Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 13, 2018 - Timeine Takes

Episode Date: February 13, 2018

Mark Schofield has a Timeline Takes edition of Locked On Patriots, addressing mock drafts, Lamar Jackson, reader e-mails and more!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning everybody, welcome into Locked On Patriots for Tuesday, February 13th, 2018. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair, as I will be up to and then past the draft and all the way into the next football season. Reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com, LockedOnPatriots.com, DailyMockDraft.com as well. Actually going to dive into something over at that new website today. We're going to do a little Timeline Takes edition of Locked On Patriots. It's going to step away from the off-season positional recaps just here for a bit.

Going to talk some draft stuff. We're going to talk some quarterback stuff. Going to talk a little Lane Johnson, Teddy Bruschi beef at the end of the show. First, I got to start with an email from Angel Ortiz, originally from Puerto Rico, currently living in Arizona due to some work obligations. He sent me a lovely, just a lovely email.

And I will thank him via email later for the kind things he said about the show and the work. But he also addressed the quarterback issue. That issue being the fact that Tom Brady will be nearing the end of his career at some point. And the Patriots, as we expect, will address the quarterback position in the upcoming draft, in this offseason somehow an angel has a very interesting proposition for how the Patriots should address that Nick Foles and it is a fascinating thought obviously we all just watched Nick Foles have sort of a stellar run

to the Super Bowl, to win in the Super Bowl, to earn in Super Bowl 52 MVP. And there is a thought in Philadelphia that the Eagles will probably get what they can for Foles right now for a couple of reasons. One, his cap number jumps into next season. This year his cap number is just $1.6 million. It jumps to $7.6 million for next year.

So the Eagles can save a little bit of money if they move on from him. And the Eagles are in a tough spot financially. Depending on where you look, I'm looking at SportTrack now sport track has them you know four point eight million over the cap I think over the cap calm has them at eight point seven million over the cap so a little bit of discrepancy on those numbers but the bottom line is this the Eagles are in a little bit of precarious cap position so they're gonna need to do some things, restructure some deals, make some moves to get under the cap

because they'll have to sign draft picks. Maybe they bring in some free agents. And they can save some money by moving on from Nick Foles. And you have to imagine that there will be no time more advantageous for the Philadelphia Eagles to try to move Nick

Foles because you've got to think his value is as high as it can be right now. Coming off the Super Bowl, coming off being named Super Bowl 52 MVP. Now, a couple of reasons why the Eagles might not move on from him and why the Patriots, while it is a very intriguing idea, might not make the most sense. Again, this is just my thoughts on it. First, the Eagles have

a starting quarterback in Carson Wentz who's coming off an ACL injury. And the expectation is he will be back for week one of the NFL season, but you can never be sure with these injuries. So the Eagles are going to want to have a good plan B, which they currently have in Nick Foles. And financially speaking,

the cap number for Wentz and Foles combined is about $15 million. You know, Carson Wentz's cap hit for the 2018 season is $7.2 million. Foles, if he remains on the roster, it's $7.6. It's $14.8 million in two quarterbacks, one of whom a first round draft choice, one of whom just won a Super Bowl. And you can make the argument that the easiest way to become competitive in the salary cap era right now is to have a cost-controlled quarterback, usually a rookie, playing on his rookie deal, playing at a fairly high level you know you can call it the

seahawks russell wilson model because it allows you to allocate finances in other areas you know if you look at quarterback contracts overall right now the 15 million that the eagles are set to pay the combination of Foles and Wentz next year, that's less than Mike Lennon, his average year salary. That's less than Alex Smith. That's less than Sam Bradford. That's less than Tannehill. It's less than Brady.

It's less than Ryan and on down the line. I mean, the deal Garoppolo just signed has an average yearly salary of $27.5 million. Not all of it guaranteed, but still. And if you want to sort of look at average guaranteed salary over the years, the $15 million wouldn't even be the top NFL contract because it would still be behind Breeze and Cousins. Cousins might get a bigger deal. And you're paying that to two guys. So I think, one, there might be some interest in the Eagles to, as much as they could probably

get for Foles right now, as much as it might sort of help them financially, to sort of retain Foles, given that Carson Wentz is still cost-controlled, number one, and number two, he's coming back from an injury. So they probably try to retain him. As for him moving to the Patriots, again, it's an intriguing option, but you've got to think that if they want to move Foles, they'd try to do it to a place where he could go and start right away. Because Foles is 29. He just turned 29 at the end of January. How many seasons does he truly have left? He probably wants to maximize his time as a starter

if he has the opportunity. And if he comes to New England, chances are he's not playing for, let's say, best case scenario for him for two seasons. And then, you know, if you're the Patriots, do you want to bring in a quarterback who's going to be 31 by the time he takes over and probably not cost-controlled? Or do you want to draft somebody, bring him in on a rookie deal,

and when he takes over, he's again cost-controlled and you can see what you have in him? So it's an interesting option. And if it becomes clear that the Eagles are going to try to move on from Foles, I think you definitely should inquire to see what it would cost. But given the amount of teams right now that are sort of in that quarterback purgatory, Cleveland, the Jets, the Broncos,

he might have a lot of suitors in the trade market, and Philadelphia might be able to get a pretty good deal for him. But again, I want to thank Andrew for reaching out and the lovely email. I'm going to make sure to get back to him on email as well. Reminder, you can always reach out to me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield, or you can email me, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com,

the best way to get a hold of me. Up next, we're going to dive into the Daily Mock Draft. I'm doing that over at dailyMockDraft.com. Myself, Doug Moore, alternating days. Put up a draft today, a mock draft that somebody thought I would have to and been extremely high to put together this draft. And so I want to break it down because, of course, we talk about a quarterback as well.

That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you. Going to do some timeline take stuff as well in this episode for Tuesday, February 13th. Ladies and gentlemen, hope you got Valentine's Day covered. That's all I'm saying.

Running out of time. We're going to talk now about a mock draft. I'm part of a website, dailymockdraft.com. Myself, Doug Moore, covering the Patriots alternating drafts. A new mock draft every single day because it's mock draft season. Put up a mock today using Matt Miller's most recent board,

using user voted team needs for the simulation. Difficulty level set to the most difficult level. And I put it out and got some good feedback from some friends. Also had somebody say that he had quit smoking for 20 years and he would have to be extremely high to make one of the picks I made, which we'll get to in a second. But first, the first round pick, round one, selection 31, edge defender Arden Key from LSU.

And I don't think it's a surprise that the Patriots are going to try to address pass rush in this offseason. Trey Flowers, Dietrich Wise stepped up at moments. They get Derek Rivers back. They get Shane McClellan back. They'll get Dante Hightower back. But pass rush, it's like pitching in baseball.

It's like quarterback play. You can never have enough of it. And with Arden Key, you're getting potentially, potentially, a top 10 type talent. And if he falls to 31, I think it's incredible value. He led the SEC in sacks with 12 in 2016.

Was a little bit more inconsistent. Had some injury trouble in 2017. But he bulked up as well. He was 238 in 2016, bulked up to 265. Combine might be interesting for him. You want to see if he can stay athletic, if he can put up good numbers,

while sort of maintaining that size. So I think Arden Key would be a pretty nice value at the end of the first round. Now let's go to the second pick here. Obviously with that Jimmy Garoppolo deal, the Patriots have two picks in the second round, which I think puts them in a nice spot because this is, like many recent drafts, that day two, that round two, that round three, you're going to find some great players in that area. And I think I found one with that pick. Lamar Jackson, quarterback, University of Louisville. And this is the one that sort

of set one of the readers off. Thought I had to be high to make this selection. But, you know, I've defended Jackson in terms of him being a quarterback at the next level for a long time now. Started doing it last summer. Put together a thread that you can find of a bunch of resources with how well Jackson plays the quarterback position. So I think he's progressed as a pocket passer, something I talked about on a recent episode of Intentional Scouting with myself and Nate Geary over at WGR in Buffalo, along with guest Connor Rogers, who's co-host of the Stick to Football podcast over at Bleacher Report. Both Connor and I talked about how Lamar Jackson took some great strides in Petrino's offense.

And when I broke down his six interceptions for a video over at InsideThePylon.com's YouTube page, again, I came away with he's running a pro-style offense, making reads, going through progressions, and he made some mistakes, but I think he's made some leaps and strides as a pocket passer. And when you combine that with his almost unparalleled athleticism, I think he can develop into a great player at the next level. And I mentioned Connor Rogers at the Stick to Football podcast because his co-host, Matt Miller, main NFL draft guy for Bleacher Report, has a thread up on Twitter today, on Tuesday, diving into Lamar Jackson. And he starts out saying, if drafted into the right

system, i.e. somebody will use his strengths, Lamar Jackson will have the biggest day one impact of any quarterback in this class. He goes on to say you can point out flaws with him, but he can beat you with his release, which is very quick, his arm strength, which I think is very good, and his legs, which I said are unparalleled. And he highlights,

Matt Miller does, that he's about halfway through his season watching the All-22, and his development, Lamar Jackson's development as a pocket passer is great. Things that some of us have been saying for a while now, and credit to Matt, because like he says at the end of this,

he admits that he was sort of wrong on his initial take because he saw Lamar Jackson live against Clemson. Jackson didn't have a great game. And that sort of tainted his vision of him. But I think it's a, you know, kudos to Matt for sort of outlining his process and what he's thinking is right now from going through Jackson. And,

you know, I think that's something that, you know, we could also to take a lesson from, you know, because, you know, development's not linear for quarterbacks for evaluations and

i think what we need to sort of all do when we all do our work is you know always keep an open mind don't set our opinions our thoughts our takes into stone because these guys will develop progress and regress and our opinions of them should. Studying players, particularly quarterbacks, is a very imperfect science. People screw it up all the time. The NFL has access to all sorts of information that those of us on the outside will never see, and they still get it wrong. So, there's my quick spiel on Lamar Jackson. I think he can be a great quarterback at the next level.

Others clearly disagree, and that's fine. I'm not here bellowing out my opinions from on high here. I've got my thoughts. Everybody else has yours. If everybody had the right opinions and this was easy, it wouldn't be fun to talk about. Let's move on. End of the second round.

Leighton Vander Esch, linebacker, Boise State. The Patriots need to add some athleticism at the second level of that defense. We saw it sort of in the Super Bowl, for example. Downhill thumper type guys might not be the best fit for where the NFL is trending offensively, where the NFL is trending schematically. So I think you need to add some guys that can sort of be more athletic. They can fly around, fly to the football, go sideline to sideline and make plays.

I think they'd get that in the Boise State linebacker. Round three, end of the third round, Mikeeline to sideline and make plays. I think they'd get that in the Boise State linebacker. Round three, end of the third round. Mike Giusecchi, tight end, Penn State. The reason why I went here is, look, I like Giusecchi, first of all. He's a move tight end, not the greatest block in tight end, but you can pair him with Rob Gronkowski, and I think it would be a nice sort of one-two tandem at the tight end spot. Gronkowski a better blocker.

But what I really liked about Jaceki this season, and even into the senior bowl when I got to see him up close and personal, pretty good as a route runner. A lot better than I expected to see. Very good sinking his hips in and out of breaks. I talked about him before on this show, and I think at the end of the third round, if he's on the board, I think that's great value. Two more

picks now. Quickly get through those. Levi Wallace on round four with a compensation pick. Cornerback from the University of Alabama. And Nick Saban corner. There'll be some scheme familiarity. Patriots will probably address corner in this offseason, given that we all sort of expect

Malcolm Butler to move on. Here's a way to get it. Somebody coming in from a similar system will be able to come in and hopefully step in and play pretty quickly. Finally, last pick in this mock draft, Braxton Berrios at the end of the sixth round, wide receiver, University of Miami. Another player I saw down in Mobile. Another player who I think could be somebody that could come in and contribute.

Slot type guy. I talked about him in my Senior Bowl wrap-up show. You get a chance to get him at the end of the sixth round. I think that's a nice fit. Some good value there as well. So that was the mock that I put out today. Obviously, some people liked it, some people didn't, but that's the whole point of mocks. They're fun to talk about.

They give us something to do as we wait for the NFL draft. Ahead, some more on the NFL draft, as well as a quick thought on the war of words between Lane Johnson and Teddy Bruschi. That's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you here. A couple quick topics before closing out the show. First, a tweet, a question from

atpats underscore 1988 on Twitter. How Mark's thoughts on Trey Quinn and Kiki Kuti? Fit for the Patriots. Now, Pats1988, I'll admit I haven't studied Quinn yet. As for Kuti, the slot-type wide receiver with Texas Tech, I'm going through Nick Shamanek now, the Texas Tech quarterback. And Kuti, the slot-wide receiver, has certainly stood out to me. Texas Tech, the Red Raiders, did some stuff with him

sort of in the jet sweep game. They used him routes all over the field, routes down the field, routes in the flat, quick game stuff. I think that if they do address slot receiver, I've just sort of opened my eyes to him now. I'm on board. I think it could be a good fit. I think that's a good call.

Thank you so much for reaching out. I appreciate that a ton. Again, you can always reach out on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Email, if you want, mark. scofield email if you want mark.scofield at gmail.com finally before we go the escalating war of words between lane johnson and teddy bruski lane johnson making comments about how he'd rather play for the eagles because they have fun than they would for the patriots because doesn't seem like they have much fun.

Teddy Bruschi shooting back that winning three Super Bowls was certainly a ton of fun. As for me, as for this war of words, we talk about mock drafts during the offseason because it gives us something to talk about. NFL players, former NFL players probably don't care too much about mock drafts, so they get other stuff to talk about. Like this war of words. I really don't care. To me, winning seems to be like a lot of fun. But if you can win

and have a tremendous amount of fun doing it, like it seems like the Eagles did this year, then hey, good for them. But I'm not of the belief that winning cures all, and if the Eagles went 3-13 this year, I'm not sure how much fun that would be. But look, the Eagles' magical season seems like from top to bottom,

that organization just really put it together this year. They can say whatever they want right now. They're Super Bowl champions. And as for the Patriots, well, we're on to 2018. Because we're not done yet. That's been today's episode of Locked on Patriots. Little timeline takes. Touching on a couple of different topics.

I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.