Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots June 13, 2018 - AFC South Storylines, Robert Kraft speaks, and "We Are Marshall"

Episode Date: June 13, 2018

Mark Schofield chats about the QB situations in the AFC South, has some audio from Robert Kraft and talks about "We Are Marshall." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Wednesday, June 13th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for another episode of your favorite Patriots podcast. Reminder to check me out on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over insidethepylon.com. You can check out the work over at Pro Football Weekly as well. Been doing some work over there. Some X's and O's, scheme stuff, quarterback stuff. As always, video work available at youtube.com slash insidethepylon.

Loaded show for you again today. We're going to dive back in to some storylines. We're going to talk about some timeline takes. Got a couple of things to talk about, courtesy of the timeline. And then at the end, football and film, it's starting to wind down here. We're going to talk about hope and swelling trumpets. But first, as I alluded to, we're going to start off with some storylines from the AFC South, which I think might be one of the more interesting divisions to follow this football season. And yeah, I'm a quarterback guy, and I think the storylines

all circle around the quarterbacks in this division. Let's kick it off with the Indianapolis Colts, who face a serious question at the quarterback spot. That basically the health and right shoulder of Andrew Luck. We're going to dive into it a little bit later in the show about some news on that front. But can Luck come back? Obviously, it has been a while since Andrew Luck has been able to produce for the Indianapolis Colts. You look at how long they've been without him.

Obviously, they lost him all last season. They had to bring in Jacoby Brissett to be their starting quarterback for last year because they were without Andrew Luck. Absolutely did not have him at all, missed the entire season. Only had 15 games under his belt in the 2016 season. Only had seven games under his belt in the 2015 season. This was a quarterback who started every single game of his first three years,

leading the Colts to an 11-5 record in each of those campaigns. But since then, 2015, 2016, and 2017, he's been dealing with injury issues. So that's the big question there. He underwent surgery to repair the torn labrum. He's expected to return to action in the season opener. And as we'll talk about a little bit later, he returned to at least throwing something today. I'm recording this on Tuesday night. Looking around the division, though, another quarterback coming back from injury. My son, my youngest son, actually, excuse me, my middle son now, Deshaun Watson, coming back from that right knee injury, the torn ACL that he suffered a

non-contact injury in practice. And it's great that he seems to be ahead of schedule. Although I guess this is a Patriots podcast. The Patriots do open the season with the Houston Texans. You never want to root for injury, but perhaps maybe we want to, no, we can't do that. I can't wait to see Deshaun Watson back in action. The question mark, though, is how has he developed? How will he develop from sort of year one to year two? Because you remember sort of what we saw from him during his sort of incredible rookie season, which was unfortunately cut short due to injury. He did some things extremely well. Bill O'Brien, to his credit, did some schematic things. Some things that I wrote in a piece over at Pro Football Weekly, which you can check out,

looking at both him and Carson Wentz. Some things on the Yankee concept, some crossing route stuff that incorporated sort of spread looks and eye candy and a lot of different motion and shifting and alignment stuff. But all it was really was a two-man route, and it gave Deshaun Watson a rather simplified read structure and a simplified concept to throw. And so that was a great thing that they did with Watson because something that I'm going to be watching for

from a quarterback evaluation standpoint are his eyes. Watching his eyes, watching to see if he gets better at looking off defenders, manipulating defenders with those eyes. That's a serious point of concern right now with Deshaun Watson. You look at some of the interceptions and near interceptions that he threw last year, they were really sort of in that category of bird dog and routes. And what I mean by that is it's an old sort of football scouted expression. You think of hunters out there with a guide dog with them. When the dog stops and

points and stares in an area, he's staring down a bird. I grew up with an Irish Shutter, Barnaby, and every once in a while, even though he was a fun dog, I'll just say that, but every once in a while, he would just stop and point. Well, that's what he was doing. He was pointing us towards birds. It was just, it was still instinctual for him. It's instinctive for him.

And it's the same thing with quarterbacks. That's what we mean by bird dog. You're staring down a route. You're pointing at where you're going to throw the football. And it's one thing when you're helping somebody spot a bird. It's another thing

when you're trying to throw a football to your target and all you're doing there is leading the defender to your target with your eyes. So that's something to watch with Deshaun Watson. Jacksonville, tremendous defense. Can they get over the Blake Bortles hump? They almost did. We know that well as Patriots fans. I just broke it down in yesterday's show,

the Stephon Gilmore pass breakup, that if he wasn't there, if he doesn't hang that extra second in the air and get his right hand on that throw, Blake Bortles is probably the quarterback of the Super Bowl AFC representative Jacksonville Jaguars. So they got close. Now, can they sort of get over that hump? You look at this roster, it is built to win a Super Bowl. Defensively, they're strong. They have a strong run game in four net. They did lose some pieces at the wide receiver spot. And this is a team that's going to win the ball in defense with running game.

They're content to win 13-6 scores even in a playoff game like they did against Buffalo. But can Bortles do enough to get them over the hump? Because we're probably going to see a lot of the same stuff we saw from defenses going against them last year. Stacked boxes, 7-8, 9-man boxes. Basically saying, look Bortles, you're going to have to go out and win this game. You look at Niles Paul, Austin Safarian, Jenkins.

Those guys are probably going to play a big role for this team. I expect to see a lot of 2, sometimes maybe even 3 tight end looks. Where if you're going to stack the box, we're going to have extra bodies in there to block forwards. Tommy Bohannon as well. The fullback for them might play a big role,

but can Bortles sort of get them over the hump? That's the big question there. And finally, Marcus Mariota, a quarterback that I certainly have high expectations for. When I ranked the AFC quarterbacks over at Bleach Report, headed into last season, he was my QB3 after Brady, after Roethlisberger. I had that kind of set of expectations for him. Didn't live up to it. Part of that, I think, due to spacing concepts, route concepts. I do think he was battling injury. You could see it at times. He couldn't really

drive the ball with his lower body. He did have that hamstring issue. I love the hiring of both Mark Helfrich and Matt LaFleur. Sort of come in, offensive-minded head coach, offensive, obviously-minded offensive coordinator. They're going to do some things that I think are really going to sort of help out the development of Marcus Mariota. And I think year four, Bill Walsh famously said that if a quarterback doesn't get it by year three, he's not going to get it. I think Mariota gets it, but I think this offense is going to be great.

One of the things I'm looking for is, I talked about route concepts. One of the things that really sort of stuck out to me studying the Titans last year was some of the spacing on their concepts seemed to be off. Guys were clustered. Now, look at where LaFleur is coming from. He just spent last season under Sean McVay, and some of the spacing concepts and route designs that Sean McVay used with Jared Goff made Goff go from bust to potential MVP candidate.

Can he do some of that? Can Matt LaFleur have some of that magic rub off on Marcus Mariota? That's something to watch there. So those are some AFC South storylines up next. Some quick timeline takes. Some news, some words, some sound from Robert Kraft. That's all ahead withFC South storylines up next. Some quick timeline takes. Some news, some words, some sound from Robert Kraft. That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield

and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you now on this timeline takes Wednesday portion of Locked On Patriots. And I talked to, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about Andrew Luck. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to some audio from Robert Kraft, of course.

But as you know, I love my fans. Fans of the show. They're not fans of me. They're fans of the show. I love the people I interact with on Twitter. It's always amazing to have people from all over the world reaching out, saying some things that they like, saying some things that they don't like. But I always get a kick out of the interactions when I have people on there. Again, you can find me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield.

And it's in that vein that the biggest news from the timeline, at least from my perspective, came early on Tuesday morning. At Chaser84, one of my favorite followers on Twitter, quote tweets a tweet for me saying they're coming to Northfield, Ohio, and I'm going there. And the quote, the tweet he was quoting was Toto.

They have announced 21 additional North American tour dates, including November 8th, the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. And I kid you not, I immediately texted my wife and she immediately wrote back, let's do it. Your boy's going to go see Toto, my friends. I'm telling you right now, that Friday show, I need to look up the Patriots schedule. I should probably do that right now.

Because if the Patriots have a game that Sunday, which I'm checking right now. Live radio, folks. Nothing like it. Yes, the Patriots are at Tennessee that Sunday. Your game day edition of Locked on Patriots might just be Your game day edition of Locked On Patriots might just be a game day edition of Locked On Toto with a full breakdown of the Toto concert. But yeah, your boy.

That was the biggest news from the timeline, at least for me. For Colts fans, though, the biggest news on the timeline was the fact Andrew Luck threw a football. And if you were on Twitter when it happened I had to I literally had to make the joke

does anyone know if Andrew Luck is throwing because my entire timeline was nothing but Andrew Luck is throwing Andrew Luck is throwing Andrew Luck is throwing Stephen Holder who covers the Colts it's happened on OMG OMG

and it's a video of Andrew Luck throwing a football Andrew Luck has finally thrown a football, although with a little bit of an asterisk, he wasn't really throwing the big guy, the NFL ball. Apparently he only did that with Coach Frank Wright.

He was throwing something that was a little bit undersized. You were going to make the deflate gate joke there, my friends, not me. But he was throwing an undersized football to perhaps get that shoulder ready to go. And it does remain to be seen. Will Andrew Luck be ready to go full bore? The fact that he's at least throwing now, what, 300, 400, 500 days later? I guess is a good sign. They say he's going to be ready.

I wrote this over a Bleach report last season. My whole issue with Andrew Luck isn't the injury, but it seems to be how it was handled. And it seems that the Colts either knew or should have known the extent and severity of that injury before they actually led on to it with the general public. Now, whether they were holding stuff back,

the injury was more severe than they were letting on, okay. But it just seems like the injury seemed to be mishandled. It seemed that they could have probably addressed quarterback in a different way, brought in a different guy, brought in somebody else. Remember, they started last year. It wasn't Jacoby Brissett who started the season under center for the Indianapolis Colts when luck couldn't go. It was Scott Tolzien.

It was Tolzien who started week one, and that game was a disaster. And that's when they turned to Jacoby Brissett, who they had just gotten, who was probably still learning how to get to work. He had to rely on the Google Maps to do it. It wasn't memorized by then, but now he's suddenly their starting quarterback. And so I'm curious to see how the Colts handled it, but luck is thrown again, so that's great. This will be the end.

Part of that is I think there are great things that happened last week, having everyone here, and then I think yesterday they had a team-building activity that was really good, and the new young players we have here, the free agents, the whole... we have... I'm excited about this team and I think we're going to have a lot of fun this year. So I understand sometimes people in the media have to work things up a little bit but I'll just tell you I and my family are very excited about the upcoming season and I guess when your team is good people are looking for things and I'll just tell you it's a bunch of hogwash that I vetoed some trade there was never that was never in the works. It's just completely made up. And I think we have to be careful in society today that people just can't come out and say things. And this bit

about us trading grunt to the 49ers or Tennessee, there's no basis to it, and it gets a life of its own. And I just want to go on record at today's event to make sure that you all understand that there's no truth to that. And I don't, people shouldn't be able to do that. That right there, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, audio courtesy of Mike Reese, at Mike Reese on Twitter. Kraft, who spoke to the media at the Myra Craft Community MVP event, made a couple of newsworthy comments, both of which I included there, and I'll dive into them quickly here. First was the fact that the Patriots OTAs are over. They were supposed to have Thursday and Friday but they're off now

and as you heard their craft talking about the team building exercise where the team went to Fenway Park to get a little bonding in and the coaching staff they decided that look they're good the offseason program has officially come to an end. The final two OTAs canceled. And as you heard there, Kraft talking about how the positive momentum in the offseason amongst the players, including the new guys, led to the organization canceling those final two days. And he said it. He and the family, Jonathan Kraft, they're excited about this upcoming season. It seems that there's some good energy with the team starting to come together. And so that's a great sign. Also Kraft addressing the Laferre and Laferre Gronkowski. I just

butchered like three different accents there. My apologies to everybody. That was awful. I promise to be better. But basically throwing some serious, serious water, you know, throwing some dirt, whatever the expression you want to use. On those Patriots rumors, the trade rumors that were, you know, put out there by our friend, friend of the show, Adam Kirchhen. Basically calling it hogwash. And, you know, there's an element to, of course he would deny it. There's also an element of he was one of the guys that was supposedly involved in this you know meeting in Kraft's office with Brady saying he'd

retire and Kraft veto in the trade I just want this team to start playing again okay and I think we all probably feel that same way it's time to get these guys back on the field because we're all probably a little bit tired of all of this

day in day day out, stuff like this. But there you have it. Patriots owner Robert Kraft going on record there, calling this Gronkowski trade story a bunch of hogwash. Up next, football and film. We are winding down. Going to do this movie and one more,

and then I got to use the weekend to figure out how to put a poll together so all my faithful listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast can get in their rankings and have their say on the top football movies of all time. We're going to talk hope and swollen trumpets. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. No, sir.

I ain't got nothing to say. But they do. We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall!

We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! We are Marshall! Paul. It's the right thing to do, sir. Son, we do not have a team.

We do not have a staff. We don't even have a damn athletic director. May he rest in peace. Frankly, son, I... I wouldn't know where to begin begin but you can start with a coach sir that right there is seen from the 2006 movie we are marshall and this movie tells the story of the marshall university football program in the early 70s coming back from just tremendous loss and heartbreak. In November of 1970, Southern Airlines flight 932 was chartered by Marshall University to transport the team back to Huntington, West Virginia following a loss to the East Carolina University Pirates. On approach to

Tri-State Airport, it clipped a tree and crashed into a nearby gully, killing all 75 souls on board. Among them, 37 football players, 5 coaches, 2 athletic trainers, the athletic director, 25 boosters, and the 5-person crew. In the aftermath of that tragedy, the school considered indefinitely suspended the football program. And the scene you hear there is some of the students as well as Nate Ruffin, one of the few football players who didn't make the flight, basically pleading with University President Donald Dedman to

not cancel, not suspend the program. They made the decision to forge on and they hired Jack Lengel as their head coach, who, along with Red Dawson, one of the two surviving members of the previous coaching staff, try to rebuild the team.

And Lengel is played by Matthew McConaughey. And I said earlier we were going to talk about Hope and Swollen Trumpets, and we're getting there. You heard some Swollen Trumpets there. There's also a tremendous scene where, and this is very true to the real story, where Matthew McConaughey, the coach, brings the team to Spring Hill Cemetery,

where six of the players who were unidentified, their bodies couldn't be identified, are laid to rest. And he addresses the team in that moment. We may be behind on the scoreboard at the end of the game, but if you play like that, we cannot be defeated.

And we came here today to remember six young men and 69 others who will not be on the field with you today. But they will be watching. You can bet your ass that they'll be gritting their teeth with every snap of that football. You understand me?

How you play today, from this moment on, is how you will be remembered. This is your opportunity to rise from these ashes and grab glory. We are. Marshall! We are. Marshall! We are. Marshall!

Funerals end today. Yeah! Yeah! Marshall! Marshall! Matthew McConaughey there as the head coach. And, you know, that scene, that did happen. The coach did bring the players of successive teams back to that cemetery. So they knew the history. And that idea, the funerals end here. That did that did happen but in reality it was a little bit different had a little bit of a double-edged

meaning when they would go play teams you know they would have memorials the when they would go on road games the host teams would have memorials and the coach basically wanted these teams to stop doing that the funerals end because he wanted the team to be able to move on. I also said that this is a movie in part Swollen Trumpets. You heard him there. As I said when we were talking about it, I believe it was Remember the Titans. Swollen Trumpets, they do get me. It's why I love the West Wing.

One of the reasons. But this is a movie about hope. And it's one of the last movies we're going to do. I got one left that I want to talk about mostly as a favor. But I wanted to end or really come close to ending this football and film series with We Are Marshall because

of the hope that runs throughout this movie. The game's final play when they win their first game, they beat Xavier University. There's a moment when that final fateful pass is like handed in the air. And it cuts through scenes from earlier in the movie.

And it just reemphasizes that aspect of hope. And where this team, where these players, these coaches, these families, what they've gone through and where they are and how hope was part of what got them there. That hope that it can be better. And that's one of the amazing and powerful emotions that can be brought out when a movie,

such as a sports movie, a football movie, is done well. It's hope. Because when you think about the game of football, and part of the reason why I love this game so much is what it instills in you as somebody that played it as a player the hard work and the effort and all the hours that are spent you when you're doing that there's one

thing that gets you through it and it's hope it's hope for a championship hope for a Super Bowl hope to maybe just get, hope to maybe just get drafted, hope to maybe just get your name in the paper, hope that maybe just the cute girl in your class notices you. Hope. And this movie drives that home in a powerful and true way. It drives it home. And so it didn't get great critical reviews. A lot of the movies you talked about didn't get great critical reviews. A lot of the movies we talked about didn't get great critical reviews. But they bring forward that message of hope and this movie does it incredibly well. I'm sure you've seen it.

If you haven't, please check it out. It's well worth your time. Like I said, we've got one more we're going to talk about, but this is the one that I kind of wanted to end on. We are Marshall. So check it out if you can. If not, well, that's your right. Not making anybody do anything they don't want to.

But please check it out if you can. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow, our Thursday show, our last one of the week. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.