Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 12, 2017 Sub-Episode A - Kenny Britt Comes to Town

Episode Date: December 12, 2017

With news that the New England Patriots signed Kenny Britt on Tuesday, Mark Schofield raced to the studio to provide some instant analysis.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good afternoon and welcome to an emergency edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here with you on Tuesday afternoon, December 12th. Patriots making a move it seems this afternoon According to Field Yates from ESPN Patriots are close to a deal with former Browns wide receiver Kenny Britt He visited with the team today That tweet then again sent out by Adam Schefter A deal expected to be done shortly And as Schefter points out,

so in a season in which he has yet to know the feeling of winning a single game, wide receiver Kenny Britt is going to the playoffs. That obviously not official yet. Patriots have yet to lock down the AFC East. But it is a move that I felt was worth discussing at least here for a few minutes because it tells us a couple of things about how Bill Belichick and how Josh McDaniels

view the current state of their offense. And if you watch this Patriots team on Monday night against the Miami Dolphins, you probably came away with a bit of a question mark at the wide receiver spot. Xavier Howard had a great night against Brandon Cooks. Basically eliminated Brandon Cooks from the game. He had two interceptions against Cooks. Brady was looking to target Cooks on a number of throws.

Howard made some big plays. And Brandon Cooks, in terms of his production on Monday night, was limited. Seven targets, one reception for 38 yards. You know, if you look at the Patriots wide receivers during the course of this game, Danny Mandola, nine targets, six receptions, 76 yards. Chris Hogan was targeted five times, just one Philip Dorsett non-factor so if you sort of look at the results from Monday night if you look at

what we saw from this team not a lot of production not a lot of output from the wide receiver spot. And you almost get the sense that if a defense is able to lock down Brandon Cooks like the Dolphins did, it's going to be tough to find production at the other wide receiver spots.

Maybe there's lingering injury concerns with Hogan and Mandela was banged up so maybe there are concerns there now obviously this game was played without Rob Gronkowski so that may help ease some of those concerns defenses will have to focus on Rob Gronkowski, so that may help ease some of those concerns. Defenses will have to focus on Rob Gronkowski when he is back in the lineup. But this move signals some concerns about the current state of the Patriots' wide receiver core.

It also signals, perhaps, that Malcolm Mitchell apologies to my mom, who I know is listening, may not be back in the mix this season. You would expect that the Patriots would look in-house first before looking outside the organization, outside the building for wide receiver help. Particularly when, as history has shown,

wide receiver is not a position where you can really sort of step in and contribute immediately for the New England Patriots. It takes some time to get acclimated to the playbook, to the conversions, to the route adjustments, to the option routes that are in this offense, and to the terminology. I started the Locked On Patriots podcast back in August talking about the terminology when Philip Dorsett was coming over.

Now we're going to face something similar. With Kenny Britt. But now let's think about what the Patriots might be getting. And this year. Kenny Britt. Not really productive. Overall. 38 targets. 18 receptions.

Two touchdowns. And there were times when it seemed when I was studying Deshaun Kaiser that Britt was just never really settled in, never really on the same page with what they were doing offensively. In addition

to the numbers, you can look back at some of his games with Cleveland. I'm looking at my notes from week four, Browns against Bengals. 834 mark of the

first quarter. First intense situation. Curl route to Britt. Dropped. 11-14 mark of the first quarter. Third and ten. Comeback route to Britt. He stumbles coming out of his break. Can't make the catch. 10-07 mark of the second quarter against the Baycons 39

Another curl route to Britt It's a perfect throw from Deshaun Kaiser Britt bobbles it into a defender's arms For an interception So it just seems like From the tape, from the numbers Britt just never had it together With the Cleveland Browns this year. But if you look a year back, last year with the Rams,

started 15 games, 111 targets, 68 receptions for over 1,000 yards and five touchdowns. That was a career year for Kenny Britt. And he had that on a 4-12 team that featured Case Keenum as your main starter and quarterback. And then Jared Goff, the 2016 version of Jared Goff,

not the 2017 version of Jared Goff. And also the 2016 version of Jared Goff, not the 2017 version of Jared Goff. And also the 2016 version of Case Keenum, not the 2017 version of Case Keenum. So on a team that struggled, in an offense that had below average quarterback play at best. Yes, they did have Todd Gurley, but defenses were looking to stop Todd Gurley. They weren't looking to stop the passing game because of the quarterback play. You know, with all those question marks,

Britt had a career year. Now, which Kenny Britt are you going to get? Obviously, you hope for 2016 Kenny Britt. You hope that you get the guy that had the career type season with quarterback play like that. But can that happen in such a short period of time? Probably not. Which brings us to sort of the point to end on here. On this quick emergency edition of the Lockdown Patriots podcast.

What do you really need to get from Kenny Britt? And I would argue that it isn't much. Because the Patriots offense that we saw on Monday night won't be the Patriots offense we see for the rest of the season. The main factor being Robert Gronkowski. Having Gronkowski back in the lineup fixes some of the issues that we saw from the Patriots on Monday night.

It arguably addresses the third down issues. Patriots 0-11 on third down against the Dolphins. Now Brady will have his sort of security blanket, number one. Number two, hopefully New England doesn't see the third in lawns that they saw against the Dolphins, which leads down that road to failing to convert on third downs. So that will fix some of the issues. And if there are concerns with Hogan, with Amendola, Britt can get you probably a couple of targets a game with a couple of receptions,

and then you're probably already looking at an upgrade over what Hogan did at least on Monday night. You know, and if he sort of steps in to this Patriots offense right now, you know, putting all that other stuff out of the window. You know, put the which version of kenny brit were getting question marks over learning the playbook he's 6-3-2-23 Immediately becomes the biggest wide receiver on the roster. So there's a size issue.

And you heard Gruden talk about it during the game last night. When they were in the red zone, they missed that sort of big body. So it could just be a situation with the Patriots looking to upgrade just in that small slice of the offensive playbook. But as I've been recording this, Ian Rappaport, Patriots are signing Kenny Britt to a two-year

deal that locks him in through 2018. So they can still cut him. If he works out, he's under contract. If not, they can cut him, probably with minimal repercussions. But it shows you at least that from the Patriots' point of view, from an organizational point of view, there's at least some semblance of a buy-in. There's some good faith there that they think that this could be more than just a four or5 game type rental situation.

How much does it really pan out? We'll have to see. That's why they play the games. But sitting here right now, it does look like this was a move to address some of the issues at wide receiver, to address some of the problems that we saw from this offense on Monday night, whether it's third down, whether it's in the red zone, adding that big body, probably sort of tells you what the rest of the 2017 season looks like for Malcolm Mitchell.

Maybe we can now wonder about Chris Hogan, because to me at least it didn't look like he was fully back last night maybe they want to spell him a bit down the stretch if possible we'll have to see how they use Kenny Britt it's an interesting sign-in and if you get anything close to the Kenny Britt of 2016

with the Rams it might be an incredible sign we'll have to see I'll be back tomorrow 2016 with the Rams, it might be an incredible sign. We'll have to see. I'll be back tomorrow with a great episode of Locked On Patriots. Talked with Alex Cazorra from Steelers Depot.

Then Thursday, your crossover show with John Ledyard from Locked On Steelers and Locked On NFL Draft. Full, loaded week up until Friday in your game day edition

getting you ready for Sunday afternoon. That's been my quick little mind up on Kenny Britt. I think it's certainly worth taking a flyer on a guy like this. I think a two year deal, they can probably still cut him if it doesn't pan out with minimal repercussions. But if they can get anything close

to what Kenny Britt produced last year, fantastic. If it's more than Kenny Britt that we saw in particular in that game against Cincinnati, well, then hopefully there are not that many repercussions. That's been your emergency episode. I'll be back tomorrow until then keep it locked right here with me Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriot