Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 19, 2019 - Kaepernick, Jones, Flowers and the AAF

Episode Date: February 19, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a Tuesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on today, Tuesday, February 19th, 2019. Hope those of you that had the day off on Monday found it relaxing, found it enjoyable. I was with my kids owen and simone were home with me so we were running around trying to make the best of it they built a lot of forts they played a lot of games dragged into the grocery store they were eroded with a trip to the toy store as a result but it was all good fun but got a chance to sneak away to record an episode for all of you. What we're going to do today, we're going to talk a little AAF. We're going to talk some Trey Flowers.

We're going to talk a Mel Kuyper mock draft and the player he mocked to the Patriots at 32. Gives me a chance to talk about what I like to talk about most. But first, we're going to talk Colin Kaepernick. Before we do, though, a reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, as I've said. If they are covering football, I'm covering it for them. Let's start though with Colin Kaepernick. And I'm not going to focus on the legal aspect here. Obviously, Colin Kaepernick,

Eric Reid, they just reached a settlement with the NFL to settle their collusion case. I could put the legal hat on and say that, look, when a party settles a case, everybody gives up a little something. Cases should get settled. That was one of the things my first law professor and legal advisor taught me in law school. If a case gets to trial, somebody screwed up. I could also say that, look, when part of the settlement agreement is a non-disclosure agreement, it means that one or even both of the parties don't want some information getting out. I could also tell you that one of the things that isn't disclosed is the amount of money that's paid. Usually the people writing the checks are the ones that don't want things disclosed.

I could spend a lot of time talking about that, but what I want to talk about is this. In the wake of the settlement agreement, Kaepernick's attorneys mentioned two teams that he thinks would be willing to sign and calling Kaepernick. First, the Carolina Panthers, and they have a new owner that, given some of his comments about similar situations, might be amenable to Colin Kaepernick. That's one team that was mentioned. The other is the New England Patriots. And because of that, I felt that it would be a good thing to talk about Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback. I'm not going to dive into the reason that he brought the collusion case. I'm not going to dive into some of the external factors that might make people lean in one way or the other when it comes to Colin Kaepernick.

There's a time and a place to have that discussion. Given what the Patriots have built, that if he were to sign in New England, there would be people that would give Belichick and give Kraft and give everybody the benefit of the doubt regarding the larger situation. And whatever you want to say about Colin Kaepernick and some of the things that he's done and some of the stances that he's taken, I think that if you have the backing of Kraft and Belichick and company, people are going to look beyond that. So I want to talk about Kaepernick and his potential fit in the New England Patriots offense. And that requires us to take a look at Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback, and how he played when he was sort of, for lack of a better phrase, found himself on the outside looking in. And I think when you look at Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback, there's sort of the general understanding of how he plays the position

and then a more nuanced approach. The general understanding of Colin Kaepernick is that he relies on his athleticism. He needs a lot of help from a scheme standpoint. He's forced to create a lot more than he should. He takes a lot of risks. He wasn't really playing the position well. And that might lead one to believe that Kaepernick's probably somebody that shouldn't find a new gig. A lot of people that look at Kaepernick, they look at some of the recent statistics, the win-loss record, things like that, and say, look, it's not going to work in the NFL. And they point to other people that have gotten opportunities in the NFL and say, look, if

Colin Kaepernick was any good, he wouldn't be on the outside looking in when it comes to being on an NFL roster. But I think if you sort of study his film from when he was most recently playing, you see evidence of him showing some development at the quarterback position beyond the general understanding of where Colin Kaepernick is as a quarterback. You see him working through progression reads. You see him with a nuanced understanding of leverage and coverage, throwing people open, throwing people away from defenders, throwing people away from coverage. And these are the things that are sort of those non-negotiables of the quarterback position that tend to work, that tend to extend careers, that tend to allow quarterbacks to play into their 30s and 40s.

And so I think Kaepernick is a better passer and a more nuanced passer than he gets credit for. but the issue becomes is he a quarterback that would fit with what New England wants to do offensively at least right now because you'd have to think that if he comes in it's to be a backup maybe not the quarterback of the future right because the Patriots have an offense they have a system that they've been running for two decades now and maybe they would tailor it to a new quarterback would that be Colin Kaepernick I don don't know. You'd have to think that New England would be looking to the draft, whether it's this year or next year, depending on how they would handle a Kaepernick sign-in to find their true next quarterback of the future. In New England's offense as currently constructed, I'm not so sure that Kaepernick is the best fit from a schematic

standpoint. Now, people can have different views on how a quarterback or how any player sort of fits into an offense or a defense schematically. This is when you typically have in those draft rooms, those meeting rooms, when you're stacking your boards, when you have the most heated discussions from what I've been told by scouts and others, is that people can often agree on what a player does or doesn't do well. But when it comes to projecting scheme fits, that's when you see the most tempered or the most, shall we say, volatile discussions. From where I sit, I think Kaepernick fits more of a downfield vertical passing attack he's a quarterback that has a very good arm and can put the ball downfield into some tighter windows

can place the ball pretty well in the vertical passing game because of things like his throw in motion because of things like his process and speed I think he fits more of a downfield passing attack that's not exactly the New England Patriots passing offense. New England Patriots is more of a West Coast offense, more of a timing and rhythm-based offense. And yes, I know people are going to come back and say, well, he ran Harbaugh's offense. That's more of a West Coast offense.

And yes, there were elements to what Harbaugh was doing that fit more of a West Coast passing game. Now, what New England does relies more on timing, rhythm, process, and speed, and the quarterback getting the ball out of his hands very quickly. And Kaepernick, that's not something that he does a ton of. Now, part of it is, look, he's playing behind some offensive lines. It made him create more. He was buying more time sometimes in the pocket, even though the majority of his throws did come from the pocket. He's not this sort of like wild scrambler right now. He's a pocket

quarterback. But I think he fits more with a downfield passing game. And I do think that the Panthers are a better fit because they were more of a vertical attack. Look, you've got Norv Turner, right? Sort of Mr. Correale. I think that is an ideal scheme fit because obviously that offense is built also around some athleticism at the quarterback position. They involve Cam Newton as a runner at times. I think Kaepernick would fit extremely well in the Panthers' offense. I'm not so sure about the fit in the Patriots' offense.

But I did find it interesting that Kaepernick's lawyers mentioned those two teams. I felt it was necessary to sort of chime in on what Kaepernick could bring to the table as a passer. I think he's a very good passing quarterback, pocket quarterback, that is developing and showing you signs of improvement. Obviously, the time away, there might be a lot of rust there. But I think if Kaepernick wants to play, and these are the two teams that I've sort of looked at as options for him, I think for him and his skill set, the Panthers are probably the better fit. Up next,

Mel Kuyper, given the Patriots a quarterback at 32 in his most recent mock draft. We're going to talk about that and that QB next on this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. And yes, as we talked about in yesterday's show, we are firmly into mock draft season. I had my first mock draft Monday episode of the Locked On Patriots show yesterday. We're going to be doing those each Monday. I'm excited to do those once we get those compensatory picks and then you get all 12 picks and you can really see how the Patriots could

really improve their roster at some spots. Yes, they just won the Super Bowl, but getting better every day, right? The interesting thing about mock draft season is obviously everybody's doing mock drafts. They're sort of the bane of the football media world. People love them. People like to click on them. Then people like to throw shade and ire at the person that created the mock draft these picks were awful these picks were really awful why do you still have a job this is a nice scam you actually get paid for this how do i get that gig legitimate comments people hear from time to time myself included, what's interesting about this is it gives you a window into how different, whether it's media analysts or draft analysts or scouting evaluators, view team needs, view where a roster currently is and view the talent that's out there.

And so you can sort of get a good picture of how people view your roster and view the talent in the upcoming draft by assembling these mocks and saying, okay, well, these are the players that this guy's given us. These are the players that this guy's given us. These are the positions that we seem to get mocked to the most. So people must think that these are areas of need for us. And so it's always interesting to sort of assemble these mocks and have a little wrap up and say, okay, well, these are the types of players that are currently getting mocked to us, say the New England Patriots. And teams are doing that themselves. The New England Patriots right now, they have a mock draft tracker on their website, patriots.com backslash news backslash 2019-patriots-mock-draft-tracker.

There it is. And they've got assembled all the different mocks that have currently mocked players to the Patriots starting back in, looks like December 31st from Rob Rain. Jerry Tillery, defensive tackle Notre Dame. Obviously that was before sort of the Super Bowl and all that, but you can sort of see people starting to address different positions. And you know, Kyler Murray has been mocked to the New England Patriots a couple of times. We talked about him last week. Christian Wilkins, defensive lineman from Clemson, Debo Samuel, that was from Will Brinson.

But the most recent one, which has caught a lot of buzz, is Daniel Jones at 32 to the New England Patriots from Mel Kuyper. And obviously when Mel Kuyper says something, it carries some weight because he's been doing this for years. He's plugged in. And so when he mocks a player to a team, you pay attention, even if you disagree with it. And what he says about Daniel Jones is this. Don Brady is going to be 42 when the 2019 season begins.

It's unbelievable what he's continuing to do on the field, but the Patriots have to start thinking about the future, right? Jones could be the heir apparent. He has learned from quarterback guru David Cutcliffe at Duke. You can see it in his footwork. He excels in the pocket. He is athletic too, and he has a big 6'4 frame. There's no guarantee that Jones will be the third quarterback off the board,

but this fit makes a lot of sense. And people that have listened to this show or Herbie and other shows probably know where I'm leaning when it comes to Daniel Jones. And I'm not leaning anywhere good. I'm not done with him. I'm not done with grades. But as a guy with a lot to prove and a chance to really solidify himself as a first-round

quarterback in this draft down in Mobile, I left Alabama unimpressed, underwhelmed, and I've gone through my reason in autumn here and elsewhere. I look at Jones as if you think there are four potential, and I'll say potential, first-round quarterbacks in this draft. Haskins, Murray, Locke, and Jones. Jones is one of the two that's probably the most scheme-specific. Thought about him primarily as a West Coast passer. He's best on those short route concepts. Slant flat, hitches, tossers, all the sort of West Coast designs that are, yes, a part of the Patriots playbook. That's where he seems to be his best. Process and speed and decision-making are at their best on those designs. Ball placement, it's at its best on those designs. When you sort of get into the intermediate and downfield areas of the field, that's when the placement and such tends to dip and struggle a bit.

Now, there are some things that he does well. You know, he does some small things like his cadence, his use of hard counts and things like that. He gets people to jump off sides. Sometimes he gets his own teammates to jump off sides. But his placement in the short area of the field is great. You can watch his game against Virginia. You see, you know, a 3rd and 5 situation in the short area of the field is great. You can watch his game against Virginia. You see a 3rd-and-5 situation in the third quarter. There's a hitch route, first and 10 in the third quarter,

another hitch route where the placement leads to yardage after the catch. One of his best plays was against Virginia on an Ohio concept where you have two receivers to one side. The outside receiver runs a go. Inside receiver runs an out from a slot. He looks to throw the out route first. The cornerback on the outside passes off the vertical and traps it, sort of a cover-two-trap look.

And he throws a vertical route along the boundary of the great velocity and placement. But his accuracy in a number of different situations tends to dip and it bothers me. His accuracy in those sort of set and reset situations, it dips a bit when he has to reset his feet. His accuracy on anticipation throws to all levels, it dips. His process and speed against the blitz, that struggles. There's a red zone play, a first and goal, a first and 10 in the red zone in the first quarter against Georgia Tech where the process

and speed is a bit slower than it needs to be to get strip sacked. The offense ran a ton of backside ex-ISO routes, where you've got a three-by-one formation, and he just sees the matchup on the backside, and he throws that route. He will lock onto these and lead defenders to the football with his eyes. His footwork lacks precision on his drops. Again, footwork isn't a big thing, but it matters to me. And when you say, as Kuyper does it, footwork is a reason for thinking that he's a first-round quarterback, I would push back on that a little bit. But this isn't the first time, and it won't be the last time we hear Daniel Jones mocked the Patriots and as somebody that as I said is leaning away from Jones this might be a situation where I'm gonna you know

get the the scenario that I wasn't hoping for and that is maybe the Patriots do see something in Jones and so we will see we will see how Jones performs at Indianapolis and coming up in a couple of weeks, see if that footwork looks better to me, see if he has sort of a bounce-back performance from the senior bowl, but when Mel Kuyper says a name and links it to your team, you pay attention.

Up next, we're going to talk Trey Flowers' franchise tags and a little bit on the AAF to close out this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots.

And Tuesday is a kind of big day in the National Football League. Why? The window to tag players, be it a franchise tag or the transition tag, opens on Tuesday. And it ends at 4 p.m. on March 5th. And obviously the name that sort of comes to mind is Trey Flowers. Are the Patriots going to use this tag, this roster move, on one of their best players, their best defensive player at least in the defensive front right now and if you want to read some more about this obviously there are

some great people that can work through the numbers with you like our great friend Miguel Benzon at Patscap on Twitter via Boston Sports Journal also Phil Perry over at NBCSports.com, Boston. He has a great piece that he put up on Monday, Monday afternoon. As franchise tag window opens, potential Patriots flowers marriage about to get complicated. I would highly recommend you read that. And what Phil gets into is this. With a $190 million salary cap, the league back in December projected it would be about that range. The franchise tag for a defensive end would be about $17.3 million. Now, if you slap that franchise tag on him,

you keep Flowers on a one-year guarantee for about $17.3 million and a $17.3 million cap hit. That would give him the second highest cap hit on the team behind only Brady's 27 million. Now, he might be worth it. He might not be. That's a lot of money to throw at one player at one position on the defensive front. Now, what's also interesting to remember is this. This is a very interesting edge rusher class. When you look at some of the people, some of the guys that are going to be available right now, if you look at four, three defensive

ends, here's a sampling of some of the four, three defensive ends that are going to hit the market now or are on the market right now. Demarcus Lawrence, Ezekiel Ansah, Cameron Wake, Vinny Curry, Brandon Graham, Michael Johnson from the Bengals, Julius Peppers, although he's announced he's retired, but maybe things change. Bruce Irvin, Deion Jordan, Frank Clark, John Simon. And then scrolling all the way down here, you get to Trey Flowers. Isaac Rochelle is another name of the Chargers that I'm kind of keeping an eye on. But there are some really

good players out there. You've also got Genevion Clowney, Dee Ford, Dante Fowler. I mean, there are some good pass rushers in this free agency period. And so that raises a couple of questions. Do the Patriots just realize that maybe they don't need to tag him, given the people that are out there? Do they take the approach that they've sometimes taken? This is what Phil Perry points out. Would they let him test the market? They did that with Dante Hightower and Devin McCourty. Go ahead, test the market. See what it's like. If you get a big-time contract, congratulations. If you don't, we'll be here waiting.

They might do that, and it could pan out this year because when you look at some of the players that are available, people like Clowney and Ford and Lawrence, Clark, Graham, maybe they get big-time offers up front, and that allows the Patriots sort of slow roll the approach here. Or maybe people look at Flowers and what he did and they think, yeah, it's too good to pass up. Especially when you see all the teams that have a ton of cap space like the Bills and the Jets. You know, they'd love to sign away Flowers from New England.

One, that gives them a boost to their defense. And two, it weakens a division rival. And so the Patriots might be inclined to take that approach the problem is with the cap space teams have even though it's a deep free agency class at the pass rusher position you still will see people throw money at flowers and then you won't be able to resign them and so i'm not saying that this makes me think the Patriots will use the tag on him, but I think as opposed to some years past, it's more of a possibility. How much more? Maybe 10%, 15%. More than zero.

Less than 50%, I'd say. But I think it's something to consider, that they might want to use that, put the tag on him try to make the numbers work somehow because you know he's going to get a ton of money offered to him and if you anticipate that you know trent brown's going to be walking probably to one of those divisional rivals last thing you want to do is let the bills double up and take away both flowers and brown for example and so i think while it's not a given i think the patriots might entertain them just something to keep in mind again as the franchise tag period opens today

one more thing to hit before we go the aaf week two in the books your orlando apollos moved to two and over the comeback victory over the San Antonio Commanders. I wrote my first AAF piece. I did. It's over on InsideThePylon.com right now. It's kind of a riff on what I was doing over for the score during the NFL season. We caught it well executed, looking at the best run play, pass play, sack, interception of the week, as well as some game balls,

and a question for week three. Question for week three is simply this does the memphis express does mike singletary stick with christian hackenberg because i was watching that game they had nothing they had nothing in the second half yeah hackenberg had a touchdown run but you know i i put out a tweet when they had one last drive go be a hero and they couldn't what's interesting watching some of these af games and this is something i'm gonna keep an eye on i was watching i watched that game. I watched the Birmingham Salt Lake game. Luis Perez, fantastic story. The Birmingham Iron quarterback. You see a lot of checkdowns,

and it probably makes sense given how the rules limit how many people you can rush the passer with. So you're seeing a lot of softer coverage a lot of six seven eight guys in coverage and so these quarterbacks are going to be forced to check the ball down at times now doesn't stop the head ball coach from dialing up some concepts he had a great scissors concept that i wrote about that they hit for a touchdown garrick gilbert former patriot to jaylen marshall but i'm going to be interested to see if they start to loosen that restriction because it's forcing these quarterbacks to really check the ball down. And people in today's media climate, they're not coming to games to see check downs. They want to see the ball thrown downfield a bit.

And so you might have to see them say, okay, well, now you can rush. Maybe you can rush six. So you get some more cover one situations, get some more man coverage situations out there, and then you might see the quarterbacks take a couple of shots downfield. I don't know. Just throwing that out there. That will do it for today, though. I will be back tomorrow, Wednesday.

What we're going to do? I don't know yet. I'll think of something, though. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.