Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots July 19, 2018 - Timeline Takes

Episode Date: July 19, 2018

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Good morning, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Thursday, July 19th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for this Thursday installment of your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over at InsideThePylon.com where I'm one of the head writers. Matt Waldman's RSP, MattWaldmanRSP.com where I'm a contributor over there. Also a contributor over at BigBlueView, the SB Nation's giant site. Got a piece up over at Steelers Depot on Juju Smith-Schuster the shallow crossing game I'll be contributing there

and I've still got more stuff to announce as we get closer and closer to training camp and as we get closer and closer to training camp we will be back to five shows a week starting July 30th gonna kick things up and I'll take you all the way through training camp, preseason

games, regular season games, hopefully another run towards a Super Bowl. Loaded show for you today. We're going to do some timeline takey type stuff. We're going to talk the under 25 team, which has gotten a lot of buzz the past couple of days. We're going to talk some happy trails, Madden cover, Patrick Chun taken to the Twitter machine. My man, what are you thinking? But first, perhaps the spiciest, spiciest, spiciest take of the timeline the past couple of days. There was a piece recently making the case that you should still believe in Eli Manning. And I'm pulling this piece up right now that was written by, let me check my notes here. What's that? Oh, that piece was written by me. That's right. Piece by myself, my debut

piece over at Big Blue View was a piece making the case that perhaps people should still sort of believe in Eli Mann and don't write him off just yet and I understand now that perhaps that's a little bit of a spicy take judging by the comments I know they say never read the comments and I mean okay you know to be fair, the comments, most of them, 95% of them were great and friendly and welcoming and made me feel good. But it is clear that the camps have been set up. There is very much a pro Eli camp and a very strong anti Eli camp right now. A lot of people that think, look, he's really done. And those people have some ammo to work with. Look, I've talked about it on this show before.

Just a net yards per attempt. There is some credence to looking at that as a great barometer of quarterback play. Your top five last year were Jared Goff, Drew Brees, Alex Smith, Phillip Rivers, and Tom Brady with Carson Wentz at six, Case Keenum at seven, Matthew Stafford at eight, Ben Roethlisberger at nine, and Matt Ryan at ten and you can make a case that those were your 10 best quarterbacks last season not you know trait based or anything like that just the guys that had the best years

last year and then you scroll all the way down and you probably have to give your your scrolling finger a rest before you get to the bottom tier at 23 cam newton at 24 jacoby brissett at 25 eli manning 5.11 adjusted net yards per attempt and for those that are a little rusty on what adjusted net yards per attempt is, it is a formula. It takes passing yards, subtracts sack yards. It adds passing TDs multiplied by 20, subtracts from that interceptions multiplied by 45. And that's divided by passes attempt plus times sacked. For those of you that perhaps didn't pay attention in algebra class like myself, it doesn't make sense, but it works. I was a skeptic. I'm now a believer. And so you look at stuff like that. You look at some of the interceptions that Eli Manning threw

last year, and you can make the case, look, I don't know about this. It's compounded, of course, by the fact that the Giants were sitting second in the most recent draft. They had a chance to draft a Josh Rosen, a Josh Allen, a Sam Darnold, a Lamar Jackson. They didn't. Dave Gettleman, old school guy, went in a different direction. And it's not like he didn't scout those guys. I sat a couple of rows behind him at the Senior Bowl as he was watching those guys, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield. He went in a different direction. They went Saquon Barkley. They went Will Hernandez with their first two picks. They add Nate Solder. Boom. Look to improve the running game. Does it surprise you that he's an old school guy that he would do that? No, especially when

he's up there, you know, after the Barkley pick, talking about guys in their basements with their analytics and stuff. So I made the case in this piece that, look, if they were going to go down this road, they had to have seen something on film that made them think that Manning still has it. And I pulled out five throws from last year, and they show a couple of different things. They show, one, using some of the RPO stuff, which I think makes some sense for the way the league is moving, the way the league is trending, of course. Plus, you know, Pat Schumer coming over. Minnesota Vikings, they use play action a ton. I've argued elsewhere, such as Pro Football Weekly, that it wouldn't surprise me to see them use the play action passing game

to get Manning some design shots downfield. There's some process in speed stuff. There was a great play I found where he's expecting a blitz from his left. He adjusts the protection. He slides it to the left. He adjusts the formation. He drops back into the shotgun. Manning does, puts his running back to him on the protection. He slides it to the left. He adjusts the formation. He drops back into the shotgun. Manning does, puts his running back to him on the left. He gets blitzed, but it comes

from the other side. It comes from the other slot. And he recognizes that quickly, goes to his hot route, a wide open Evan Ingram for a huge gain on a corner route. You know, so I see some of those throws. I see a throw he made to the aforementioned Evan Ingram on a seam route against Cover 2. And let's talk about Cover 2 for a second because two years ago when they had Odell Beckham healthy, the Giants were the team that faced Cover 2 the most in the entire national football league according to PFF's chart. And the reason for that makes a ton of sense when you think about how the Giants were. One, Odell Beckham Jr. was healthy. Two, they couldn't run the ball a lick. That's an old school phrase for you.

So what do you worry about when you're a defense facing that team? Well, you don't need to drop a safety down into the box to help you against the run, but you're worried about Odell Beckham, obviously, in the vertical passing game. So you run covered too. You have two deep safeties. You can give you help to both sides of the field about Odell Beckham obviously in the vertical passing game. So you run cover two. You have two deep safeties. He can give you help to both sides of the field against Odell. What do the Giants do in response? What are the ways to attack cover two?

Well, it's part of the reason cover two went out of vogue, went out of style. You get athletic type tight ends that can attack between the safeties. Evan Ingram, that's the guy. And so there was a throw that he made against the Cowboys against the cover two. Evan Ingram, that's the guy. And so there was a throw that he made against the Cowboys, against the cover two to Evan Ingram. He's got a linebacker on him, but Eli Manning puts it in there perfectly. Velocity and placement. That's the kind of stuff he's going to have to do because, you know,

until they show that that offensive line is good enough, until they show that Barkley is the running back people think he is, and we're going to touch on that in a second, they might still see cover two. So got to make that throw you know the throw against a similar cover to look on the boundary of velocity and so there are throws that I saw that they must have been the types of things that Dave Gettleman was looking at when he made that decision was it the right one sitting Sitting here right now, I can at least make the case. Again, I'm an old lawyer at heart. I've been handed some bad arguments in my day, and maybe sometime I'll take you through some of the horror stories, but I've been handed some bad arguments to make in

the past, and I've made them. This was a little bit of an easier one, believe me. Manning still has some throws in him. Whether it's enough to justify the decision, that remains to be seen. But right now, I could go through his tape and pull out some throws and say, look, there are some things that he still does well. Is that a spicy take? Perhaps. I'm not a guy known for spicy takes. My spiciest take are more of the, is Africa really Toto's best song? Or is Hold the Line or Rosanna, are those up there? I mean, those are the types of spiciness to my takes that I like. I don't have the iron-clad stomach of my grandfather.

But maybe this was a spicy take. It seems that way to some. I just think that Madden still has something left to him. Up next, like I said, we're going to dive into that under 25 team, which has gotten a lot of buzz a little bit later. Some more timeline takey odds and ends types of things. But first, I want to remind everybody that today's show is brought to you by our great friends over at Core Essentials. That's K-O-R-E.

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That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. And we're going to talk a little bit about this under 25 team. This is something that came from ESPN. Basically what they did was they pulled 43 of their NFL insiders, reporters, analysts, and former players to find out which players under the age of 25 will be the best at each position over the next three seasons.

And that's sort of the criteria here. And I want to talk, I really just want to focus on a couple of positions. I don't want to go through the entire, entire, entire thing. I will say it's interesting that at a lot of positions, like for example, offensive guard, incoming rookies like Quentin Nelson were voted in. And I guess that sort of makes sense because people look at a Nelson as a generational type talent at that position. So I guess that makes sense. Let's start with a couple of positions here. Obviously, I want to start with quarterback.

The selection there, Deshaun Watson, I guess it makes sense. Remember, you're talking 24 and under. Carson Wentz currently 25, so he wasn't even eligible for this. He got 65.1% of the vote, got 28 of the 43 votes. Jared Goff got eight. Marcus Mariota got three. Patrick Mahomes got three. Baker Mayfield got one, which I think is interesting.

I think what's interesting about the selection of Watson is that I think there is some sort of recency bias at play. People were blown away by what Watson did. And I think to some extent, people were surprised by what Watson did. Some people weren't expecting it. Some were. Sorry, I had something in my throat there. Some were, but others weren't. And that's okay.

So I think there's part of that at play. I think what's also at play here is the fact that he's just got one season and an injury shortened one at that of play like this. It does make me a little bit hesitant to sort of crown him in this category, given that. I mean, I look at a guy like Mariota, maybe. I look at Goff, and I think it's kind of the same thing as we have Watson. You know, show me it over an extra year or two, and I might sort of buy in.

And remember, I'm a guy that loves Deshaun Watson. Other than that, I want to note about this. In the write-up, what I found was really intriguing was the way they described him. Few quarterbacks have galvanized a franchise as expediently as Watson did the Texans in 2017. Watson, 27, has exceptional football IQ and character to lead teammates, paired with unique arm talent, particularly in the vertical passing game and dynamic athletic ability. I'm wondering if ESPN and the people who put this together were around with the 49 mile per hour debate. I'm just wondering. The position that's gotten a lot of buzz,

running back, the two picks, Todd Gurley, which I think everybody's on board with, and Saquon Barkley over Ezekiel Elliott. Now, when I first heard this, when I first heard the entire roster and I heard all the buzz about this selection, I was curious about why. I was curious about the justification. But when you remember that the criteria is guys for the next three seasons, I can understand why people might give the nod to Barkley over Elliott because you're now projecting forward. Elliott's already got two years into the league now.

And as we talked about yesterday with Le'Veon Bell, running backs have a shelf life. And I'm trying not to let my own observations about Barkley cloud my thinking here because I saw him play in person against Indiana. I saw him take the opening kickoff of that game back for a touchdown. I saw what a stadium does every time he gets his hands near the football.

It's electric. And he's a three down back in the NFL as a rookie. So I can understand why people might have him in over Ezekiel Elliott because of a couple of different things. I saw some people say, look, what's Ezekiel Elliott going to do in the kick return game? But what does Barkley bring you that? So he brings you more, I think.

But again, it's an expectation. Even the ESPN write-up, the Giants are hopeful. It's hope. You're buying into hope, which is what the draft is all about. So I understand why Barkley was the pick. Again, if it were me, I would have said Elliott because even in something like this where you're projecting forward, I do like seeing some established play. But I understand why Barkley was picked a little bit more than when I first saw this at first blush. The other one I want to talk about, tight end.

I've seen a little bit of pushback on the selection of Evan Ingram over Hunter Henry. And I think the Evan Ingram pick makes a ton of sense when you remember what the tight end position has slowly evolved into, where you've basically got two different tight end positions. You've got a move tight end, and you've got your inline traditional tight end. And ESPN, their write-up reflects that. Ingram 23 is in some ways a jumbo wide receiver, firmly cemented his spot as a bright spot in the Giants offense as a rookie. And he's your move guy. Henry's your

inline guy that can do it more. They can do it all. He's a better blocker. Not that Ingram is bad. I think he got a bad rap for his blocking ability last year. But I think for today's offense, Ingram is the guy that you can do more with. I think Ingram is your Aaron Hernandez. Hunter Henry is your Rob Gronkowski, to sort of make a Patriots comparison here. You can do more creative stuff with Ingram. You can get matchup stuff with Ingram. Not that you couldn't really do it with Gronkowski,

but you're better moving him around and putting Henry down at the end of the line of scrimmage. So those are some thoughts sort of on the under-25 team. I know it got a lot of buzz. I wanted to touch on it. Up next, we're going to do some quick stuff here, some quick hitter stuff and get you out, get you on your way to your weekend plans. I hope they're good ones.

That's ahead. We're going to talk some happy trails, the Madden cover, and Patrick Chun. Put the Twitter down, man. Put the phone down. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you to close out the show. Going to do some quick hitter stuff. First, to steal a phrase, to steal a segment, to steal something from PTI, a happy trails to Darrell Rivas,

who announced his retirement from the National Football League today. Obviously, his next stop is Canton, one of the best to ever do it. I think when you look back at the course of his career, there was a time when Revis Island was a legit, legit thing. Now, obviously, there was a drop-off after he hit sort of maybe 30 or so. His second stint with the Jets, the way it ended with Kansas City, that was a little bit rough. But let's not forget Super Bowl XLIX. He had a sack in that game.

During the AFC Championship game and the Super Bowl combined, during the Patriots' run to that Super Bowl title, Rivas allowed one completion on passes thrown to receivers he was covering. And he had an AFC Championship game against Andrew Luck and the Colts as well. And when you look at how the Patriots constructed their defensive coverages that year, they basically put him on an island and said, look, you got no help. You are on your own.

We're going to play cover one, but you are seriously, buddy, you're on your own. We're going to put Brandon Brown on the other side, and we're going to take McCourty and put him over the top to the other side. You are just on your own. And it worked. So obviously his next stop

is Canton. Just a tremendous, tremendous career to him. And similar to what we were talking about with Bell yesterday, a guy that continually, continually, continually bet on himself. I mean, he was released

by the Buccaneers. He signed a one-year contract. One year worth $12 million with the New England Patriots. They had a $20 million option to bring him back for a second season. He said no. What does he do? He signs a five-year, $70 million contract with 39 guaranteed to return to the New York Jets. That's a guy that bet on himself a couple of times and won almost every single one of those. So happy trails to Darrell Rivas. Madden cover announced Antonio

Brown, AB84, is your new Madden cover athlete. Congratulations to him. Again, I've said it on the show. I don't play Madden anymore. I was in GameStop, I kid you not, the other day. I've still got some gift cards from the holidays that I haven't used yet. And for those of you that are in the game and war, for those of you that follow games, you know it's a big, big, big, big fall. You've got Fallout 76. You've got Red Dead 2. You've got Battlefield 5.

Those are three games that are basically just waiting for me. And so I was in there, I was in GameStop. I had a copy of the, you know, the most recent Madden, a used version. I'm just like, no, I'm just going to wait. But congratulations to AB84 for being named the cover athlete. I hope he has a level of success with it. I hope he evades the Madden curse that still lingers out there. And finally, just before we go here, Patrick Chun getting

a little bit of blowback for a tweet he put out. I'm recording this on Wednesday afternoon. At PatrickChun23, shout out to all the lady doctors, nurses, etc. looking good in their outfits. Sexy stuff. Not one of those things you want to be tweeting out there, my friend. And he kind of doubled down on it on a subsequent tweet. You're mad because I said women doctors

that work hours to save lives look good with the brains and aren't sitting around bsing with their lives guess i'm wrong then am i better saying they look stupid get a life people lol ridiculous i'm not sure that's exactly where he was going with it if he's trying to give female doctors and nurses some props i think there's probably a better way to do it. I'll just say it could be worse. This is that period of the football season where if you're a coach, if you're an owner, if you're a fan, all you want to do is, guys, stay out of the news. Don't do something stupid. You know, these weren't the best tweets.

If this is the biggest bit of Patrick Chun news until training camp starts, this is his big off the field transgression. It could be worse. Still though, not the best thing to say. That will do it for this show. That will do it for this week. After this, just one more week of four shows a week, then we'll be back to five. Also, don't forget, check out Core Essentials, core with a K, Essentials.com. Use that code LOCKEDON to save 10% off your order. Check out one of their Core track belts. You're going to love it.

That said, we are done for the week. Have a fantastic weekend, everybody. Don't forget PodcastAwards.com. Go vote for LockedOn Patriots. Help your boy out. Please. It would be fantastic. I've been nominated. They always say it's fantastic just

to be nominated. But the more nominations, the better. How about that? I'll be back Monday. Until then, everybody, have a great weekend. Stay safe. Have a good one. I'll be back Monday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots.