Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots June 19, 2018 - The NYJ, Process Over Results and Brian Lewerke, and the 2001 Draft Class

Episode Date: June 19, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, June 19th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for your Tuesday installment of your favorite Patriots Daily Podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can follow the work over at inside the pylon.com where i'm one of the lead writers you can check out my recent work over at pro football weekly i've been doing some scheme and x's and o's breakdowns for the guys over there also check out the video work youtube.com slash inside the pylon another loaded show for you today we're going to talk brian theerke and process over results at the quarterback position. We're going to dive into our next little summer series, revisit some Patriots

drafts. We're going to look at that 2001 Patriots draft class. But first, AFC East storylines roll on. We're going to talk today a little New York Jets, J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets. And as you all know, look, I am a quarterback guy, but it is hard to look away from quarterbacks, particularly with the team we talked about yesterday, the Buffalo Bills, and of course the team we're talking about today, the New York Jets. As a reminder, we're doing it a little bit differently on the other divisions. We went just division by division, but here with the AFC East,

we're going to take a little segment on each of the patriots biggest rivals yesterday we did the bills today doing the jets and let's look at this jets team for one one of the question marks i have on this team right now is the change to jeremy bates as their offensive coordinator and away from john morton who when I studied their offense last year, when I looked at how they were attacking teams in the past game, using a nice blend of air raid and West Coast passing concepts, I really thought that it was a nice offensive structure. And I think the statistics kind of bore that out.

You look at Josh McCown, who had, for all intents and purposes, a career year. I mean, Josh McCown, here are the numbers that he put up. Completed 67.3% of his passes for 2,926 yards, 18 touchdowns, and 9 interceptions. These are basically all career-high numbers for him. His adjusted net yards per attempt was 6.0. He only bested by his 2013 season with the Chicago Bears, where he only started five games.

Last year, he started 13 games. And so I look at the schemes that they used, a nice little mix of, like I said, air raid and West Coast stuff, a lot of slant flat, a lot of slant concepts, a lot of airant flat, a lot of slant concepts, a lot of air raids such as mesh. And I really thought Morton did a great job putting a scheme around Josh McCown where he could be successful. They still worked in some vertical pass game stuff as well. And so I liked it, but apparently there were rumblings of unhappiness with Morton, with

his coaching style, with his rotations, how he used the run game. And so they made the decision to move on to Jeremy Bates, who is more your standard West Coast, Gruden, Shanahan, coach and tree type guy. So I'm very curious to see how that plays out. But of course, let's talk about the defense. I'm teasing you there. I'm teeing up, obviously, the quarterback talk. This is a defense that I think is nice and young, particularly on that back half. You look at some of the additions they've made. Darren Lee, who I know Jets fans have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with, but I think he's starting to grow into the inside linebacker that they need. You look at Jamal Adams, Marcus May, the two safeties that they drafted with their first round and second

round picks last year. Those guys are starting to really play well. I think if you study them, if you watch them, how they've sort of developed over the last half of their rookie season, those are guys that are going to be the back half of your defense, that final line of defense for years to come, I think. Two very, very good picks. They had Nathan Shepard, who I know a lot of people really like, the sort of Division II kid out of Fort Hayes State.

I think he's a very nice piece for them up front. A very talented and young defense that only looks to improve under Todd Bowles. Now let's look at the offense, though. And here are where some question marks come in. You do wonder about the skill position players. Quincy Anunua was lost to injury last year. When I studied him for the Bleacher Report NFL 1000 project a couple years ago,

I was impressed with him as a wide receiver. Robbie Anderson, a nice downfield threat, some off-the-field question marks there, of course. Jermaine Kersk, another compliment-type receiver. Terrell Pryor, Darius Stewart, some interesting options. Chad Hansen was a player that a lot of people really liked in the draft class of 2017. And so there's some question marks there of the skill position players. Running back, Isaiah Crowell, Elijah McGuire, who got some run

last year, Thomas Rawls, Bilal Powell, Deidre Aftermeet,ri Flowers, who's more of your H-back, fullback type. Again, not a lot of standouts there. I think Isaiah Crowell is an interesting piece, but I'm not sure he's ready to carry the workload. But some interesting options there. Tight end Jordan Leggett, who I liked coming out of Clemson. They drafted Christopher Herndon in the fourth round this year. They bring in Clive Walford from Oakland.

Again, some interesting options. But the big question is going to be that quarterback spot. Josh McGowan, Teddy Bridgewater, and of course Sam Darnold, who they drafted early in the first round. And I think in terms of schematic fit, I think all three quarterbacks should fit what Jeremy Bates wants to do from an offensive scheme perspective. We talked about Josh McGowan. Bates has said there are going to be elements of the offense this year that are going to be very similar to last year's offense, so I think there's going to be some familiarity there. Teddy Bridgewater is coming from, you know, in college,

running some of that Art Perkins system, you know, under Bobby Petrino at Louisville. Oh, wait, check that, check that check that check that I don't think no that's that's different he's coming from more downfield passing game under North Turner in Minnesota that's where I should focus this first so now but his traits I think transition well to that kind of offense so I think it would be a good fit there then of course you have Sam Darnold who I think can come in and run this rather early. If it were up to me, again, a little bit similar to what I said about Josh Allen yesterday. I think this is a situation

where you'd like to see McCown start, but I think they can work Darnold into the starting lineup sooner rather than later. I don't think it's a situation where you really need to wait to, say, November or something like that to get him on than later. I don't think it's a situation where you really need to wait to, say, November or something like that to get him on the field. I think Donald can start and play pretty early, probably, you know, after the first couple of weeks, get him a couple of packages, let him get some run, not starting games, but, you know, late September, early October, and then sort of transition it to him.

I think sort of that Mitchell Trubisky time frame. Now the curious thing becomes, A, does he sort of go out there and win the job in training camp? And B, if this team starts with, say, Josh McCown, and they win a couple of games and they are competitive early, does Todd Bowles then sort of wait with him? And that's the interesting thing because they do have the luxury with McCown, who was successful last year, with Teddy Bridgewater,

you know, who I think is still a very talented quarterback. They could sort of slow roll, you know, getting Sam Donald out there. When you look at their schedule, you know, they open up that Monday night game at Detroit, then they host Miami, At Cleveland, then at Jacksonville. You know, that's probably you're looking at 2-2. Maybe you win that home game against Miami. Maybe you win that game on the road against Cleveland. I'm not sure people are expecting them to go on the road and beat Detroit or Jacksonville. But, you know, you get off with a 2-2 start,

then you're hosting three straight games. It would be interesting to see how they play it. But obviously the big storyline, start, then you're hosting three straight games. It'd be interesting to see how they play it. But obviously the big storyline though, the quarterback, who it's going to be, my money is Josh McCown to start, but thankfully I'm not making that decision. Up next, we're going to talk Brian Lewerke

as well as moving on to our next series for the summer, revisiting some Patriots draft classes. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, headlocked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. And as I teased a little bit earlier, I'm going to take a look at Brian Lewerke, who is a rising junior quarterback for Michigan State University. And I know people are probably saying, why are we going to talk about a rising junior?

You know, he's probably not going to come out. What are we doing here? And really what I'm going to talk about is the notion of process over results. I get questions all the time on Twitter, in the DMs, people reaching out via email and elsewhere. What's your process? How do you study quarterbacks? And I could take an hour and walk people through that entire process because there are a lot of

different things that go into it, at least the way I do it. But one of the things that I like to emphasize when I talk to people about my process, and one of the things that I emphasize in a recent piece, or actually a couple of recent pieces that I've written over at InsideThePylon.com, is the notion of process over results. Because it's easy, and I allude to it in a piece that's up on InsideThePylon.com right now on Brian Lewerke and this idea, it's easy to get sort is you see a play and it's a tight window throw or a quarterback runs all over the place in the backfield and escapes the pocket and then makes a ridiculous throw downfield. And it's fantastic to watch and it's fun to watch and it gets you excited. And there are times when I find myself when I'm studying a quarterback, I see a play like that and my inclination as I'm writing out my notes on the play is to get excited about it and to say, oh, this is great athleticism. This is great arm strength. This is great velocity. Whatever the play shows upon my first look. But you need to remember that when you're evaluating quarterbacks, particularly with an eye towards the National Football League, you have to look at

everything that led up to that moment, the process that brought the quarterback to that moment, and then the result on the play. And then you have to determine in your mind and in your analysis, is that a repeatable process that can be continually successful at the NFL level? And sometimes it will be, and sometimes it won't be. And then that's where the sort of rubber meets the road when it comes to quarterback evaluation which is there's the process if the process is one that won't be sustainable at the NFL level then you need to emphasize that if it is then great but if not then just because the play ends well doesn't mean that it's really a good result from

an evaluation standpoint. And I highlight two plays in this piece from the Wercase game, from Michigan State's game against Northwestern. And the first play is a third and seven situation where they are in their own territory. They empty the backfield and they have a post route, a curl route, and then a flat route from the running back who's motioned into the left side of the formation pre-snap. And when the running back motions, as we've talked about, you want to see what a defense does in response to motion. They just sort of slide.

They don't send anybody to trail or mirror that player. And so Lewerke knows, as you probably can guess, that he's going to get zone coverage, and that's what he gets. And when the play begins, the defense drops because it's third and seven. They're sinking, they're getting some depth, they're giving some cushion to the curl route, they're giving some cushion to the post route, and that flat route is open right away. And the Wierke sees it. He's looking right at it. And yeah, there's a defender in the flat giving him about five or six yards worth of cushion, but it's third and seven in your own territory. If it's that open, you give him the

ball, let your running back make a miss. If he makes a miss, makes that defender miss, picks up the first down, great. If not, you punt it. It's third and seven. It's a tie game. It's not your final drive. You've got more time. But he doesn't throw it. He sort of waits, and he double-clutches, and he sort of exits the pocket to his left, which makes some sense in a way because Lewerke is a very athletic, dual-threat-type quarterback. And then he throws it to his running back late in the play, who is now turned upfield vertically,

and he has to stick the throw in between two defenders. The running back makes a – L.J. – excuse me, Gerald Hodges makes an incredible leap and catch between two defenders. The running back makes a LJ Scott, excuse me, Gerald Hodges makes an incredible leap and catch between two defenders. And it looks like a fantastic play when you first see it because he's sticking it in between two defenders. The running back makes a great adjustment in a scramble drill situation. But then when you go to the process, the hesitation, he doesn't make the quick decision, doesn't take what the defense gives him, puts himself into a situation where now he has to make a much more difficult throw. That's what you've got to look at.

It worked on this Saturday against Michigan State. Will it work on Sundays against the Chicago Bears? Worked against Northwestern, excuse me. That's what you've got to look at, process over results. Later in the game, they face a 3rd-and-18. This is a fourth quarter play where you do need to make a play. But what happens on this instance, Northwestern only rushes three. They've got five guys to block it. A nice little pocket forms.

The where key can step up in the pocket. And what that means is as a quarterback, you take your drop and you step back towards the line of scrimmage. It took forever for me to learn how to do it myself because it's a very unnatural move. You're bringing yourself back towards all the guys that want to hit you and hurt you. It's an unnatural thing to do, but that's the way the pocket is set up. It's designed for you to do that because that's the safe spot. Your offensive linemen are forming that little pocket, that little half circle to protect you. What he does instead, rather than stepping up, is he bails on it. He vacates it. He breaks the pocket to his right.

And on this play in particular, his right tackle is blocking a guy towards that sideline. If he steps up, what the quarterback does is keep that right tackle between that himself and that defender. But by breaking the pocket to the right, all that the quarterback does is allow the defender to now disengage and chase him down. All you've done is run away from your protection. You've made it harder on your right tackle. On the playing question though, Werke, because he's athletic, because he's got good legs and good speed, gets out of the pocket, makes a ridiculous throw downfield for about a gain of 47 yards.

At first blush, you're like, wow, this is an incredible throw on the move. It's great vision to see this guy coming open in a scrambled situation, way to make something happen, competitive toughness. But you do have to wonder if that's sustainable in the NFL. If he's going to still beat that guy to the edge, outrun him, or if that guy's going to be like Vaughn Miller and perhaps chase him down, and now you're punting deep in your own territory. If you step up, though, your guys can still protect you. So that's the idea of process over results, and that's something I'm going to be looking for with a worker over the next year or even two. He's still a very over results, and that's something I'm going to be looking for with the work over the next year or even two.

He's still a very intriguing quarterback, and he's got some of the best skills and traits in other areas, perhaps better than a lot of guys that people are already talking about. But these are the things that I'm going to be watching for him over the next year or so. So that's Brian the Warky, the idea of process over results. Up next, I'm going to talk about the 2001 Patriots draft class. Started out well, faded a little bit, but probably overall, when you hit on the first two picks, you probably can't ask for more. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you now.

And as I teased in yesterday's show and then into today's show as well, now that we've moved on from football and film and counting down plays, I'm stealing an idea from my boys Trevor Sikama and John Ledger over at Locked On NFL Draft they've been going through recent drafts and redrafting some first rounds and redrafting some guys

here and there and looking at guys that perhaps should have gone earlier or later and things like that and so I get the idea. Somebody reached out to me on Twitter as well and said it was a good idea. I'm sorry, I'm blanking on who did that right now, but it would be a good idea to do that for the past. And so I figured, why not? June's a great time to talk about something like that. So let's do that. And I'm going to start with that 2001 NFL draft. Obviously, it'd be easy to go back to 2000 and say, look, you whiffed on Tom Brady. Draft him early. Don't wait. So that's why I'm skipping that one. And we go into the 2001 NFL draft. That's where we're going to start. And

Patriots have the sixth overall selection in the first round. And they take a defensive tackle out of the University of Georgia, Richard Seymour. They're on the clock again at 48 in the second round. And they draft Matt Light, offensive tackle, University of Purdue University. You could literally just say, all right, we're done. Nailed it. Although at the time, people, some people, were not too happy about that first pick. Ron Borges, who I believe was with the Globe

at the time, said of the Richard Seymour selection that it was a big big mistake by Belichick because Seymour, and this is one of my favorite all-time draft quotes, only tallied two sacks in the past happy SEC. Well, Seymour

went on to have a fantastic career with the New England Patriots. And I think anybody would look at his, you know, his career and his time in New England as a very, very, very successful one. And then you get Matt Light in the second round with the 48th overall pick, and now you're getting a guy that's going into the Patriots Hall of Fame.

And so the Patriots really got those two first picks right. Now, then it goes a little bit south. As you look at the rest of this class, Brock Williams was their third roundround selection with pick 86th, the 86th selection overall in the third round, cornerback from Notre Dame. And his Patriots career, he tore his ACL, was placed on injury reserve

after being active for only one game but not playing. That was his rookie season. He was hampered by an ankle injury that offseason was eventually released on September 1st of 2002. He was resigned to the practice squad a couple of days later, but was finally released by the Patriots on October 22nd, 2002, end of his Patriots career. They had two fourth-round selections. Kenyatta Jones, an offensive

tackle from South Florida who did see some starts for the Patriots. He started 11 games for 2002, but then he was placed on the pup list. Then he started to run into some off-field problems. He was arrested on October 21st, 2003. Allegedly threw some hot tea on his cousin. Then he was released by the Patriotsots he was playing in the arena league in 2008 he was arrested outside of tampa florida nightclub after trying to urinate on the dance floor he was not arrested for battery and a law enforcement officer and arised an arrest jones also sadly passed away recently at age 39 passing away from cardiac arrest but he did start those 11 games for the Patriots,

so they did get something out of that fourth-round selection. The other fourth-round selection, Jabari Holloway, forward tight end for the Patriots. His Patriots stats, career stats, 15 receptions for 157 yards. Didn't do anything with the Patriots. Never appeared in a game. Let's go through the rest of this draft. Hakeem Akbar, safety from Washington.

He did earn a Super Bowl win with the Patriots for Super Bowl XXXVI, appearing only on special teams. Six games for the Patriots, recorded five tackles. He played special teams and recorded two tackles in a game against the San Diego Chargers. What's really interesting about him, in November of 2001, he suffered a spinal injury and nearly died.

He was driving home, fell asleep at the wheel, woke up going 80 down the interstate. His catalytic escalator went off the road. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and got thrown through the sunroof. He suffered three fractured vertebrae, broken ribs, and an injured hip and shoulder. He spent a month in the hospital eating and consuming food through an IV. He was told he would never play football again. However, three months after the accident, he was again working out, trying to make his way back.

Although he didn't play in the Super Bowl, the Patriots still gave him a Super Bowl ring. He was released by the Patriots in 2002, claimed by the Texans, was released by them, was claimed by the St. Louis Rams in November of 2002, played in four games, couldn't play on special teams, made two special teams tackles. Then he bounced around with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, and Calgary. But that's, even though his Patriots time didn't truly pan out, obviously because of the car accident, an impressive story to go from being told you weren't going to ever play again to then going and proving everybody wrong and playing the game again.

So credit to him. Other draft picks, Arthur Love, a tight end from South Carolina State. Leonard Myers, cornerback from Miami. Owen Hockman, a kicker from BYU. And T.J. Turner, a linebacker from Michigan State. Again, hard to really date this class overall because of the success of the two guys at the top. But what I'm going to try to do for each of these drafts

is identify perhaps a player that maybe the Patriots could have picked, could have picked, and done things a little bit differently. Leonard Myers was a player they picked with one of their sixth-round picks. It was picked 200 overall as the last pick in the sixth round. And Myers did not do much for the New England Patriots. He did earn a Super Bowl win. He sold it on eBay to help raise money for Katrina victims. He passed away, unfortunately, from cancer at the age of 38 in February of 2017.

You look at sort of his overall statistics as a player. At his time with New England, he appeared in 15 games, started one, 24 tackles, two total passes defended, and one forced fumble. But that was pick 200, the last pick in the sixth round. Pick 204, the fourth pick in the seventh round by the Cincinnati Bengals. Wide receiver TJ Houshmandzada. NFL career statistics of 627 catches for 7,237 yards and 44 touchdowns made it to the pro bowl in 2007 again hard to really din the patriots for not drafting hushman zada at that point but if there's one pick they might want to have flipped

it was maybe taking hushman zada where they took leonard myers at the end of the sixth round that would do it for today's show i will be back back tomorrow. We'll get through some more AFC East storylines. We'll talk Miami Dolphins. We'll do some timeline takes. And we'll talk about the 2002 Patriots draft. That's next time. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots.