Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots July 16, 2018 - Odds and Ends, NFC North Over Unders and the 2009 Draft Class

Episode Date: July 16, 2018

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Hello and welcome into Locked On Patriots for Monday, July 16th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com, where I'm one of the lead writers. Also, the Matt Waldman RSP, Matt Waldman Rookie Scouter Portfolio. That's at MattWaldmanRSP.com. My debut piece, we talked about that last week, looking at Tom Brady, Josh Rosen, and

Bare Naked Ladies. Loaded show for you today. We're going to talk NFC North over-unders. If there is a division where I would say hit the under for all four teams, this might be the division. We'll talk about that wide a little bit. Also, we're going to look at the 2009 Patriots draft, a couple of names of notes coming out of that class.

But before we do that, we're going to take a look at some sort of odds and ends here at the outset of this loaded show that we've got for you to kick off your work week. And by the way, this week, next week are your last four-day weeks here at Locked On Patriots. We are going back to five days a week, starting on that Monday, July 30th show. We will be five shows a week until the Patriots season is over. So as I said, some odds it ends here at the start. And first, I intimated that there are going to be a lot of new places to find your boy here in the season ahead. One of them, the Matt Waldman RSP, talked about that last week. Another one was unveiled over the weekend. Proud to announce it today that I've joined the staff over at Big Blue View.

That's the New York Giants SB Nation website. I'm going to be doing some quarterback analysis over there. Basically going to be getting to write a lot about Eli Manning. My debut piece, looking at Manning in sort of six throws from his 2017-2018 season. Five throws that give me confidence and one that still leaves me a little bit hesitant about what we might expect from Eli Manning. Look for that up shortly over at Big Blue View. Excited to be a part of the team over there putting together a great group of people, men and women, to write about the Giants. I'm going to be

covering quarterbacks from a Giants perspective, so you can look for me over there as we get into this week and beyond. Also, I want to give a shout out now to Jim Reynolds at studio underscore Jim on Twitter, big friend and fan of the show. As I mentioned last week, the podcast awards, podcastawards.com, they are up and running right now. You can go to podcastawards.com. You can sign up. It's quick. It's easy. It's free. They don't take anything from you. They delete your information as soon as this whole process is over. You can

be like Jim and nominate Locked On Patriots under sports podcast. It would be fantastically helpful if you did that. I'm trolling here for a little bit of help. Sort of help your boy out a little bit. Give me a little bit of a give me a little bit of help. Sort of help your boy out a little bit. Give me a little bit of a hand here.

Again, go to podcastawards.com to nominate Lock on Patriots as your favorite sports podcast. Other news and notes to get to. Other odds and ends to get to. We're into sort of draft season in the fantasy football world, and I know people don't care about other people's fantasy football drafts, but this is my show, and you're going to listen. I mentioned the Scott Fish Bowl that is underway.

I talked about my strategy, some of my first couple of picks in that. Let me tell you, if you get a chance to see me in real life, at any point last week, I was probably legitimately tilted. I mentioned my first three picks. I was pretty pleased with them. Aaron Rodgers, Travis Kelsey for that tight end bonus, Jarek McKinnon, I'm banking on Kyle Shanahan coming through for me.

Well, things have kind of taken a bit of a turn. I was hoping to go quarterback with my fourth-round pick. Carson Wentz, Cam Newton, Deshaun Watson were the guys I wanted. They were all off the board when I drafted McKinnon. So that was out. So I went a different direction. Everybody sort of zigs going quarterback, so I zag a bit. I go Adam Thielen with my fourth-round pick.

I go Tyreek Hill with my fifth-round pick. And I'm feeling pretty good now. Okay, there's a number of quarterbacks on the board now that I can come back to to grab my quarterback two with my sixth-round pick. And after Tyreek Hill, Demarius Thomas comes off the board. Then we see Phillip Rivers, Dak Prescott, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jared Goff. Those are the next four picks. Two wide receivers go.

Then Matt Ryan, Ben Roethlisberger. Three running backs go. Then Patrick Mahomes and Alex Smith. And at this point, I almost threw the phone in the nearest body of water. I continue to zag. I go Evan Ingram in the sixth round. I go Mark Ingram, the running back. I know he's suspended, but I like his opportunity and I like that value in there in seventh round. So everybody's going quarterbacks. I mean, after I drafted

Ingram, then you see Derek Carr, Mitchell Trubisky, and Jameis Winston all come off the board. So I'm really waiting for QB2 here. So I go Ingram in the sixth, Mark Ingram, the running back, in the seventh. In the eighth, I finally give up the ghost. I can't chase it anymore. Eli Manning has come off the board, so I break down. I draft Case Keenum. Still full-on tilting here. Bounce back a little bit with my ninth-round pick.

Tariq Cohen, I kind of like. I like the idea of him and what we might expect from that offense this year. Nick Chubb, 10th round pick. When Matt Waldman says that a guy is the best he's scouted in the past couple of years, I take notice. That's what he said about Nick Chubb. Nelson Aguilar in the 11th, like that pick. Matt Breida in the 12th, like that.

Little hedge against Jarek McKinnon, so I like that. Marquise Lee, Jackson Wood receivers are an interesting bunch this year. But I figure I get to roll the dice on one of these guys. Dallas Goddard in the 14th round. He's stepping into that sort of Trey Burton role. I expect them to see a lot of touches. Eagles love their tight ends. So I like that.

I like that. I like that. Then, the 15th round. I make a pick. So I like that I like that I like that Then The 15th round I make a pick And It's one of those It's like that scene from Top Gun

At the beginning When the Admiral's like I gotta do this I can't I just I still can't believe I'm doing this I need

A third quarterback And I look at the guys That are available I'm looking at this group. And there are a lot of rookies. Lamar Jackson went early, so I didn't even get a chance to get me some Lamar Jackson action. I'm looking. I see Baker. I see Donald. Maybe Bridgewater. Jacoby Brissett's an interesting name. But we're really getting to the dregs here so I did it Josh Allen

and I feel like I need like a scarlet letter of some kind to walk around with drafting Josh Allen in the 15th round of the Scott Fish Bowl so that's an update on where that stands one last thing here in the opening segment this happened while I was on vacation.

Didn't really get a chance to talk about it, but now that I'm back, at least worth mentioning that yes, the suspension for Julian Edelman was upheld. So now, Patriots open the season against Houston on the road at Jacksonville, on the road at Detroit. We're going to talk about them in a minute. And then home against Miami, they will be without Julian Edelman for all of those games. So basically, we will be 20 regular season games now without Julian Edelman. All of last year, obviously the playoff games in the Super Bowl,

and now the first four games of the regular season. So the Patriots without Edelman, the rest of that wide receiver room is going to have to step up in his absence. Gun to my head, who's going to be the guy to do that? I think Matthews is going to get a lot of touches, a lot of opportunities early. And I'm still all aboard team Malcolm Mitchell. Partially because of the relationship

between him and Brady, which I've talked about. Partially because he wrote a children's book. And he's my mom's favorite player. Hi, mom. Up next, we're going to talk NFC North over-unders. I teased this at the start. If there's a team that you just want to look at, if there's a division that you just want to look at and say,

I'm just going to bang the under on this, it's them. It's this division. More on that up ahead here with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots and doing some NFC North over-unders here today. And let's start by just putting them out there, okay? Over-under for Chicago, who won five games last year, six and a half.

The over-under for the Detroit Lions, Detroit Lions is eight. They're coming off a nine-win season. For the Green Bay Packers, who in the absence of Aaron Rodgers, they mustered seven wins. Their over-under is 10. And the Minnesota Vikings, who look to reload after a 13-win season, make it a run to the NFC Championship game. Their over-under is 10. Let's start with Detroit. And I know I said, look, strength of schedule doesn't really matter. It never really fully materializes. Teams change from year to year. All of the teams in the NFC North have a top 10 toughest schedule.

Tied for second is the Detroit Lions. The combined win percentage of the teams that they play from last season,.535. That's well over 500%. Look at Detroit's home slate. These are their home games. That open on Monday night, they host the Jets. Week three, they host the Patriots. Week five, they host the Packers. Then they get a bye, that early bye, early in October.

Then they host the Seahawks, the Panthers in week 11, the Bears in week 12, the Rams in week 13, the Vikings in week 16. Those are their home games. Then they've got trips to San Francisco, which is a team that everybody thinks is going to rebound well, a trip to Dallas, a trip to Miami, a week. Their week 8 through 11 is brutal because they're home against Seattle, then they go at Minnesota, at Chicago, home against the Panthers.

They also have away games at Arizona, at Buffalo, and at Green Bay to close things out. Eight wins out of that slate, even for a team that might be improved, rookie head coach, first-year head coach, I'm going to hit the under on that. And that's just one team in this division. Let's look at the Bears. Again, people expecting the Bears to be improved.

People expecting the Bears to be better. Five games last year that they won, over-under of 6.5. I'm going to hit the under here. Reason being, again, you look at this schedule. It's the eighth toughest schedule in the league. They open at Green Bay, home against Seattle, at Arizona, home against the Buccaneers. And that's week four where Jameis Winston,

that's probably his first game back. Then they get another early bye, a bye the first week of October. Then you've got the run at Miami, home against the Patriots, home against the Jets, at Buffalo, home against the Lions, home against the Vikings, at Detroit, at the

Giants, home against the Rams, home against the Vikings, at Detroit, at the Giants, home against the Rams, home against the Packers, and then at San Francisco, at Minnesota to finish the season. Again, that's a really tough slate. The team that has another brutal schedule to sort of start things off, when you look at the Minnesota Vikings.

Again, top eight toughest schedule. Home against the 49ers at Green Bay. Home against Buffalo at the Rams, at the Eagles Eagles that five five tough games and one of those that at Los Angeles that's a Thursday night a really tough way to start the season then home against

Arizona at the Jets home against the Saints home against Detroit then they get the bye in November I think that gives them a little bit of against Detroit. Then they get the bye in November. I think that gives them a little bit of an advantage now because they get to rest up for their stretch drive, which begins in Week 11 at Chicago, home against the Packers. At New England, that will be fun. At Seattle, home against the Dolphins at Detroit. And then home against the Bears. Over under 10 here, given the strength of this team, given the late bye,

I know they have the tough start. I'm going to hit, this is the one team where I'll just go out on the limb and say, okay, give me the over on this one. So we'll take the over on the Vikings. And then finally, the team that has the toughest, at least in terms of strength of schedule from last year, is the Packers. Toughest in the league. They opened two straight home games.

Home against Chicago, home against the Vikings. Two home divisional games. Tough way to start. At Washington, home against Buffalo. At Detroit, home against the Niners. Then they get a bye in October. At the Rams, at the Patriots. Tough way to come out of that bye.

Home against Miami. Okay, that's nice. At Seattle on a Thursday night. Seattle, always a tough place to play. Then at Minnesota, coming out of that. Home game against Arizona., that's nice. At Seattle on a Thursday night, Seattle always a tough place to play. Then at Minnesota, coming out of that, home game against Arizona, home game against Atlanta, at Chicago, at the Jets,

and then home against the Lions to finish off. The Packers could be a playoff team. The Packers could be good this year. Over under of 10, I'm going to look at the under that. Maybe it's nine and it gets them into the playoffs, but I just think that's a tough schedule. NFC North has it tough this year because they each play New England,

which makes things nice for us. But that will do it here, looking at the NFC North over-unders. Up next, we're going to take a look back at the 2009 Patriots draft. Belichick and the dealer, some off-season changes that we'll get to. That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots draft. Belichick the dealer. Some offseason changes that we'll get to. That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield. And Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots. And we're going to take a look back at the 2009 Patriots draft. Obviously, 2008 was not a season that Patriots fans like to remember.

Brady was lost in the season opener. Matt Castle comes in. The team wins 11 games, but they still don't make the playoffs. So that January was a little bit different. It began with a lot of changes for the New England Patriots. Scott Pioli, their vice president of player personnel, accepts an offer to become the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. So out is Pioli. Into that spot, Nick Cassaro, who is still there overseeing Patriots decision-making. At least, much of it. John Robinson was promoted to director of college

scouting. Jason Lick, the former assistant director of player personnel, returned to the Patriots after his assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles as the director of player personnel, returned to the Patriots after his assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles as the director of pro personnel. So some changes in the staff. Let's get to the picks. This was a draft that saw a number of interesting names join the Patriots. Now, they had two first-round picks coming in, but we already see some of the influence of Belichick

sort of making some moves here because they get rid of both of them. They... Excuse me. Let me back up here. They had a first-round pick at 23 overall. They traded that to the Ravens and got Baltimore's 26th.

Baltimore's first-round pick, which was 26, as well as a fifth-round pick. so they get 26 and 162 overall. And then they moved that pick from Baltimore, pick 26 overall, as well as a fifth-round pick to the Packers for a second-round pick, number 41 overall, and two third-round picks, 73 and 83. Then they also traded up in the second round so we'll get into it but there was they made a lot of moves let's just put it that way and they drafted a number of players they drafted one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve players not going

to talk about all of them they draft patrick chun with their first pick 34 overall in the second round and we're still talking about patrick Chun, so that's a pretty good pick. Then two picks at 40 and 41, Ron Brace, a defensive tackle for Boston College, who had some injury troubles. They'd have a couple of starts at nose tackle. And Darius Butler, who did some good things for the Patriots. They got him at 41. At 58, they drafted Sebastian Vollmer.

You're getting your right tackle for the next number of seasons. That's a good pick. Brandon Tate, wide receiver out of North Carolina, pick 83. Tate still, you know, you could probably look at Brandon Tate and say he did some nice things for the Patriots while he was there. Good on special teams, good on kick returns, but maybe sort of didn't live up to what people might have hoped Brandon Tate could have become.

Tyrone McKenzie, linebacker out of South Florida. Rich Onberger, offensive guard from Penn State. He's somebody that did see some time, started a couple of games when there was injuries to Stephen Neal and Dan Conley, having to move to fullback. So he did a couple of things for New England. Rest of this draft left. George Busse, offensive guard from Louisville. Jake Ingram, long snapper from Hawaii. Those were guys taking the 5th and 6th

rounds respectively. Myron Pryor, defensive tackle from Kentucky. One 7th round pick, their last pick in the draft. A pick 234. Darryl Richard, but two picks before that, the aforementioned Julian Edelman, picked 232 overall in the seventh round. So looking back at the entirety of this draft class,

I think you could look at it and say, okay, Chun, pretty good pick. Vollmer, pretty good pick. Ornberger did a couple of things. Obviously, Edelman's still kicking around. Chun and Edelman are still here, still kicking around, still mainstays for the New England Patriots. So you could say those were great picks. Now, in the what might have been column, let's look at guys that were on the board when the Patriots drafted Ron Brace at 40. Well, they drafted Brace at 40, Butler at 41.

The Bills at 42 drafted Jarius Bird, safety from Oregon, who's had a pretty nice career for himself. Multiple-time pro bowler. At 46, defensive end Connor Barwin was drafted by the Houston Texans. At pick 49,

Max Unger, center out of Oregon. He's had some good years to his career. I picked 51, Angie LaVitri, guard, out of Oregon State by the Buffalo Bills. He's usually looked at as one of the better guards in the National Football League, at least for a certain stretch of time he was. Now, the Patriots drafted Vollmer at 58. But at 53.

Again these were guys that were on the board. When they drafted Ron Bryce. Ron Brace. Excuse me. LaShawn McCoy. Was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles out of Pittsburgh. And then when we get through the rest of the draft. There's a couple of names. That maybe things could have gone differently.

When they drafted Brandon Tate. 83, the pick at 84, Mike Wallace was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, obviously, he's bounced around a bit, known for his speed. But Wallace could have done some nice things for the new england patriots maybe people would have preferred having him to brandon t and there are some other guys that sort of you know diamond in the rough type guys that panned out that maybe the patriots would have preferred to have when they drafted tyrone mckenzie at 97 overall at the end of the third round a compensatory pick henry melton a defensive end was on the board, a defensive end, was on the board. TJ Lang, offensive tackle, was on the board. Glover Quinn, another safety, was on the board.

Obviously, they probably wouldn't go safety, you know, having gone Patrick Chun with their first pick in this draft. But there were some names that Patriots could have entertained taking. Interestingly enough, Kevin Huber and Thomas Morstead both drafted in this draft in the fifth round, both of them making some Pro Bowls, so pretty good punter draft. But, oh, I spoke too soon. There was another. Pat McAfee was drafted in this draft. So three Pro Bowl punters in the 2009 NFL Draft. If people want to ask you, if you get a trivia question, what was the best draft for punters?

Maybe it was 2009. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. Good to be back. Hope you all had a wonderful week. A reminder to check out the new stuff over at Big Blue View. Excited to be over there. Again, I will have more announcements. I'm not done. Your boy's making some moves. Hey, got to build the brand, right? So I'll be having some more announcements over the next couple of days or so. Excited to announce those. Also, again, podcastawards.com. Shout out to Jim Reynolds at studio underscore Jim. Get over there. Nominate your boy's show. Nominate your favorite Daily Patriots podcast. And it will be back to being a daily Patriots podcast in just a couple of weeks. It's almost time to say goodbye to summer in the metaphorical manner of speaking. And really get back to it.

I will be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield. And Locked on Patriots. Thank you.