Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots July 31, 2018 - Training Camp News and Notes, Jets Over/Under and the 2016 Patriots Draft Revisited

Episode Date: July 31, 2018

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Hello and welcome into Locked On Patriots for Tuesday, July 31st, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair, happy to be your host for your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work over at insidethepylon.com where I'm one of the lead writers over there. The Matt Waldman Rookie Scouting Portfolio, mattwaldmanrsp.com where I'm contributing my work over there as well, looking at quarterbacks and things like that. Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation Network,

doing some work over there. I'll be back over at Pro Football Weekly, happy to be contributing over there. And I might as over at Pro Football Weekly. Happy to be contributing over there. And I might as well announce it since the contract is signed and things like that. I will be a NFL features writer for The Score, thescore.com, a Canadian site. They are looking to do more features work

and I'm going to do some scheme stuff over there. Two pieces will be coming out shortly. One on Alex Smith and the play-action passing game in Washington. And another on Jimmy Garoppolo and Kyle Shanahan's two-back passing attack. So look for those. Happy to be joining the team over there at The Score. Locked and loaded show for you today, which is brought to you by our great friends over at VividSeats.com.

More on those guys in a moment. We're going to be talking Jets over under. We're going to look at the 2016 Patriots NFL Draft. And 2016 draft is really the first one I really sort of dove into professionally. Yeah, I covered the 2015 draft quasi-professionally over at InsideThePylon.com. We were just kind of figuring it out as we went. 2016 was that first quarterback class I was really sort of locked and loaded for. But first, Patriots training camp news and notes. Last night, Monday night, the Patriots practicing under the lights at Gillette Stadium. Always nice to see that.

Nice little tradition that most teams do. I got to see on Facebook some of my friends back in the Boston area who are Patriots season ticket holders getting under the lights to take in a Patriots practice. But before they did that, however, the one and only Bill Belichick taking some questions from the media, wanted to work through some of his responses and some of the questions. And what was really interesting is right out of the outset, it is sort of opening remarks. You do get that sense of how Bill Belichick takes every single little opportunity to use it as a teaching moment, as a preparation moment for something that the team might face in the future. For example, in his opening statement, here's what he says.

Well, and I'm quoting here from the transcript. Well, tonight's an opportunity for us to get out into the stadium and just kind of take advantage of that setting this will be the only time we'll do that before the Washington game we've got new lights we've got new lights think about that

it's a chance for the players and we'll talk a little bit more about this in a second to get a feel for the new lights. How the new lights will look when they're on the field at nighttime. How the ball might look. How the field might look. How the rest of the players might look. How your visual experience will look once it comes to the regular season

and you're actually in game environments under the new lights. And he goes on to say, there's a question, and I'm quoting from the transcript, is tonight maybe more important for specialists to be able to get a sense of wind direction or familiarity with the elements that come into play on the field? And Belichick's answer, right, yeah, this will be similar to our preseason games where we go from day to night, starting today, and end up under the lights. Again, the lights. I don't know if we'll get full darkness tonight but certainly a good opportunity for our returners to handle the ball and get used to seeing the ball against a different backdrop

than what we've seen out there in the practice field it'll be a good opportunity for them same thing for the kickers just to re-familiarize themselves with as you said some of the wind patterns and just overall get familiar with the stadium, the 42nd clock, the game clock, and a chance for us to do that. Just fantastic insight there just on the little tiny details that go into getting a team ready to play in the National Football League. Worrying about the lights. Worrying about how the returners will be able to see the ball under the lights.

This is one of the greatest coaches of all time and he's worried about lights. Fantastic stuff there. Also the transcript he goes through some praise for Randy Moss who's obviously being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame which is coming up this weekend. He talks

globally about Chad O'Shea the wide receivers coach for the New England Patriots, who first arrived with the team in 2009. And what was interesting about his answer, and he illuminates part of what the difficulty might be in playing wide receiver for the Patriots, because as Bill Belichick says, yeah, that's a tough position to play here. Chad does a very good job with all those guys. He coaches multiple positions outside to inside. Our guys are very involved in blocking and we do a lot of game planning and formation and so forth. Chad's an excellent teacher, a very good fundamental coach, has a good relationship with his players, has a good relationship with all of the staff members,

easy to work with. He comes from a great football background. Of course, his dad, Michael Shea, is one of the great trainers in his profession of all time. He has a great history with the game and with the sport. Chad's done a really good job for us. Other insight from this. I saw when I woke up this morning, on Tuesday morning, some talk about Danny Shelton perhaps kicking inside on third downs. As an interior rusher on sub packages. And I saw a lot of people in the Cleveland media saying, good luck with that.

That's not going to happen. I just do want to read, since that got a little bit of buzz this morning and it certainly caught my eye, go into the transcript. Question, did Danny Shelton plan third down early in his career? Belichick's answer, quote, some, we'll see how it goes.

It doesn't really matter. We'll see how he does with us in our packages. We haven't really gotten to that yet, this training camp. We did some in the spring, but we haven't really gotten to a lot of third down work yet. That will be coming later this week and we'll give the players an opportunity, see how it goes and build it from there. So if you, like me, saw some of this Danny Shelton discussion on Twitter or elsewhere, they haven't really even gotten to third down stuff yet. People are running with this, oh, Danny Shelton's going to be their interior pass rusher on third down situations.

This is not something he's good at. This doesn't make sense. They haven't even started to really get into their third down packages yet. That's coming later this week as they get ready for their preseason opener against Washington. Which, if you want tickets for, VividSeeds.com. More on them in a second. But don't worry. Pump the brakes on this Danny Shelton interior sub packages.

Because as Belichick said in the next question, what does a defensive tackle have to do to stay on the field on third down? Answer, be productive. I think we can don't go off the cliff just yet on this one. Other little tidbits, some great stuff about Trent Brown and his size. Question, have you ever coached anyone as big as Trent Brown? Answer, no. Simple and to the point.

Belichick describes him as very athletic a guy that can run can bend can change directions he's long he's strong he plays with good knee bend as big as he is he doesn't necessarily play high he can bend and get leverage on guys that aren't as long as he is I love the way the press conference ended question after 19 years is your relationship with Tom Brady to the point where you'll get him a birthday gift this Friday? I don't know who asked that question. That's a good question. That's a really good question. Belichick's answer, though, even a little bit better. Belichick's answer,

I still have a couple days to work on that. We'll come up with something. That's a great answer. Finally, before we close out this opening segment, looking at Patriots training camp news and notes, Doug Kyett has his sort of early training camp roster projection. It's his first roster projection in the summer. You can check it out at nessen.com. And I wanted

to highlight one position group, which is probably the position group to watch when you're looking at the Patriots this year. And if you're a fantasy player, whether it's dynasty, redraft, whatever, this is one to watch as well it's that wide receiver group here's Doug Kayed's first sort of crack at roster projections looking at this wide receiver room guys that make the roster Kenny Britt, Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett

Matthew Slater, Cordell Patterson and Braxton Berrios suspended Julian Edelman that means the guys that are out Devin Lusin, Riley McCarron, Malcolm Mitchell, Paul Turner, and Jordan Matthews. So much surprising. I'm reading from Kyed's piece here. He thinks Matthews makes the team, but there's no spot for him yet.

It will ultimately take an injury. To the Braxton Berrios point, the Patriots need a punt returner. So unless they plan to use Burkhead, Hogan, or Patrick Chun in that role until Edelman returns, then Berrios, McCarron, and cornerback Cyrus Jones has to make the roster. Berrios provides the most upside. And that sound you hear is your host tearing his right labrum in his shoulder again, patting himself on the back.

Because remember, go back to senior bowl time when your boy was saying, Isaiah Wynn, Braxton Berrios, keep an eye on those two as potential New England Patriots. To close it out, Kyad says he considers taking Patterson off the roster, but he's probably just too valuable under the new kick return rules. Dorsett has been more involved in first team proceedings during training camp, and Nessun.com has been told the Patriots have big plans for Britt, two guys that I've also talked about as we've gotten into training camp to keep an eye on in this group. So that leaves off Matthews, who has yet to stand

out in camp and is currently injured. Again, this is one person who's close to the team watching every single training camp practice, his first roster projections. But it's certainly interesting that Matthews is currently on the outside looking in. It might just have to do with the fact that he's injured and hasn't really done much yet. Certainly something that merits watching. And yeah, okay. Part of me just read this because Braxton Berrios' love is going to get some play here over at LockedOnPatriots.com. Until they drag me away from the microphone,

kick and scream and tell me it's not my show anymore, I'm going to give Braxton Berrios some love. So that will do it for our opening segment here. Up next, we're going to talk New York Jets over under. But first, we are literally hours away from actual football. Not training camp stuff, not scrolling through Twitter, seeing people overreact to one-on-ones, you know. And shout out to my boy, Owen Reese, okay? I have a son named Owen, but I actually have a, you know, an adopted son named Owen. He's at ReeseDraft, at R-I-E-S-E, D-R-A-F-T on Twitter.

Former offensive lineman. He had a great piece over at Inside the Pylon where he talks about just one play. It was similar to something I did about quarterbacking where he's doing it as an offensive lineman, he had a great piece over at Inside the Pylon where he talks about just one play. It was similar to something I did about quarterbacking where he's doing it as an offensive lineman. I highly, highly, highly recommend you check it out. But as Owen says, if you get excited about a defensive lineman beating an offensive lineman in one-on-ones, tap the brakes on that one. Because as Owen describes it, in those drills, the defensive linemen are favored in those drills because they can attack either way. They can put on any kind of move.

When in reality, you don't get a lot of what they call two-way goes, which is meaning the defensive player can go either side, either shoulder, either gap against the offensive lineman. He's going to be within the structure of a play call, so he's going to be asked to go one way or the other. So if you get excited over a defensive lineman winning in one of those one-on-ones, as my boy Owen says, my big son Owen, you know, calm down a bit. Anyway, where was I? Man, that was a tangent. We are hours away from actual, actual, actual football.

Not people overreacting to these one-on-one videos and things like that. The Bears, the Ravens, the Hall of Fame game on Thursday night. And that means the start of the NFL season is just around the corner. This season, don't just sit around watching the Pats from home when you can be at Gillette and the crowd cheering in person thanks to Vivid Seats. Vivid Seats, they're an online event ticket marketplace dedicated to providing fans of live entertainment with experiences that last a lifetime.

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when you use our exclusive promo code LOCKEDON. One word, that's LOCKEDON. New customers only. The offer's good through the end of August. Preseason and regular season tickets are available now. The Pats kick off their preseason schedule on August 9th against Washington. You can be there for all the excitement.

Go to VividSeats.com or download the app and enter that promo code LOCKEDON for 10% off your first order. The offseason is here. The NFL is back. And Vivid Seats wants to help you get to the game. Up next, look at the New York Jets. Going to talk Sam Donald.

Going to talk their quarterbacks. Going to talk their schedule and look at their over-under. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now here. We're going to talk New York Jets and their over-under and expectations for the 2018 season. Obviously, the big news coming out of gangrene just in the past day or so. Sam Darnold finally getting himself signed, under contract, and into camp. So that's good to see if you're a Jets fan. Speaking of the Jets though, their 2018 schedule,

one of the easier ones, at least according to the strength of schedule of the 2018 season. It's tied for 25th toughest. The teams they were playing this year had a combined record last year of 122 and 134 good for a winning percentage of 0.477 so not the toughest schedule at least on paper but then sort of when you look at it when you go through it there are some pitfalls or at least potential pitfalls they open at Detroit one of those two double Monday night games to you know close out week one of the NFL season. That's on September 10th, a 7-10 Eastern start. So look, not saying you should do this, but you might want to knock off work a little bit early because you get that double header. If it were me and I was still able to do things such as this and working in an office and didn't have other responsibilities

like kids and stuff like that. This is one of those days where maybe you go in a little bit early. You know, you might be a little bit tired from watching the Sunday night game the night before, but sure. You try to get in a little bit early. You duck out, say, 4.30ish, maybe 4.45. You take a little now. You order food probably about 6.30. Make sure it's there around 7.30 or so, depending on how long that wait's going to be. Then you've got, boom, two more games.

It's fantastic. So they open at Detroit. Home game against Miami. At Cleveland, at Jacksonville. Somewhat of a tricky start. Potentially that road game against Jacksonville looks to be tough. Then you've got games against Denver at home, Indianapolis at home, Minnesota at home. That might be your Sam Donald stretch.

Just three straight home games. It might be a good time to get them in. Maybe. At Chicago, at Miami, and then home against the Bills. So there's that early pitfall right there. You know, those first four games, three on the road. You know, back-to-back road trips against Chicago and then home against the Bills. So there's that early pitfall right there. You know, those first four games, three on the road. You know, back-to-back road trips against Chicago and then Miami. Then Bills and a bye, then Patriots at home.

And, you know, people often say, oh, a good time to start a rookie quarterback is coming out of that bye, you get extra week to prepare, things like that. Maybe, but do you really want to use that extra week and then have them go up against the Pats and have that be his first start? I don't know. So maybe it comes back to that October, you know, weeks five, six, seven stretch, Denver, Indianapolis, and Minnesota at home. Maybe that's the way to do it. I don't know. Week 13 and 14, back-to-back road trips again at Tennessee, at Buffalo, back-to-back home games in 15 and 16, those weeks, Houston and Green Bay, and then they close it at Gillette on December 30th. So you look to see there are some pitfalls here. They're over under 2017, five wins this year. They're over under is six. Can you see seven wins on this schedule?

That's a little bit tough. I mean, maybe, you know, I don't know about that week one game at Detroit. That looks to be tough. Dolphins at home, that looks to be tough. Maybe Cleveland week three. Okay, there's maybe one win. I'm not so sure about that Jacksonville game. Then that stretch, Broncos, Colts, Vikings. Let's say they win two of those.

Let's give them those first two, the Broncos and the Colts. That's three. Trip to Chicago, hesitant to give That's three. Trip to Chicago. Hesitant to give them that one. Trip to Miami. Hesitant to give them that one. I'll give them that Bills game.

That's four. Pats at home. I mean, come on. This is locked on Patriots. What are we going to do with that one? Trips to Tennessee and at the Bills. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and give them that Bills game. Win on the road.

Then you've got Texans, Packers, and Pats to close out the season. You'd have to give them one of those for a push. You'd have to give them two to hit the over. So putting that all together, I'm leading the under here. Again, we're just running through this looking at it on paper and making some projections here but it's hard to see them sort of hitting the over on six wins

given that schedule can they do it sure can things come together sure I mean what's interesting about the Jets in contrast to perhaps say the Buffalo Bills you look at those two teams in their quarterback rooms okay and I'm partly talking about this because I was on a show In contrast to perhaps, say, the Buffalo Bills. You look at those two teams in their quarterback rooms, okay? And I'm partly talking about this because I was on a show,

Turner the Jets film room yesterday. We blew it. Two and a half hours breaking down quarterback play. You can find it on YouTube. It's out there right now. I've tweeted it out a bunch of times. If you want to get super nerdy about the Jets quarterbacks, feel free to check it out.

It was a lot of fun with Joe. And, you know, we broke down McCown. We broke down Bridgewater. We broke down Sam Darnold's college play. And what's interesting about that quarterback room is there's a number of different scenarios for the Jets. They could start McCown. Bridgewater could light it up and they could start him. Bridgewater could light it up and they could trade him. You know, you've got two veteran quarterbacks in there. One coming off a career year in Josh McCown, one coming off a horrific knee injury, yes,

but a guy that has led a team to the playoffs. And then you've got the rookie quarterback who some people had as QB1. So they could handle it a lot of different ways. They could keep Darnold benched the entire season and just let him learn and watch. They could work him in slowly. If he turns out to be perhaps the best quarterback of the three, they can get him out there earlier. They have a lot of different paths,

whereas it's a little bit more dicey, I'd say, with Buffalo, where you've got McCarron, bounced around a bit. Nathan Peterman, who showed some promise at times when he was in college. A lot of people were really looking at him to be the guy that might rise through the draft process and didn't really pan out that way. Obviously, he had that horrific game against the Chargers. And now Josh Allen, the quarterback who may be the best, at least talent-wise, in that room, but certainly needs some work and a guy that a lot of people looked at as being sort of overhyped. So a lot of questions in that Bills quarterback room, maybe not so much in that Bills quarterback room.

Maybe not so much in that Jets quarterback room. But all of that being said, you look at the schedule, you look at this roster, hard to see them, you know, get into, say, seven wins, eight wins, which is why I'm leaning towards the under. I may be wrong,

but as you know, I'll admit when I am. Up next, we're going to look at that 2016 Patriots draft. Interesting draft class from a Patriots perspective. Interesting draft class for me because, hey, like I said, that was the first draft that I really sort of dove into it full time, really got a sense for who the quarterbacks were at least and things like that. And so it would kind of be fun to look back at that.

We're early in these guys' careers. So, I mean, it's probably let's not overreact here. But some interesting names in that group. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now, closing out this Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots. We're going to look at the 2016 Patriots draft class. And what's interesting about this group is there are a lot of players that,

you know, the bulk of these players are still on the Patriots roster. The sort of issue is a lot of these guys are now on roster bubbles. You know, let's get into it. Patriots did not have a first round selection. Because of the deflate gate issue. I hesitate to call that a scandal. It is a deflate gate kerfuffle. Their first pick was pick 60 overall.

In the second round, Cyrus Jones, cornerback from Alabama, who at times has been, you know, a target of perhaps some scorn. We'll get to that. Actually, three third-round picks. Pick 78, Joe Thune, guard from NC State. He's been a starter for this team.

Not bad. Pick 91. This was, as I said, this was the first draft where I was saying, look, I was fully invested, number one. And I was of the belief that the Patriots were going to take a quarterback in this group, even though they had Garoppolo, because that was sort of their MO, take a quarterback basically every other year or so. Out of the 16 drafts since Brady, they had taken eight basically every other year. They had taken

Garoppolo in 14. I was like, they're going to take a guy. I thought it was going to be Kevin Hogan. I neglected the sort of NC State-Parcells connection because at 91 they drafted Jacoby Brissett, quarterback NC State, who started and won a game for this team before as a rookie on a short week against the Houston Texans who were everybody's great defense. And now he was basically the Indianapolis Colts starter last year because the Patriots traded him for Philip Dorsett. Vincent Valentine at 96, defensive tackle from Nebraska.

In the fourth round, Malcolm Mitchell at 112, wide receiver out of Georgia. Three picks in the sixth round, Kimmel Greger-Hill, strong safety outside linebacker from Eastern Illinois. He's currently on the Eagles. Landon Roberts, middle linebacker from Houston. We know about a Landon Roberts. Ted Karras, a 221 guard from Illinois, still currently on the roster, depth offensive lineman. And Devin Lucin, who we already talked about perhaps being on the roster bubble, wide receiver out of Arizona State, seventh round pick at 225. And so that's the group.

You know, most of these guys, you know, Brissette contributed and then got traded. Most of these guys other than Gregor Hill are on the roster. You look at some of these guys like Lucen, like Mitchell, maybe Vincent Valentine, maybe potentially Cyrus Jones, being on sort of roster bubble-type situations. You know, you look at flipping back to where we started and Doug Coyote's sort of roster projections.

He's looking at Cyrus Jones as a guy on the outside looking in, for example. He's looking at Vincent Valentine as a guy on the outside looking in. And he even says Valentine would be a disappointing cut, but Shelton might make him expendable. Roster spots, especially at the defensive line spot, are hard to come by with so many players healthy right now. And Malcolm Mitchell, which is somewhat disappointing because remember,

this is a guy that Brady looked to in Super Bowl 51 for some big plays. As well as Devin Luton, who also seems to be sort of on the outside looking in that wide receiver group. So it's an interesting draft. Obviously, people would look at Cyrus Jones if he gets cut now as sort of a missed pick there at 60. So let's take a moment and see who else was on the board at 60. And there's a player that jumps out immediately. The first pick of the third round, Kevin Bayard, safety from Middle Tennessee State, who people loved in the draft community. People loved this kid and he might be one of the better safeties in the league right now. He didn't even get initially, I'd have to double check to make sure this is right, but

he didn't even initially get a combine invite. I think he was either a late combine invite. No, he never even got an invited. 60 defensive backs were invited to the combine. He was not one of them. He had to do it all in his pro day. So that's a name immediately that jumps out. You know, there are some other guys that sort of got through here that you could

look at. Kenyon Drake, the running back from Alabama with Miami. He's got some interest there. But Bayard's really sort of the name that jumps out there as the guy that all things being considered, maybe you would have liked to have him. Now, was Cyrus Jones the biggest miss at the end of that first round?

Well, right before the Patriots picked Cyrus Jones, you know who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Roberto Aguayo. He's currently on the Chargers roster, but there's a guy

that really sort of struggled in the NFL. You know, he's bounced around. He signed a reserve future contract with the Chargers in January of 2018. But he was waived by the Bucs his first offseason. You know, he struggled in 2016. He had the worst field goal percentage in the NFL and won kickers making more than five attempts.

In the 2000, you know, this is one of those, you know, handwriting is on the wall, my friend, situations. In the 2017 offseason, the Buccaneers signed Nick Folk to compete with Aguayo. Folk's $750,000 roster guarantee, no, that was just a pure guarantee. That was more than Aguayo's 2017 salary.

You see that and you're Roberto Aguayo? Handwriting is on the wall, my friend. Might as well put your place on the market. He was waived by the Bucs. He was claimed off the waivers by the Bears. He was waived just a couple weeks later. Late October of 2017, he was signed by the Panthers to their practice squad. He was released in December.

Now we'll see if he sticks with the Chargers. So while Cyrus Jones certainly may end up being a miss, we're still not there yet. It wasn't a guile. So we'll get that going for us, which is nice. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. We'll do some more training camp news and notes. We'll do the Dolphins over under

and the 2017 Patriots draft. Reminder to get in some questions. I've got some good questions coming in already. Get in some more at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com if you want to email him. What are your thoughts? What do you want me to jabber about for Friday's show?

I'll do a little training camp mail back. Also, check out our good friends over at vividseats.com. I don't know why that's been a ton, Tristan. Oh, man, I should shut this down. I don't know why that has been a ton twister for me today, but it has been.

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