Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 7, 2017 - Crossover with Travis Wingfield
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Good morning and welcome into Locked On Patriots for Thursday, December 7th.
Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair.
And when you hear that date, when you think of that date, hard not to think of Pearl Harbor. And as a history buff, as somebody that loves reading about history,
and as somebody that has been to Pearl Harbor,
what there were my parents when I was younger,
when this day comes around on the calendar,
I'm often reminded of being on a boat on the water just above the USS Arizona
and still seeing the oil slick,
the oil coming up from the sunken battleship,
a memory that will always be with me,
something that chills me to this day.
And so December 7th, we think of that date and what happened.
But now it's time to look ahead.
Obviously, this is a football podcast.
We will talk football.
In a little bit, I'm going to be chatting with Travis Winfield,
the host of Locked On Dolphins.
He is at Winfield, W-I-N-G-F-I-E-L-D, NFL, on Twitter.
Please do follow him.
Travis does great work, not just on the Dolphins,
but charting quarterbacks, a lot of good stuff as a quarterback guy.
I appreciate the work he does.
It's great stuff, so I highly recommend him but before we talk to Travis quickly here at
the outset I want to talk about some stuff going up on the site yes we are
getting into draft season draft season never ends but in the past couple of
days I've done three videos breaking down three different quarterbacks Sam
Donald Baker Mayfield Lamar Jackson and what I've done is I've done three videos breaking down three different quarterbacks. Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson.
And what I've done is I've broken down each of their interceptions thrown this year.
Sam Darnold, 12 interceptions on the regular season.
Baker Mayfield, five.
Lamar Jackson, six.
I broke all of them down.
And with some, like Sam Darnold, you see some themes emerge.
Footwork.
Trying to make superhuman throws at times.
With Baker Mayfield, you could almost say even his interceptions look good.
But with Baker, you could start seeing how with a more experienced quarterback,
defenses have to do different things to confuse him, to bait him into mistakes.
And so that's something we saw with Baker Mayfield.
With Lamar Jackson, I'll say this.
I got a chance to dig up Bobby Petrino's 2005 Louisville Offensive Playbook.
Now, obviously, it's a little different here in 2017,
but a lot of the same concepts were there.
For five of the six interceptions,
I dug up the actual play that Lamar Jackson was running.
And I honestly think that Bobby Petrino's
2005 Offensive Playbook should be required reading
for people that want to talk about offense,
that want to opine on offensive football, because it is fascinating.
I've talked a lot about the three sort of schools of offensive thought
that we see in the NFL, the ones that sort of form the underpinnings
of offensive thought that we see in the NFL, the ones that sort of form the underpinnings of offensive football today,
the vertical passing game under Eric Correal,
the West Coast offense,
the Ernst Perkins offense,
which is basically conceptually what the Patriots have built around.
You can see all three of those offensive philosophies in Bobby Petrino's playbook.
Whether it's vertical stuff
down the field, whether it's drive concepts, males concepts, things that are more in line with an
Ern Perkins scheme. Whether it's West Coast stuff like slant flat, curl flat, tosser concepts. All
three of those offensive schools of thought are woven in to the story that
Bobby Petrino tells with his playbook. It is fascinating to go through 214 pages of super
ultra nerdy football stuff. And I read every page to get that Lamar Jackson video ready.
But those are up on YouTube at the Inside the Pylon YouTube channel.
But I'm also incorporating them
into the LockedOnPatriots.com website as well
because the Patriots might be in on a quarterback.
And you know that gets me excited.
But I just wanted to talk about that at the beginning
and check that stuff out.
Up next on the other side,
I'm going to be talking with Travis Winfield.
Locked over Dolphins.
Excuse me. Locked on
Dolphins. Locked on Patriots.
Little crossover action.
That's up next here with me, Mark
Schofield at Locked on Patriots.
And joining me now on the podcast is
none other than Mark Schofield of the Locked on Patriots
podcast. Mark, how's your night going tonight?
I am doing well, Travis.
How are you, my friend?
I know you just got home from work.
We're on the different coasts here, so a little bit later for me, but I know you're just home
from work.
Hope things are well.
Yeah, they certainly are.
Busy nights indeed.
And it is pretty tough to get these Dolphins podcasts out in a timely manner when you can
start them on the West Coast.
So I appreciate you staying up late and burn them in that oil with me.
Oh,
happy to do it,
man.
Anything for you,
my friend,
much appreciated.
Let's get into this,
this matchup here real quick,
Mark,
and talk about the dolphins and Patriots.
And you know,
this conversation can be even because the game probably won't be so much in
that direction.
Here we go.
I just,
you know,
I was trying to think about questions to ask you and kind of things I
wanted to roll into, but if you don't mind, I want to kick it off for us here and just
kind of give us some intro, some opening thoughts on the Patriots and what we might be able
to see from them in this game on Monday night.
Yeah.
And, you know, I think that, you know, Travis, because of the Rob Gronkowski body slam, let's
just put it that way.
You know, the big sort of question mark and a lot of Locked On Patriots listeners this week
have been asking is how is the Patriots offense going
to look? What are they going
to do? How are they going to sort of make up for the
loss of Gronkowski from a schematic
standpoint? And
I think one of the hallmarks,
one of the staples of the New England Patriots over the past
couple of years has been their
versatility on the offensive side of the
ball. Finding different ways to get people involved.
And we've seen that sort of unfold this year with the addition of Brandon
Cooks, the addition of Phillip Dorsett,
they've become somewhat of a downfield passing team at times.
So I think we'll see some of that.
We're going to see this team look to run the football.
You know,
one of the sort of interesting parts and it's flying under the radar as much
as I try to yell about it at Lockdown Patriots, is New England's ability to run the ball on first
down. They're averaging, I think, 4.6, 4.7 yards per carry on first down. They hit some big first
out runs against Buffalo last week, one for like 44, one for 31. So I think we're going to see them
look to run the ball on first down. I think they're going to do what they've been doing with Deion Lewis,
running between the tackles,
try to get Rex Burkhead sort of on the edge at times.
And you're talking about going up against a defense that,
at least in terms of DVOA over at Football Outsiders right now,
they're 28th in defense and DVOA 28th against the pass,
17th against the run.
So they're going up against a defense that has struggled a little bit,
as you know.
So I think that's sort of the one area that we can look at.
I'm sorry, Mark.
Go ahead.
I was just going to say,
I think it's going to be a pick your poison type of thing because the
Dolphins defense for a couple of years now, it's really been the same story.
It's poor run defense,
a lack of speed at the linebacker position in particular this year.
I mean, it really, it looked like it was getting better this year,, but it seems to have fallen backwards as Lawrence Timmons is kind of regressing in his play.
And Kiko Alonzo, I don't know if he's got an injury or what his deal is, but he's having a really rough time this year.
But the Patriots, you mentioned their ability to run the football, and that's been a big, big soft spot for the Dolphins.
And, you know, the Rob Gronkowski thing, I've been kind of vocal in my displeasure with his actions, if you will.
And a lot of my friends have been telling me, you're just biased because you want the Patriots to be worse. Gronkowski thing I've been kind of vocal in my displeasure with his actions if you will and a
lot of my friends have been telling me you're just biased because you want the Patriots to be worse
I'm like dude I'm not the Patriots won the Super Bowl without Rob Gronkowski they beat our ass by
40 points every time anyway so what difference does it really make and you mentioned these speed
vertical threats they have and so I just wonder you know you talk about the Patriots and kind of
being a team that they can they can game plan each and every week on its own as its own accord.
And, you know, I look at the Patriots and this is what a lot of teams want to
be. I think that they are 16 different teams every single year.
And it just depends on who they're playing the game,
the game plan in place and the matchup they have. So I, like you mentioned,
I really don't know what to expect that they're running the game should be a
big part of the game. I think that they're throwing,
throwing the football to the backs as well should be incorporated.
So I just, I don't know what to expect. I just expect a lot of points
from you guys. Yeah. And you know, I think that's a really good way to put it, Travis, you know,
there's 16 different games, 16 different teams for 16 different games, because at least from the
offensive side of the ball, they try so hard to be, you know, matchup focused. You look at the touchdown pass to Rex Burkhead,
that quick out route against you guys two weeks ago
where you had the shift from Hollister outside
and then the tight end shift around
and then they use motion with Burkhead out of the backfield.
It's because they're trying to find a matchup to then exploit
and they end up getting Rex Burkhead on an undrafted free agent linebacker on a
quick out route, you know, and that's what they do both in game situations with the use
of motion and shifts to try to help Tom Brady identify mismatches.
And that's what they do from week to week where, you know, if you're a defense that
has trouble defending comeback routes, they're going to run comeback routes at you.
While the next week they face a defense that struggles in a different area,
that's what they're going to do.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I'll be curious to see what they come out with in this game
because the Dolphins seem to, as much as they could, I guess,
mix it up a little bit against the Broncos.
They played a lot more press man
and really challenged routes to the line of scrimmage in that game.
And they also did a lot of rotating with the cornerbacks.
Bobby McCain, our slot cornerback this year, has had a really good year and he's in
his third year now kind of starting to come into his own and he had a really good game covering
both Emmanuel Sanders in the slot Demarius Thomas outside he was playing two man he was playing
press man he was doing a lot of different things it was fun to see and they also got Alter on
Werner out there and then obviously Xavier Howard had the big day with a couple of picks and they've
just been kind of rotating these guys the rookie rookie Cordray Tankersley as well.
And so I'm curious to see if maybe they were trying to put something on tape
that's different than the Patriots have seen.
But then again, you look at Belichick and what he's been able to do
throughout the course of his career,
it's no mystery that he's the greatest of all time.
I just don't really think you can really fool that guy.
You know, it's something sort of, you know,
to keep in mind when you look at the Patriots and Tom Brady and how they've sort of constructed the offensive offensive, given them trouble.
You know, there was a lot of talk in the aftermath of that game a few weeks ago, Travis, in the Boston area, among sort of Patriots Nation, that Tom Brady was hit hard a lot during that game.
And protecting Tom Brady was an issue at the start of the season.
They were on track to give up a career high in terms of sacks for him.
The protection got better during that middle stretch
in late October, early November.
But they roughed him up in that game.
And so that's something that I'm curious to see, Travis,
is can they duplicate that?
Is that something that the Dolphins can take from that tape,
take from that game, the blitz schemes,
the pressure schemes they use to sort of knock Brady around and apply that
this Monday night. That's something that I'm going to be watching.
Cause if they do, you know,
there is a chance to sort of get to Tom Brady, make him have some mistakes.
He's had some bad games down in Miami before in the past, you know,
can they sort of duplicate those pressure schemes on him and get them to make some mistakes? Yeah. You know, you alluded to it right there in the past, you know, can they sort of duplicate those pressure schemes on him
and get them to make some mistakes? Yeah. You know, you alluded to it right there at the end,
talking about his struggles in Miami at times. And yeah, that hasn't been the case lately,
but there have been games in the past. And a lot of that had to do with the Dolphins front four
and their ability to create pressure. It hasn't been the case much this year, at least recently,
they've kind of struggled getting pressure on the quarterback, but you do have the big money guys
on the defensive line that can create pressure.
And, you know, Mark, I'm 30 years old.
I spent half of my life trying to figure out how to beat this team
that you guys have over there in Boston, and it just doesn't seem to ever happen.
So in talking about the way they kind of challenge those routes early,
and, you know, you talked about that Patriots-Dolphins game just two weeks ago,
this weird schedule, the way they have this.
It's so strange.
They did a lot of things where it looked like they were a little more juiced up for that
game than they have been in the past month.
I don't know if it was the JGI trade that got players a little bit disgruntled or whatever
it was, but they seemed to play a little more charged up.
And even though the scoreboard wasn't that close, I saw a different team that Sunday,
and then that translated over to the game last week against Denver.
So I'm hoping that kind of juice and vinegar pulls over to this Monday night against a
big-time powerhouse team in a primetime game.
So it'll be interesting to see what they do from that standpoint and,
and how they attack the Patriots.
And that's a really interesting point,
Travis.
And what I was going to ask you about was,
you know,
I didn't get a chance to sit down and sort of study that Broncos dolphins
game.
Like what were your main takeaways from that?
Because at first blush,
you see 35,
nine, I know
Denver will border it on lost season territory for the Broncos here, but you look at 35-9 and you
think Miami really had everything together for that game. They did, and a lot of it had to do
with Trevor Simeon. I've been very vocally adamant about how bad of a quarterback he is and a lot of
misthrows and inaccurate passes. That's what I charted last year in 2016, and I don't think much has changed
this year. He had a lot of off-target throws.
Xavier Howard's pick six was a really
simple run-of-the-mill out route. He was
an off coverage, and the ball was just way behind
him, and it floated right to the defensive player
for an easy touchdown the other way, so a lot of mistakes
in that regard. You mentioned the Patriots running
the ball on first down. The Dolphins got gashed in the
run game for several big chunk plays, you know,
7, 8, 10, 12-yard runs, those type of things. So I think they played charged
up. They definitely took advantage of the Broncos miscues. One thing they really did in that game
that they haven't done really all year was dominated special teams. The Broncos started
eight drives inside their own 15 yard line, which has not been the case all year with the Dolphins
punting and kick coverage game. So that was a big change.
And obviously the Patriots do a good job of, you know,
focusing on the finer details and taking care of that type of stuff.
So it'll be interesting to see if the Dolphins can repeat that performance from last week.
You know, Travis, you mentioned quarterback chart,
and I know that's one of the things you do.
You do it extremely well.
What have been sort of your thoughts on Jay Cutler this year?
Because with Tannehill going down, they make the move for Cutler.
Have you been okay, impressed?
Like what is your major takeaway from Cutler's season?
You just opened a can of worms, my friend.
Go ahead, have the mic, man. It's all yours.
Ryan Tannehill is my guy, 100%.
I think that he gets a really, really bad rap.
And I think that this year really kind of shed some light
on just how valuable he was to this team.
I went back into some of the older tape from 2014, even back to his rookie year in 2012,
and looked at some of the things that he did and the way he kept defenses honest.
You obviously have that read option that's part of the game.
He can keep the ball and run it around the edges on his own and keeps the linebackers honest.
The Dolphins did a lot of good stuff this week in the play-action game with some counter work to Kenyon Drake.
You see those linebackers, just that one false step can make the biggest difference with jay
cutler you don't have that and then you have the lack of accuracy from jay cutler where he just
his mechanics get so faulty so often where he's just throwing from weird platforms his shoulders
and his feet are not like hardwired the way they should be i think the tannahill can obviously
drive the ball in certain areas where cutler cannot on the move that type of thing i think
one area that cutler is better than Tannehill at is climbing
up the pocket, but then his decision-making and his accuracy is just so bad that it doesn't really
pay off for him in the end. So I think that Ryan Tannehill was verging, was, was bordering on
becoming one of those top 10 to 12 quarterbacks before he got hurt last year. He was really
starting to click. Two of his last three games, he had passer ratings over 124. So he was really
starting to find his groove.
And I know it takes a long time for him to do that.
But under Adam Gates, he was starting to develop into the offense.
So Tannehill was a big part of the Dolphins' success last year,
even with JGI's couple of big games that he had.
But Jay Cutler, just from an ability to stand in the pocket
and deliver strikes under duress and under pressure,
he's taken fewer sacks, but he also will bail out
and just kind of throw the ball into the turf quicker and not stare on the gun barrel the way tannahill would so the
passing game has definitely suffered as a result charvis landry's yards per catch number is down
like four it was 12 last year now it's right around eight which is just horrendous for a wide
receiver kenny stills's production is right in line davante parker's production has dipped the
tight ends have gone up a little bit the running backs had gone down up until the JGI trade. So I think your trade-off from the quarterback
position was good for about two to three wins, or I guess two to three less wins than they would
have had if Tannehill was under center. Something I was going to ask you about is that Dolphins
passing game from a schematic standpoint, because it seems to me in the studying that I've done at
them, it's almost like they're more of a vertical passing team trapped inside an offense
that wants to operate at or near the line of scrimmage.
So much reliance on crossing routes.
You mentioned Jarvis Landry and his yards per catch.
But what are your thoughts on the schematic approach that Adam Gase has used this year?
One set that Adam Gase absolutely loves is that 3x1 set.
He'll do a lot of variations off of that where you have the tight end as a y iso on the uh on the boundary side more times than
not with the trips to the play side and he'll do a lot of different crossing routes and you mentioned
a lot of high low concepts with the drive routes and that type of thing and he will build in shot
plays and kenny stills is kind of one of those silent assassin types where he kind of kenny
stills seems to get open deep once or twice a game and whether or not we hit him is kind of the difference in games a lot of the times. I mean,
Kenny Stills had nine touchdowns last year. Eight of them were from 25 yards or more out,
25 yards or more out from the end zone. So he was a big time, a big play threat. And he's kind of
starting to make some of those big plays again, but I think he's really the key to the offense
in terms of getting those big shot plays built in. But Adam Gaze, when he took the job in Miami,
he said this, this league is played within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
So he definitely wants to play an underneath type of game.
I just don't know if his personnel is allowing that
because Jarvis Landry struggles to get open early on routes.
He struggles to separate early on routes.
Devontae Parker has been a complete bust this year.
Just not worth even putting on the field, to be perfectly honest.
He can't get any separation whatsoever.
And then Kenny Stills, like I said, he's more of a kind of progression guy
that has to work into his routes too.
So I think personnel has kind of hampered what they want to do on offense
in terms of the passing game.
But yeah, you're right.
They have been a lot more vertical this year,
and that might have something to do with the fact that we're always in third and long,
and Jay Cutler and Matt Moore just kind of let it rip at that point.
You know, when these teams met a couple weeks ago, Travis, as you know,
Patriots going up against matt
moore they were able to get some pressure on him and part of that i think you know correct me if
i'm wrong here but i think a lot of that was due to more perhaps being a little bit slower in the
pocket a little bit slower with his reads and his decision making do you expect the patriots to have
the same amount of success getting after the quarterback with cutler in or do you think with
cutler in the office the ball will at least get out quicker?
I think that Cutler does a better job of kind of navigating within the pocket.
You saw Matt Moore make that.
He tried to make one of those Russell Wilson kind of spin backside moves.
And it was really, it was a sad look for him.
And I felt kind of bad for him.
But I think Jay Cutler has a little bit more of an innate ability to kind of recognize
the pressure from both off the edges.
And that's why I mentioned he can climb the pocket a little bit better and he does
a better job of doing that but he also like I said you know he'll fade back into those fadeaway
throws and that's where a lot of his mistakes come from is those fadeaway throws and they're
just really rough to watch but I you know I think that that what the Patriots will have to do is
just send rushers up the middle because that's where he's had a hard time dealing with that he
doesn't really move laterally very well.
So I'm sure Belichick will see that on film and they'll dial up a lot of pressure in that way.
One of the things that struck me, Travis,
watching this game the last time was
Patriots were able to have success throwing the ball
sort of in the middle of the field,
some dig routes, some deep crossing routes.
They were finding guys open in space.
I know that after the game there was some talk from Miami
about some coverage breakdowns, some mistakes. did that sort of get cleaned up against denver or do you
think that's still an area of concern as we look ahead to monday night that's a great question
because one i had joe shatt on the miami uh dolphin one of the miami dolphins beat writers
from the palm beach post last get that's a big he's the man he's been awesome he does a lot of
my work on the Daily Dolphin blog.
So big props to Joe Shad.
Love that guy.
But he was telling me – or he had a tweet that said the mantra of the Dolphins 2017 season is,
my bad, I thought you had him.
And you'll see so many of these touchdowns that go down the field,
and you'll see the cornerbacks with Rashad Jones kind of like, what's going on back here?
And I think that it's kind of a combination of a couple of things.
The Dolphins have all three of their starting cornerbacks right now,
if you consider the nickel starter, which I do, are all under 25 years old.
So these guys are new.
They're fresh.
You have TJ McDonald.
This is his first year with the team.
He didn't play the first eight games of the year.
So basically Rashad Jones is the one guy that has been there.
So you have all these new guys working together with Cordray, Tankersley,
Xavier Howard, and then Bobby McCain in the slot.
So it's been rough on them in terms of getting that corrected.
But I think that last week, you kind of started to see it get a little bit better.
And I think their communication has gotten a little bit better in that sense.
But I mean, with the Patriots and kind of their concepts and stuff, you never know when
that can pop back up again.
Mark Schofield, Travis Winfield doing a little crossover action here, locked on Patriots,
locked on Dolphins. Travis, as we look ahead to Monday night,
what would be, to tell Patriots fans out there who are listening,
what would be something you would need to see early in the game
to make you think, okay, this might be one of those
Brady and Miami horror show type games for him,
and the Dolphins get a chance to pull off this one?
Just like you mentioned earlier in the show, Mark,
is getting him in third long and then putting pressure on him. We all know how hard of a time it is to get
Tom Brady off the field, and you have to have constant pressure on him. You have to have that
pressure up the gut. I would say effective blitzing with good man coverage early in routes because
Brady's so sharp at the line of scrimmage and before the snap that if you don't have
a coverage disguise properly, if you don't have a coverage disguise properly,
if you don't have a well-timed blitz, he is going to eat you alive.
And we've seen it time and time again.
So I would say early, third, and long.
So stop the first down run like you had mentioned
and then good pressure with good blitzing on third down.
Yeah, that's a really good point.
And off of that, those are kind of the things that always give me pause
about a Patriots game going into it.
Can this defense they're going up against get pressure on Brady early?
Particularly this year, can they stop the run on first down?
The Dolphins?
Just generally, as somebody covering the Patriots,
can any sort of opponents stop the run on first down this year?
Because that's been such a critical thing for the Patriots, you know, can any sort of opponents like stop the run on first down the sheet? Cause that's been such a critical thing
for the Patriots this year. So, I mean, I guess build it off of that, then do you think that
the Dolphins can do that this week? Yeah, absolutely. I'll get, I'll get your saying
now. Uh, yeah. If the Patriots are in second and three or second and four, it's, it's over,
you're not, you're not going to get them off the field just cause that short passing attack, but
I don't necessarily expect them to excel in that area. One of the things I've seen matt burke's defense is he likes to slant the defensive ends in and then use the outside
linebackers as kind of the edge the kind of the edge setters and it just hasn't really worked out
from that well because laurence timmons is kind of having a rough stretch like i mentioned earlier
and then on the other side of kiko alonzo who he's in the wrong gap i would say 75 of the time
anyway and then the other side they've been kind of doing this rotation with Chase Allen,
a rookie, undrafted rookie, and then Stefan Anthony,
the guy that they bought from New Orleans
for a fifth round draft pick this earlier in the season.
And those guys have had a hard time getting off blocks
and recognizing their run fits early and down.
So I don't think it's going to happen.
And last week they had Devon Godshaw was out of the game
or missed the game with an injury.
And he's a big part of the defensive line rotation as well.
So he's done a good job of taking on double teams this year
as a rookie defensive tackle next to andama can sue without him we have good players behind him
but that rotation definitely takes a hit when he goes out now mark i have some questions for you
can i go ahead and put the script on you here a little bit let's go awesome okay so the first
question i had for you what these are these are questions kind of geared more towards the future
because you guys obviously have a Super Bowl run ahead of you.
You have to make, we're looking at 2018, possibly 2019 before we can even get into that conversation.
So my first question for you is where are the Patriots most vulnerable moving forward?
Where are some areas where we can attack them in this game and then possibly take advantage
of some of these weaknesses down the line in 2018 and beyond.
Yeah, I mean, I think the elephant in the room, so to speak, is the quarterback position.
And I know that seems incredibly awkward to hear when you're talking about the New England Patriots,
when you're talking about Tom Brady in the conversation for greatest quarterback of all time.
But they do have a question mark decision a decision to make at some point.
I know Brady says that he wants to play until he's 40, 45, whatever,
and he's playing it at such a high level right now that it's hard to bet against him.
But they do need to address that position at some point.
So they're going to have to figure out,
I would expect them to be in on a quarterback in this draft,
maybe even early.
Right now, I mean, they're looking at a pick late in the first
and a pick early in the second with San Francisco's,
and so it wouldn't surprise me to see them address quarterback
early in the draft.
So that's one thing.
What happens to the New England Patriots in the post-Tom Brady era
whenever that arrives?
Sort of more in the short term, though, the defensive front is going to be
a question mark for this team because
Dante Hightower,
again,
sideline for the rest of the year.
They've been able to get some pieces in,
you know,
they,
they have Kyle Van Noy who they like a lot of Landon Roberts to sort of
grow it into sort of a middle linebacker role for them.
They have patchwork guys with Trevor Riley,
although he missed last week with an injury,
David Harris,
who they signed,
who's definitely, you know, near the end of his career,
but they've been using him in situations.
And then up front, pass rush has always been a concern for them.
So the defensive front is going to be an area that the Patriots will have to address
and have to lock down if they look to really improve that.
Because as we saw at the beginning of this year, the defense struggled a bit.
Pass rush has always been sort of a question mark for them. So that would be sort of the short-term area I would point to,
that defensive front seven. And long-term, as I said, it's that quarterback spot. What happens?
What does New England look like after Tom Brady hands them off? You just gave me a perfect segue
into three of my next questions. So I guess I'll just pick one of them. The first one I had for
you was, you know, the Dolphins this year, this year a lot of dolphins fans are really salty about the fact that the interior
offensive line play has not been good and the resources they put towards it it wasn't a good
effort they put ted larson out there he gets hurt and when he comes back he's just a trash player
mike pouncey is a shelvin former self and then the right guard position was jermon bushrod who
wasn't good last year they bring him back anyway so my question my question to you, Mark, is the Dolphins,
Adam Gaze does not value the guard position.
It's something that he believes isn't important
because the ball comes out so quickly
that they don't even have time to beat the guys on interior rushes.
So one thing that I had heard, I can't remember who it was from,
but it was that Bill Belichick doesn't necessarily value
the defensive end position because they use a lot of blitzing
with the linebackers, and those outside linebackers
have so much responsibility.
Is that a myth or is that truth?
I think there is some truth to that.
And you look at the evolution of Dante Hightower last year.
I mean, he was a middle linebacker by trade.
But as the season wore on, they started to use him more as an edge defender.
They started doing a lot more with guys like Hightower
and guys like Van Noy on the edge, using outside linebackers
on the outside because you get a couple
of things when you do that. You get
schematic versatility
because you can drop those guys into coverage.
You can move those guys around and you sort of
get confusion up front because it's sort
of like back
when teams played more base, back when
teams, back when 11 personnel wasn't
sort of the base offensive formation and you saw more 4-3 or 3-4.
The reason why the 3-4 was such an interesting defensive front was the fact that you got more, you know, you could do more conceptually with it.
You had different looks you could use with a 3-4 front because you didn't know who was coming and who was going.
Now that teams are running so much 11 personnel and so much nickel,
where nickel, like you said, is base, Travis, which is a great point.
You have to do other things to get that sort of confusion up front.
And so that's why I think why Belichick has started to use guys like Vanduul,
guys like Hightower on the edge.
Get those versatile guys out there because what you're doing with them is
just giving the offensive linemen something else to think about. Is this guy to come or he's going to go because he can do both it's not like
a just dedicated pass rusher like a miles garrett type who you know is going to be coming or you
know von miller who they tried to drop him into coverage when the patriots played them a couple
weeks ago but that's not his best game he can't do that well. And so when you're dropping him into coverage,
you're basically just taking him out of the play.
With guys like Van Nooyen, guys like Hightower,
that can do both things effectively,
it makes the defense think a little bit more.
That's a really, really excellent point.
The Dolphins do a lot of that too,
where they drop the defensive ends back into coverage.
And I swear for the life of me, I haven't seen it work once,
but they do it anyways.
And so my next question for you, Mark,
this is Mark Schofield, Travis Winkfield here on the Lockdown Patriots and
Lockdown Dolphins podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. And so you touched on this
pretty well, but I want to go back to it a little bit because like I mentioned, we're really
concerned about the future. And I personally loved Jimmy Garoppolo out of Eastern Illinois
back when he came out of that class. He was my second favorite quarterback in that class.
And when the Patriots drafted him, I was like, okay, well, I can't like him anymore.
So he goes up to New England and he learns under Tom Brady for so long.
He had that first game in San Francisco last week, his first start.
And I guess he gave him a little bit of a juice in that game.
So does trading Jimmy G, you mentioned talking about taking quarterback high.
I don't doubt that they will.
That's just like Belichick thing to do.
Just keep on turning over those resources and turning them into future resources does that mean that we're stuck with
tom brady for another five years you know travis i i think that's the underlying current to that
decision because you know when you trade away and let's take a couple of steps back here they
traded away jimmy brissett at the start of september you know this was a quarterback room
that had jimmy jimmy garoppolo jacoby brissett and tom br of September. This was a quarterback room that had Jimmy Garoppolo,
Jacoby Brissett, and Tom Brady to start the season.
Now all three of them are starting
quarterbacks in the NFL. That's crazy.
One of them is with the New England Patriots. They traded
away Jacoby Brissett, but you still
have Jimmy Garoppolo, so you still have a high-quality
QB, too. Now you trade Garoppolo
because the financial considerations
were such that it was going to be
next to impossible to have both of those guys on the roster next year because Garoppolo was due for a new deal.
He was going to want not starter money, but a decent contract.
And obviously Tom Brady commands a good portion of their salary cap.
So the cap implications were such that they had to do something with one of those guys. And that was sort of the,
are they actually going to move Brady?
Sort of consideration coming into the season.
But now with the Garoppolo trade,
they have to believe that they've got Brady as their guy for at least the next two to three years
because it would surprise me,
looking at this draft class,
as much as I like the quarterbacks in it,
I don't think any of those guys is ready to sort of step in
and be the guy from day one.
I think some of these guys need a little bit of work.
And now with the Garoppolo trade, yeah,
Patriots organization, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft,
must be thinking, we're going to ride with this guy
for the next two or three years,
maybe even longer depending on how he plays.
We can get our guy in and have him be the next Garoppolo
where three years down the road, say a Baker Mayfield or Lamar Jackson
or whoever they decide to go after,
if they do address the quarterback position, can step into that.
Now having said all that, you've sort of lost sleep
trying to figure out how to go after the New England Patriots.
I've got to tell you from my perspective, Travis,
I've lost sleep, I've lost hair trying to figure out
what they're going to do week in to week out
and especially what they're going to do in the draft.
I'm sitting here thinking they'll go quarterback early.
They might wait until day three
and take a guy like Matt Linehan from Idaho,
who I think would fit their system and I like,
but I wish I could guarantee you what they're going to do.
I think they go quarterback early,
but I've been wrong before on them.
I'll be run again.
Yeah, and there certainly is a lot of quarterbacks in this class worth taking a look at.
So interesting to hear that.
It's just so crazy to think that they could possibly get away with having that confidence in Brady at age 40
because that has been the ultimate cliff for all these legendary quarterbacks.
Dan Marino just – I mean it was a different era back then.
I understand that.
But, I mean, his knees were – they were no longer even functioning at that point.
Peyton Manning just fell off a complete cliff.
Brett Favre.
I mean, these guys all at that 39-40 age limit, they just start to deteriorate.
And you haven't seen any of that from Tom Brady.
And, you know, Travis, you probably know this too from watching Brady
and from studying and charting quarterbacks.
The pocket movement from Brady is what's enabled him to play to this age
and to play at such a high level.
Because, you know, you mentioned Marino, you mentioned Favre,
you know, neither one of them were like more athletic than Brady
or anything like that.
But Brady's ability to sort of like slide, dip, duck,
whatever he needs to do to avoid hits,
he's been doing that at such a good level.
He's been so good at that,
that that more than any avocado ice cream or whatever
is what's enabled him to keep playing at this level
because he avoids those hits.
You don't see him take a ton of hits.
And I mentioned that there was a lot of concern up in Boston
about how he got knocked around a bit
the last time these two teams played.
It wasn't like he was sacked like 15 times or anything like that.
It's just that when you see Tom Brady get hit, it's like, whoa, this doesn't usually
happen because he's usually so good at avoiding this stuff.
Yeah, and it seems like he's just getting better at that kind of stuff in terms of the
pocket movement and just the way he manipulates the blocks in front of him and gets himself
into a platform to throw the football down the field.
And like you said, he's just getting better and better.
It's defying all logic. i don't i can't really understand it but my last question for you here mark is just something that has to do with current patriots so
i'll get your your listeners back tuned into the the current sphere of the nfl and uh you know you
guys lose julian edelman in the preseason you've been without chris hogan for a while now who in
reflect on this for me too and talk about chris hogan is he like a replacement of a player or is
he just kind of someone that was part of the scheme or is he actually a guy
that can go ahead and have success elsewhere and now you're going to be down gronkowski what is
the difference in in terms of schematics and kind of flipping the same question you asked me what
have the patriots done to mitigate those losses and continue to have so much success on offense
yeah and part of it gets back to where we sort of started travis with the the ability and
the more than just the ability the desire in the pre-snap phase to use movement shift and emotion
to find a matchup and then exploit it you know when i sit down every sunday afternoon sunday
night and monday morning to like shout out all these quarterbacks for bleacher reports nfl 1000
projects i'm always blown away at the difference between how the Patriots sort of
approach this pre-snap phase and most, if not all, of the other teams in the league
because the Patriots are so active pre-snap, moving guys around,
and it's because they're trying to find, you know, it's sort of like if you watch soccer,
you know, the beautiful game and the announcer talks about, you know,
probing the defense because you're trying to find that little weak spot
and then take advantage of it. That's what the Patriots
do so well. And so it doesn't
matter if they're running 12 personnel with
Jacob Hollister
and undrafted free agent tight end and Dwayne Allen
or if they're going out there
with 11 personnel, whatever. They're going
to move these guys around to try to find
okay, we found that this one guy
can't cover a crossing route so we're going to try these guys around to try to find, okay, we found that this one guy can't cover a crossing route,
so we're going to try to get Brandon Cooks matched on him to run a dig route.
That's what we're going to do.
And we might not hit it the first time we run it,
but we're going to hit it at some point during this game.
And so that's been the underlying sort of key to their success
is doing the things like that.
You know, I think back a couple of years ago,
they opened up against,
they opened a game against the New York Jets where they motion Shane Vereen out wide and
then run an out and up with them and they get them matched up with a linebacker and
it goes for a 55-yard touchdown because that's the stuff that they do.
They've been doing it for years.
You think back to when they had Aaron Hernandez and Robert Gronkowski as their two tight ends.
They would go up-tempo with Danny Woodhead. And if you wanted to play base, fine.
They would spread you out and go five wide and throw the ball.
If you wanted to go nickel, they would line up with Hernandez
and Woodhead in the backfield, in the I formation.
Because that's been what they do.
They use shifting, sometimes even tempo,
to try to find those matchups and go after you.
Whatever your weak spot is, they'll try to find it.ups and go after you whatever your weak spot is they'll
try to find it and as someone that tries to be a neutral observer when i'm doing the tape study on
other quarterbacks it really is fun to watch because we hear all this stuff about jared goff
and sean mcveigh and how he's been coming to the line of scrimmage you know early in the play
clock so he can get those those defensive audible or the defensive coverages identified from the
quarterback or from the coach rather than the quarterback because you're putting a brilliant mind really in the quarterback's
helmet and tom brady basically is that extension on his own and you can do that pre-snap and it's
just so much fun to watch the way you mentioned the way he attacks things pre-snap and you get
those running backs and he'll motion one out my my title for tom brady last year i did a title
every single quarterback for their season and it was death by a thousand paper cuts because
he would motion out these running backs on to the to the perimeter side of the field and he would he would just run a five-yard
hitch route and it was wide open and off coverage because these guys were scared of a linebacker
getting beat deep and you just throw a little five-yard hitch route and then he runs through
a tackle and all of a sudden you have second and one or you know another first and ten so
it's just so much fun for me to watch as a neutral observer and completely agonizing to watch as a Dolphins fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear you, man. So let's get down to it, getting close here.
Any predictions for Monday night?
I was just going to ask you the same thing. I think that Miami might keep it close in the
first half and then it probably gets away from the second half once the Patriots go to the locker
room like they tend to do and come out and exploit teams with their halftime adjustments. I will say it'll be 31 to 17 Patriots.
Yeah, I think you've kind of got it right.
I mean, I think this is one of those games where, you know,
I'd see it being like a one-score game at halftime.
Maybe the Patriots sort of like break it open a little bit.
I'm not expecting a big blowout or anything like that.
I don't think that kind of thing happens,
especially where it's, you know where it's down in Miami.
Your line right now is 11.5.
Eh, that might be close.
I'd see something maybe in the 31-21 kind of range.
So maybe take the points in this one.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
You guys covered the spread by a half point last time, that lovely
17.5 point spread
by giving us a favor on the snap over Tom Brady's
head for the touchdown. So if you can do that again for us, that would be
awesome. We'll do what we can.
I hope everybody has
enjoyed the Locked Over Patriots
Locked On Dolphins crossover show.
Travis, let the people know where to
find you, man. Yes, sir. It's at
Wingfield NFL on Twitter and also the show is at LockedOnFans.
You can find me on LockedOnDolphins.com with FanRag Sports.
And then the 3rd and 10 website, the quarterback site,
has taken the backseat as I'm too busy to do it right now,
but we'll get back to that in the offseason.
But Twitter is at Wingfield NFL.
Please follow Travis on Twitter.
Please do that.
Does great work with LockedOnDolphins.
Travis Baird, great chatting with you, man.
Really enjoyed it. Yeah, me too, Mark.
And hopefully someday in the future we can get back
on this and maybe have three in the season with the Dolphins
Patriots playoff game one day. That would be nice.
That would be nice, my friend. I would look forward to that.
But regardless, we will definitely be chatting soon,
my friend. Very good, Mark. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
So there you have it, everybody. Me and Travis
getting you ready for Monday night.
The rest of the week is going to be a little bit different.
Friday will not be a game day edition show.
Friday show will probably cover what we see on Thursday night football.
Maybe I'll get into some more draft quarterback stuff.
Who knows?
Lots of different directions we can take it.
Your game day edition will come out Monday.
Look for that.
Until we talk again,
keep it locked right here to me,
Mark Schofield,
and Locked on Patriots.