Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 25, 2019 - Senior Bowl Recap

Episode Date: January 26, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a very special Friday night Senior Bowl recap edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield not just back, but back in the original big chair. That's right, I am back home in the D.C. area after three wonderful days and nights down in Mobile, Alabama for the Senior Bowl. I'm going to get into some stuff that we saw on the field in a little bit. But let's sort of set the stage for the Senior Bowl because, you know, I've been talking to some people who made it down to the first time to Mobile. And as I've tried to tell them, as I tried to tell them before they came down, as I'll tell you right now. If you ever go, you have to remember that Mobile is a bit of an adult paradise, an adult playground, especially during Mardi Gras, which isn't happening yet.

But my first year down there, Mardi Gras was going on, and that was a long, long week. But any sort of town that has 24-hour bars, you can find some people sort of getting themselves into some mischief late into the night, perhaps early into the morning. Yes, there were members of the draft Twitter community stumbling home when the sun was up. Not me, though. I was a responsible adult for 99.9% of the week, getting myself back to the hotel room and rested and ready to go to do some work the next morning, whether it was watching film or things like that. But you still manage to find trouble when you're down in Mobile. What we're going to do today, though, I've got some audio from a couple of the quarterbacks that I got a chance to talk to that I want to play for you and talk about. Then in the second part of

the show, I'm going to talk about the quarterbacks themselves. And a little bit later, I'm going to talk about some other positions, some non-quarterback stuff that Patriots fans, some players that they might want to start doing their own homework on. But before we do any of that, 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, friends. If there's an outlet cover in the game of football that we all love, chances are I'm doing some work for them. Let's get into it now, and this is just a couple of minutes here or so from Will Greer,

quarterback, West Virginia University, during the post-practice media scrum. I did get a chance to have a one-on-one chat with Will. I was hoping to catch him at media day as well, but he was caught up with some team meetings. So his first chance to talk to the media was a post-practice scrum. Here's just a bit of that, and then I'll talk about it on the other side. Yeah, I don't understand some of the things that have been put out there. I mean, I'm the best quarterback in this draft. I think my arm talent's there, and my play will speak for itself.

Is there anything in particular you want to say? I feel like you're saying things that I've got to really disagree with. Yeah, I'm confident in my abilities. I don't think arm strength has ever been. I mean, ask my receivers, ask the guys in Florida, ask the guys I played against if my arm strength was a problem. I just, you know, it doesn't necessarily make me mad. I don't think that it's, you know, I think my play kind of speaks for itself.

You know, that's part of why I'm here. I hope people can see my arm strength out here. So you're throwing at the combine, right? Absolutely. As you're going to hear from Will Greer there in response to some questions about maybe some of the things that have been written about him as opposed to some of the other quarterbacks in this group, Greer is a supremely confident human being.

You know, that's a mighty, mighty arrogant statement considering the company that he's in, but I kind of like that in a pilot. Okay, a little Top Gun reference there for you, but I agree in the sense that to play quarterback, you have to be extremely confident in your abilities. You have to believe that other than the center, you are the only person that should touch the football on every single offensive play, nobody else, because you're the only person that can make the right reads, the right throws, the right decisions. Choose what to do with the football and do it wisely. And so I loved hearing that confidence

from Greer. We'll talk in a minute about the week that he had on the field. Bit of a mixed bag, but I loved hearing the confidence from him. Next quarterback we're going to hear from is NC State quarterback Ryan Finley. I'm telling you Patriots fans, you might want to do some work on him. He's a quarterback I had some high expectations for coming into this past season. Maybe didn't live

up to some of those expectations that I had for him, but I loved getting the chance to talk to him. I loved seeing some of the throws he was able to make this week. He seemed to have a little bit more velocity on his throws than I expected from his tape, and he also still shows the ability to make some throws in a timing and rhythm based offense such like New England runs. I was just gonna ask you Ryan, what kind of offense do you think you'll fit in best? I can do anything. I'm versatile. I think six years, yeah I got a lot of experience at the college, playing a lot of games so excited for whatever. I was watching your tape and you guys won that trips concept where you get the post route on the outside and then that out and up and then that

out route from the three guys run you seem to love that route throwing that number three open that's a great that's a great play that's just kind of getting you know one of our best players in jacoby or thayer on a mike linebacker or on a safety coming down man to man so that's a matchup that we love every time how'd it feel coming out here today getting to throw some of these guys for the first time felt like you were throwing the ball pretty well yeah it was fun it was i was glad uh the rain held off and we had a really fun day awesome thanks so much ryan good luck listeners to the show know just how much of a huge football nerd i am the x's and o's the scheme stuff route concepts i talk about it all the time on the show most of my writing is focused

on x's and o's and schemes and stuff like that and so the chance to ask ryan finley about a specific route concept that three receiver concept of the post and out and up from the middle receiver and then an out route from the inside number three receiver for to that trips formation it's a play that they ran a ton two years ago they ran it a ton this year clemson florida state so i i knew if there was going to be one x's and o's question i had to ask any of the quarterbacks doubted mobile it was ryan finley asking about that concept and his eyes legitimately lit up when i brought it up you could tell that he appreciated that people have done the homework on him he loved talking about that concept and it's a great route design you get a situation where you put your best receiver

where he's going to get a favorable matchup like he said against a linebacker mike linebacker or safety rotating down you get a chance to throw him into an out route leading him into space when the rest of the stuff has been cleared out by those two vertical routes does that sound like something that say perhaps the new england patriots do get an advantageous matchup or situation or one-on-one moment for their best receiver by putting them into a different alignment to get him matched up on, say, a linebacker or a safety. That's something the Patriots do all the time. You could see Tom Brady making a throw like that to Julian Edelman in the Super Bowl, and so loved that answer.

Loved getting the chance to talk to Ryan Finley. Next quarterback we're going to hear from, Trace McSorley from Penn State, a player that I think maybe had the most to prove. A lot of people thought that maybe some other quarterbacks, such as, say, an Easton Stick from North Dakota State, a Jordan Tamu from Mississippi, or a Brett Rippon from Boise State, maybe should have been into the Senior Bowl ahead of Trace McSorley. But McSorley did do some nice things, and I did get a chance to catch up with him.

The question that I asked first, he kind of gets cut off, so you'll hear him start into his answer, but you'll, I think, like some of the things that Trace McSorley had to say when I got a chance to catch up with him on Thursday. Good control of the offense, executed well when I was in there. I was able to come out and make some good throws and prove some things that I can come out and throw the ball just everyone else. Speaking of proving some things, what do you want NFL teams to take away from your week down here? That's like one thing you want them to know about you. Just coming in and knowing that I can make all the throws here.

I think that's something that, you know, I can continue to prove all the intangible things, but being out letting everyone see me on the field, making all the throws, playing from under center, those are the type of things that, you know, I feel like people really wanted me to see this week, see me do, and I feel like I've been able to come in and do those things. A couple years ago, I was up at Big Ten Media Days

talking to Tom Allen, Indiana head coach. I was asking him about playing Penn State. You've got Saquon Barkley, Mike Giusecchi. How do you stop that offense? And he told me you stopped number nine first. What does it mean to you to hear a coach like that, a defensive-minded guy, say that you were the guy to stop, not a guy that went number two overall

or a guy that gets drafted by the Dolphins? No, yeah, obviously. I have a lot of respect for a lot of coaches, especially the ones I'm playing against year after year after year. So when they say things like that, it definitely makes me feel good about the job that I've done. But it's also a big responsibility. You hear those kind of things, you know you've got to live up to that responsibility.

So I think it's a testament to all the hard work and things you put in throughout your time at school, but it's also a great responsibility to be able to live up to that. One route you love to throw more than any other? I like the comebacks on the outside. You're throwing them well this week. Yeah, I feel pretty good throwing them. Awesome. Great week, Trace. Thanks a lot. I'd love to get a chance to chat with Trace McSorley for a few minutes. I think he's a fantastic story. And like myself and others in the football draft community,

the evaluation community, maybe he does have a little bit of a longer shot to stick on an NFL roster, given some of the things we saw from him both on tape and in his week down at Mobile for the senior bowl but I love some of the answers there and he's one of those sort of high character guys Jim Nagy talked about that a lot in the build-up to the senior bowl said that look you know he was a leader and that story that I relayed to McSorley is one that I've told often about him Tom Allen the head coach, formerly defensive coordinator at the University of Indiana, told me, looked at me dead in the eye, said, look, on an offense with Mike Giusecchi and Saquon Barkley,

you've got to stop number nine first. And I wanted to ask Trace McSorley about that. And what I loved what he said in response to that was that it was sort of like Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility. He looked at it sort of a challenge to him. Look, if defenses want to stop me, it's great to hear that, and I respect that they have that view of me,

but that just means I have to go out there and prove myself and do even better. And so in a draft class where you might find one or two quarterbacks trying to fit that Baker Mayfield chip on their shoulder type of mold, Gardner Minshew being one. Trace McSorley might be the other. I think there's a potential path for him to the National Football League in sort of a spread-based, West Coast-based offense. I think he did make some nice throws on shorter routes, hitch routes,

slant routes, and things like that. So I'm very interested to see him at the combine and how the rest of his draft process goes. But a player that perhaps helped himself the most, and if you read my work this week, listen to the show at all, you probably expected that Jared Stidham might have come out of Mobile as perhaps the biggest riser at the quarterback position. And that was pretty much solidified when on Friday it was announced that he was voted by NFL scouts to be the offensive player of the practices this week.

He had a very, very, very good week. You know, you can get a lot of different quarterback opinions from all the people that were down there. Some people agree with my take. Some people don't, and that's totally fine. But there does see some consensus for the most part around the week that Stidham had. Now, still, there are two years of tape on him that might leave you with some questions. But running this Kyle Shanahan offense for this South squad, you saw a lot of good things from him.

I was very impressed. And I will say in a bit of a look, I'm going to toot my own horn kind of moment, he seemed genuinely excited to talk to me and very excited to meet me, as you'll hear at the outset. And so that kind of felt good too. Hey, Jim, Mark Schofield, Pro Football Weekly. How are you? Great to meet you.

Nice to see you. Looks like you had a really good week. How did it feel? It felt great. I mean, I'm just coming out here trying to have a lot of fun. Not a lot. I'm constantly reminding myself not a lot of guys get this opportunity, so I'm trying to live it up and have as much fun as possible.

Watching you on tape, it seems like you're a pretty scheme diverse quarterback. You can do some stuff downfield, some quick game stuff. Is there an offensive system you think you fit in best, or do you think you can pretty much do it all? I think I'll be able to kind of fit in wherever. I adapt really easily, and whatever will be asked of me, I'm going to do it to the highest of my ability.

One of the things I thought that stuck out for me this week was the velocity. It seemed like you were able to rip it a couple of throws, even back on Tuesday when it was a little windy. Do you feel like you dialed up the velocity a bit this week? I mean, I've always kind of, you know, been able to have a little bit of spin on the ball, something I've just kind of always had and, you know, something I hope to keep. You mentioned a little bit of the footwork.

How is, like, sort of refining the footwork on for you over sort of like the end of the college career and into this week and stuff? Well, you know, I'm out there in Dana Point, California training and just trying to work on it every single day and obviously come out here and translate it. Practice makes perfect, so I'm trying to do it as much out there, put it into here in practice, so hopefully in the game on Saturday I can come out here. Favorite route concept to throw?

Oh man, there's been a lot this week. Yeah, you've been throwing some new stuff in that Shadad offense. I can't pick one, but there's been some fun ones for sure. Awesome. Alright, well, guys, thanks for coming forward. I don't know if you caught that sort of in the intro or the beginning of his answer, but he talked about how he was able to adapt really easily. And you could read that as part of the reason why he would be a quarterback that would rise this week because when you study that Auburn offense,

it seems like there were times between the talent that was or was not around him and how that offensive system worked schematically. It might have sort of handcuffed him a bit. He looked great this week running Kyle Shanahan's offense. And as you heard, look, he seemed to have a fun time running a lot of those route concepts. His eyes literally brightened up when I asked him that question about his favorite route concept to throw. It seems like he really enjoyed running that Shanahan offensive playbook.

And while the San Francisco 49ers might not need a quarterback, there might be some other teams around the league that might need a quarterback that could run that type of offense. And as the host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, I would say, as with Ryan Finley, you might want to do your homework on Jared Stenum. So there's just some of the color, some of the flavor, some of the audio from these guys down there. It was great to be down there just a fantastic week down in Mobile,

getting a chance to interact with these quarterbacks, seeing them both sort of during practices and then after and getting a feel for who they were as people so fantastic week i'm next i'm going to talk a little bit more about each of these guys go through all eight quarterbacks have some winners and some guys that need to do some more work at the combine and a little bit later we're going to go to the other positions because i was watching some of the other guys positions of need for the new england patriots and i got some names for the rest of you to do some homework on as we get closer to draft time. That is all ahead on this special Friday night Senior Bowl recap edition of Locked on Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now on this special Friday night Senior Bowl recap edition of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I know, look, we're going to get into Super Bowl 53. We've got a long week ahead of us to cover that every single angle inside and out the tape, the scheme, the trends, the themes that are emerging from Atlanta. We even did a bonus crossover show this week to sort of help get you ready for that. But I did want to since I was down there, take some time and talk about these quarterbacks a little bit more, especially since, look, let's be honest. The New England Patriots might be drafting one of these guys to replace TB12,

whether it's two years from now, three years from now, or whatever. So we better start doing our homework on them. I want to start on the South squad. And I'll sort of kind of take these guys sort of in numerical order, how they were listed on the roster. So we'll start with Tyree Jackson, the big quarterback, 6'7", from the University of Buffalo, who came into this week, a quarterback I was very interested to see,

but as you probably sort of heard me talk about or maybe even read over at Big Blue View, a quarterback that I thought, while raw and with some talent, there was going to be a developmental arc to him. He showed some very impressive throws. He certainly does have the arm strength, the kind of velocity that if you like Josh Allen, you're going to like this kid. The problem for me, and this seems to be a point where I'm perhaps breaking with some others, for example,

Benjamin Solak, who does great work over at the draftnetwork.com. He seems a lot more confident in him than I am. And the problem that I have, the fear that I have, is sometimes quarterbacks, when they have this type of arm, it almost stunts their development from a mental perspective because if they have the kind of arm strength that allows them to make throws late and to fit the ball into tighter windows because they don't have to be quick with their mind, that's a double-edged sword that can sometimes lead to mistakes,

particularly against NFL defensive backs. But I do think that, look, he's a double-edged sword that can sometimes lead to mistakes, particularly against NFL defensive backs. But I do think that, look, he's a talented quarterback that should hear his name called, probably a day three guy. I would love to see Bruce Arians draft him as some sort of Jameis Winston insurance because I think he'd be a perfect fit in a vertical-based pass and offense. But I will say that I've been mocking quarterbacks to Bruce Arians, starting with Cardale Jones and then Patrick Mahomes for a while now. Maybe this is the year I finally get it right. But I do think Tyree Jackson sort of really helped his draft stock

going into this week. Then there's Will Greer. And Greer was kind of the quarterback I was most excited to see. I had him over at Big Blue View ranked as my top quarterback going into this week out of this group. and the confidence was there. You heard that in that post-practice media scrum that we played in the first segment of the show, but the performance off the field was a little bit mixed. The mechanics are a bit of work in progress right now. The footwork, the loop to his throw in motion.

He can make some nice bucket throws at times, but he missed a lot of throws this week. His decision-making was slow at times, and part of that might be, look, you're running the new offense here, the South offense under Kyle Shanahan. So maybe you're struggling with it a bit. But I think that this was a bit of a letdown kind of week for Will Greer. He'll have to do some work, you know, going into the combine, but sort of coming coming out of mobile sort of the scuttlebutt around him is look he's now day two maybe slotted into day three territory whereas he had the potential to be a day two solidified type of guy with perhaps a really good week that could have pushed him to maybe just maybe that late late late round one discussion so you know a bit of a mixed week for Will Greer but I still think based on some of the stuff he does on film,

he can be great, but maybe he's just a guy that has to be in rhythm. When he's not in rhythm, he tends to struggle. The guy that had the best week out of this group, Jared Stidham from Auburn, showed the ability to click and climb in the pocket, showed some real good velocity. You heard me ask Jared Stidham about that, but he ripped some throws that were very impressive this week.

He might have had one of the best sort of throws i i saw from any of these quarterbacks it was a seven on seven play in wednesday's practice which was closed to the media uh but i stayed up late night sort of breaking that tape down when it was available at the film room over at the residence renaissance riverwalk hotel and he had a you know a two receiver concept basically we had a curl route to one side a slant route to the other side between the tight end and the slot receiver on the left it was against the cover one look so he had to move that underneath hole defender with his eyes so he flashes his eyes to the right moves that linebacker towards the tight end and the curl route then comes back and rips in that slant route once he gets that linebacker to move very small play just one drill just one example just

one rep but i'd love to seeing that from him He had a very confident week. It shows in the fact that he was voted by NFL scouts as the offensive player of the week. He certainly helped himself. He's now maybe creeping into that day two discussion where, based on some of his tape, you might have thought that he might have been undraftable. And so a fantastic week for him. And then finally, Gardner Minshew, whom I love from a mental standpoint. I love the way his feet, his eyes, and his mind are all tied together. I love his attitude. I love from a mental standpoint I love the way his feet his eyes and his mind are all tied together I love his attitude I love it when he stared me in the eye and basically called out some of the quote-unquote again using air quotes college pro style offenses because if you ask him look Mike Leach's air raid system is the best you can run to get yourself ready to make

those full field progression reads four or five receivers deep into a play that the NFL scouts and evaluators want to see their quarterbacks able to make. Erratic a little bit on the field. Although I thought when they got into the red zone drills in day three, he had some great throws, had a beautiful bucket throw to Debo Samuel in the back corner of the end zone, back left corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a red zone fade route during a red zone seven on seven drill. So while the performance is a little bit mixed, I'm still pretty high on him. I think he's firmly in that round three, round four kind of area,

maybe because of size concerns and some other concerns and some of the things you saw from him on tape. And maybe the air raid system concerns, he slides more into a day three, round four, round five area. But I really like him. And I think if you're a team that has an established quarterback, but you're looking for that nice backup to develop

and maybe take over in two or three years, Minshew might be your guy. Let's go to the North squad. And this was the squad that probably had the bulk of the eyes, the bulk of the attention on them, given the fact that you had two guys that were rumored to be first round picks coming on

you know this north squad under john gruden again sort of taking these guys just in numerical order and drew lock from the university of missouri who had basically the pre-senior ball buzz of top 10 quarterback won't get past denver at 10 denver and elway seemed to love him he coming into this week i thought he needed a big week because I thought there were some hesitation things from him, some slow decisions from him, a simplified offense. Two years ago, basically, Missouri was running nothing but hitch routes, smokescreens, slants, and goes. And even under Derek Dooley, who's more of an offensive pro-style mind, there was still a lot of stuff to the boundary. So I wanted to see more.

I thought he had a great week. Some people thought he had a great week. Others didn't see it. But I thought given sort of the hype coming in, I was impressed with what he did. I thought he looked better during this week than he did at times on tape. I really want to sit back down and watch, again, some of his early 2018 stuff to his late season stuff

because I thought he made a really good late season push. He talked about fixing his footwork a little bit as we got late into that season. The footwork does seem to be improving. I didn't see as many sort of fadeaway back foot throws that we saw from him on tape. And so I think he had a very, very, very good week. Next quarterback is Trace McSorley.

Talked about him a little bit. I think out of the eight guys that were down here he might face the you know the steepest hill to climb um to sort of get onto and stick on an NFL roster but I do think if you know he's the type of quarterback that might fit where the NFL is trending the more spread um west coast air raids type stuff um definitely a guy that you can use his athleticism as a runner, use him with his legs. He can do some stuff in the quick game. You heard him talking to me earlier, he can throw that comeback route. He throws it pretty well at times. He did miss, you know,

more than a portion of his throws. So the accuracy there was sort of an issue. You know, maybe he's still dealing with a lingering foot issue. There were some concerns about him in his bowl game, whether he might even have had a fractured foot. but everybody thinks you know the world of him in terms of him being a high character guy and so you know i think you'll hear his name called he'll get himself onto a practice roster for training camp and you know then it's up to him to put in the work to make it stick um but i think that there are some things that he can do well um it's just a matter of whether that's going to be enough for a team to really take a chance on him. Next quarterback we'll talk about, again, sort of working through these guys in numerical order. That's Ryan Finley, the quarterback from NC State,

a timing and rhythm guy. I think he does some good things from a decision-making standpoint. I thought his velocity this week was better than I expected. I think out of these quarterbacks, he's the one that sort of has that nice little floor to him where you know that maybe it doesn't pan out and he doesn't become an NFL star but it would not surprise me at all to see him be that kind of guy that has that Colt McCrory type career where you know six seven eight ten years in the league as a backup seems like a smart guy when I talked to him about some route concepts as you heard liked some of the stuff that he did on film you saw some quick decision making him from him this week and again the velocity there was better than i expected on film you saw him use a lot more touch timing and rhythm but he ripped a couple of nice throws

particularly on tuesday when the wind was a whipping a little bit and the rain was you know in the air a little bit and the ball was a little slick ripped some throws during that day of practice that i was very impressed with finally dan, Daniel Jones, the other player that, in addition to Drew Locke, people had high expectations for. And it doesn't matter who you talk to, outside of a handful of people, Daniel Jones needs to have a good combine now. He needs to have a good pro day. Things were not good.

In particular, let me walk through his first three throws. When I sat down after my great dinner Wednesday night, got to the film room, got my chance to sit with the laptop, with the projector, got the remote, my clicker in the hand, got a chance to run it and see whatever I wanted. All I wanted to watch from both of these teams was the seven-on-sevens because Tuesday is sort of that baseline day. Then when you get into Wednesday, you start to get a little bit of familiarity with these

guys and the routes. You want to see in those seven-on-sevens, when you don't have the line or the pressure to worry about, you want to see them be crisp, quick, effective, and decisive with their reads and decisions and throws. Here were Daniel Jones' first three throws. I kid you not, in order during that session. The first tries to throw a quick speed out route on an out spacing concept,

just a five-yard out to the left sideline. Missed it by like three feet just too far outside of in front of the receiver second throw goes through a full field progression type reeb comes to his check down the run back in the left flat very late stares at it a little bit too long telegraphs the throw and it's a pick six situation third throw tries to throw a comeback to that left sideline receiver falls down he still takes two extra hitches after staring at that comeback route from the second the ball was snapped, looks right at it, and it's picked off in another potential pick six.

Those were his first three throws, and they kind of typify the week that Daniel Jones had. It was underwhelming. He's still talented. He's still a good quarterback. I still think that if you're a West Coast team, you're going to have some success with him. The problem is he was running John Gruden's offense this week, and that's a West Coast-based offense. And so I think he's left himself some

work to do. It's one of those situations like you're playing golf and you get that long 20-foot putt and you hit it and it comes up 15 feet short. You leave yourself a lot of work to do to make your par. This is a situation with Daniel Jones. He leave yourself a lot of work to do to make your par. This is a situation where Daniel Jones, he's got a lot of work left to do. So that's kind of how I viewed these guys. I think the winners, I think Locke certainly helped himself. I like Minju from what he did sort of from a mental standpoint. I think Tyree Jackson helped himself,

and I think the winner of them all was Jarrett Stidham. And that's what people like Joe Marino over at the Draft Network, and I wrote it over at Pro Football Weekly, if you were to pick a player pre-week out of this quarterback group that might help himself the most given what he had seen on tape and the environment that he's going to be in and some of his skill sets that might translate well to these sort of 7-on-7 and 1-on-1 moments, it might have been Jarrett Stidham. And it turns out Joe and I were right, and I'm sure others had that call too.

But Stidham, I think, had a very, very, very good week. If you want more of my thoughts on these quarterbacks, go over to ProFootballWeekly.com. I wrote a recap piece each day about these practices and giving you some of the scuttlebutt around Ladd-Peebles Stadium, which is what we're going to dive into next. I'm going to talk about some non-quarterbacks that Patriots fans might want to learn about and start studying on their own as we look forward to the upcoming NFL draft.

That's ahead on this late Friday night Senior Bowl recap edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. I'm going to close out this Friday night Senior Bowl recap installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast and talk about a handful of players, non-quarterbacks, that stood out to me this week for one reason or another and that Patriots fans might want to sort of keep in mind as we start thinking about the draft. We'll start with that North roster where we just finished up with the quarterbacks and I'll mention Andy Isabella. I talked about him a little bit earlier, I think, on a show earlier this week.

Very quick, slot-type receiver, came in a little bit undersized. People were kind of impressed with his quickness, his ability to win routes against press. The one thing I will note is a lot of the sort of highlight clips that you might have seen from him tweeted out where he's dusting some defensive backs. A lot of those came maybe three, three and a half seconds into the route. Tom Brady doesn't hold the ball three, three and a half seconds into the play too often. So he does have the ability to win quicker. Just when you hear people talk about, oh, man, he looked great this week.

He was, you know, breaking ankles left and right. Sometimes Tom Brady would have already thrown the ball somewhere else. And so that is something to keep in mind. But, you know, like Braxton Berrios last year and like another receiver I'm about to talk about or actually two other receivers I'm about to talk about, he kind of fits what the Patriots do. A receiver that might not fit what the Patriots do but had a very good week, Terry McLaren from Ohio State. He was viewed as more of a day three guy but had a very, very good week.

Almost seemed to be open all the time on a variety of routes, whether it's vertical routes down the field, routes along the boundary, shallow routes, crossers, digs, things like that over the middle. Always seemed to be open. Wasn't the best receiver there, the best receiver there we'll talk about when we get to the South squad but he had a very very good week a receiver that had a fantastic week

a receiver that might fit the Patriots mold a receiver that maybe you want to go and watch some tape on even though look the offense he was in, the quarterback he was playing with wasn't that great Penny Hart from Georgia State slot receiver listed at 5'8", 180. I don't have his exact measurements from weigh-in day, but he's a smaller guy,

but he fits that Patriots slot receiver mold very well. Was awesome, always open. Incredible footwork, incredible change of direction. Get it into and out of breaks. Thought he had a fantastic week of practices. Talk to anybody, whether it's Benjamin Solak over at the Draft Network, John Ledyard, any of those guys, anybody that was down in Mobile, they will tell you one of their biggest winners of the week was this kid, Penny Hart, had a fantastic week, made himself some money down in Mobile. Nasir Adderley, the safety from Delaware, what was interesting about

him is they used him as cornerback a lot this week. And part of it was, look, they didn't bring that many corners down for this North squad. But the other thing is I talked to Dante Farinoli, who's one of the head scouts for the Senior Bowl. And he told me that a lot of NFL teams wanted to see safeties have the ability to play corner. And, you know, think about it. When you've got those situations where you've got a tight end that might go Y-ISO or, you know, a runner back who might go sort of a back iso or something like that and you're a safety and now you're forced as a defense to either put a corner out there or have to put the safety out there you want to know if that

safety can go out there and play sort of as a press corner or an off corner into the boundary depending on offensive forward formations he struggled at times doing that although one of the picks of Daniel Jones that I mentioned in the previous segment was him. I still think he's a first-round player. Maybe he'll have to clean up some things when we get into the combine and look better in the drills. But remember, teams and some scouts and evaluators might look at some of his struggles on the boundary and say, look, man, he can't do this he can't cover remember the Patriots though they are a what can he do organization they will look at his ability to play down in the box they will look at his ability to play as a free safety a

center fielder type guy that goes sideline to sideline they will look at his coverage ability over the middle they will look at his zone coverage skills they will look at his ability to come down into the box and run support and this is a player that I think they will like a player that many are struggling with Zach Allen from BC doesn't seem athletic enough to be an edge defender if you kick him inside he doesn't have the size the mass and the strength right now to sort of kick inside to more of a five technique and play there and so you now start to wonder what's he's more of a tweener type and we we're not sure the best home for him in the National Football League. I asked Joe Marino from the Draft Network,

where do you stand between him and Sam Hubbard? Remember last year, Hubbard was a player kind of linked to the Patriots, but people wondered about a natural fit and position for him. And Marino was basically just immediate response that he thought, you know, much more of Sam Hubbard than Zach Allen. And I will say this, walking by him, you know, at the Renaissance Hotel, the Riverwalk Hotel, where everything's sort of staged, you could think he was a wide receiver. You could think he was maybe even, you know, just a bulkier punter. I mean, he didn't look that big. You know,

part of it is, look, the height, you know, maybe he doesn't carry the 285 that he's listed at, at that 6'5", maybe he doesn't carry well. But he just seems a little bit like he's an in-between type player right now. So I do wonder if that's what he's hearing from teams. You might need to bulk up and kick inside, or we're going to have to somehow get you more athletic and get you some more fluidity in those tips. Charles Omenahu, a defensive lineman from Texas.

This guy, though. This guy's legit. You know, can't move him off the edge. Can show you some pass rushing ability off the edge. Sets the edge all the time and runs support. There were some times in team drills when basically he was a rock. You know, you just couldn't move him. And if you can envision a future where the Patriots decide to move on from a Trey Flowers,

this might be the kind of guy that they would look to. And I think he had a very good week. Sort of fits what the Patriots decide to move on from a Trey Flowers, this might be the kind of guy that they would look to. And I think he had a very good week, sort of fits what the Patriots like to do. Got some length to him, too, and the Patriots like having those long-edge defenders out there on other edge. Finally, Kaleen Saunders, the kid from Western Illinois, sort of the small school kid that you saw the back flips and the things like that. Big guy, interior defensive lineman. If they move on from Shelton, if they move on from Malcolm Brown,

he showed the ability to be sort of that one-gap or two-gap type player that can occupy guides on the inside and free up stuff for the backers behind him. Showed a lot of that this week during team drills, during inside run drills. I thought he had a very good week. So if the Patriots are making a move at the interior defensive line, he might be a guy to watch. Flipping to the south roster, a couple of players to mention here. Devo Samuel from South Carolina.

He was the best receiver down there. I think that was pretty clear. Did he get himself into the first round? Maybe. Maybe not. He's got some talented wide receivers ahead of him that weren't down there for the senior bowl, for example. But he was the best wide receiver down there.

He seemed to always, always, always be open. And just winning quickly against press, winning against off coverage, any kind of coverage, he was beating it. Fantastic week. Montez Sweat, edge defender from Mississippi State, best edge defender here, period. And he's probably a guy that's going to go early. I don't think the Patriots are going to crack at him.

Does seem a little bit lean, listed at 6'6", just 245. But he can put together a pretty vast array of pass rushing moves. Hunter Renfroe from Clemson, the wide receiver, similar to Andy Isabella. He was also almost open all the time. Solid hands. I don't think I saw him make one drop this week. So he had an impressive week. Out of the tight ends, I wasn't really impressed with too many many of them but there were two that did stick out to me foster moreau

from louisiana state lsu i thought he had a pretty good week he had a great catch in the back corner of the end zone um on a throw from tyree jackson um where he had to make a sort of dive and slide and catch seemed to be able to get open against most safeties and linebackers so i thought he had a good week and kind of an under you know smaller school guy Dax Raymond from Utah State comes enlisted at 6-5-2-0-5 showed the ability to play inside in line you could flex him out a little bit showed some route running ability ability to win on routes whether you know isolated to the outside or against tight ends and linebackers when I mean excuse me against safeties and linebackers when he's as an in-line tight end. I thought he had a pretty good week as well. As far as offensive linemen,

the Wisconsin kids, they had, you know, some great stuff that they showed. You know, Dieter and Ben Chuan, so those two guys, they had a really, really good time, but I didn't spend too much time watching the offensive line because let's face it, Patriots offensive line is pretty rock solid. Even if Trent Brown moves on, you on, they're going to slide in Isaiah Wynn. So I didn't spend too much time watching the offensive linemen. But these guys I mentioned here, I think if you're a Patriots fan, you might want to do some work on them as well as the quarterbacks I talked about a little bit earlier that might be a good fit

for what the New England Patriots like to do on offense. So that will do it for today's show. I will be back on Monday to start getting you ready for Super Bowl week. We will start covering the Los Angeles Rams, getting ready for what they do on offense, what they do on defense. We'll have another crossover show, maybe get some guests on,

get you ready for Super Bowl 53. Building up to, of course, what you might expect, a special Sunday morning Super Bowl edition, tailgating installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. We're going to have a full week of shows for you. Excited to bring it all to you. The sights, the

sound, the theme, the schemes, and the flavors of Super Bowl 53. So enjoy your weekend, everybody. Thanks for listening to this sort of Friday night Senior Bowl recap show. Hope you enjoyed it. Check out the stuff over at Pro Football Week. I'll also be putting up a piece over at Big Blue View recapping the quarterbacks

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