Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 26, 2018 - Mailbag Monday

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

Mark Schofield takes questions on Sam Darnold and the Patriots' future plans at tight end.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning and welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Monday, February 26th, 2018. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair, coming to you live from Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia. That's right. Your fearless leader is on vacation, but still hopping on the mic to bring you some takes. Reminded to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can follow the work over at Inside the Pylon, InsideThePylon.com.

We are gearing up for our draft guide that we'll be releasing at the start of April. And I haven't been promoting this probably as much as I should. These were the stats as of Saturday evening. 636 player evaluation reports submitted. 421 players evaluated. We've got a team of almost 50 people over at Inside the Pylon working on the draft guide. We have structured this like an NFL franchise where we have

our version of area scouts, our positional scouts. So we've got three main scouts on quarterbacks alone. Myself, Tim Chow, Ted Nguyen. We've got others that are filling out what we call cross-check reports, just like NFL teams do it, where somebody submits a report, another person watches that player,

submits a cross-check report, and then there's a discussion on every single player. We are building our board. We're looking to have 150 full-fledged profiles, then perhaps another 100 or so. They're going to have mini reports. We're building out a big board just like teams do, horizontal and vertical boards. We'll have position rankings as well as an overall big board. So check out insidethepylon.com for more on that. Today, we're going to do a Mailbag Monday show. I asked for some questions on Twitter. We got two questions that I'm going to dive into. Again, look, I'm on vacation. I'm

going to keep it a little short and sweet and tight this Monday morning for you as you get back to your work week. And I look ahead to another day with the kids in an indoor water park that tends to be rather loud. First question, and this is a non-Patriots question, but since the Pats are going to be in on quarterbacks, and since your boy does do a lot of quarterback stuff, I felt it necessary to handle this one at the outset. And part of the reason I want to take this question from this friend on Twitter is because the Pats might draft Kyle Lolleta, and this man was one of the first this past summer to bang the drum for Kyle Lolleta.

He is Nick Martin. He is at TheMcNartin, at T-H-E-M-I-C-K-N-A-R-T-I-N on Twitter. He's a writer for Behind the Steel Curtain. He is a Steelers fan. We won't hold that against him, especially since he drew my eye to Kyle Lalletta months ago. But his question is this. This is a tough one, but do

you think Sam Darnold can find a way to be successful with the Cleveland Browns? And this is a fascinating question, one that we might all have to answer over the next couple of months if the Browns do indeed draft Sam Darnold the first overall pick and about I don't know, three months ago two months ago, I might have been less optimistic about Sam Darnold coming into the National Football League than I am right now and I'll tell you why

a couple of reasons, one Todd Haley and I know that that might be met with some hesitation by Steelers fans, I know that that might be met with some hesitation by Steelers fans. I know that that might be met by some hesitation from other fans that have watched Todd Haley over the years. But I start from this premise. One, if the Browns are going to move on from Deshaun Kizer,

which you can make an argument, and those out there have been making this argument. Emory Hunt, and those out there have been making this argument. Emory Hunt, football game plan, has been making this argument. Full credit to Emory for this. I actually talked to Emory about it a little bit down in Mobile. Why move on from a guy? You've got a quarterback that you can work with, that you can develop. Don't just cut bait on this guy.

Sean Kaiser can still be a quarterback in the NFL. But if the Browns do move on from Kizer and they do draft Donald, you're looking at Hugh Jackson with another rookie quarterback. And I was not a fan of how Jackson handled Deshaun Kizer last year. Look no further than that Jets game. That was a 3-0 game at halftime that the Browns were losing, and they pulled him. And I had such a problem with that decision. Now, I get that Kaiser had thrown a bad pick in the end zone. It was a poor read, a poor decision, stared down an out route. I just add up the classic blunders with the quarterback position. Kaiser had committed him on that play.

But to pull a rookie quarterback at halftime of a one-score game, not even like an 8-0 or an 8-point deficit, it's a 3-0 game. You're one halfway decent drive to tying it up. What message does that send to your quarterback? So, that coupled with how Jackson handled Deshaun Kizer

from a schematic standpoint, the fact that he didn't seem willing to give him that much help from a schematic standpoint, motion, shift, and all the stuff that we talk about here at Locked On Patriots with Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady, they did none of that, minimal amounts with Kizer. It just frustrated me. So when there's this notion of just Jackson getting to develop

another rookie quarterback, I was skeptical. But I think Todd Haley helps as well. Because I think Haley has been open and honest that he's going to tailor an offense to the quarterback, what the quarterback does well. Because I think Haley has been open and honest that he's going to tailor an offense to the quarterback, what the quarterback does well. I think at his core, Haley wants to be more of a downfield passer. And I think that somewhat fits with what Darnold can do. So I think Haley helps in some sense because he's going to have a hand in sort of handling and developing Sam Darnold or any quarterback they roll out with.

So that's one thing. The other thing that I think sort of helps is, you know, and this is something that's been forged in talking with other people who have evaluated Darnold. I have problems with donald from a mechanical standpoint and i've talked about these before i talked about them on the latest episode of intentional scouting that i do with nate geary over at wgr up in buffalo we have a podcast that's dedicated to nothing but scouting quarterbacks it's got a tilt towards the

bills because you know it is a buffalo radio station and we're trying to determine how Buffalo might address their quarterback situation. But as there are fans of other teams that listen to this show for the takes, you might want to check that out if you're really interested in quarterback scouting and stuff like that. So I think, you know, if you want to learn more about quarterbacks, you can listen to that show too. But here's the thing with Donald. And like I said, I have a problem with him from a mechanical standpoint. I've long been of the mind that I don't care what your mechanics look like as long as the ball gets to where it needs to be, when it needs to be, where it should be. If you're putting the ball where it should be,

I don't care if you throw it between your legs, behind your back, whatever. Mechanics aren't a problem until they're a problem. And they've been a problem with Donald. Step it in the bucket, open up his left hip first. The lower body mechanics are a mess. And that's not to even mention the upper body mechanics, which gets a lot of attention. So that's part of the reason I'm down on Donald. That's part of the reason I wonder about him from a scheme fit perspective because he can't right now step into sort of a timing and rhythm-based offense where you structure the route concept to the feet of the quarterback

and the drops have to be done on time. It's a hard transition, I think, to me. But if there's a guy that's going to make it, it might be Sam Donald because some of the other things that he does well, the ability to maintain aggression. He's one of those guys that's not afraid to challenge their own windows. He's an aggressive quarterback. And when you factor in the fact he only started playing quarterback

when he was a sophomore in high school. He was a linebacker initially. So he's not as set in stone as other quarterbacks are. We're talking about a guy that's a redshirt sophomore who's been playing the position for what? Six years? I mean, when I left college, I've been playing quarterback for 12 years. Take that back. 11 years. I did the math right on 12 years. Take that back.

11 years. Did the math right on my head. But 11 years. That's a lot to break down and unlearn. Donald's been playing for basically half that time. So I think when you combine the fact that Haley's going to have more of a role in developing him and that there isn't a product set in stone, I think that you can refine some of what Donald does.

You can clean some of that stuff up, and that takes away some of my hesitancy about him. So I think that Donald can make it work in Cleveland. Long story short, TL, semicolon, DR version. That was question one up ahead. The other question, which is a Patriots-related question, we will dive into that next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you on this Monday episode of Locked On Patriots, doing some mailbag stuff. And the other question that got in, which is a Patriots question, has a Patriots focus, comes from one of my good followers on Twitter, at Studio underscore Jim. Give him a follow as well as give Nick, who we previously mentioned, a follow as well. Follow both of these guys. Hats off to them to sending in some questions.

Really appreciate it. And Jim asks the following question. I feel tight end is an underrated position of need. I think a second round pick on tight end makes sense. It's a loaded class. Thoughts? Yep. Agree with all of the above.

Thanks for listening, everybody. This is the Brigade Show. I'll be back tomorrow. I'm going to dive into it more. I'll elaborate. But I agree completely with Jim on this. Tight end is an underrated position of need. We talked about it with Jeff Rizd in a bit on a previous show. I talked about why it's a position of need. We talked about it with Jeff Rizdin a bit on a previous show.

I talked about why it's a position of need. It's a position of need because A, there's some uncertainty with Rob Gronkowski. I think it's more of a contractual thing. He wants to be paid more. I mean, I ran through the numbers and only 24% of his contract is guaranteed. That's like 40th or something among tight ends in the league.

There are guys that 100% of their contract is guaranteed. Luke Wilson for Seattle, I believe, fit into that category. So Gronk is probably making a little noise because he wants a little bit more money and he knows that his next contract, whenever it's done, might be his last. He's battled injuries. He gets beat up.

The way he plays the game, the way defenders have to play against him, Gronk takes a lot of abuse. And he's a marketable guy. I told the story on that podcast with Jeff Rizdan. Flying home from the Senior Bowl, I'm connecting through Atlanta, walking through the airport with some guys I know. And what do we see? A Brookstone-type

store, but a big cutout of Rob Gronkowski hacking a speaker football thing. He's a marketable guy. He's got a future after the NFL. And he's been smart with money.

He doesn't spend any of his contract money, apparently. He lives off of his endorsement deals, of which there are a lot. But he just wants to maximize the money while he can. But because he's sort of making these noises, you have to, one, anticipate

a life without Gronkowski, and two, after Gronkowski on this roster, you've got Martellis Bennett, who apparently still wants to play, but didn't contribute much. Dwayne Allen, that experiment seems to have gone south. Jacob Hollister is a nice little reserved tight end type. They like him. He's stuck on the roster after being an undrafted free agent.

But how sold are you on him, really? So, yeah, it's a position of need. And Jim calls it an underrated position of need. I would even go so far as to say it's a position of need, period. Rated, underrated, overrated, whatever you want to call it. They need to get another tight end in here. And to Jim's point, this is a loaded tight end class.

You know, I'm doing these daily mock drafts every other day over at dailymockdraft.com and I'm always drafting a tight end at some point because I think the Patriots are going to need to get one in. And it's a deep class.

Look, I like Mike Giusecchi from Penn State. I think he's a move-type tight end. They can give you a little bit of stuff in the blocking game, not a ton. If he's taking a lot of blocking reps as a pass blocker, that's really poor usage for him. He's a pretty good route runner, as we talked about with Jeff Rizdin on that previous show,

former volleyball player, so he's talented there. Mark Andrews is a guy that maybe needs to slim down a bit. Seems like, as we talked about with Jeff Rizdin, put on some weight. But he's somebody that I know a lot of people are high on. Dallas Goddard from South Dakota State. It was a shame to see him get hurt early at the Senior Bowl because I think he could have put on a pretty good show and really sort of helped himself,

but he's another name to keep in mind. Hayden Hurst, South Carolina. A guy that's gotten a ton of attention is Ian Thomas from Indiana. Now, he had a fantastic game against Ohio State in the season opener. Didn't do much after that, but I know people like him. Dalton Schultz from Stanford. Ryan Dukarm over at InsideThePylon.com. He has a great video on Schultz that you should check out.

YouTube.com backslash InsideThePylon. You can check that out. Breaking him down. Tyler Conklin from Central Michigan. He was okay down at the Senior Bowl. Trifu Magali from Wisconsin, a lot of people really like him.

Wisconsin tight end who did some nice things down at the Senior Bowl. It's a very deep group. And Jim raises the question, that pick at the end of the second round, you can get a guy either that pick at the end of the second round. You can get a guy either at that pick at the end of the second or anywhere from the third, fourth, even fifth round.

One of these guys will be there for you. And I think all of these guys are great to sort of come in and be that tight end two type behind Gronkowski with the ability and potential to develop into a tight end one in this league. So it's interesting the way this draft class, this draft cycle, has ended up laying out for the Patriots because there are two positions that they need to address, but not necessarily immediately,

but they set up nicely for New England. One is tight end like we've been talking about. The other, like I've been talking about a ton, is quarterback. You know, this is a quarterback class that has guys that have potential, that can develop, but all of them have words. And so there's the potential for somebody in that upper tier of quarterback

in this group to fall to New England. There's also potential for them to find that guy on day two or maybe even early day three if they want to sit and learn behind Tom Brady because with Brady, having Brian Hoyer,

if something happens to Tom Brady, you won't need to play the rookie right away. You'll have Brian Hoyer. And so it's a perfect year, I think, to address the future quarterback with this group of quarterbacks with Brian Hoyer on the roster. Same for tight end. Maybe you rely on Hollister a bit.

Maybe you like what he does in his growth from year one to year two. Maybe you bring Bennett back on a prove-it type deal. Maybe you do something with Dwayne Allen, restructure his deal. But then you can get a tight end who might be the guy that, okay, we don't need to rely on him right now, but if and when Gronkowski walks away and we need to bump somebody up to TE1, we'll have a guy in-house that we've developed a little bit

who can fill that role. So again, thanks to Nick. Thanks to Jim. Follow both of those guys on Twitter. You can follow Nick at TheMcNartin. You can follow Jim at Studio underscore Jim. Follow both of those guys on Twitter. You can follow Nick at TheMcNartin. You can follow Jim at Studio underscore Jim. Provided

I survive the rest of this day here at Grave Wolf Lodge down in Williamsburg, Virginia. I will be back tomorrow. We'll do some timeline takes tomorrow and frankly, I'm going to focus on just one issue. It has been a dominating issue on

Draft Twitter and the football media world and it has threatened to tear the fabric apart of draft media. I'm going to address that tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patreon.