Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots June 18, 2018 - Bills Storylines, Brady and Oprah, and Ranking Movies

Episode Date: June 18, 2018

Mark Schofield is back with some Bills' storylines, some thoughts on Brady's chat with Oprah, and hands listeners the baton to close out "Football In Film." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Monday, June 18th, 2018. Mark Schofield is back in the big chair. Hope all the fathers out there had a wonderful Father's Day, Father's Day weekend. I did as well. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over at InsideThePylon.com. Got our new piece up today on Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke and process over results. Studying quarterbacks, quarterback evaluation, and looking at how the quarterback gets to the end result in the play

and how that matters more than the end result itself. Again, you can check that out over at insidethepylon.com. You can also check out the work I've done over for Pro Football Weekly, video work, youtube.com slash insidethepylon. Full show today for you. We're going to talk next steps, final steps, closeout steps in football and film. We're going to talk about Tom Brady and his sit down with Oprah Winfrey. But first, Storylines has taken us to the AFC East. And we're going to do this a little bit differently with the AFC East. You know, when we talked about the other divisions, we kind of went through it quickly. You know, we went through division by division, talking about one storyline, spending a minute or two on each team. But since we're now back in the AFC East, since we're talking division rivals

and teams that the Patriots will play twice a season, we're going to break this down now, one AFC East team per show. We're going to start with the Buffalo Bills. Obviously, we're seeing a lot of turnover in a number of different positions throughout the AFC East, but perhaps no more than a quarterback, especially with the Buffalo Bills. They bring in A.J. McCarron, they have Nathan Peterman, of course, and then they draft Josh Allen in the first round of the draft. And the biggest sort of question mark, in my mind, facing the Buffalo Bills, is how long until Josh Allen sees the field? Now, what's interesting in this offseason, there are a lot of experts, prognosticators, Evan Silva, Mike Clay,

who have basically taken a look at this Bills roster and said, Cupboard's empty, my friends. It's going to be a couple of years before this team is going to get back to competitive. And when you kind of take a step back and look at this roster, you can see their point. Whoever plays quarterback, who are they going to throw to? Zay Jones? Kelvin Benjamin? Charles Clay? There aren't a ton of offensive weapons at the skill positions other than LaShawn McCoy.

I mean, I think we can all sort of take a look at LaShawn McCoy and say he's an extremely talented running back, obviously one of the better running backs in the game. But beyond him, and then look at the offensive line, questions all up and down this offensive line. You know, Deion Dawkins, John Miller, Russell Bodine, Vladimir Dukasi, Jordan Mills. Those are the guys, as of right now,

slated to be your week one starters at the offensive line. And now, I know I'm not an offensive lineman guru, but I recognize, like, two of those names. Now, they did draft Wyatt Teller, who was a guard that a lot of people did like in the fifth round out of Virginia Tech, so they might work him into the lineup, but there are some questions on the offensive side of the ball. I think if you look defensively, this is still a good defense,

and I said it on the radio at WGR after the Bills selected Josh Allen, late night, early morning, after the opening round of the draft. And I said, look, Buffalo's roadmap is the Jacksonville roadmap. We're going to win with defense. We're going to win with run of the ball. And we're going to limit what our quarterback, whoever that person is, has to do for this team. And if you look at this defense, up front, Jerry Jones, Kyle Williams,

Starla Tui, Shaq Lawson, that's a pretty good front four. Linebackers, Matt Milano, Lorenzo Alexander, your outside backers, they're basically a 4-3 base team, but they add Tremaine Edmonds, very young, talented guy to plug and play week one at the middle linebacker spot. Secondary does have some interesting pieces. Tredavious White was a much better rookie than a lot of people expected. Vontae Davis, a question mark there.

Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer, some serviceable NFL safeties. And so this is their roadmap. They're going to win on the defensive side of the ball. I think Tredavious White, Tremaine Edmonds, they drafted Harrison Phillips, Shaq Lawson. Those are some nice, young, athletic defenders to build around. So that's going to be their roadmap, limiting what the quarterback has to do, which brings us back to the main storyline.

Who is that quarterback going to be? Is it A.J. McCarron? Is it Nathan Peterman? Is it A.J. McCarron? Is it Nathan Peterman? Is it Josh Allen? And from talking to people in and around Buffalo, Nate Geary, who's been on this show before, over at WGR where he's one of the hosts, he basically says his thought right now,

and a lot of the word coming out of Buffalo is, it's going to be Peterman until they feel comfortable with Allen. Now whether that's one game, seven games, ten games, remains to be seen. My thoughts on Allen are well documented. He is talented. You can't deny the talent. You can't deny the things that he can do with the football

in terms of throwing it through brick walls. But it's all the other attendance stuff that comes with playing the position that Josh Allen needs to work on. And some of the reviews out of minicamp and OTAs have been very positive. And it does sound like Allen's starting to put it together. And we started to see him slowly sort of put things together as he went through the combine and his pro day workout. The mechanics seemed a little bit cleaner, a little bit tighter,

a little bit crisper. Does seem to be at least developing some touch, which has always been one of my concerns on him. You know, Allen has basically approached the quarterback position like, you know, every problem is a nail and he's got a hammer. You know, every problem on the football field needs the fastball. That's the way he's approached it, but you can't play it that way. And if it were me,

I'm comfortable with him seeing start an action in November. If it gets to be October, if it gets to be late September and he's getting starts, then I'm a little bit worried. Now, if they do go that route, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope

that they handle it in a much better way than we've seen with recent quarterbacks. I go back one season to Hugh Jackson, to Sean Kaiser. I've ranted about this decision before on the show, but pulling to Sean Kaiser out of a one-score game, a field goal game at halftime, yeah, I know he had just thrown an interception in the end zone. It was a poor read, a poor decision, a poor throw, but you got to give the guy a chance. That's a way to ruin a quarterback. And what happened? Kizer gets run out of town. And now they try all over again with Baker Mayfield and Tyra Taylor, formerly of the Buffalo Bills. And so that's the big question in Buffalo. How soon does Josh Allen see the field?

My over-under on starts for Josh Allen, I know it's different. Bovada has a much bigger number. I'm much more comfortable seeing him start, say, six games. That's kind of what I'd like to see. Let him take over that sort of November time frame. I think that's really the sort of best course of action. If he starts sooner than that, I hope they handle him the right way. If he makes mistakes, get him out of there before he gets really deep into quicksand. But if he's in a one-score game, leave him in there. Show him that, look, we do believe

in you. But if things start to get out of hand, that's when we'll get you off the field. That's again, it's all about helping your guy, which as listeners to the show know, I'm all about, I'm all about helping Tom Brady, helping Josh Allen, helping the listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast, which brings me folks to our great friends over at bluechew.com because here's the thing. I like talking about how we can help our quarterbacks on the field, but I also want to help you where it matters the most, and that's in the bedroom.

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This is all about helping you. Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice. We thank them for sponsoring the show. Again, bluechew.com, promo code LOCKEDON. Up ahead, we're going to talk about Tom Brady and his recent sit-down with Oprah Winfrey. Some nuggets from that interview. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield,

and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you on this Monday edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you on this Monday edition of Locked On Patriots, helping you get your week started the right way. Hope I can do that. To those of you out there who are on the commute, I can tell you, and this is part of the reason why I love doing this show. Back when I was living that 9 to 5, 9 to 10, 9 to 6, whatever crazy hours I was living that nine to five, nine to 10, nine to sec, whatever crazy

hours I was working at the time, when I was living that grind, I needed that something to listen to in the morning, sometimes something mindless just to get me through that train ride up to the office door and back. So if that's all I could do for you is to be that mindless drivel in your ears to help you get through those last few minutes of the weekend, those last few moments when you open your eyes. Here we go. If that's all I can do, happy to do it. But here we are again for a Monday show. I hope you all had a great weekend.

We're going to talk now Tom Brady. Tom Brady sitting down with Oprah Winfrey for a Father's Day edition of Oprah's show Super Soul Sunday. And some interesting tidbits came out during this interview. One of which was, of course, Oprah asked Tom Brady about the anthem, the kneeling, the quote unquote flag protests. I'm putting that in quotes because, again, that undersells what this was really all about. And Brady came out on the side of his teammates and those that chose to take a knee and wanted to take a knee and talked about how the comments from President Trump in the wake of that were rather divisive,

which is sure to raise some eyebrows, given the close relationship between Tom Brady and President Trump. They've been friends before in the past. Tom has described him as a friend. So those were some interesting comments and some comments that were parts of Father's Day weekend mealtime discussions, I'll just say, in my family. Some other interesting comments which came out how Brady is becoming I don't want to say okay with losing because that is clearly misstating it but the losses are a little bit easier for him to take he told Oprah that what they lost to the Giants in Super Bowl 42 he said it felt like a month for him to feel like himself again, to feel like Tom Brady again.

But he said this year it's been different. It was a little bit different this year. He said he was a little bit depressed about the outcome, but it was nothing compared to that, nothing compared to Super Bowl XLII. He said it took him about two to three weeks to get over the defeat to the Eagles. So that's different. And part of what he points to is while the losses have gotten easier to manage, the winning is much more enjoyable.

He gets spoiled, as he says, at the start of his career. They won three Super Bowls in four years. It just happened so early in his career, he couldn't even believe it. But that gap, that decade or so where they didn't win anything, has allowed him to really enjoy the next one. For example, that Seattle win or the Atlanta one. So that was something extremely interesting from Tom Brady's sit-down with Oprah Winfrey.

And finally, the other real interesting tidbit from this entire interview was the R word, retirement. Brady now acknowledged that the end is in sight, which is a little bit of a change, frankly, than where we've been over the past couple of years. I mean, Brady used to say, I'll play into my 30s, I'll play into my 40s, I'll play into my 50s, I'll just keep going. But now it's changed. I think about it more now than I used to, Brady said.

I think now I'm seeing that there's definitely an end coming sooner rather than later. He didn't say approximately how many years he thinks he has left, but you do again, in some of what he says in this interview, see that there is sort of an end date coming. To quote again from Brady, as long as I'm loving the training and the preparation, I'm willing to make the commitment. But I think what I alluded to a lot in the docu-series is that there are other things happening in my life too. I do have kids that I love and I don't want to be a dad that's not there driving my kids to their games. My kids have brought a great perspective to my life. Kids just want the attention. You better be there and be available to them. He sort of concluded this whole thing with,

I still feel like there's more to be accomplished. I still feel like I'm in it. I still feel like I'm doing it. I feel like I can be better. I still think I want to go out there and compete and play with a bunch of 22-year-olds. But the fact that he's now more open about the retirement does make you think that the end might be coming. And we've known this for a while now,

which can bring us, if we want, to the idea of be coming. And we've known this for a while now, which can bring us, if we want, to the idea of the replacement. But we're not going to go down that road right now. So that's it. Check out the interview for yourself. You can read about it all over the place as well. But Tom Brady sitting down with Oprah Winfrey, definitely something to keep your eyes on.

Up next, I'm going to spend a final few minutes with you on football and film, because that's right, I've going to spend a final few minutes with you on football and film, because that's right, I've done my part. Now it's up to you guys. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield in Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield is back with you now on this Monday edition

of Locked on Patriots, and we're going to close it out here as I hand the baton over to you. Now, that phrase does have a little bit of nostalgia for this old track guy. That's right. I was the anchor leg of the 4x4 in high school. And I hope you saw this recently. There was a recent video floating around of the women's NCAA 4x400 and the runner for USC. USC needs to win this to win the overall championship. Otherwise, Georgia wins.

The only way USC wins the championship is if they win the 4x4. And the anchor leg, she gets the baton down like half a lap and somehow chases down the lead runner from out of nowhere. Just an incredible, incredible run. Reminded me of something I did in the Greater Boston League back my junior year in high school in the indoor GBL Championship as the ankle leg of the 4x4. But anyway, getting far ahead of ourselves here. But my job in football and film is done. I've done shows on a number, over 20 football movies. There is a post up on LockedOnPatriots.com that you can go.

You can check it out, LockedOnPatriots.com, titled Football and Film, where I get a link to each of the episodes. May 7th, The Fire Study Blues. May 8th, The Program. May 9th, The Best of Times.

May 10th, Any Given Sunday. May 14th, The Replacements. May 15th, Jerry Maguire. May 16th, Rudy.

May 17th, Remember the Titans. May 21st, In My Dark Horse for the overall champion here, Undefeated. May 22nd, Remember the Titans. May 21st, My Dark Horse for the overall champion here, undefeated. May 22nd, The Waterboy. May 23rd, Friday Night Lights. May 24th, Newt Rockne, All-American.

May 28th, Invincible. May 29th, The Longest Yard, 1971 version. May 31st, All the Right Moves. June 4th, Everybody's All-American. June 5th, Wildcats. June 6th, Bryan Song. June 11th, North Dallas 40. June 12th, The Blonde Side.

June 13th, We Are Marshall. And June 14th, we ended it with MASH. Shout out to my boy, Tim Murphy. So now it's in your hands. I've created a survey that you can fill out. There's a link to it over at LockedOnPatriots.com. It takes you to a survey over at SurveyMonkey. It allows you to rank those choices.

I've also put in an other. If there's another movie that I didn't talk about, use that to rank it. Let me know on Twitter or via Twitter slash email, however you want to do it, what that movie is. I'm going to leave this open for a while, and it will be up to you guys to sort of rank these. Now, I know I probably missed a movie or two.

Again, let me know using that other. Hit me up on Twitter. I think I've covered them all. I think I've got all the bases covered. Some of you might quip or you might say, ooh, the new longest yard should be in there. Maybe. Little Giants was also one that I thought about,

but I didn't include it. Maybe I should have. Maybe I'll get some demerit points for that. But those are the movies. You can go, Lockdown Patriots, get caught up. If you missed any of these, they're all handy right there for you. And that'll take you over to the SurveyMonkey link as well,

which I'll tweet out around a couple of times too. But now it's on your hands. Rank those movies. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow. We will talk some Jet storylines, probably either do some timeline takes, and then we're going to start a new series

because that's what we do in the summertime. We fill air. That's what we do. We're going to start looking back at some Patriots drafts, sort of great in Patriots drafts, seeing what we might have done differently. That's ahead. Tomorrow with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.