him a little bit, but then the linebacker move up and make some movement to adjust, that tipped off that this was actually a zone coverage and that the cornerback didn't move all the way over top. That meant that he knew he was going to get the target, Jared Davis, the rookie.

And that was what he was testing out to see. Do I get a chance to make a throw against a rookie who may not have good coverage depth? And that's exactly what happened. Then you can look at another play like, oh, you know, the Chris Hogan touchdown after that, where he scored on the kind of like the sideline fade route or go route. And what they did there is that they have brandon cooks on one side and he's such a big threat downfield that the that the defense was looked like it might be playing cover two or possibly but brady thought the safety's the safety on the left side over hogan and bronkowski looks like he's playing bronkowski a little shallower let me motion a

player across and when i do that at there, the safety climbs up a little more. Now it's clear cover one. That means there's going to be a one-on-one for Hogan. And if I'm a safety playing in the middle of the field, who am I going to cheat towards a little more or at least stay where I am to make sure that the guy doesn't get past me? That's going to be Brandon Cooks on the right. That made a one-on-one for Hogan on the left. And it was a tight play, but it was an accurate one. And when you're accurate, tight plays don't matter. It was an easy touchdown in essence for Tom Brady. And that's what motion does for you is it helps the forces the defense to declare its position just before the snap. And then it gives you an idea

of where you start and who you're going to try and target. We're going to get to some more with Matt Waldman in a second, but folks, I want to let you know we've got a good friend and sponsor here in Bust.com, and let me tell you about them for a minute. The NFL season is upon us, and your defending Super Bowl champions open on Thursday night, September 7th, against the Kansas City Chiefs. You want to be there for the festivities, right? So don't be stuck on the train or in traffic on Route 1 into Foxborough.

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Plus, it's going to be a fun atmosphere and open at night. And who wants to be the designated driver? So check out their website, bus.com, where you can even request a new route or stop. Or you can use their app, which puts you in touch with other riders as well as their support team. Fans, let bus.com take care of all your transportation needs down to Gillette and tell them Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots sent you. Now, Matt, obviously we saw with the Patriots, they lose Julian Edelman for the season with the knee injury. You know, Edelman was a receiver that, whether Gronkowski was healthy or not, it seemed at

times that New England ran their passing game almost through him. Saw a ton of targets even in the Super Bowl. What are your sort of expectations with what New England tries to do without Julian Edelman? How do you think they structure this offense going forward? Yeah, that's a great question. And I think what we're going to see is that Chris Hogan probably is going to be a big part of that replacement plan. I know that he was the guy that probably would benefit on more deep routes because of Brandon Cook's presence. But I think what will happen is a combination of Hogan and Danny Amendola will probably do the job.

And then even some creative things with both James White and Deion Lewis to use some motion in that regard. And they can split them outside into the slot and do some good work. To me, I think a lot of people think, oh, well, Brandon Cooks is now an elite producer at receiver. I don't agree with that. I think that we have to understand that one of the basis of the offense that we just described is how flexible it is. That means that everything's very choreographed. There's a lot of if-and type of reads. You have to be on the same page with Tom Brady. And we've seen in the past, some top free agents come to the Patriots and struggle that first year or struggle enough that they didn't stick around. And a lot of that's because this offense is predicated on a very

intellectual component of adjustments. And while the actual route schemes may be on the surface, be very simple because they often run the same routes on both sides whether you motion on one side or not you usually run in the same route there's still a bevy of adjustments you make just before the snap based on how the defense declares and those different types of adjustments take time to do even mike rice or mike reese i don't think i'm pronouncing his name right you can tell me my terrible yeah my three, Mike Reese basically said that, you know, had Brady quoting that it was going to be a year-long process with he and Cooks.

So to say that Cooks is going to now take on more of an Edelman role or get more targets, to me, doesn't really talk about the purpose of what he does. To me, he's there to be the big play component, both after the catch on design screens or crossing routes as well as deep plays and those deep plays are even more important because not even if he's catching the passes but the threat of him as i described opens up the field for other players because of the fact that he was sitting on the right side of the field on the play i

described that's what and they threw to the opposite side on a cover one, means that the safety was influenced by Cooks enough to at least hold his ground a little bit longer than he needed, than what was helpful for him ultimately when the play went to Hogan. So to me, Hogan's still going to have some deep threat responsibilities, but you'll see him probably run a little bit more of the motion, be more of the scout. Amendola will do that for a while as well. And if Amendola, who has his history of injuries, but still such a fine player from the standpoint of knowledge, if he runs into any trouble,

then I think we'll see a little more from the tight end doing that work, especially Gronkowski. And then, of course, your running backs. And you'll see more from either Lewis or White or Burkhead because all those guys can also give you that flexibility. So I think what's great about the Patriots offense is that they can sustain an injury like this to Edelman. And if you ask me, I think Hogan is a better player against tight coverage and contact than what Edelman is.

Edelman, you know, remember that iconic catch he made against Atlanta. But when you look at his play overall, I felt like that he dropped some passes that you would like to see him catch at times. And I felt like that while he's faster, he's more explosive and more of an athletic player than Hogan. Hogan's a little tougher, if you ask me, a little bit more focused at times on plays. He just doesn't have that explosive component. Now, Matt, you mentioned some creative possibilities that New England could use to sort of replace Edelman and his production. One of the names that's been bandied about this preseason, particularly with the success that he's had, at least in the preseason games to date, is the undrafted free agent Austin Carr out of Northwestern.

When you were putting together the rookie scouting portfolio, which, again, I would highly recommend to all the listeners, did you get a chance to scout Carr much? And if so, what were your thoughts on him coming out of Northwestern? I did. I saw him as kind of a classic slot option who, when you look at him, he finds ways to get open in zone. He certainly can adjust to the ball and make good catches that are sound with his hands. He can make plays after contact or in the face of

contact. So you're looking at a guy who has all of the different types of fits you're looking for from a slot receiver. He's not that guy who's going to expand your playbook as a slot receiver. He's not that guy like Edelman or Hogan who blurs the line between an outside and inside guy in most offenses. In the Patriots offense, with all the good players they have, they can kind of set things up for him to put them outside and it work out. But if they lose more and more players, he'll start to show his limitations a little bit more. He has to work on the finer details of the game, you know, and that's everything every rookie has to do. Because he's not a top athlete, because he's a guy that, you know, maybe needs to get

better against press on occasion. And if a team decides to jam him, I think he could struggle there. I think the finer points of playing in the boundaries are important and things that he needs to work on. He leaps his feet a little too often as a receiver, and when you do that, you open yourself up to not only big hits but to also not being in a position to get yards after the catch as well as you should. These are things that could be cleaned up during camp, you know,

and I think that if he's cleaned up some of them, you'll see a more polished version who could be productive for them. Another interesting name that's been bandied about in the wake of the loss of Edelman is second-year running back slash wide receiver DJ Foster. Now, in your 2016 RSP, you graded him as a running back, but full credit to you said initially you considered grading him as a wide receiver. With Edelman going down, you might see Foster in sort of that role. If the Patriots look to use Foster as sort of a slot

type guy, what can their fans expect? Well, I think you're going to see a player who's obviously more comfortable after the catch than car um and someone who can make that transition faster so there's that element to it but as a route runner um he may not have as much experience as car does um and that's where the the types of adjustments that you have to make in the passing game that i would have questions about and just the refined skills of running routes. He may be a little slower developing and not as refined as Carr in that respect. But you like the quickness and speed, the after-catch potential, and again, because of the caliber of players around him, he can be set up for success in ways where they can use him

to maximize his strengths rather than the to have to constantly try and shore up his weaknesses it wouldn't be a podcast with you and i'm at without at least a little bit of quarterback talk and i want to talk about jacoby brissett who drafted third round last year he was a guy that you were pretty high on had him as your your seventh-ranked quarterback in that class. I liked him as well. He was my ninth-rated quarterback, but I had a third-round grade on him. Did some things well for New England last year, but surprisingly didn't see any action in that Lions game, which is a little bit of a red flag right now when you've got your QB3 who's not seen some preseason action in that dress rehearsal.

Maybe that's a bit of a numbers game given some of the other issues this team has on the roster. Maybe there's some concern right now that he might not make the team. What were your thoughts on Brissette coming out, and what have you seen from him, at least in his rookie year, in terms of development? Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that was nice about seeing Brissette in his rookie year is that he was thrust into a situation that most people would assume he wasn't ready for but he played well he looked he didn't look awkward out there he didn't look overwhelmed for the most part and he made some good plays he's obviously a physical guy he's got a big arm he's someone who's tough in the pocket

and shake off defenders and there's some there's some skills there to be able to manipulate and throw downfield. So a lot of the physical tools are there. But like with most quarterbacks, it's the mental part of the game. And really, it's not even just the mental part. It's the emotional IQ part. I kind of look at quarterback play in three ways. You have the kind of the academic technical, which most people emphasize to a great degree, which is learning the play calls, learning the techniques of the drop and a release and

pump fakes and play fakes and understanding your hot reads and all the strategy parts. If you can't retain that information, you're probably not going to get drafted. Or if you do, they overemphasize the other aspect, which is the athletic part, whether or not you have a big arm or a good enough arm or whether you can take a hit or you're mobile and you can be a threat with your legs. Now, those two areas are really emphasized a great deal and they feel like that they can refine those aspects of quarterback play and get experience. Then they believe, I think the NFL does, and mistakenly in a lot of cases, they mistakenly believe that the emotional intelligence component is the one that will come with that experience.

And emotional IQ, if you know in any job, it's really take all the physical and intellectual and putting it together and having a feel for the game, understanding when something's supposed to come open and making the decision right away like a musician if you've ever been a musician or played music or been a performer you know that when you get on stage you can overthink things you just and you're not performing you're you're thinking and you look awkward you feel awkward then you make mistakes things are just not well timed

and with quarterbacks it's very much like that you just got to be able to play. And part of that is that emotional component where you can tie things together and execute things that you've worked on an innumerable number of ways. But when something comes up that you haven't seen before, you still have that ability to process fast enough that it looks like you've done it a million times. And I don't think Jacoby Brissett necessarily has that as a strength of his game in the way that it is a strength for Tom Brady, or even how Jimmy Garoppolo is growing into the position. So, you know, at that level, either they didn't start him,

they didn't use him because either A, they know where he's at, and they don't need to do anything with him and they need to look at other players. Or B, like you said, they kind of feel like they have other needs and why put him in there when they may try to deal him. Yeah, he is the great Matt Waldman, folks. Follow him on Twitter at Matt Waldman. Check out his work at footballguys.com i'm excited for his scheme work the stuff that he's gonna do in those top 10 episodes and pieces so check those out as well matt the floor is yours to plug some stuff my friend i appreciate it you can check you can check out the rookie scouting portfolio at matt waldman rsp.com you can also check out my um instagram page with matt waldman rsp

as well as my um youtube channel the rsp film room where i am oh it's always a pleasure to have mark scofield as one of my guests where we profile quarterback play and break it down into great depths like we're going to the marinaisus Trench. That's at the RSP Film Room. That's the name of the channel. Check those out. You can follow me at Matt Waldman on Twitter, and I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you Mark, Evan, Neon, and

this is always fun to talk shop. It's always great to talk to you, Matt. Folks, definitely check out all of Matt's work. Check out the work that I'm doing as well at Mark Schofield. And keep listening here to Locked On Patriots. And again, for you Pats fans that are looking to get down to that game, that Thursday night opener, it's going to be a big party,

raising the banner and all that stuff. Do check out our friends at Bust.com. Again, they've got that introductory rate round trip, $5, get you in and out of Foxborough. Let them take care of everything for you. So check out our friends at bust.com and keep it locked right here on Locked on Patriots. Whatcha doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff.

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