Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 26, 2019 - Tape Tuesday

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a tape Tuesday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Tuesday, February 26th, 2019. What are we going to do today? We're going to start stacking the tight end board. This is what teams are doing right now. They're going through. They're doing cross checks.

They're doing film evals. Going back and looking at players yet again. They're waiting on medicals and meetings and workouts and stuff like that from the combine in Indianapolis. And they are starting to stack their boards at every single position. Teams have both horizontal and vertical boards. They've got position rankings and they've got big boards and stuff like that. And so we're going to start filling in that tight end board. What I'm going to do, I'm going to give some film review notes on some of the tight ends

that I've watched. There are still some guys that I've got to get tape on. There are still some guys that I have yet to watch, including some more small school or day three type guys. And I know people at the Locked On Patriots Slack channel have some big thoughts on. Also, we got some more news on the Robert Kraft situation. So we'll get to that a little bit later. So what we'll do, like I said, we'll have film notes on the guys that I've watched.

We'll sort of roughly rank those guys. We'll revisit this with some more film work a little bit later, probably after the combine. I'm envisioning sort of setting the Patriots tight end board with all of you before the draft. But before we do anything, 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 there's a website that is covering football, chances are I am doing some work for them.

Got some stuff out over on Matt Waldman's site, including a quarterback Q&A. Going to be doing some stuff over at Big Blue View to get people ready for the combine on the quarterbacks, as well as some combine recap stuff over there. Also, check out the QB Scosio over at BGN Radio, Bleeding Green Nation. Check out that show as well. Let's start with some film review notes here. I'm going to work through these tight ends sort of in the order that I've watched them and then sort of give a rough rank on these guys when we're done talking about them.

Let's start with TJ Hawkinson. Arguably, everybody's tight end won at this point. We came into this season knowing Noah Font, knowing who he was. Not sure who TJ hawkinson was but he jumped out at me when i was doing some work on iowa uh over at minnesota rivals when iowa and minnesota were about to square off actually i think it was iowa and wisconsin were about to square off i watched that iowa wisconsin game it was blown away by these two tight ends hawkinson has become te1 for most people. And Daniel Jeremiah, at MoveTheSticks on Twitter,

just came out and basically said, he is the cleanest, most sure thing in this draft. It's amazing to watch his rise. But you see why when you sort of get a chance to look at him on film. He is an all-around tight end with the skill set to operate immediately, like day one in an NFL offense. They used him all over the field, lining up in line next to the tackle, in the wing, in the slot, at H-back, at Y-iso.

They even put him out wide towards the numbers and the boundary in some stack-slot alignments. He's a powerful blocker at the point of attack on both zone and power designs. Great footwork as a lateral mover in line. Effective both at the point of attack and backside on zone run schemes. You can trust him to seal backside on both zone and power. He will cut block backside defensive ends if necessary, but he's got the athletic ability to get those players to the ground. Strong upper body, good leg drive. He can throw defensive ends, linebackers, safeties, cornerbacks.

He can throw them out of the club when necessary. Watch the Maryland game. There are some players in that Maryland game who are having nightmares about Hawkinson coming their way. You can even see him active pre-snap. If they've got a run design called and he has to figure out a double team with a tackle, with the other tight end, you will see him gesture into that teammate, pointing out guys,

pointing out shifts and things like that. So he seems like a very smart, heady type player. As far as a route runner, very good as a route runner has the ability to run away from most man coverage defenders, including some corners. You can watch him run a band-aid post route against, I think, a redshirt freshman corner against Northwestern. He just runs away from her on this post route. Of course, he can run away from linebackers and safeties.

Hands catcher, extends the armor away from the body, wins at the catch point. Very tough over the middle. He would take the shot, hold on to the ball. Vertical threat in the passing game. He was a yellow deep ball that he caught against Wisconsin that sort of blew my mind back in October when I was studying him. Effective against man, also against zone. Has a good eye for finding grass between defenders. Some weaknesses, sometimes he'll stumble at the

release point. I think he expects to get a chip or a jam or something and sometimes when he doesn't get that you can see him stumble a little bit when getting into his routes off the line which costs him a second or two as he releases. He did lose a fumble against Northwestern, so ball security was an issue. He was fighting for additional yardage there. When blocking in space, whether it's second level or third level defenders, sometimes he'll lose contact with defenders. Sometimes he'll fail to get his feet laterally just quick enough. Some of those stacked smoke situations where he's blocking on a smoke screen, he sometimes loses that guy. But look, he's a versatile tight end who can fill many roles on day one in the NFL, gives you the full route tree from quick game to vertical game. He's an immediate starter at tight

end two for most NFL teams. I think if Gronkowski comes back, he's immediately your tight end two. If Gronk leaves, he could step in and be your tight end one. Full range skill set for the tight end position as a rookie, which is rare. He gives you the blocking. He gives you the route running. He gives you it all. Definite first round pick, immediate starter value. We'll get to it in a second, but look, he's tight end one. Next guy I watched was Noah Font, his teammate from Iowa, who is a bit different of a tight end. He's more of the move type guy. Versatile in terms of alignment and assignment.

You saw him as a big X, as a Z out wide, lining up in receiver spots, an inline tight end on the win and in the slot. That was all in the first quarter of Iowa's game against Maryland. He's a willing blocker at the point of attack on both zone and power designs. He's athletic enough to cut on backsides of zone running plays. Can be very effective blocking against secondary players on the edge or downfield. Maryland's corner number 13, he's going to have nightmares about font. Good lateral quickness on the backside of zone plays. You saw that against Iowa State early in that game. Good recognition as a blocker.

Will and blocker will engage and then chop step to drive people. Good lateral quickness from the win on some exchange blocks. There was one on the red zone against Maryland. Good feet, good quickness and feel as a route runner. He gets on defenders. He looks more like a wide receiver at times because he really has a, I don't want to say fully explosive off the line, but he's very quick off the line, has good short area quickness. So he will get on defenders, get on their toes basically,

and then break off of that. So he shows good feel as a route runner, knows when to sink the hips, knows when to cut. Good launch speed and some vertical routes as well, as well as crossers. He can run away from slower corners and safeties. Short area burst, gets him into defenders quickly, like we said, and then he can win from there with size and speed. He also draws a lot of contact downfield. He's going to get a lot of flags thrown his way you know helping his offense in the pro game. Iowa found ways to get him the ball in space. They even threw him some designed swings and there's a reason. He's got very good change of direction abilities as a ball carrier. As far as weaknesses goes, he can get overpowered by bigger, stronger defensive ends when used as an in-line blocker, so that might not be his best role. Sometimes he overruns some blocking assignments, particularly

in the open field or when tasked with coming into short motion and cracking on inside linebackers or safeties. He does have some lapses in concentration, even in uncontested situations. I talked about those designed swings. He had a drop on a play like that um which kind of caught my eye i think it was the maryland game but i'm not positive i'd have to check my notes on that but overall a very solid player again he's more of that move tight end big x type guy in the nfl teams that run a lot of 12 or 11 with a big type x would love to have him. To envision him as a pure every down tight end one asks for a bit of projection, but I think in an NFL strength and conditioning program, some refinement, working as a blocker,

developing that upper body strength a bit, I think you can project him there, but you do wonder if that hurts the rest of his game as a move type tight end. But I think, look, if you have a solid tight end one, if Gronk comes back and you're still convinced, you can pair him with Gronk, and you can envision some situations where you've got both of them on the field. You can envision some situations where it's just Font as the only tight end,

more of a big X and 11 personnel-type situation. You could go 12 with him and a Dwayne Allen, or more of a blocking-type tight end on the field as well he can give you mismatches right away iowa used him all over the field and so you know he might not be a pure tight end one in the nfl right away but he could get there in three years and he might be a good fit for new england if you think look gronk is going to come back but we don't know how much longer we have with him. He's a guy that could compliment Gronk at the beginning and then sort of move into that full-time,

tight end one role as Gronk retires. So those are the two Iowa guys. Up next, I'm going to get through some of the other guys that I watched, including a player that I think is sort of the child, I'd say, of Font and Hawkinson, which might make him perhaps tight end two on people's boards. And also, I'm going to ask the question, Font in the first round or another player we're going to talk about in the fourth round?

Let's get some interesting things that the Patriots could do in terms of value. That's ahead on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And we went through the two tight ends to start things off. Now it's time to talk about some other tight ends

that might be talked about, perhaps as round one picks. And we'll start with a guy that might be a round one pick, and that's Irv Smith from Alabama. And I teased in the earlier segment that, you know, the next player we're going to talk about might be sort of the child of T.J. Hawkins and Anoa Font.

And that's what he is. You know, because when you watch Smith in his game at Alabama, and I watched him against Arkansas, against A&M, Tennessee, and Mississippi State, he's a multi-purpose tight end. Can be used in a number of different roles. I said that for the other two guys. But with him, Alabama used him in the way, and they used him as an H-back. They put him in the slot wide and tight.

They put him in line. But he's a very technically sound blocker on both power and zone plays. Good hands uses. Once he gets his hands into you, it's over. But he also shows very good awareness with his hands to drop or disengage when the defender tries to get outside the frame, so he avoids holding penalties. I like seeing that from him.

Very good lateral quickness on zone blocks or reach blocks. He will more likely than not stalk and mirror in the open field rather than fully engage, so that's something to watch. Sometimes I like to see these guys just go up and hit somebody, play the game a little angry when I talk about a guy that does that in a moment. They used him on slice or cross blocks, on split zone designs from the wind. Very good quick first step off the line of scrimmage from getting into routes. Number of different pass patterns on Alabama, including crossers, shallows,

unders, digs, outs, and corners. Very dangerous after the catch. Long touchdown catch and run against Arkansas that you should check out. I actually put that video into the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. If you want to see it, hit me up for an invite at Mark Schofield on Twitter. He can combine power and balance to pick up yardage after the catch.

They also trust in him with pass protection, which I like to see because the Patriots do do that. Here's what's interesting with that. He has a reputation as a great route runner, but I think he could be even better. When you watch him on film, and I put together a clip, again, in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. This is kind of how we're working through these guys. I've been dropping some film clips in and talking about them with everybody.

He uses a lot of false or extra steps that slow down his breaks and cuts. There was one play that he had. I think it was against, I want to say it was Mississippi State, where he had to catch down into the one-yard line on a corner route, but he uses like six or seven steps to make the cut. Some other guys you're seeing one step and goes at the tight end position. So with some refinement there, he could be even better. He'll also sometimes use a sort of skip step or a hop off the line, especially when he's in the slot or in the wind. That delays him getting into routes.

I mentioned him sort of stalking and mirroring players rather than going up and engaging. So there are times when he gets beaten to the ball carrier by quicker defenders. And there are also times when he dropped his eyes as a blocker, particularly on those sort of slice or cross blocks, where he dropped his eyes from the target and whiffed on blocks. That happened a couple times against Tennessee. But I think, look a shanahan type of offense makes a ton of sense for him he's a tight end two as a rookie with tight end one upside fits into any passing scheme

really because of the use them in a number of different routes now he's got more experience as a route runner and some of these other guys will talk about i think he gives you starter type production as a in a 12 personnel. I don't think he supplants your starter at tight end, but he might. But he can also, look, he can be used in that role because of his blocking ability. He's like a better blocker than Font, but he does some of that stuff as well. And he also does some of the stuff that Hawkinson does well. That's why I think he's sort of a spawn of the two of those. And so look, if you can't get Hawkinson and you're looking for the more complete package, I think Irv Smith is that type of player. So he's a very intriguing prospect.

I liked studying his film. Next guy we watched, Isaac Notta, the kid from Georgia. And he's also very interesting. I think he's more of the block-in type tight end, but I think he's a Belichick character guy, is what we're going to see. Again, with all these tight ends, pretty versatile. They used him in line. They used him on the win. They used him as an H-back. They used him in a slot.

Aggressive at the point of attack, zone and power schemes. Technically sound as a blocker. Good understanding of leverage. Uses his head and upper body. Good timing on his punch. Often beats players to the point of attack. He wants to erase defenders, sometimes to the point where he'll drive a defender so far back while maintaining contact and control of them that the ball carrier starts to pass him and the

defender is able to sort of disengage and make the tackle from behind. But if your guy's blocking 10 yards downfield, it's a 10-yard gain, so you're probably okay with it. Pass protection, huge plus, huge, huge, huge plus. If you run a scheme, and the Patriots do this, where your tight ends need to protect the passer, he might be your favorite guy in this class. You can leave him one-on-one with many defensive ends, and he can be fine on his own.

You don't need to give him help. Good footwork, good lateral mobility, good anchor in when pass blocking. He'll drop the butt, anchor, and handle the guy one-on-one. If you want him to chip off the edge before getting into his route, prayer is up for that guy because he will load up and deliver a shot to the half man. Always looking for work downfield, whether on a run and play or if another receiver has caught a pass, he's going to turn around, put his head on a swivel, and unload on somebody. So if you're a defender, if you're a safety crossing the field to chase somebody down, you've got to know where he is.

Effort type player. High character guy, too. This is why I think Belichick might like him. He was a five-star recruit, big-time player, but he was asked to do the dirty things, do the small things, block and things like that. This was a Georgia offense that relied on the run game and the wide receivers a lot more than they did the tight ends, and he was sort of a rotational player at times. But he took it all in stride.

He's going to sit down with teams, tell them his story, and teams are going to fall in love with that. A guy that just does his job. That's why I think Belichick is going to like him. Some weaknesses, gets passive at times when blocking, sometimes he'll drop his head, similar to what we talked about with Irv Smith.

Not the best route runner, slow to get into and out of breaks. Sometimes he'll round off his routes to the boundary. Needs to develop some more feel for zone versus man situations. Has to do a better job of sort of sitting down and grass and things like that. Also a thing to watch. When tasked with a blocking assignment, particularly when he's asked to come across the ball and block, he will peek multiple, multiple, multiple times at his assignment. So he sometimes gives plays away. But I think as a rookie, maybe more of a tight end three than two. But I think if you're weak at tight end, he could be a tight end two type guy, some tight end two upsides to

him. If he develops that route running and better awareness and feel as a receiver, I think he'll be a tight end two pretty early on in his career. The sooner he develops that, the better. And he's obviously got T1 upside, I think, by his third season. So another interesting player that we studied, that I studied. And if you want more thoughts on this guy and any of these guys, again, check out the Locked On Patriots Slack channel where we're sort of going through them. We got two more players to get to. I know there's some that I still have to study, but I really wanted to talk about these two.

Dax Raymond from Utah State. Interesting, like, similar to the next discussion we're going to have with the next player. If the discussion is Nata in the second or Raymond in the fourth, I might take Raymond. He's versatile, up-paced, high-tempo offense, Utah State. Some of their games, I'm lucky.

I get my hands on the secret good All-22 college stuff. Even their offensive cut-ups, just their offensive plays in the All-22, are over an hour long because of how many plays they run. I mean, a previous high for me was like 70 minutes or so. Some of the, I mean, 60 minutes or so, maybe even 55. I saw one of their games. I think it was their game against San Jose State or maybe it was Air Force. It was like 75 minutes. Just the offensive plays alone. But they put him anywhere on the field. Middle receiver in the trips. Win, slot, in line. But he plays this game pissed off. Sorry, you know, slot, in line. But he plays this game pissed off.

Sorry. You know, excuse my French here. But he plays this game angry. Always looking for work as a blocker. One of my favorite plays comes from his game against San Jose. First play, he just takes on the entire right side of the secondary on a bubble screen. Then later, he just pancakes a linebacker on a cut block and sprints his running back for a tight end. He will block you through the whistle,

block you to the turf, then help you up, give you a pat on the butt. Loved seeing that from him. Good footwork when blocking in zone schemes, lateral quickness, all that stuff you need. Good recognition as a blocker. He will get to the second level on combo blocks when he can. Very tough to disengage from him.

Even if you get the first shot on him at the point of attack, he can anchor, establish his base well enough to win the matchup. Not the most diverse route runner in the passing game. Mostly ran outs, quick ins, slants, and crossers and flats on bootlegs, but a good hands catcher. Gets extension away from the body. Not a lot of wasted footwork on his routes. Good to great awareness in scramble drill situations. Great play. He had a crosser against San Jose State. Works across the formation to mirror his quarterback. Has some lawn speed to him. He had a crosser against San Jose State. Works across the formation to mirror his quarterback. Has some lawn speed to him. He had a lawn catch and run on a screen against Air Force for a touchdown. I dropped that clip

into the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Some good acting ability. They ran sort of a fake block slant route against San Jose. Very good play. His best game of the season production-wise was against Michigan State. Some Big Ten competition. He had a great hands catch and a quick post route early in that game. As far as what he needs to refine, again, similar to what we were just talking about

with Nauta, that feel when working across or against zone coverage, too often a run into coverage when he just needs to squat in space, has a pre-snap lean at times that might get flagged for a false start in the NFL. But again, I think he's a TE2 right away with some ability to work as to a lower tier tight end won by his third season. And finally, Jay Sternberger, the kid from A&M. Now I know Kaden Smith, Dawson Knox, Kali Warren, those are some guys, Keenan Brown, that I still have to watch. But the next guy I watched was Sternberger. And Font at 32 or Sternberger in the fourth. I asked this question to guys like Michael Kist and Joe Ferriola

on Twitter the other day, chatting with them about prospects. And they all said, look, if that's the question, Sternberger in the fourth is the answer. Because they're, I think, similar players. You watch him, more of a move type tight end, used in various spots on the field, such as the No. 3 receiver trips, but mostly in line or in the wing. Will and block are aggressive at times at the point of contact,

particularly from the wing. If he could get to you first, he will win. Seems to understand hand placement and leverage well. Takes pretty good angles to the second level, whether to strike a blow or simply stalk and mirror, depending on play design. He's best, I think, as a blocker in space against corners and safeties and things like that.

He's pretty okay in pass protection. They tasked him with a one-on-one. He can handle pass protection in those one-on-one moments, but he's best at chipping and releasing. Very good route runner. Saw a dino post route, that sort of fake to the corner and then cut to the post against South Carolina, where he beat his safety.

Fantastic, fantastic route. Good acceleration after the catch. Good burst. Good hands catcher, even in traffic. There was an out route against Kentucky where he caught up between two defenders. It was a great play. Full-body route runner.

Uses shoulder movements and head fakes to influence coverage defenders. But he's not the most dependable blocker. There's a play against South Carolina where he was on the backside of an outside zone run to the other side, and he let his guy get inside of him, and he chased it down and made the tackle. When he was working from a win on split zone designs

and he's coming across the block, sometimes he gets knocked off his path and rerouted and doesn't get there and fails to get to his assignment. As a route runner, sometimes he initiates contact with his defender at the top of his route stem and can't get off that guy quickly enough. Not a huge route tree at school, but I think that his traits show you that he can handle the full NFL route tree almost immediately. Similar to Font, he might be more of a big X than a true tight end. He could develop, but you'll need some time to do that. But I think like Font, he slots in perhaps as a tight end too for most teams who need to work to become a full rounded tight end. He can do that by his third season,

so it becomes a question of value. So those are the guys we've talked about. And I think sort of in the order that I've discussed them is kind of how I would roughly stack them at this point. I think there might be a little, there's a potential depending on what we see out of the combine for Raymond to go above Nato and even Sternberger to go above Nato. He's the guy that I'm not totally sold on. But I like all of these players, and it becomes a question of value. Because if it's Font or Sternberger in the first versus the fourth, Nato or Raymond or Irv Smith and Raymond in the first versus the fourth or fifth,

you could address some other positions of need, especially if Gronk comes back. Now, this is a year that they might take two tight ends. RumfordJohnny, at RumfordJohnny on Twitter, Pat's fan, he sort of threw that out there and said, look, you know, this might be the year that they double down on tight ends like they have in the past, and it might make some sense. So you can start mixing and matching which two guys would you take.

But it's a fascinating, fascinating sort of draft class here at the tight end position. It's going to be fun to really study these guys. Up next, we're going to delve back into the Robert Kraft situation. His arrest warrant was issued. So some more additional thoughts on that. That's ahead on this now unfortunately titled

Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back with you. I want to quickly close out this now unfortunately titled, Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And we do need to revisit the Robert Kraft situation. Because the Palm Beach State Attorney had a press conference on Monday, and he released probable cause affidavits for all 25 men charged in the Juniper prostitution bus slash trafficking situation.

Still waiting to see how that portion of this situation plays out. But they also released a probable cause affidavit for Robert Kraft. And what it indicates is as follows. In November of 2018, members of the Juniper Police Department began an investigation into criminal activity occurring at Orchids of Asia Day Spa. On January 17th, 2019, covert surveillance equipment was installed in the day spa pursuant to a sneak and peek warrant. I could get into that, but that causes me to really dust off the crim law textbook. And basically what it says is, no, they got a warrant. A judge established that there was probable cause that criminal activity was taking

place here. So they got a warrant to go and install surveillance stuff. The following narrative is a description of the illicit activity that took place, and they put it down for each defendant. And with respect to Robert Kraft, they had him there twice, on Saturday, January 19th, and then the next day, Sunday, January 20th of 2019. And if those dates sound familiar, they probably do because this is Locked On Patriots and those were the days before and the day of the AFC Championship game. And the probable cause affidavit reads as follows. On Sunday, January 20th, video surveillance

was conducted at the Target business. At approximately 10.59am, Kraft entered the business through the front door where he paid cash at the front desk to an Asian female previously identified as, and that's redacted which was captured on camera five that name is again redacted that individual escorted craft to a room there the two hugged each other and craft took off all of his clothing laid face

up on the massage table and this woman hugged him again at At approximately 11.02, this individual began manipulating his penis and testicles and then put her head down by his penis. This went on for several minutes. After a few minutes, the individual wiped Kraft in the area of his genitals with his white towel, helped him get dressed, and hugged him again. Kraft gave the individual a $100 bill plus at least one other unidentifiable bill craft left the room at approximately 11 13 surveillance on scene at approximately 10 59 a white man previously identified as robert craft now this is from somebody that was watching this not just camera stuff entered the establishment through the front door at approximately 11 13 the craft that's as it reads i'm reading exactly the craft, that's as it reads, I'm reading it exactly, the craft,

so that's a bit of a typo, exited the front door and traveled to a vehicle waiting in the parking lot, a 2015 blue Bentley Florida Tag 9191. This was observed by a detective. Craft had previously entered the business on January 19th and was positively identified by a Massachusetts driver's license. So in other words, they didn't have video surveillance on him. He got in there before they put that stuff, I guess. They just didn't have video on him.

But they do have him on video on the 20th, the day of the morning of the AFC championship game. And that was, again, a game that kicked off at night. So he obviously had enough time to then fly to Kansas City for the game, which we know he was at. So that's the situation, at least at the outset here. Now, it was previously reported that this might have been an arrest warrant, but they have issued what is called a KPAS warrant or a low-level warrant, so there will not be an arrest. He has been given a court date to appear or have somebody appear on his behalf, he does not have to appear. But that court date is for a first-degree misdemeanor solicitation charge on April 24th, which is the day before the NFL draft.

But it's two first-degree misdemeanors, not the second. So that gets you back to what we were talking about on Friday. But that's the situation with Robert Kraft. It's very unlikely still that he sees significant jail time or anything like that. The issue becomes what does the NFL do? Again, I don't think they force him to sell the team or anything like that. But as we talked about with the Jim Irsay precedent, they might drop the hammer with like a 10 game suspension. They might give him the 50, you know, the $500,000 fine, which is the maximum I

believed. And the NFL issued a statement Wednesday saying that this conduct will fall under the league's, you know, code of conduct personal policy. And so the league has basically said, look, this is covered. We're going to take some action. We'll wait to see how this plays out, but don't be surprised if we drop the hammer.'s you know two like one sentence statements don't really say that there's you know a lot of support and coming your way interestingly enough also on wednesday craft flew from la to boston accompanied by tom brady and giselle bunch and it was interesting to see that there was a scene on the tarmac back in Boston when they landed. Brady giving his owner a hug. So maybe that was a

subliminal message of support or maybe not even subliminal. Maybe it was just a full-on message of support. So that's the craft situation. Again, there's the bigger story here, which I don't want to go down into too far, but the sort of traffic inside situation with the women that were involved and perhaps forced into this, we should not lose sight of that aspect of it. It's easy, you know, as sports fans, as Patriots fans to focus on the craft and potential Patriots implications, but we still should not lose sight of that. But that will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk about a potential quarterback already in the league that this was dropped into the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. So I'm going to take a look at Nick Mullins. Do a scouting report on him, free agency style or trade style. With Garoppolo coming back and C.J. Beathard in the mix, would Mullins be a fit for New England? Would he be the quarterback to acquire instead of somebody in this draft class? That's tomorrow.

Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.