Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 8, 2017 - Offseason Positional Review: Quarterbacks

Episode Date: February 8, 2018

Mark Schofield begins Offseason Positional Reviews on somewhat safe and familiar ground: The Quarterbacks.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello friends, welcome on into Lockdown Patriots for Thursday, February 8th, 2018. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair. Reminder, you can follow me on Twitter, please do, at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com. That's where I'm going to be doing a lot of draft work also daily mock draft.com that is a new endeavor started by steven thomas and jared muller they're two browns fans steven started a twitter handle browns daily mock draft and we've now spread it to all 32 teams. I'm going to be handling Patriots mock drafts along with Doug Moore. You can follow Doug on Twitter at DMooreNFL. Doug and I will be

rotating days, alternating days, doing daily mock drafts for the New England Patriots. My draft was up yesterday. Grabbed Josh Allen with a Jimmy Garoppolo pick at the top of the second round those drafts are powered by Fanspeak, definitely a website you should check out as well you can check Fanspeak out over at fanspeak.com

they allow you to simulate 7 round mock drafts if you're bored at work and you've caught up on Locked On Patriots, it's a fun little way to pass the time. I know this one from experience. Also, reminder, as I said, check out LockedOnPatriots.com as well. We're starting a new series now over there, Positional Unit Reviews, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

We're going to kind of cover some familiar territory in this because it's something we kind of talked about a little bit in season. But now that we are into the offseason and free agency is starting to shake out a little bit, some of the dominoes are falling. We're going to go position by position, talk about where the Patriots stack up right now, who's under contract, who isn't. And then throw out some names that the Patriots might want to consider kicking the tires on, either in free agency or during the draft. And as a quarterback guy, safe territory for me to start with is the quarterback position. And frankly, it's perhaps the easiest place to start on the New England Patriots because at least at the top it's not that hard Tom Brady still under contract for the 2018 season with a base salary of 15 million dollars along with

additional prorated bonuses of seven million million Quick plug here When I talk about contract and salary Stuff, two incredible Resources for you guys To check out, one you probably know Miguel Benzon At Patscap on Twitter, Patscap.com Friend of the show, check out his work Also Jason Fitzgerald and the team over at

Overthecap.com They're great as well For sort of a league widewide look at all 32 teams. But Miguel, the original, and the best when it comes to Pat's salary, cap, and contract information. But Tom Brady, look, under contract for the 2018 season, base salary of $15 million, bonuses of $7 million for a total cap number of $22 million. Worth every penny. Still worth every penny, if not more. And given his performance this season, as well as what he did during the playoffs, didn't throw an interception

the entire postseason. Second time in his career that he's done that in leading his team to a Super Bowl. He is their starting quarterback until he says no more, no mas, until he pulls the Roberto Duran and throws in the towel. Now, the fear is, of course, that his place suddenly does drop off the proverbial Max Kellerman cliff. But rumors of Brady's demise have been bandied about for years now. Whether it's Kellerman, whether it's Key and Fay, or any number of other people

who have looked at Tom Brady and said that he doesn't have it anymore. And there are certainly throws that he has that he's missed. Even a couple in Super Bowl 52. But his performance in that game, even in a losing effort, was a record-breaking performance. Threw for over 500 yards in a loss. Three touchdown passes, no interceptions in a loss.

There were people that were making the argument that he should have still won MVP because he was the best player on the field. Now, obviously, that goes to somebody on the winning team, but the argument could have been made. So, look, this is Brady's team,

especially now with the Garoppolo trade having been done. It is Brady's team until he says no more. But they do have to plan for life beyond him and I've said it before Bill Belichick's belief on that is it's better to be a year early than a year late

he said that when they drafted Garoppolo so they're going to look for the next Brady in this draft they're going to look for the next Brady In this draft They're going to look for the next starting quarterback Either in this draft or in this offseason Because Brian Hoyer while he is under contract For the 2018 season

Base salary of $915,000 No current bonuses He's 32 He's Brady insurance for the 2017 season Maybe the 2018 season Depend depending on how they acquire QB3.

Quarterback to be named later. And maybe, you know, in a certain set of circumstances, if Tom Brady suffers, you know, one game type injury or two game type injury next year, it's Hoyer that gets the starts. But he's not the long-term answer.

So they'll have to find it elsewhere. Next, we're going to talk about some free agency options because there are a couple of intriguing names out there. Now that the first sort of domino has fallen in the QB carousel of the offseason, we can speculate about some names. Then, of course, the route I think the Patriots go down, the draft route. Talk some updated stuff on those quarterbacks. Guys,

I think should be in the mix. Guys, I think you want to keep an eye on as we get towards the combine. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. There are some free agency quarterbacks that are intriguing options for the New England Patriots to prepare for life after Tom Brady.

Let's start, though, with the long shot, and that's, drumroll please, Jimmy Garoppolo. Now, as I said in the piece that's up on LockedOnPatriots.com where I break this all down as well, technically, yes, it's possible. Jimmy Garoppolo is a free agent. He does not have a contract right now

with the San Francisco 49ers. It is technically possible that he could, quote-unquote, come home. Realistically, it's not possible. So we can just move on. We have to look at Minnesota. But before we do that, look, there are two big names out there

that are technically free agents. Drew Brees and Kirk Cousins, right? Cousins in Washington, there are rumors that Washington is going to try to franchise tag him now anyway and then try to trade him so he can at least get something in return or maybe transition tag him somehow.

But Cousins is looking at, you're looking Cleveland, Denver, and the Jets. Probably Denver and the Jets being the final two. And they're just going to throw money at him. Benjamin Albright, who's out in Denver, says that the Broncos can probably clear about another $32 million of cap space if they make some moves.

Clear out, get to about $56 million in free cap space. If they're doing that to try to woo cousins, you're talking about a big-time contract. The Patriots aren't going to do that for a guy that's going to expect to start right away. As for Drew Brees, he's not leaving New Orleans.

Why would he to come to New England? Those are technically options, but we can probably foreclose those and not give them too much thought. But let's look at Minnesota because they've got three guys. They'll probably keep two, and there will be an odd man out. All three of them have question marks. Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater have injury histories. Bridgewater specifically,

you know, he suffered that knee injury under two years ago that almost ended his career. And the question with Case Keenum is, can he replicate it? Can he duplicate what he did this year? You know, I still have some question marks about Case Keenum and his sort of ability to play the position at a high level for a prolonged period of time. I think Keenum and his sort of ability to play the position at a high level for a prolonged period of time. I think Keenum is more likely a spot starter type than the long-term answer at quarterback for the New England Patriots after moving on from Tom Brady. But a miraculous run to the NFC Championship game. Did some nice things for the Vikings this year. And if you look at how they're currently... How they're currently allocating funds to the quarterbacks out in Minnesota.

You can make the argument that Keenum is probably the guy that they're going to keep. Given his cap number right now. I mean, Bradford right now is guaranteed $22 million. That's what he was guaranteed for this season. Bridgewater obviously under a sort of team friendly deal. Bridgewater's base salary was $6.8 million.

$5.4 million of which was guaranteed. So he's under a very team-friendly deal. Regarding Keenum, $2 million. $1 million guaranteed. So I mean, I think if you're Minnesota, Keenum's likely one of the two that you keep. And maybe you decide that Bridgewater, you can get him under sort of a team-friendly contract as well,

given his injury history. He's not going to get second contract, first round draft quarterback type money, given the injury history, given that he might not be the starter. So maybe it's Bradford who ends up being the odd man out. But if somehow it's Bridgewater, that's the guy I would be most interested in sort of kicking the tires on if you're the New England Patriots, because I think Bridgewater could be effective in what the Patriots try to do schematically, what the Patriots do offensively.

When he was playing under Norv Turner, there were struggles at times, but I don't think he's suited to be a five-step, seven-step drop, vertical passing kind of guy. I think Bridgewater is more sort of suited for something similar to what the Patriots are running. I think he could be effective in that kind of offense. And so if it ends up that Teddy Bridgewater is the odd guy out, that's the guy I'd want to see the Patriots kick the tires on.

If it's Bradford, then I think the Patriots sort of move on. Not that Bradford's a bad quarterback. Not that Bradford couldn't run this offense. But I think the kind of money that Bradford's going to look for is going to make it almost sort of cost prohibitive because he's going to look for a deal that's going to be starter money. And since the Patriots allegedly weren't willing to go down that road with Jimmy Garoppolo, a guy that they had in the building that they knew

that could run the system, that they liked a ton, I doubt they're going to do it for Sam Bradford, who's older and has a checkered past when it comes to staying healthy. There's another option sort of in the free agency realm that has some strengths to it as well. But because of my own

sort of history, I can throw his name out there. That's A.J. McCarron. He's been behind Andy Dalton basically his entire NFL career. He's appeared in 11 games with just three starts since being drafted by the Bengals and his limited action has completed 64.7 percent of his passes for 920 yards and six TDs with two picks but here are the caveats one it's long been rumored that Hugh Jackson wants McCarron in Cleveland

the Browns even tried to trade for him this past season somehow that deal got scuttled right at the trading deadline. Also, McCarron's a restricted rights free agent. He's not an unrestricted free agent. Any team that signs him to an offer sheet, say the Patriots sign him to an offer sheet, they've got to wait seven days while the Bengals can decide if they want to match it or not. And if they do

match it, the team signing him must compensate the Bengals the Patriots would have to compensate the Bengals with draft picks you know and is is that worth it

is it worth giving up a draft pick when you can go out and get a guy that might have a higher ceiling than A.J. McCarron you know just using the mock draft I did get a guy that might have a higher ceiling than A.J. McCarron? Just using the mock draft I did two days ago now, would you give up a third for A.J. McCarron or a second for Josh Allen?

Not that Josh Allen is my favorite quarterback in this draft class, but I think getting him at the top of the second round, with the understanding that he's not going to have to play anytime soon, then you can develop him because he's got a high ceiling. Got a low floor, too. But you're not going to be testing that floor early in his career if he's in New England. So I think it's sort of, as I've said, the ideal situation for him. So McCarron comes with some strengths, but I had to mention him because a lot of you who listen to the show probably know me more as the guy that used to post on Soch.

That's right, Soch, or SonsOfSamHorn.net back in the day, before Inside the Pylon was even a glimmer in my mind's eye. But back then, leading up to that draft, I was on A.J. McCarron Hill. And those of you who are inquisitive enough can probably dig up those takes, because I died on that hill that year. So I had to mention them. I don't run from the bad takes, people.

I take them head on. Which reminds me, later this spring, I'm going to be revisiting the 2016 draft class. My second year really sort of doing this full time. And man, there are some L's I'm going to have to take. But speaking of drafts, let's think about draft quarterbacks now because in all likelihood, that's the path the Patriots go down, right? They're going to go down the path of drafting the guy.

And given the fact that they just brought Josh McDaniels back into the mix, you have to think that part of his sort of task in the next couple of weeks is going to be picking the next guy. Meeting with

these guys out at the combine. Getting a feel for them, decided who is the guy we're going to replace Tom Brady with. And there are some intriguing names at the top of this draft class, obviously. Look, you've got Josh Rosen, who I think is the cleanest on-the-field prospect when it comes to any of the guys in this group. He's almost pitcher-esque mechanically.

He's scheme diverse. You can plug him in, play him in almost any offensive system. West Coast, sure. Does he have the arm, the aggression, the downfield ability to run an Eric Correal type system, an Arians type system? Absolutely. Can you put him into an Aaron Perkins system like what theans type system? Absolutely. Can you put him into an Ernt Perkins system like what the Patriots run? Absolutely.

You know, he's scheme diverse. That's why I think he's the guy at the top of the board for me. Because you can put him into any system and he can be successful. Now there will be questions about him when it comes to off the field stuff. People are going to question

his concussion history. That's an issue with him. People are going to look at some of the comments he's made. Guys get knocked for having interests away from the game of football. But sometimes that matters because if a guy decides at some point,

look, I'm just going to walk away. I got other stuff I want to do, guys. It's one thing if it's a guy you drafted in the sixth round that's just a special teamer. It's another thing altogether if it's a guy you drafted in the first round, early in the first round, to the face of your franchise for the next 15 years.

And so Rosen might fall. I was told that by a couple of people down in Mobile, people that you see on TV, that Rosen might fall, that Mayfield might fall for sort of maturity or immaturity concerns. Now, that might just be what they're being told draft season is lion season friends gotta take everything with a grain of salt i think rosen's clean on the field teams will have to judge for themselves when it comes to the off the field stuff will he be there when the patriots draft at 31 probably not they probably have to move really high up to get him.

But I think he could fit. But he's a long shot. As are some of the other guys in this class. Look, Baker Mayfield, as much as I like him, as much as I think he can translate to the next level, I love the chip on his shoulder. He'll probably be off the board before the Patriots have a reasonable shot to get up.

I think you'd have to get up into the top 10 to go get them. And are they moving all the way up from 31 to 10? They've got the chips to do it. 31 plus the 11th pick in the second. What is that? 44, if my math is right. 43, something like that. Is that enough to get up there maybe

you probably have to give up one next year to do it that's a lot to give up for a bigger Mayfield especially when you're doing it for a guy who's barely 6 feet you gotta be sure about that

you know because that's a decision that could haunt you. I like him. I think he could come in and run New England's offense. I think he throws with enough anticipation. He's been getting better at that, especially seeing him down in Mobile for the Senior Bowl.

Made some anticipation throws that day. And he's got some advanced sort of understanding of coverage, of leverage. I really like the way he plays the game. There are things he needs to work coverage, of leverage. I really like the way he plays the game. There are things he needs to work on, of course. In the piece over at LockedOnPatriots.com, I linked the two pieces I wrote. The conundrum of comfort and chaos.

He seeks it out. He'd rather be scrambling and running for his life than in the pocket. He's passed on easy throws from the pocket. He'll need to move away from that style of play. I think he can. I think he can be a good one in this league. But again, I'm not sure the Patriots can go up and get him.

The guy that might fall is Josh Allen. And I know that seems weird because we've been hearing that he's, you know, top five guy. We've been hearing that for two years now. Matt Miller last year mocked him in the top five of last year's draft. And that was based on stuff that he was hearing. You know, and in talking with Miller and, you know, going to see one of his podcast recordings down in Mobile.

It's a will versus should debate with Allen. Will he go in the top five? People think so. Should he? I don't think so. And the reason being is I don't think he's ready to play right away. He still needs to learn the finer things about playing the quarterback position. But if he's there at 31,

if he's there at 21, and the Bills have already addressed the quarterback position, maybe the Bills with 21 and 22, they trade up to get a guy. They don't get Allen. Allen's there at 22 and say the Colts would maybe trade it back down, although I'm not sure the Colts would want to deal with the Patriots right now.

But that's another issue for another time. I could live with Josh Allen at the end of the first round. Because I think that's sort of the ideal low-pressure situation from him. Because the raw talent is there. You need somebody and a plan, you need a coach and a plan to pull it out of him. And maybe that could happen in New England. Maybe that could happen with Josh McDaniels

and watching Tom Brady for two or three years. I think it could, you know, as much as I've sort of, you know, might sound to people who've watched my work, who've read my work, that I'm down on Josh Allen. It's not so much that I'm down on Josh Allen. I'm down on Josh Allen top five pick. I'm not down on Josh Allen, the quarterback. I see the raw talent. I get why there's excitement.

You know, if you're telling me that you could have Josh Allen at 31 or 43 or whatever, okay, let's do it. Let's roll. I'm fine with that. If you're telling me that Josh Allen comes off the board at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, that's a whole other ballgame. Sam Darnold, from what I've been hearing, from what I've been told,

it's not even worth really discussing because he's not going to be there at three. So we can just move on from there. Lamar Jackson. The other sort of polarizing prospect in this quarterback group. And I've said it before, he's a quarterback at the next level. Moving him to wide receiver is a strange idea. Is he dynamic with the football in his hands? Yes.

Can he change direction on a dime? Yes. Have you seen him run a pass route? No. Have you seen him catch passes? Not much. Why are we taking a guy that does what he does and switching positions? It just doesn't make sense. Does he have things he needs to fix? Yeah. Does he make mistakes? Yeah. But if he's there at 31, that's the guy to usher in the new era of Patriots football, my friends, because you can see where the game is going. If you step back and watch the football landscape,

the offensive landscape, the paradigm shift of offensive football is rapidly approaching. This is a copycat league. People are going to look at McVay and what he's running out with the Rams. They're going to look at what Doug Peterson did this year. There's going to be spread stuff. There's going to be offensive schemes that are going to mimic what the guys coming into the league are running. This notion that you need to be a pro-style quarterback,

you can throw it out the window because a pro-style offense is just what they're running in the NFL, and that can be anything. And as we saw in Super Bowl LII, spread-type stuff, mixing in RPOs and other stuff like that, mixing in air-raid stuff. How many times did the Eagles run mesh? You've probably seen the tweet that went out. One of the first throws of the game, Zach Aerts and Nelson Aguilar on the mesh concept, crossing over the middle, giving each other the high five.

That is Mike Leach's coaching point on teaching the mesh concept. So when you hear guys need to be pro-style quarterbacks, run pro-style offenses, air-raid stuff doesn't work, it just won a Super Bowl, so... But back to Lamar Jackson. If he's there at 31, sign me up. If he's there at 44, 43, whichever pick that is, sign me up, because I think Lamar Jackson could be a quarterback

and a very good one in the NFL, especially for the paradigm shift that is upon us. Running out of time, so we'll run through some of the other guys. Mason Rudolph didn't get a chance to see him at the Senior Bowl because he withdrew with a foot injury. I think he would be a very good fit for New England's offense. I have some questions

about him when he needs to sort of challenge narrower throwing windows. He's much better against zone coverage, much better against off coverage. Can make some of those throws with anticipation, with timing. I think he would be a good fit for New England. I question his ceiling.

I just did a podcast, Intentional Scouting over WGR in Buffalo. Look, man, gotta pay the bills. But I'm doing a series over at WGR in Buffalo about their quarterback search. You can check this out. I've tweeted it out'm doing a series over at WGR in Buffalo about their quarterback search. You can check this out. I've tweeted it out. You can find it at wgr.com. It's called Intentional Scouting with Nate Gary, who's one of the hosts over there. He and I are working through the quarterbacks. We bring out a different guest for each quarterback. And we just did one

with Chris Trapasso over at CBS, who's now their head draft guy. Trapasso has Rudolph as his QB1 in this class, and he defended the case. Now, I don't agree with it, but he made the argument, and the argument is basically this. Out of all the guys in this group, he might have the highest floor. He might be the safest. Now, for me, it's a question of what's the ceiling, because it might be a situation where the floor and the ceiling are pretty close. You might have a high floor, but a little low ceiling, especially looking at some of the other guys. But I think he could come in and run New England's offense.

Kyle Oletta, I talked about him after the Senior Bowl. If they decide to wait and go quarterback on day two, maybe in the second or third round, this is the guy to watch. I think this is the guy to watch. And it's not just because it's the FCS thing. I think he could run their offense. And what really blew me away, Benjamin Solak.

You heard him a lot. Locked on Eagles. NDT scouting as well. He sat down with Lolleta, talked to him at the Senior Bowl. This guy played for four different offensive coordinators. Four different offensive systems. Knew each playbook inside and out.

Coachability, right? Something Belichick loves. So I think he would make a ton of sense, especially if they wait. Luke Falk, out from Washington State, played under the aforementioned Mike Leach. He has some flaws to him. The biggest one that sticks out to me is quicksand. He'll make a mistake, and it takes him a couple of drives to get back on track.

I think he'd need a little bit more time than some of the other guys to sort of develop. He doesn't have sort of the power arm that some of the other guys do. But down the road, again, if they wait maybe early day three and they decide to draft a quarterback, he would be an interesting guy. So would Mike White. Took over from Brendan Doty as the starting quarterback

for the Hilltoppers out of Western Kentucky. Produced great numbers the past two seasons in Conference USA. Another scheme-diverse guy. Love what he can do in the downfield passing attack, but I like some of the process and speed that he shows. Shows that he can run a more West Coast-based offense. If you get a chance, watch his final regular season game against Middle Tennessee State. Middle Tennessee State ran a 3-3-5 defense, did a lot of different stuff up front, a lot of complex alignments and blitzes. He had to know where guys were coming from. He handled it extremely well.

Extremely well. I was very impressed with him in that game. His process and speed was one of the question marks I had on him. I wasn't sure if he could speed up his process when he needed to, but he performed incredibly well in that game loved the arm got velocity to all levels he could be a good fit

now I like the other guys better Loleta in terms of a later round option but if they wait and White's there, he'd be intriguing as well. And again, running through these guys quickly,

I do think drafting the guys the way that they go, you know, honestly, like depending on where they draft any of the guys that I've mentioned, I'd be fine with them.

You know, just provided they draft them in the right spot. If you're going to draft Kyle Lolleta early in the first round, you're going to trade up to go get him. I might sort of question that. But it'll be fun.

I love talking about quarterback stuff. It's my favorite thing to do and we're going to be doing a lot of it because the Patriots are going to need one. So that will do it for this week. As I said, off on Fridays until we get closer to the draft. I'll be back Monday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield,

and Locked on Patriots.