Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 6, 2018 - Take Thursday

Episode Date: December 6, 2018

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Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here. Welcome on into a Take Thursday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Happy to be back with you now on Thursday, December 6th, 2018. Got a Take Thursday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Got some great questions from the listeners to the show that we're going to get into. We're going to talk Obi Mellon Fonu. We're going to talk adjustments on the offensive side of the ball. We're going to get into a little bit of Trent Brown, Nate Solder talk.

And a little bit later in the show, some draft quarterback talk, some senior bowl stuff, and Brett Ripon watch. Before we get into all of that, though, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like Pro Football Weekly, The Score, InsideThePylon.com, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. You've heard me say it. If there's an outlet out there covering the sport we all know and love, chances are they've got me doing some work about the game for them.

Let's dive into a loaded Take Thursday installment of the show. We're going to start off with a question that I absolutely love. It's from listener Baldo Blue. He is at B-A-L-D-O-B-L-U-E on Twitter. And he asks, Patriots started attacking Vikings side to side and flooding the flats. McDaniel said he got Gordon involved when the Vikings adjusted. What was the adjustment the Vikings made? And it's a fantastic question. Tease up the chance to do some nerdy football stuff here, which listeners to this show know that I love to do.

And let's start with sort of how this game began on the defensive side of the football for the Minnesota Vikings. If you remember the start to this game, Minnesota did a couple of things. They showed you that interior pressure look, those mug looks up front where they're showing pressure at the line of scrimmage. They're showing pressure, sugar in those A gaps. Sometimes they would come. Sometimes they would drop off.

But more often than not, what they would do behind that was they would play some sort of variation of man coverage coverage one to be specific whether it was just straight cover one whether it was cover one sort of rat where you have the two safety look one of them drops down to double sometimes it was Gronkowski sometimes it was just to play as an extra hole defender to take away some throwing lanes underneath but that's kind of what Minnesota was doing early in this game. The adjustment came into the second quarter, around halftime, and into the start of the third quarter. And I'm not sure if it was a planned adjustment by Minnesota to what the Patriots were doing, or if in part it was due to Trey Waynes going down Holton Hill coming onto the field.

Now, whatever it was, the change was this. They went to more zone-type looks. It makes me think it was more related to having played now with Holton Hill, undrafted rookie free agent. Because if you go back into the third quarter of this game, for example, you have New England's open and drive of the third quarter where they go three and out. It was a drive that frustrated a ton of us.

On those two plays, those two incompletions that they had in the third quarter, you saw cover two man. So again, it's still sort of a man thing underneath, but it's the too high safety look which sort of makes it more difficult to push the ball downfield you've got dedicated safety help to both sides of the field you know at least with cover one yeah you can attack to the flats if you're worried about getting the ball out quickly if you're worried about those pressure looks but if you

get a chance to take a deep shot, you've only got the free safety. And so without that sort of dedicated safety help to both sides of the field, you can do some different things. But now as you get into the third quarter, like I was saying, that open and drive, they get a second and six play at their own 40-yard line after a run on first down, and they see that sort of too high look. And they actually have a vertical concept dialed up where they have three receivers to the right. They run a switch vertical concept where they get the outside receiver runs a vertical,

and Edelman is the middle trips receiver. He runs a vertical as well, sort of a wheel route break into the outside. But with the dedicated safety help, it's not really there. And so Brady sort of sees that and checks the ball down. But now when you're in this sort of cover two man, they do a great job switching that out. And the pass goes incomplete. It's one of those throws to the left that Brady kind of missed on, but it wasn't really there. Third and six, very next play. Again, they show cover two man.

So you get the too high safety look. Brady drops back to throw. And there is Gronkowski on sort of a post route in the middle of the field. But this is that designed screen that got turfed. And so with that being blown up, Brady's forced to turf it. You've got the potential of ineligible receivers downfield if he throws it downfield.

And so it goes incomplete. Then when you get the drive where they went down the field and scored, you saw a cover three on that hitch to Josh Gordon. You get cover two man again on that throw to Gronkowski over the middle. And then a straight cover two look

on the throw to Gordon for the touchdown. Another play to talk about just briefly. A play that comes at the 10-0-2 mark. This is a second and 13 where he throws it to James White over the middle. And this play is just straight cover two. They run play action. They're trying to get White over the middle. And this play is just straight cover two. They run play action.

They're trying to get, you know, a little levels concept. And they actually have sort of a Mills element to it as well because you've got a post route over the top. But it's straight cover two. All the deep stuff is kind of taken away by the safeties. And so he's forced to sort of check it down. So the big adjustment was really them going to more zone coverage looks. And then the Patriots realizing, okay, we've got to call some more zone beater type plays and so you know that's what they do you get

that backside hitch to gordon on the throat of gronkowski that comes at the 143 mark of the third quarter you know the route design that you're seeing there is another you know concept that's going to get you to beat zone coverage. It's basically four verticals. That's all it is. The outside receivers, they have the option to cap these off and turn them into comeback routes if they can't get deep, and that's what happens on one of them. But it's four verticals, and Gronkowski, seeing a middle of the field open, he makes middle of the field open read and attacks the middle of the field

between the two safeties. And so that's what you see there. On the touchdown to Gordon, again, it's another zone beater type concept. It's a cover two look. You've got Gordon running that route to the middle of the field. It's another switch vertical route where he runs a dig. Inside slot receiver runs that vertical route, wheel route to the outside. That wheel route gets carried.

Two safeties deep get in depth because there's another vertical route to the other side so they've got to stay wide and that creates space for the dig route in the middle of the field so that was sort of the adjustment to the adjustment vikings start showing you more zone coverage looks you start pulling out more of the zone beaters you know trying to attack that space between the safety so you know that's what i saw i don't know if everybody else saw the same thing, but fantastic question from Ball to Blue. Love getting into the nerdy weeds here

with some X's and O's scheme stuff. Up next, we're going to talk Obi-Mell and Fonmu. We're going to talk Trent Brown, Nate Solder, and a little bit later, some bowl game action, some college draft stuff, some senior bowl stuff, some great stuff to get into, and of course, Brett Rippinwatch. That's all ahead on this Take Thursday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast.

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thank them for sponsoring the podcast. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Take Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots. And next question we're going to get to is from our great friend and listener to the show from across the pond, Jack Duffin, at J-A-C-K-D-U-F-F-I-N on Twitter. He is one of the hosts of the Paul Brown

International Browns Podcast, which is a very great, great, great show. I have been on it. They're great friends over there. Definitely check that out. And he literally asked a question with a gif. It was fantastic. He just said Obi and added a gif,

or a jif if you want to call it incorrectly. He had a gif of Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. Fantastic. And he wants to know about Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars. Fantastic. And he wants to know about Obi-Mellon Fonwu. And I think the best way to answer this question is to talk about a play that was challenged and then overturned. Or it wasn't overturned. It was upheld. Whatever you want to say about it.

But I think what's fascinating about this play is it gives you some insight into how the Patriots are going to use Obi-Mellon Fonwu, who, believe it or not, has gotten some decent snaps so far for the New England Patriots, much more than I really expected. In his debut for the Patriots last week against the Jets, he saw eight defensive snaps, 17 special team snaps. And then last week against the Vikings, saw 12 defensive snaps, 17 special team snaps. And then last week against the Vikings, saw 12 defensive snaps, eight special team snaps.

So they're getting involved just a little bit more on the defensive side of the ball each week. The play I want to talk about is a third and five play late in the third quarter, the.357 mark in the third quarter. And this is when they have the completion to Kyle Rudolph and he's in there for one reason and one reason only on this play and it's to cover Kyle Rudolph they flex Kyle Rudolph out in an inverted slot so he's out wide but he's on the field to cover him that's his job and you know you know it's his job because Rudolph initially begins the play aligned on the left side of the formation,

and Obi has him in man coverage. When Rudolph slides across and goes in motion, Obi stays right with him. This is what I talked about when the Patriots signed him. He was going to be sort of the tight end killer. I know when they made that decision to sign him, I went back to the New England, not the New England Patriots, to the InsideThePylon.com draft guide, and I wrote from our report that we put together on him. And that was what we envisioned for him. He was going to

be the tight end type killer. When he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, the thought was he was going to be the Travis Kelsey eraser. That was going to be his role. Big, long, athletic guy with size, but good athleticism, so you think he can run with tight ends. He's not going to get overwhelmed by them from a power perspective. And so he was put on this roster to cover tight ends. He covers Kyle Rudolph on this play. And what I love about here is he has inside leverage, so he gets beat to the outside on

an out route but he doesn't give up on the play gets his hands in there I really thought he did physically knock this ball free and I thought it was a good challenge because it looked like to me it might have been coming out you know as Rudolph went out of bounds it was upheld on the challenge but I think this gives us insight into what we might be seeing here. This might be yet another example of the New England Patriots taking a player and asking the right questions. They're not asking what he can't do. They're not so concerned with his flaws. They're more concerned with what he can do,

the things that he can do on a football field. You know, the Oakland Raiders, they drafted him and they tried to make him your standard cornerback in the National Football League maybe that's not what he's suited for maybe he can get there someday but what he can do as a defensive player right now is he can match up with tight ends he can take a guy like Kyle Rudolph you need him to be covered for a play or two he's going to go out there and lock him down can that help you win? It might help the New England Patriots win games. You look forward down the stretch at the players they're going to have to go up

against at the tight end spot. You know, you get the guys down in Pittsburgh in a couple of weeks. Maybe you're looking ahead to a potential rematch against Travis Kelsey, and they had to do so much in terms of doubling Kelsey, sometimes tripling him, that it freed up some stuff for Tyreek Hill. Maybe life is a little bit easier if you've got a guy like Obi-Mellon Fonu who can maybe handle him in one-on-one situations, leaving you to double Tyreek Hill. Imagine how much easier it is to play Kansas City if you don't have to double Travis Kelsey and instead you're dribbling Tyreek Hill. Imagine a situation where you've got Stephon Gilmore

locked on Sammy Watkins. You've got, whether it's JC Jackson with dedicated safety help over the top with Harmon and McCourty one way or the other on Tyreek Hill. And now you've got Obi-Mellon Fonlu managing to take care of Travis Kelsey one-on-one. How much better do you feel about that game plan?

And so I think that's what we're seeing so far from Obi Malin-Fonlu. Thanks, Jack, for the question. I'm excited about what Obi can bring to this defense in the sense that you give him a job to do. What can he do? Can it help? Go out there and do it.

Next question comes to us from one of our most loyal listeners. I said one of our most. I'm not saying the most, but reluctanttrade at reluctant, R-E-L-U-C-T-A-N-T underscore trade sends in a question every week for this show. And I appreciate it so much because I know I get at least one question each week to talk about, and that gets me excited. And he asked this week, is Trent Brown better than his predecessor? And if not, does he project to be? And it's a very good question.

And I think, you know, I've said a couple of times this week on this show and others, you know, the crossover episode I did with Locked on Dolphins and Travis Winfield that, you know, maybe James Devlin might be sort of the unsung hero of this Patriots offense this year. But I think you could also make a strong case for Trent Brown. Obviously, you're moving on from your longtime bookend left tackle in Nate Solder. And while Solder had his deficiencies, particularly against spin moves, for example, you know, it felt comforting as a Patriots fan to know that for the most part,

you've got a guy there that's going to lock down the left tackle spot. And when you're signing in somebody, you know, getting a guy via trade in Trent Brown that, you know, maybe he didn't fully pan out in San Francisco. And, yeah, you've drafted Isaiah Wynn, but it seems like he's going to take the job. And he had some, you know, up and down play during the preseason. You do go into the year, especially when you're worried about protecting 41-year-old Tom Brady, that maybe this isn't the strength that it used to be. That being said, Trent Brown has performed extremely well this year. I think if you watch him on tape, you see the numbers, you see the protection that he's

given, the QB rushes and things like that, that he's given up just here and there. I think you have to be pretty pleased with where he is. I don't think he's better than Nate Solder yet, but I think the projection with him should be that he'll get there at some point if he stays playing at this kind of level. The question then becomes, does he stay here in New England or does he seek his fame and fortune somewhere out yonder? And I think the development we've seen in him this year, if it were me, I'd say, look, I'm getting better here. You know, maybe the spot for me is to stay here under Dante Skaneckia, you know, get a little bit better and better each year and, you know, maybe sign sort of a short-term type of deal. Maybe not, you know,

leave right away, but maybe get like a two-year extension type of thing where I can get better, you know, really sort of refine my technique, what I am as a player, and then move on. Because look, he's just 25. You know, he'll be 26 next April. You know, you could get another two-year deal for him. And then you're looking at 27, 28, you know, then really get your big time contract and free agency after getting a little bit of bump this year. And so that's how I would handle it. But look, left tackle is an important position. The Patriots, if they do decide to move on from him or if another team looks at him and says,

hey, man, the Patriots' former left tackle that's at the young age of 25, you know, 26 heading into next year, let's throw him a ton of money. He could cash in. I hope the Patriots find a way to get it done. I think the best of both worlds from both camps would be

short-term deal, lock him down for the next couple of years, then you get Isaiah winning to the fold and all that good stuff. He gets a chance to really get two more years under Dante, two more years with Belichick, then he can really sort of cash in. But to the underlying question, is he better than Soler? I wouldn't go there yet,

but I think he'll get there. So that's what we're going to do for this section. Up next, some bowl game talk, some senior bowl roster talk, some Brett Rippin talk, some more good stuff ahead on this Take Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast.

Mark Sofio back with you now to close out this Take Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And it wouldn't be an episode, it wouldn't be a Take Thursday show if we didn't have a question or two from our great friend John Limorakis, who is at J-O-H-N-L-I-M-B-E-R-K-I-S on the Twitter machine. And the first question is, slightly off-topic question, but aside from the college football playoffs,

what bowl game are you most looking forward to? If I can guess, first responders bowl, Boise State, Boston College. And first off, John isn't wrong. I'm definitely looking forward to that game and more on that one in a second. But he sort of highlights how I'm going to be watching these bowl games. And I'm going to be definitely keeping an eye on these from a talent evaluation, quarterback, and tight end evaluation standpoint because those are the positions that I'm going to be very, very tuned in to watch this draft season. I'm very curious to see who comes out at these positions

and if the Patriots address both of these positions in the draft. And you can start early. December 15th, Las Vegas Bowl. Arizona State, Fresno State, there are two quarter positions in the draft. And you can start early. December 15th, Las Vegas Bowl. Arizona State, Fresno State. There are two quarterbacks in that game. You've got the kid from Fresno State, McMarion, and you've got Arizona State, Manny Wilkins.

Those are two long shot type quarterbacks that I've been intrigued by. So I'm curious to watch that game, see those two players play. John mentioned the first responder bowl down in Dallas, December 26th. Boston College, Boise State. Fantastic matchup there between obviously

Brett Rippon, who I've talked about a ton on this show, and it's not a matchup one-on-one per se, but Zach Allen, the defensive end from Boston College, who's going to be down to Mobile for the Senior Bowl, more on the Senior Bowl in a minute. That's going to be something that I'm going to be watching, see how Rippon sort of handles the pressure that Zach Allen and company can bring. So I'm very curious to watch that game.

Going through some of the other games here. I do want to see Auburn-Purdue. David Blau, he's been a fun quarterback to watch during his career. And of course, you've got Jared Stidham, you know, more on him in a second. Curious to see how he fares in his last game. That's the Music City Bowl, December 28th. Texasas bowl december 27th pat schumer's kid kyle schumer want to see him in his last college game he's gotten some looks um you know he might get sort of a shrine game invite and obviously with his lineage curious to see that game i passed over december 27th independence bowl down in shreveport louisiana temple versus Duke. Daniel Jones. Want to see that game. Very curious to see what Daniel Jones decides to do.

If he comes out. If he stays. Who knows where his head's at right now. You know, speaking of tight ends, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this Stanford game. You've got Pittsburgh, Stanford, the Sun Bowl. December 31st, New Year's Eve. You know, you've got a player there, Caden Smith in Stanford. You know, mismatched type player.

6'5", 255-pound junior. He is a good athlete at that size, good frame. He has in-line threats as well. Maybe not the best blocker in this group, but still somebody to keep an eye on. Obviously, they're the Iowa guys on that Outback Bowl, Mississippi State versus Iowa. That's January 1st, New Year's Day game. Fant, Hawkinson, who knows what they decide to do if they come out. Those are going to be fun guys to watch.

Flipping back to the quarterbacks for a minute. You know, three games on New Year's Eve to watch quarterbacks in. Missouri plays Oklahoma State. You want to see Drew Locke. Northwestern plays Utah in the Holiday Bowl. You want to see Clayton Thorson. Texas A& and mnc state and the tax layer bowl down in jacksonville you want to see ryan finley and hey if you really want to get into it you get the red box bowl that is january i mean december 31st michigan state and oregon justin herbert brian the werky keep an eye on those kids so those are some games to watch um that I'm going to be keeping an eye on.

And then of course, obviously, you know, the playoff games themselves, you want to see what those games, how those games shake out. You want to see Tua, you know, you want to see Irv Smith, the tight end for Alabama, going to keep an eye on him. Kyler Murray, that's going to be some fun stuff. So, you know, that's kind of the bowl game stuff that I'm going to be looking at. But, of course, John has another question because he's a good guy and we love him. I keep checking the Reese's Senior Bowl page in Google for news, but is Brett Rippin going to get a Senior Bowl invite? Who do we need to lobby to make this happen? And I will say that I have been lobbying.

I have literally been lobbying for Brett Rippin to get a Senior Bowl invite with Jim Nagy and the people over at Reese's Senior Bowl. I know some of the scouts there. I've been trying, but it seems like there's a bit of a numbers game at play here because, you know, on Wednesday, yesterday afternoon, they had sort of their roster unveiling show on Yahoo.com live. And as it stands right now, here are your accepted invites. And then we're going to read between the lines a bit. But at the quarterback position, you've got Ryan Finley from NC State, Will Greer from West Virginia, Trace McSorley from Penn State, Gardner Minshew from Washington State, Jarrett Stidham from Auburn,

and Clayton Thorson from Northwestern. Now that's six. They usually take eight. They used to take just six. They've expanded it to eight, get two more guys in. Jim Nagy said that Drew Locke from Missouri has yet to decide on his fight. Assuming he goes, that's seven. And my assumption would be that Locke goes. If so, the person you need to lobby is Daniel Jones at Duke and tell him, look, man, stay in school one more year. Get that Duke degree.

Get a master's something. That's what you need to do because my thinking is that they're going to wait to see what he does. If Drew Locke comes out, which he is obviously a senior, but he accepts that invite, and then Jones goes, there's your eight right there. Now, if Locke turns it down and Jones decides that he's going to stay in school or not come out, then, okay, you've got two spots to play with. I would imagine that Brett Rippin would get one of those.

But as it stands right now, I think those are the three last names, Locke, Jones, Rippon. Rippon being, in their mind, QB3 of that mix. And so you need one or both of those guys to drop off. And then I think Rippon gets into it. So maybe you hit up the Drew Locke family. No, no, don't hit up any families. I'm not telling you to do anything like that. But that's, I think, the scenario that has to play out. Looking at the six that have accepted invites, if it were me, if it were me, Rippon would be in over, say, a Trace McSorley. I can see a case for the others. I understand it. I may not agree with it. I will probably have Rippon ranked above some of these guys, but I get it. I get it. I think if you're in the Rippon camp above some of these guys, but I get it.

I get it. I think if you're in the Rippon camp and you end up on the outside looking in, you accept that shrine bowl invite, which you will be the first QB to get, I am sure. You go down to St. Pete, you ball out, and you hope for that sort of call-up type scenario that we've seen play out before.

I mean, a similar circumstance was none other than Jimmy Garoppolo. Garoppolo was down at the Shrine game. They were holding a spot. This was one of the years they just had six on the roster at quarterbacks for Mobile. Eventually, McCarron drops out. And so Phil Savage, who was then the executive director of the Mobile, the Reese's Senior Bowl

down in Mobile checked with the Jaguars he said look is there anybody you want Jacksonville says we want Garoppolo so Garoppolo gets the call up goes from the shrine to the Senior Bowl and we know how that played out and so maybe as Patriots fans what we need to sort of hope for is one of those types of scenarios where if Rippon's on the outside looking in to begin with, he balls out, and then maybe one of the other guys decides no or whatever, you get that call up. It's a possibility. So, look, if it were me, I think Rippon would be on the roster.

I'm learning this week and over the past couple of weeks here that maybe I don't have the pull I thought.'s okay I'll keep trying because I think when you look at all of the criteria you want in a quarterback all the little things you need I think ripping checks a ton of boxes but yeah I've been wrong before I'll be wrong again either way I'll be here to tell you all about it that will do it for today's take Thursday show. Hope you enjoyed it. I will be back tomorrow for our game day edition. Oh, and Baldo Blue, I know I got to get you an invite to the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. I'll be shooting you a link ever so soon. And for the rest of you, if you also want an invite to the Locked on Patriots Slack channel,

where we have discussions like this all the time, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com for an email invite. Either way, would love to have you on in there for part of the discussion. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here

to me, Mark Schofield, and locked on Patriots.