Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 9, 2018 - Gameday Edition featuring Taylor Kyles

Episode Date: August 9, 2018

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Good morning and welcome into a game day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on this Thursday, August 9th, 2018. The New England Patriots kicking off their 2018 preseason slate of games tonight at Gillette Stadium against the Washington Redskins. And just a quick reminder, if you'd like to be there, vividseats.com. Use promo code LOCKEDON. When you purchase your tickets, you'll get 10% off.

It's valid only through August, friends, so get on that deal. Before we dive into today's show, which is locked and loaded for you, reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over at InsideThePylon.com. At Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation Network, covering the New York Giants.

A piece just went up yesterday about Kyle Lalletta and what to expect from him and what he needs to work on to become a solid NFL quarterback. Also, the Matt Waldman RSP. Get a piece looking at Lamar Jackson and his first NFL action, The Score or The Score's app. You should check that out.

Both of those places, TheScore.com or their app, which is fantastic. Got a piece on Alex Smith, Jay Gruden, and the play, action, pass, and game. Loaded show for you today. The second and third segments. Taylor Kyles. Man from Pat's Pulpit. T-K-Y-L-E-S 39 on Twitter. You have to

follow him. That is his handle on Twitter. He comes on. He and I chatted our expectations for the preseason game. He just crushed it. Please, please, please follow Taylor on Twitter. Before we get to that though, just some quick odds it ends. Obviously, the Patriots' first preseason game tonight. Big issue number one, everybody stay healthy, right?

Patriots lose Julian Edelman at the start of last year's preseason schedule. You don't want to see injuries like that happen. You want to see the guys get through healthy we all know that look it's true injuries are part of the game but we want to get through this preseason slate of games as healthy as humanly possible but since injuries are part of the game don't sleep on say the second and third quarters of this game tonight you know you want to see some of the newer guys, some of the newer faces. You want to see if they're going to be able to contribute,

add some depth to this roster. I mentioned it a little bit yesterday. I'm very interested. Those two rookie linebackers, Juwan Bentley, Christian Sam, can they do the things that this team needs? Both of those guys have roles they need to serve. Bentley more your downhill thumper type. Sam more your weak side linebacker.

Moore, the athletic type. Can those guys get some depth to this team, add some depth and some talent, bolster that second level of the defense a bit? Derek Rivers, very excited to see him back on the field. Last time I saw him was down at Mobile. So I'm excited to see him. Of course, it wouldn't be a football game without me excited to watch the quarterbacks. I'm excited to see Danny Etlin.

I will say that. I want to see some of what he can do. I want to see perhaps some of that consistency from Danny Etlin. I'm somewhat excited to watch some Kevin Hogan from Washington, you know, straying away from the Patriots just for a second here. Hogan was a guy that I kind of liked, a guy that I thought the Patriots might be interested in, interested in drafting. They drafted Jacoby Brissett that year, that draft, but Kevin Hogan was a guy that I thought sort of fit the Patriots mold. So yeah, I'm interested to see, you know, the quarterbacks play in this game. Very interested. We're going to talk about it with Taylor in a few minutes.

The tight end battle. I want to see how quickly Jacob Hollister gets on the field. I want to see if Dwayne Allen, if he can do more for this team than being sort of a block in tight end. If he can, that probably solidifies his role with this team. If he can't, you might have to wonder if he's a casualty, a cap casualty type cut, or maybe they try to restructure him or something like that.

So those are some of the things that I'm again watching tonight. And, of course, I'm going to be watching Braxton Berrios. Look, maybe it was an easy call, but I'm still excited to see him getting onto the field, see what he can do, maybe just from a punt returner, kick returner type standpoint. I would love to see him get it onto the field, see what he can do, maybe just from a punt returner, kick returner type standpoint. I would love to see him get some run at the wide receiver group.

Who knows? We might need him at that wide receiver group, given all the questions. Cordell Patterson, interested to see if they get him into the mix, get him some run, maybe some Eric Decker, maybe some of the other guys in that wide receiver group as well, Paul Turner, Riley McCarron. Maybe those guys are going to have to be asked to contribute tonight.

Maybe we'll get a chance to see one of these guys put themselves a little bit ahead of the rest of the group there in that crowded wide receiver room. Some quick odds and ends there on expectations for tonight. Not expecting to see much from Tom Brady. Maybe a series at most.

If you're going to talk about keeping guys healthy, number 12, number 87, those are two guys you definitely got to keep healthy. Before we get to my interview with Taylor, though, I do want to give a quick shout-out to my boy, my friend, my buddy from Montgomery slash Monkey County here in Maryland at CaptainHuggyFace

at C-A-P-N-H-U-G-G-Y-F-A-C-E on Twitter. What's great about doing this show, there are so many great things about doing the Locked On Patriots podcast. I love doing this show. The listeners, the feedback, all that stuff, I love it. I love the interactions with all of you. And Captain Huggyface slid into the DMs yesterday

to address something that I talked about. And Gronk's average draft position, Gronk's ADP. And I'm going to kind of, you know, summarize for you what he told me because I learned something and if I learned something, chances are you guys might learn something. And as he told me,

he thinks that Gronk's ADP is low because Gronk plays what people call in the fantasy world, like Captain Huggyface, a onesie position. Now, me being a dad of young kids, when I hear the term onesie, I think of something that's probably going to get dirty at a very, very inopportune moment.

But Captain Huggyface, as he explained to me, a onesie position is a position that typically you only start one of, i.e. you typically only start one tight end versus starting multiple running backs and wide receivers each week. So while Gronk provides a huge edge over other tight ends, running backs like, say, Jared McKinnon, wide receivers like Devontae Adams, two guys who I was kind of scratching my head over seeing them getting drafted before Gronk, those guys typically have higher ADPs because while there are 24 and 36 starting running backs and wide receivers, respectively, say, in a 12-team league where you're starting two running backs and three wide receivers, you're only going to be starting 12 tight ends. And so you need more wide receivers. You need more running backs. And so guys like that are going to get drafted before a position, a onesie position like tight

end, where you only start one a week. We're only seeing 12 guys start league-wide in a 12-team league. So as he told me, that's why Gronk is not a first-round pick and sometimes not even a second-round pick. And that opened my eyes. Now maybe it's just the fact that I'm not the smartest dude when it comes to fantasy, but that makes a ton of sense to me. And so, Captain Huggyface, thank you so much, my man, for pointing that out to me.

And I hope listeners here at Locked On Patriots learned a little bit something as well. See, we learn something every day. We're just getting a little bit, a little bit, a little bit better each and every day. That's what we're all about here at Locked On Patriots. And speaking of that, one way I know people want to get better at each day, improve themselves each day, is with their own health. Sometimes it's hard to find time to go

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use that offer code locked on during checkout to save $75 off your purchase. Up next, my sit down, my chat with Taylor Kyles, who just absolutely crushes it. Somebody you have to follow on Twitter. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you on this Thursday game day edition of Locked On Patriots. And friends, it feels good to say game day edition again. But what feels even better is to bring in a guest who not only will drop some incredible knowledge, I know he will, it's just good to get a guest back into the rotation. And this is going to be a guest that I hope to have on throughout the entire course of this season.

He is Taylor Kyles. You need to follow him on Twitter. He is at T-K-Y-L-E-S 39. The reason why you have to follow him, every time he writes something, every time he tweets something, I learned something. I know you will too. Taylor from Pat's pulpit, my friend, how are you doing,

buddy? I'm doing well, my friend, happy to be on. Thank you so much for having me. Taylor. Thank you so much for coming on. And we get a game to talk about,

which like I said, it just feels good. Patriots open their preseason tonight against the Washington Redskins. What are your general expectations going into tonight? Well, the thing that excites me about actually playing the Redskins would definitely be their offense, so specifically that offensive line with their left tackle, Trent Williams, Brandon Sheriff on the right side, and Morgan Moses,

who's an underrated tackle in his own right. Flexible guys who can really go all over the place. Trent Williams is an all-pro tackle as well as an all-pro guard when he needs to be. So I'm excited to see how the young edge players for the Patriots and Danny Shelton and Adrian Claiborne in those additions, how they're going to succeed against those guys, as well as a really talented receiving core for Washington. They've already got Jordan Reed. I know he's injured a lot, but he's extremely talented. He can get open against really anybody in the NFL.

But then you got deep threats like Paul Richardson, who I love from Seattle. He's a guy who can burn you deep. He's not great against press, but I think they're going to use him more of a zero where he's going to be able to be in motion, won't have to deal with as much of that and just take advantage of just deep balls down the field where he can separate make contested catches when he needs to be acrobatic down the sideline so i'm excited to see him and then josh doxon and jameson crowder jameson crowder slot receiver for them those two guys really took a lot of the offensive load last year with kirk cousin so i'm excited to see what they do with alex smith who can succeed short and deep taylor let's sort of dive into expectations

on both sides of the ball. And being who I am, you know, I'm going to start at the quarterback position. How much Tom Brady do you want to see tonight? How much Tom Brady do you expect to see tonight? How much Tom Brady do you frankly need to see tonight? I don't really expect to see Tom Brady. It's not uncommon not to see him play in the first preseason game because for them, I feel like it's more of a, it's almost like a fourth preseason game earlier in their preseason where they get more of a feel for the players that they want to kind of see more game action who really haven't asserted themselves in game time reps and really kind of rest the veterans. And Tom Brady has also been taking fewer snaps in practice, according to reports,

really taking a backseat in terms of reps to Brian Hoyer and Ettling. So I don't think we're going to see him, but I think it's just a really good opportunity for, I guess, him to really kind of get more in sync with his guys like Philip Dorsett and really talk to them and really just see what's happening in game and how the routes adjust and things like that. So I don't think we'll see a lot of him tonight, but I think that there will be some valuable opportunities for them to see how their system is working in game you know and how all the pieces that do get to play operate speaking of guys that probably have any sort of themselves particularly at least on the new england patriots this wide receiver group which you know four months ago people would have pointed to this wide receiver room and said it was a strength of this

team now it might even be a glaring question mark. What do you expect to see from the wide receivers tonight? So the wide receivers, I don't expect to see Chris Hogan or Julian Edelman or Philip Dorsett. I think they're guys that the team is pretty comfortable with. I've heard that Edelman isn't really where he wants to be, but he's a veteran, so I don't expect to see him play. But Chris Hogan and Philip Dorsett, from what I've heard, have really done well and performed well in camp, so I don't think we're going to see them. But I'm excited to see Cordero Patterson, who, according to reports, has had a lot of big catches almost every practice against some of

the best corners that have asserted themselves so far. And what I want to see from him is how comfortable he is running routes. When I looked at him last year when he was at the Raiders and even when he was with the Vikings and some YouTube videos of training camps, because I wasn't able to go myself, I live in New York city. But it looks like he's kind of running three quarter speed. Doesn't really, isn't really sure how to attack defensive backs in his stem, which is basically when he's setting up his routes before he goes to his final break. So I want to see him really understanding the routes he's running, how to get open because he's got the strong hands.

It's underrated because he's known as more of a receiver. I'm sorry, he's more of a returner, but he's got very strong hands. He can make contested catches, and he goes beast mode when he's got the ball in his hands. So I just want to see him understand how to get open in this system, and that's the biggest thing that I'm going to be looking to as well as how some of the under radar guys like Riley McCarron and rookie Braxton Berrios assert themselves as young players who really need to show that they have something to contribute to the team if they want to make a spot always love a Braxton Berrios mentioned but let's go back to Patterson for a second because you know and all of this sort of uncertainty about the wide receivers it's almost as if I know I'm guilty of this you know we almost overlooked patterson i

think and like you said we're hearing reports he looks great he's been working on route running do you think that patterson might be sort of this like secret little weapon that the patriots have at the wide receiver spot that maybe people like myself have been overlooking i think he may be a secret weapon in terms of what the public sees because he's not the kind of guy that you expect to consistently put up numbers but i think the defenses are going to understand the kind of threat that he poses and for them i think he's going to be a strength because you can use him in motion to kind of attract defense's attention and then get some open gaps in the running game or off of play action because his speed and his ability to break tackles physically or just shake guys is very unique in

the league so i think that having him he won't be one of your starting three but he's going to be a strong number four maybe number five if somebody else proves that they earn they deserve more reps but he's going to be a great little chess piece for them to use a little kind of a gadget guy but i think he has the potential to actually contribute as more of just okay this is someone who's going to get the ball on motion or we're going to give him a bubble screen. I think he's going to run real routes as well at times. Such a great point, Tyler, about, excuse me, Taylor. See, I just did it. No worries. It happens, man. It happens.

Such a great point, Taylor, though, about how the Patriots use motion so much. We all know how Josh McDaniels loves to do that. Let's look, Taylor, at the guys up front. New additions, Trent Brown, Isaiah Wynn. I'm very curious. I'm wondering if you are as well to see the usage from these guys, maybe not just tonight but throughout the rest of this preseason. Where are they going to put Wynn? Is Brown going to be the left tackle? What are your thoughts about this offensive line group

headed into the preseason opener? Well, I think that tonight we're actually going to see Wynn as the starting left tackle because Trent Brown has reportedly been a beast in camp and it's not really surprising the biggest problem for him has really been his conditioning and whether he can keep his weight up but he's a mountain of a man he's got long arms he's got the physical tools where as long as he understands how to use them he can honestly be an all-pro tackle and that I don't really think it's really that hard to argue when you watch his tape but I think because he's done so well in camp we're not going to see him in the preseason. I think he's going to sit out with some of the other guys.

So I'm expecting to see Isaiah Wynn at left tackle so they can see how he fits in there. And then I think maybe later we'll see him slide inside at guard. I'm hoping when the regular season starts to see a left side of Trent Brown and Isaiah Wynn because I think Wynn is actually a better option at guard where he actually was successful early in his college career. I think he can do a better job than Joe Tooney, who has more experience, but not quite the athletic tools. Isaiah Wynn, he's great at mirroring, mirroring a defensive lineman. He's great when he drops anchor.

It's hard to bull rush him. And he's extremely athletic and light on his feet. He's got great physical tools. So I'm hoping to see when the regular season starts to get briefly ahead of myself, a Brown and Wynn line. But I think we'll see Wynn to start at tackle and then move inside. Do you sort of think that the plan with Wynn is to have him, you know, because I'm with you, I think left guard, that left guard spot might be great for him.

But do you think the plan is also to have him sort of as their swing tackle type? You know, he played left tackle in the SEC. He can do it in the NFL. I think, do you think that they're looking at Wynn to be sort of a swing tackle, you know, as a backup role, but their start at left guard? Absolutely. And I think when you have someone like Belichick and Skarnieckia and coaches who can really put you in a position where you're never,

you're never really desperate along the offensive line especially this early in the year we saw at times like in 2015 when they accumulated a lot of injuries and you saw guys like brian stork who was a center had to play tackle but with when you have the depth to start the year even though there has been some attrition i think that it gives you the opportunity to start your veterans see how they mold see how they progressed not necessarily have to rely on your young, high upside guys, unless they show in camp and through the preseason that they really deserve to be on the field. So I think that they'll definitely experiment with Wynn and see just how much they can put on his plate at this point in his progression getting into the league.

So it's hard to say exactly, but I do think that they're going to try to give him as many responsibilities and see where he fits best taylor one of the more interesting battles that might be shaping up sort of position wise is tight end two behind rob gronkowski obviously the patriots have to win alan but jacob hollister has gotten a lot of attention this preseason belichick's been raving about him you know what are your thoughts on the tight end spot does hollister have a legit shot at winning that tight end two spot, making Dwayne Allen perhaps a potential cap casualty cut? I think Dwayne Allen, I hope he doesn't get cut because I really do like what he does as a blocker. I think that he would, well, I don't know him personally,

but I'm maybe speculating that to be with a competitive team, he would be okay with taking a pay cut because he's making pretty much double you would expect a predominantly blocking tight end to be making but i do think that he has a spot on the team the patriots always carry usually behind rob gronkowski a very good blocker and a pretty good receiver and i think hollister to go to him is not only an excellent receiver he even showed it last year i remember there was one catch he had i forget against who um but i think it was the chargers he caught a pass down the seam got knocked out while he was in the air held onto the ball he's shown that he can make catches in space in traffic he can get some yards after the catch to find breaks he's an exciting guy to see as a receiver but he also has

the effort and the motor that you want to see from a blocker he He's just not maybe there yet physically and technically because, you know, if you're not the biggest guy, you're going to have to make sure your hand placement's in the right place, using proper leverage, things like that. But I think that Jacob Hollister absolutely, based on the game plan, if it's, you know, maybe not as run heavy, I think Jacob Hollister is your number two tight end. Mark Schofield, Taylor Kyles.

We're doing some game day talk here for the patriots preseason opener against the washington redskins let's shift gears now we'll go to the defensive side of the ball what are your overall thoughts of the defense at least at this point in the preseason taylor i think this is a unit that patriots fans should be excited about i know it's little uh i guess distressing now that they've lost Matt Patricia and Malcolm Butler. But I think Flores has an opportunity to do something really good with this defense. They seem excited and energized to have him. It seems like he's going to bring a different kind of swagger, maybe a little more youthful vibe than Patricia had.

And also it seems like he wants to bring more pressure, which is something that the Patriots don't necessarily shy away from. But they usually rely on more of a mush rush, which is where you focus on containing the quarterback with all the athletic QBs you see in the league these days, with the defensive tackles basically just trying to push the pocket, but their main priority being to defend the run. But I think this defense, it's got a lot of really good veteran additions, as well as young pieces to go along with the core they already had, that I think was strong enough on paper to be more competitive than it was in the Super Bowl.

But just, you know, some things didn't quite go their way. And Philadelphia had a fantastic game plan. So just to summarize, I'm very excited about this unit. Taylor, you drop mush rush on me. You're dropping the term. See, friends, this is why you have to follow Taylor on Twitter. You will learn something every time he tweets, writes an article. I guarantee it. You will learn something every time he tweets, writes an article. I guarantee it.

You mentioned excitement about this defense. Kyle Van Nooyen was saying he thinks it's a defense that's going to really surprise some people. And in that mold, a guy that I'm excited to see come back is Derek Rivers. Obviously, we lost him last year, full season, to an injury. He's gotten some Belichick praise, which sometimes tells you that there's really some stuff going on behind the scenes that Patriots fans should be excited about. But how hopeful are you, Taylor, that Derek Rivers can contribute to this pass rush, which we all know needs a boost?

As long as Rivers is healthy and he's comfortable exploding off that leg, I'm extremely excited. He brings something to the table that no one else on the roster really has. A lot of the pass rushers for the Patriots are guys who win with technique and strength and long arms. If you look at Trey Flowers and Dietrich Wise, they're winning, especially with the martial arts expert that the Patriots, that Belichick brought in, is someone, I believe it's Joe Kim, is someone he worked with when he was in Cleveland. But it helps you get that hand placement because if you're a strong guy, you don't really have the ability to bend the edge and maybe get a round tackle, so you have to go through them or you have to beat them technically and take advantage of any small mistakes that they make so in that in that respect Derek Rivers not

only has the quick hands and the technique and the athleticism to win going through guys in the surprising strength for someone his size but he also has that flexibility and that kind of bend to him that he can get around the edge and the closing speed to make plays either with it going away from him say if he's on the back side of a run or getting after the quarterback just you know getting around the edge so i'm extremely excited to see what rivers brings to the table and the fact that he's putting in the extra work with uh dietrich wise like belichick's been saying there's some of the last guys to leave for practice. That's an extremely promising sign for Patriots fans because you know that these young guys are really putting in the work to get better. And that's what makes great players

because physical tools only get you so far. It's how much work you're willing to put in. Taylor, I don't know if you had something similar happen to you walking around New York City after the Super Bowl, but, you know, walking around here in the D.C. area, I would have, you know, strangers I didn't even know come up to me on the street and say, hey, can this Patriots defense, can those second-level linebackers be athletic enough next year?

It seems like that was the thing that everybody was focusing on in the wake of that loss at Super Bowl 52. So I'll pose that question to you. Can this linebacker group be athletic enough this year to handle some of the schematic things we're seeing, not just the RPO stuff, which everybody likes to talk about, including Chris Collinsworth, but all of the misdirection stuff we're seeing in the NFL,

all of the spread-type stuff that we're seeing leak into the NFL. Can this linebacker group be enough athletically to contain that stuff? And I actually think that the athleticism of the linebacking core is a bit underrated because the biggest problem against Billy in the Super Bowl was the fact that the defensive front couldn't do their jobs and really contain the rush. And again, something like the RPO when a team like the Eagles, where their game plan is going to force you to respect everything. And if there's one weakness, then you're basically you're pretty screwed. So I don't think I think that Kyle Van Noy is really one of the ideal modern middle linebackers. He's not great getting off blocks, but he doesn't really get taken out of plays very often.

He can hold his ground and make plays. He can shoot gaps. He's athletic in coverage. He's been extremely disruptive in camp from what I've heard in past coverage. And also a guy like Marcus Marquis Flowers. He's extremely rangy, very good in coverage. I think some of the receptions that he gave up i know the one to uh clement the touchdown in the super bowl he was in really tight coverage against

that type of player as a linebacker he's pretty much a safety and he's also got that energy and that fire and in just enough strength i think to really stand up in the run game ideally with someone like shelton in front of him so he doesn't really have to deal with blockers but i and especially with christian sam who's the linebacker uh from Arizona State is uh someone they drafted this year he's kind of he's got some traits that kind of remind me of Van Noy in the sense that he makes plays and coverage you see that he's really rangy the only the biggest problem that I see with Sam is that he doesn't impact the run game when it's kind of when there's misdirection involved or when there's play action in general.

If the play's in front of him, if you run a screen pass in front of Christian Sam, he turns into a missile and he's going to blow it up. But if you throw in a little misdirection or a fake handoff, then he gets confused and his play's a little slower. So once he develops and really gets acquainted to the speed of the game, you'll see him flying around. Nicholas Grigsby is someone that I mentioned. Mike Dusalt from Pat's Propaganda said it looked like he was a virtual roster lock.

He's an athletic linebacker who's primarily a special teamer. So when you have these special teams guys playing linebacker, the chances are you're going to have athleticism. And because they have so many, it's extremely reflective of the fact that they're not the team that had Brandon Spikes in the middle of the defense. You've got a Landon Roberts, but a Landon Roberts, it's pretty obvious that, at least maybe from an outside perspective, that he should be taking a step back and really only be playing on early downs,

which the team tried to do more in incorporating Marquise Flowers. But yeah, to go back to the main point, I think this is a very underrated linebacker group in terms of athleticism. Taylor, I'm going to throw you a tiny bit of a curveball here. We were going to talk cornerbacks here. And what's great about having a guest like you on is when somebody asks me a question like on Twitter and I don't have the answer at my fingertips, I can just wait and pose it to you. And I got a question from Greg at Greg Armstrong underscore on Twitter who was asking this.

He said, I was listening to today's podcast and meeting yesterday's Wednesdays. And who, in your opinion, do you think has the best chance as it stands to take that CB2 spot away from a Jason McCourty? So Taylor, I'll just pose that question to you. I actually think that it's Eric Rowe's job to lose. I think Jason McCourty is really the one who is the one who has to prove himself. I was really excited about Jason McCourty when they first got him. I actually did a thread on him on Twitter just showing that he's a very smart cornerback. He isn't the athletic specimen that he was coming out of college, but I think his intelligence and his play recognition really make up for it. But Eric Rowe is someone that gets a lot of flack from Pats Nation that I don't think he really deserves. He does give up the occasional big play. Sometimes he gets away with plays where

he really should be burned but he doesn't but that's the life of a cornerback I don't think that Rowe is an excellent corner but I think he's a very good corner when he's used the right way against the right players and for example I think I should try to use a platform to vouch for him in the Super Bowl he gave up those two big plays to Alshon Jeffrey. He also broke up a pass in the end zone, and he didn't – I don't think he gave up a target in the second half. And people don't really like to mention that, but Eric Rowe is the kind of player who will give you –

I'd say a good 85% you're going to get really solid coverage from him. He'll give up a play or two, but that's on the responsibility of the whole defense to make sure that there aren't other plays being given up somewhere else. But I think that Eric Rowe is your cornerback two going forward. And if Duke Dawson continues to assert himself in the slot just to kind of go off tangent a little bit, I think that Jason McCourty is actually a dark horse to be cut by the team if he's looking to play a consistent amount of snaps. There we go.

There you go. Just staying on the cornerback spot for a couple of seconds here, who are some other guys you think might emerge? Like, say McCourty is a cut casualty here. Who are some other guys, maybe even some of the younger guys, like a Keon Cross, who do you see potentially emerging as maybe CB4, CB5, your extra corners when you go nickel or dime? Right.

Well, CB4, I think think belongs to jonathan jones as long as he's healthy i love what he does as a player who covers more of the emmanuel sanders antonio brown types who are more quick and fast than they are really big and physical so i think if john jones can come back and play as the player that we you know we were used to seeing then that's his job but there's a lot of young guys keon cross and as you mentioned is very promising kind of in a similar mold and would cover a similar type of player to someone like maybe Duke Dawson or Jonathan Jones. But another player I really like on the outside is J.C. Jackson, who's excellent, especially in off coverage. He reads routes very well. He's got long

arms. He knows how to get into receivers without drawing penalties. His ball skills leave something to be desired they're fantastic but they're they're just good enough my biggest problem with him was his pursuit angle sometimes the way he starts to play or the adjustment that he makes when pursuing a receiver kind of put him in a bad spot so he's a little shaky there something he could work on but he's somebody who's really promising and wasn't drafted as early as people think he should have been because of some off-field issues that he had. All right, Taylor, I'll get you out of here on this.

Ed, I know it's early here in the preseason. We haven't even played the first preseason game tonight. But if you could just give us sort of a state of Patriots and Nation, sort of your overall impression of where this team is right now as we head into the preseason schedule. I think they're absolutely fine. I know that, you know, the national media likes to make it a firestorm because it's annoying to see one team

consistently succeed. I mean, I know if I was on the outside looking in, I'd probably be sick of the Patriots too. But if you're a member of Pat's nation, do not worry. This team is young in places that you may not expect. They're stacked at almost every position, maybe not with top end talent. But when you have someone like Belichick, when you have Brady, when you have the coaching staff that they have in the environment that they have, all you need are players who know what their job is, because that's why they're on the team, know how to get it done and really care about football enough that they're not going to let outside distractions, you know, make too much of an impact. So don't worry, guys, they're fine. They'll be in the AFC championship again.

Ladies and gentlemen, you just heard some fantastic stuff from Taylor Kyles. Taylor, turn it over to you, plug some stuff, plug yourself, let the people know where they can find you. Oh, you can find me on Twitter at TKiles39. And then I'm also at Pat's Pulpit under Taylor Kyles, but you can check me out. My link should be in my Twitter as well. Everybody, please, please, please do follow him on Twitter. It's at T-K-Y-L-E-S 39.

I'm looking at it right now. It doesn't even have a thousand followers yet. He needs like 10 times more than that. Seriously, I'm sitting here right now. I'm sitting here right now feeling like Tom Brady watching Jimmy Garoppolo listening to Taylor here. I mean, this is a man who's going places in this industry. So, Taylor, thank you so much for coming on, my friend. And just I want to say I've learned a lot from you too man i really want to appreciate what you've

done for me and growing as as a football maybe not analyst but as a fan and as a watcher of the sport so thank you thank you for having me on and uh go pats fantastic stuff my friend we will definitely get you on maybe turn this into a little bit of a regular thing that will do it for today's show i I will be back Friday. We'll be recapping this game. Hopefully a semi-glorious victory edition. Hopefully the Patriots do put out a good show on Thursday night against the Redskins. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked on Patriots. you