Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 6, 2018 - Locked On Toto

Episode Date: February 6, 2018

Mark Schofield respects the wishes of yesterday's Twitter poll, and opens with Locked On Toto... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What if I told you that one of the most successful, influential, and popular rock acts of the 1980s consisted of session musicians that rose to prominence with other bands? In the 1970s keyboardist David Page was working as a songwriter and session musician with a bunch of different acts. But his first true claim to fame was in 1977 when he wrote most of Boz Skaggs' album Silk Degrees. In fact, Page won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for Lowdown. But Page always wanted to have a band of his own, and he reached out to Jeff Picaro, also a session musician and a drummer.

Page and Peccaro had gone to high school together in Van Nuys, California. And while in high school, they had formed a band called Rural Still Life. But they wanted to truly make a break of it in the 70s. They brought on fellow session vet David Hungate, as well as guitarist Steve Lukather. They needed one more musician and they added Jeff's brother Steve to join the team. In 1976 they signed was born. The rest, as they say, is history. I'm Mark Schofield, and this is Locked on Torah. on Toto.

In 1978 the band released their first album, the self-titled Toto, and their first single, Hold the Line, was a huge success in the United States. It made it all the way to number five on the Billboard 100 chart during the winter of 1978 to 1979, and it made it to 14 on the official UK chart. Now, despite the commercial success for the release, they were not received very well critically. Rolling Stone found their attempt to transition from career session players to a band of their own a failure. They called David Page's songs, quote, excuses for back-to-back instrumental solos.

And they also said that none of the four lead vocalists were better than Passable. Again, the album did have commercial success. It was certified double platinum in the United States as well as double platinum in Canada. And Hold the Line was just one of three singles that the album produced. They also released I'll Supply the Love as well as Georgie Porgie, all three of which made it into the top 50 in the United States. But again, it was the lack of critical success that drove the band. They released another album, Hydra, later in 1980. It featured the single 99 inspired by a cult film from George Lucas, THX, 1138. In 1981, they released their third album Turn Back.

That was a venture into arena rock and featured heavier guitar and fewer keyboards than on the previous two records. But Toto was still really searching for their voice and in 1982 they found it. Turn Back produced disappointing sales for the band, but Total Four, the album they released in 1982, was triple certified platinum and it was one of the most commercially successful records of the 1980s. Total Four featured three singles that reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Rosanna, I Won't Hold You Back and of course, Africa. And as far as critical success goes, at the Grammys, Toto was a hit. Rosanna Chodo!

And the producer of the year is... Chodo! Toto. The winner for album of the year this year 1982 is Toto 4. It was official. Toto was a critical and commercial success. The band earned multiple Grammy nominations for Toto 4, including seven wins, and as you just heard, Record of the Year for Rosanna, Album of the Year for Toto 4, and Producer of the songs off of Toto Africa inspire millions, including one Patriots podcaster in particular. Up ahead, I'll take you through the rest of Toto's history. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, on this special episode of Locked on Toto. Mark Schofield back here with you for Locked on Patriots for Tuesday, February 6, 2018. Had a little fun there at the beginning.

Now it's time to talk about the Patriots again. But in case you missed it, the reason why I went with Locked On total at the beginning of the show was because yesterday, feeling a little down in the morning about Patriots losing Super Bowl 52, so I threw up a poll basically asking locked-on Patriots listeners on Twitter what they wanted Tuesday's show to be about. I gave three legitimate choices. Super Bowl 52 film review,

off-season free agency sort of preview, and locked-on Toto. Locked-on Toto won that poll. So I felt that I had to honor the democratic process and do some locked on Toto at the beginning. And I'll say it felt pretty good. It felt good to talk about something that wasn't football for just a few minutes. But now we're going to dive into it. And what was the silver medalist since the olympics are coming

up at the end of the week don't worry locked on curling is coming my friends but second place in that poll was a sort of free agency offseason preview so i figured what i was going to do is look at some of the pendant free agency decisions that the Patriots face now that the season is over on both sides of the ball. Maybe throw out some, you know, my sort of off-the-cuff rankings on both sides of the ball for sort of priorities for New England. And then maybe a couple of names offensively and defensively

that New England might look at in free agency guys to potentially bring in. And there's probably no better place to start a discussion like this than with our friend Miguel Benzon, at Patscap on Twitter, friend of the show, one of the smartest people out there covering the Patriots. It's an honor to have gotten to know him a little bit, first as a fan, as a guy that read his work all the time, and now as somebody that gets to work with him on occasion. It's just tremendous to be able to call

upon Miguel's wisdom at times like this. And he tweeted out yesterday that the following Patriots are scheduled to become free agents at 4pm on March 14th. You've got Brandon Bolden, Cameron Fleming, Danny Amendola, Dion Lewis, James Harrison,

Johnson Battamosi, Adrian Waddell, Malcolm Butler, Marquise Flowers, Matthew Slater, Nate Ebner, Nate Solder, Rex Burkhead, Ricky Jean-Francois, Restricted Free Agents Brandon Ken Safety, and you've got, in terms of exclusive rights free agents, Ted Karras, the offensive lineman, and Caleb Kidlett. Let's start on the offensive side of the ball. And the way I sort of look at this is the three, I'd say, biggest decisions the Patriots need to make. Left tackle, Nate Solder. Wide receiver, Danny Amendola.

And running back, Deion Lewis. You know, three critical components this season to the New England offense. And, you know, starting with Solder, he's somebody that entering this year, there was a question mark about Nate Solder early in the year when Brady was getting knocked around. You probably remember pieces written by writers like myself, wondering if they could protect Brady, looking at Nate Solder's ability. But let's face it, he was the left tackle on a team that made it to the Super Bowl

and last night did it, well, two nights ago at this point. By the time you're listening to this, I'm recording it on Monday. More than held his own against a fearsome pass rush. You know, some of the pressures really weren't on him. And the most critical pressure of the game, you can't put that on Nate Solder. You know, he is 29. So there's sort of a, this might be a final contract type situation for him.

But I think from New England's perspective, you've got to approach this as, we want to bring Nate Solder back. We want him to be our left tackle for the next couple of years. You know, Maybe we replace him at some point during his next deal how long that's structured. But I think from New England's perspective, you're looking at Nate Solder to be that guy for the next

couple of years. I know that they drafted Antonio Garcia. There's a potential that he could step in at some point. There are some guys in the draft that I think the Patriots are going to look at. I'm high on Isaiah Wynn, the guard conversion out of the University of Georgia with a left tackle in the SEC for the Bulldogs last year. I think that there are some players you can get in the offensive line to bolster the offensive line, add some depth. But I think from the Patriots' perspective, they'll want to bring Solder back. It's up to

Solder if he wants to come back. I mean, unrestricted free agent and all. Same goes, I think, for Dion Lewis and Damian Amendola. I think those are guys you want to bring back into the fold. Dion Lewis played a pivotal role for this team this year. Obviously, we saw more of James White in the postseason, but Lewis was their main running back, running between the tackles, running to the edges. The thing with Lewis is,

you know he's going to command a big-time deal. You go to SportTrack.com and they sort of put together market value, calculated market value on players. And their average annual salary for Deion Lewis, at least from their analysis. Three years, $15 million. Right now he's playing for $1.3 million. Are the Patriots going to shell out that kind of money? They might. I think if they do, that would be

option A. That probably spells the end of Rex Burkhead's time in New England. But I think Deion Lewis has to be back in the mix as does Danny Amendola. We talked about Amendola a lot in the postseason. We talked about him with Noah Princiati, who did that piece on Amendola before the Super Bowl.

And the Patriots try to sort of keep him on a pitch count, as Nora said. And I think, let's not overstate it, when Tom Brady needed a guy to throw to, needed a wide receiver in the passing game, in the postseason, it was Danny Amendola. There's value in that. As a former quarterback,

there's value in having a guy you can trust. Now Julian Edelman will be back. Brandon Cooks will be there. Chris Hogan will be there. But you can never have enough depth at important positions wide receiver among them for a team that throws the ball as much as the Patriots do

so I think it's important to bring Amendola back those are sort of the priorities there I think Cameron Fleming look a 25 year old tackle maybe there's a desire of the priorities there. I think Cameron Fleming, look, a 25-year-old tackle. Maybe there's a desire to bring him back into the fold.

Adrian Waddell, you probably want to get back into the fold, but they're sort of lower priorities for this team, I think. If it were me, you sort of look at it. Solder, Lewis, Amendola. Those are the guys you really want to get back. Matthew Slater is an interesting discussion

because he means a ton to this team from a special team standpoint. Obviously, special teams didn't play a huge role in Super Bowl LII. The Patriots, well, at least the punt coverage didn't play a huge role in Super Bowl 52. There were some missed kicks and things like that. But Slater means a lot to the team. And what does he mean sort of field position-wise over the course of a season? It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Patriots sort of bring him back

sort of on a one- or two-year deal to get him back into the mix. That's sort of a quick look at the offensive free agents. If they look elsewhere to replace some of the guys here, some names to maybe keep in mind. In terms of offensive linemen, not the greatest offensive line class in terms of free agents that are out there. Scanning through the list right now. I mean, Nate Solder is probably the top guy on that list. Adrian Waddell and Cameron Filmon, they're the top two. I mean, Greg Robinson, probably not.

I mean, it's just not the most inspiring offensive line free agency class. You know, a guy like Justin Pugh, who is, you know, with the New York Giants, you know, Pro Football Focus has him as one of the top 15 impendent free agents. There's talk about the Giants trying to bring him back at a hometown discount. Maybe if you can't get something worked out

with Solder, you look to Pugh as a potential replacement. That's sort of the offensive line look. I think in terms of running backs, if you can't get something with Deion Lewis, Isaiah Crowell, Jarek McKinnon are guys to keep in mind.

I'm not sure about a Carlos Hyde. He's also available, but that might be a little bit redundant with Mike Gilleslie. I think Crowell and McKinnon might be guys to look at there. Wide receiver types, two interesting names. Obviously, Jarvis Landry. It looks like he's going to command a big-time deal, though. But I think Jarvis Landry

would fit schematically if you're looking at a potential Amendola type replacement Albert Wilson's another interesting name to keep in mind he's got some special teams experience and some positional flexibility there he's the up back or at least has been at times for Kansas City on their punt team so those are some names on the offensive side of the ball ahead we're going to look at the defensive side of the ball and there'll be a lingering question from Sunday night that we're going to look at the defensive side of the ball and there'll be a lingering question from Sunday night that we'll have to address at the outset. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, in Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you for Locked On Patriots, taking a look at free agency decisions that the Patriots now face here as we enter the offseason and looking at the defensive side of the ball and I guess we have to start with again Malcolm Butler and the lingering sort of question right now about his future with the New England Patriots Bill Belichick had his sort of end of year teleconference today reiterated that this was a football decision. He was asked why Badamosi got a lot of cornerback three reps, and he was direct in saying that that's who practiced the most there this week,

leading into the Super Bowl. There still seems to be some pieces that don't quite fit, because Eric Rowe row after the game said that you know it seemed like they didn't find out that row was started in place of butler until right before kickoff obviously you saw butler's reaction during the national anthem it seemed like he had just gotten some bad news you know but the coaching staff makes it seem like this was something that was put in place all week long, that Rowe and Badamosi were getting the most reps during practice. Something just doesn't quite fit.

And we may never know. Maybe it was a football decision. Maybe it was purely a football decision. But it doesn't make sense if you view it from this lens. They were getting torched. Maybe you try to get the guy on for one series and see if maybe he can help if it was purely a football decision at some point you wonder if they step back maybe you'd have to have and say we made a football decision and it's not quite working out maybe we try something differently maybe they get him out there for a series and it just reiterates

why they didn't have him in the starting lineup. He's getting torched left and right. He's getting dusted left and right. If that's the case, then fine. It just seems like a very hard stance to take on a pure football decision given the outcome. Now, was Malcolm Butler's benching the only reason that they gave up eight zillion yards to Nick Foles? No. But you would think that at some point when you couldn't really stop them, you would try it.

This is a guy who played 97% of your defensive snaps this year, and he doesn't get a single rep on defense in the Super Bowl. Something just doesn't seem right. And when I recorded the post-game podcast, it was in the heat of the moment, and I was like, look, man, something ugly had to have happened. We may never know, and it may not have been something ugly at all. Maybe it was truly a coaching decision,

but it's a head-scratcher. And so now you have to wonder, is there any way this guy comes back? Come on. There's probably, I don't do tweets like this or statements like this often, but there's probably a better chance I'm on the 53-man roster for the New England Patriots than Malcolm Butler is next season. And let's just say I can't cover anybody right now.

So Butler's probably gone. Other decisions they make, not a ton on the defensive side of the ball. They probably, depending on how Butler shakes out, that emosi is probably back in the fold then. I got Super Bowl runs, so you'd expect to see him back. Nate Ebner probably gets looked at to come back as well. Obviously, the Patriots lost him to a knee injury, but he's a contributor, a key contributor on special teams,

so I'd expect to see him back. Other sort of free agents, James Harrison, even though he played a ton in the Super Bowl, not expecting to see him return. Ricky Jean-Francois, maybe. Grissom, maybe. One other name that I will throw out there that I think the Patriots want to give a long, hard look at bringing back,

and if it were me and it were up to me, I'd get him back into the fold. Marquise Flowers. I talked about him a lot this season on the podcast. I think that there was a role that he played that he filled very well. Sort of an athletic linebacker. Made some key plays for this team at times.

They used him as spy quarterbacks at times. Had a big play in the Super Bowl as well. Sort of on a swing route where he stayed home on it. Made a big tackle to force get the Eagles into a third-in-lawn situation. Which, I'm not looking at my notes right now, but off the top of my head,

I'm pretty sure the Eagles managed to convert anyway. But, moving on. I would get Flowers back into the fold. Depending on how things shake out, other names to potentially look at out there defensively. If you want to bolster pass rush, maybe you try to make a run at Demarcus Lawrence.

I'd be stunned if he leaves Dallas, though. I mean, Dallas is already talking about working on a long-term deal, maybe using the franchise tag if they have to. I'd be stunned if he leaves town. But maybe you take a run at him. Also dependent on how things shake out with Butler, how things shake out with the rest of the cornerback depth chart,

EJ Gaines. Also, somebody that was graded as a top 15 type corner this year by Pro Football Focus. Again, given what their grades are worth, somebody that you might want to take a run at. Somebody at least you probably kick the tires on a little bit. Safety class. A name that stands out.

Again, probably not going to get him in. You want to at least inquire. He's Eric Reid. Maybe Kenny Vaccaro as well. That New Orleans defense kind of turned things around this year. He was a part of that. You know, Reed's 26, Vaccaro 27. You know, the Patriots,

you know, they use a lot of three safety looks. I know Jordan Richards got a lot of run in the Super Bowl. Not sure how pleased everybody is with that. Patrick Chun was banned up a couple of times in the Super Bowl. Now there are reports that he suffered a concussion at one point. Devin McCourney's getting up there in years. Harmon's kind of getting up there in years. I think they addressed safety at some point here in this offseason,

whether it's free agency or in the draft. But let's not forget guys that they're going to get back. They're going to get back Derek Rivers, who should be able to help at the draft. But let's not forget guys that they're going to get back. They're going to get back Derek Rivers, who should be able to help at the edge. They'll get back Hightower, who should be able to help at the edge a little bit. They'll get back Shea McClellan,

who they can use on the edge as well. This is a team that didn't lose a ton of big names to injury. Obviously, you lose Hightower, you lose Edelman. But on the defensive side of the ball, they got guys coming back. And so it doesn't seem right now like they're going to make a big splash type move, at least on the defensive side of the ball, other than trying to get some of the aforementioned names back into the mix. But that's been sort of an off-season free agency primer, lay of the land, so to speak.

We'll be doing some more off-season stuff, obviously, as we get rolling here. And just at the end, so everybody knows, now that we are in the off-season, we're going to scale it back a little bit to four days a week. We're going to drop the Friday show just because, look, we got a slow burn here to the draft.

No reason to really sort of go five days a week here. Here at Locked on Patriots Offenses, we're going to take Fridays as a somewhat casual day here around the offices to do a lot of film work, kind of ease back on the stick a little bit. We'll probably dial it back up to five days as we get closer to the draft, but at least for now as we get through February and March, ease it back to four days. Then after the draft, we'll probably keep it four days for a while

until we get maybe into June, when you really get into that one dead month on the NFL calendar when, let's face it, I work on the garden and the tan. That's what June's about. GTL. Garden, tan, laundry.

That's how I roll here at Lockdown Patriots. And then we're back into it. Hopefully for a lot more glorious victory episodes. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I guess the rain's down in Africa We're gonna take some time to do the things we never did We'll never end.