Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots June 21, 2018 - Patriots storylines, a take from Baltimore and the 2003 draft

Episode Date: June 21, 2018

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Hello and welcome into Locked On Patriots for Thursday, June 21st, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over at InsideThePylon.com. Got a couple of pieces up this week. We got a piece on Brian Lewerke, which we've talked about on the show. Got another piece on Kyle Schumer, rising senior quarterback at Vanderbilt University

in a drive he led against the Georgia Bulldogs. And a new piece coming up probably by the time you're listening to this. It's part one of a three-part series on my game script my game plan i hearken back to my own days as a quarterback at wesleyan university leaving class at around 11 o'clock 11 30 or so on tuesday afternoons tuesday mornings grabbing a sub over at the neon deli across the street from freeman athletic center going into coach hauser's office sitting on that ugly green couch of his under all the golf scorecards he had on a billboard, memorializing all the courses he had played, and installing our own game plan. So what I'm doing in this series, I'm giving you my game

plan, my sort of script on the plays that I would have going into a game based on situations. You can check that out. Part one of this installs our first and second down passing plays as well as our shot plays, our designed deep ball type plays. So check that out over at InsideThePylon.com. You can also check out the work Pro Football Weekly as well as the video work, YouTube.com slash InsideThePylon. Loaded show for you today, last show of the week. We're going to talk the 2003 Patriots draft.

We're going to talk about timeline takesots draft. We're going to talk about timeline takes and really focusing just on one tweet and one tweet alone. But first, we have made it, everybody. Our storylines summer series ends where it all should begin on Locked on Patriots, and that is your Patriots storylines, at least as I view them, enter in the 2018 season. And I think we can start with the unease, which is how I've termed it and others have termed it, as we head into this Patriots season. The Gronkowski rumblings, the Gronkowski rumors. And let's not forget something that I think sometimes gets overlooked in our 24 hours a day short attention span news cycle.

A story comes out such as Adam Kirchhen, friend of the show, talking about how the Patriots were shopping around to have potential deals in place regarding Rob Gronkowski. And then immediately people say, no, that was hogwash. But as time and distance have separated us from that initial story, we're hearing more and more about, yeah, the Patriots were actively shopping Rob Gronkowski to, quote, teams that they trust. Now there are other things in Adams initial reporting which have yet to be confirmed such as you know Brady vetoing it or Kraft vetoing it and Brady threatening retirement but more and more aspects of Adams reporting are being shown to be true and so the

unease is still there the Brady retirement stuff the. The Belichick, Kraft, Brady angst. So that storyline won. And until this team gets back on the field, until this team starts winning games again, that's always going to be there. And I can't help but be reminded of Tom Brady's dad and how he said a season or two ago that when it ends, it's probably going to end badly. Because that's how things tend to end.

And it's not just Patriot specific. It's not just Boston specific. Sometimes endings when it comes to sports or other vocations can end badly. You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain. I guess that's one way to look at it. So storyline number one, the angst. Storyline number two, the offensive line. You lose Nate Solder.

You draft Isaiah Witt in the first round. You bring in Trent Brown. What is this offensive line going to look like as we start the 2018-2019 season? Will it be good enough? Can they protect Tom Brady? Can they keep Tom Brady upright? I'm one of many people who would tell you that the true secret to Brady's longevity is his pocket movement and how he protects himself,

how he moves around and slides around in the pocket. That's all well and good. But we also know that if you get quick pressure, if you get immediate pressure, it doesn't matter who you are as a quarterback, that's going to disrupt you. If you're getting hit play after play after play, that's going to mess with your timing as a quarterback. That's going to mess with your internal clock. And so they have to be able to protect Tom Brady. Can this offensive line do it? Defensive side of the ball, did they get athletic enough? Are they going to be athletic to handle the new wave of offensive schemes that are making their way through the National Football League?

This is a copycat league. Teams are going to look at what Sean McVay has done with Jared Goff and their space and concepts. Teams are going to look at the Philadelphia Eagles and their RPO designs and copy those and put those into their systems. And we're seeing more and more coaches enter the league with that kind of background. Look at Matt LaFleur. Comes from, you know, working under McVay, seeing RPO type stuff, seeing spacing type stuff. You better believe that the Titans are going to be doing a ton of this. Imagine what the Chiefs are going to be rolling out with Patrick Mahomes, who ran a lot of stuff like this while he was at Texas Tech

you better believe that week one when you see Deshaun Watson in the gun for the Texans Patriots better be ready for some RPO stuff because that's what he does extremely well and so did they get athletic enough at first blush you might think no now they are getting Dante Hightower back from injury they are getting Derek Rivers back from back from injury. They are getting Derek Rivers back from injury. That's going to allow them to move guys around to spots where they might be a little bit more suited and to spots where they can probably produce from an athletic standpoint, from an athletic profile standpoint. The adjuvant Bentley, he's more of a two-down type thumper linebacker. But in a sense, what that does is that allows you to have Hightower on the edge where he's been

more productive for the Patriots over the last couple of seasons. The ad, Christian Sam, who probably is your more athletic guy. Is it going to be enough though? That's sort of the big question mark sort of facing this defense. Is it going to be enough though? That's sort of the big question mark sort of facing this defense. Is it going to be athletic enough at the first and second levels to handle this stuff? And finally, the secondary. Malcolm Butler out, Jason McCourty in. Duke Dawson in. Can this secondary, can they get guys covered up on third and long?

Can they make those stops and get off the field on third down? So those are sort of the storylines that I'm watching. And don't sleep on Keon Crossan. Don't sleep on Keon Crossan at all out of Western Carolina. He's getting some, you know, a lot of people are talking about him as well as A.J. Moore out of Mississippi. You know, there are some guys that they've added in Jason Jackson as well. Excuse me, J.C. Jackson out of Mississippi. There are some guys that they've added in Jason Jackson as well. Excuse me, JC Jackson out of Maryland.

Those are some late rounder, undrafted free agent, cornerback types that caught some attention during rookie minicamp and OTAs and stuff. These guys might make some noise as we get into training camp in the regular season. So those are some Patriots storylines as we close out that storyline segment. Up next, I got to talk about one take from the timeline from one NFL team that had me scratching my head a little bit later, the 2003 Patriots draft.

That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield's back with you now on this Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. And I'm going to do a little timeline takes. We're going to deal with just one take from yesterday, from Wednesday. And look, we talked in the first segment about sort of the 24-hour day, the high-speed, Twitter-driven news cycle that we live in. And as somebody that's on Twitter basically all the time, I understand from a professional perspective

the need to sort of market, to market whether it's yourself or to market your brand, my brand, of course, being Toto and Dad Jokes, basically, and Scrubs Gifts, to market your coworkers, to market perhaps the organization that you work for, the people that you work with. I get that. I get nobody else is going to do it for you.

You've got to do it yourself. You've got to put yourself out there, put the brand out there, put your coworkers and your colleagues' brands out there, and put a good spin on everything. I mean, we live in a spin or even a post-spin world where facts don't matter as much as the spin that you can put on them. Okay? And so there was a tweet yesterday from the official Baltimore Ravens account. And I cannot emphasize that

enough. And the tweet read this, his improved health plus the arrival of quarterbacks coach James Urban, plus the incorporation of more QB-designed runs into the offense equals Joe Flacco's improved mobility. I might need to reread that one for you. Let's revisit for a second what the Ravens did this offseason, particularly when it comes to the quarterback room. They signed RG3. They drafted Lamar Jackson in the first round. Let's revisit that tweet for a second. His improved health and the arrival of quarterback's coach James Urban and the incorporation of more quarterback designed runs in the offense equals Joe Flacco's improved mobility. I understand that this tweet perhaps

has an audience of one. That one person being Joe Flacco. That one person being somebody that might be a little bit concerned about losing his job. But there's another way that you can factor this equation. The arrival of quarterbacks coach James Urban, the incorporation of more quarterback design runs into the offense, the addition of RG3 and the addition of Lamar Jackson equals the Ravens are looking to move in a new direction schematically at the quarterback position. Joe Flacco's calling

card isn't really mobility. They do do a lot of stuff with boot action. They like to sort of get him on the move, but his mobility isn't sort of a focal point of their offense. Mobility is a focal point in part of how both RG3 and Lamar Jackson play their quarterback position. So this idea that this all portends into a new athletic and rejuvenated RG3, I mean, excuse excuse me Joe Flacco I'm not quite sure I can get on board with that one

because I think what you've got to look at is all of these additions point to the Ravens are going to slowly move away from Lamar Jackson and I said it a couple

of days ago you know when we were doing AFC North storylines it wouldn't surprise me to see the Ravens get Lamar Jackson on the field sooner rather than later, whether it's just a package or a couple of series each game, to get him some of that NFL game speed experience. Because all the signs point to Lamar Jackson taking over.

And everything coming out of Baltimore right now, all the stories out of OTAs, rookie minicamp, letting him run the first team offense their final day of OTAs and minicamp, they're getting this kid ready. And as somebody that shouted from the rooftops last draft cycle that this kid was a quarterback in the National Football League, that had many people come back to me on Twitter and elsewhere saying, you don't know what you're talking about.

This guy's awful. He can't play quarterback in the NFL. He's a one read guy, if that. All he does is run. You missed it. You missed the point on this kid. And it gets back to sort of the evaluation process itself. It's easy, as I talked about the other day in the Brian the Worky part, it's easy to get drawn into splashy type plays with Lamar Jackson. A lot of them were incredible runs that he ripped off or throws that he made off the move and to think he's just an athlete and we got to get him the ball in space. We got to get him on the move. We're going to move him to wide receiver. But you're missing all the other stuff that he does so well at the quarterback position. Making throws from the pocket, working through progression reads, Throwing route concepts that are NFL route concepts.

And so, I get what the Ravens were trying to do. Trying to juice up your guy. Trying to market your guy. Trying to make it seem like, look, this is Joe's team, baby. Context matters. Context matters. It matters when you're looking at a quarterback, when you're evaluating people, looking at them to project them from the college ranks to the draft. A context matters

when you look at an organization and how they are structuring themselves for the years to come. The additions of RG3, the addition of Lamar Jackson, the new wave of NFL offenses that we talked about in the first segment, that doesn't speak to me about Joe Flacco's improved mobility. That speaks to me about the Baltimore Ravens getting ready for their next quarterback. Up next, the 2003 Patriots draft. A little bit of an interesting draft. Guys that get to the top, guys that get in the middle rounds, a quarterback.

Lots of fun stuff to talk about there. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. And let's talk Patriots draft again as we start working our way through the drafts of the Brady Belichick era. I want to talk the 2003 Patriots draft. Now this was a draft where they had missed the playoffs in 2002. And this was a season that got off to a rocky start with Laurie Malloy being released five

days before the start of the regular season, prompting Tom Jackson. Patriots hate their coach. The Patriots hate their coach. Remember? Patriots lose 31 to nothing to the Bills. They start, and then they rip off 14 straight wins and win a Super Bowl. Now, before all that, however, Patriots had a draft. And they drafted an incredible amount of players. They drafted four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten players. Seven of whom made the roster.

Two of whom made at least one Pro Bowl in their career. Let's start at the top. Patriots had the 13th pick in the first round. And they drafted Ty Warren, defensive tackle out of Texas A&M. He played in all 16 games as a rookie. Started four times, recorded 33 tackles in one sack. He played as a reserve in the Super Bowl win over the Panthers in 2004 became a starter at defensive end

played in all 16 games recorded 48 tackles and 3.5 sacks started all 16 games at defensive end in 2005 2006 arguably a career year for him career high of 84 tackles 1 safety, 7. a half sacks. He was named to Peter King's All-Pro team. Didn't make the Pro Bowl.

2007, he was made a team captain. He was second on the team in tackles, quarterback hits with 15, three fumble recoveries, four sacks. Then he got injured before the 2008 season, started battling some injuries.

And then he was released in 2011. But that's not a bad return. On a first round pick. And so, I look at that. That's a pretty good pick. Eugene Wilson. The first of two picks in the second round. A pick 36.

Cornerback. Contributed to both the Super Bowl 38 and 39 teams. Recovered a fumble in Super Bowl 39. Had an interception against the Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger. Picked him off twice actually in the 2004 AFC Championship game. So he contributed some stuff to the Patriots. Wasn't a stellar pick, but certainly made some contributions along the way. The other pick in that round, Bethel Johnson.

Wide receiver out of Texas A&M, so the Patriots going back to Texas A&M after drafting Ty Warren. And he really didn't do too much for the New England Patriots. We can just kind of leave it at that. Dan Klecko, their first pick in the fourth round. Defensive tackle out of Temple. Contributed mostly on special teams, moved to linebacker a little bit, was used as a block and fullback,

contributed to the Patriots, you know, here and there in those couple of seasons, but he was cut by the Patriots in 2006. Then we get two very interesting picks. Asante Samuel and Dan Coppin. Samuel coming out of Central Florida in the fourth round of pick 120.

Dan Coppin is center out of BC in the fifth round of pick 164. Those are two fantastic picks. Obviously, we'd love to have Samuel secure that interception against the New York Giants. I get that. But these are guys that made it to multiple Pro Bowls. These are guys with multiple-year starters for the Patriots.

You're getting them in the fourth and fifth round. Tremendous, tremendous, tremendous picks. Then we get two picks that didn't quite pan out. Cliff Clainsbury, the quarterback from Texas Tech. Spencer Need, tight end from BYU. Neither of those guys made the roster. Clainsbury now a head coach at his alma mater. Very smart offensive mind there, but neither of these guys made the roster clinsbury now a head coach at his alma mater very smart offensive mind there but neither of these guys really panned out tully banta cane linebacker

out of california he contributed well to the patriots you get him in the seventh round of pick 239 and finally ethan kelly defensive tackle from baylor a pick 243 so that's the 2003 draft i think you get you know you got a pretty good pick in Ty Warren. Talked about his contributions with Samuel and Coppin. Two great picks in those mid-rounds. You know, Bethel Johnson was kind of a whiff. Kingsbury kind of a whiff. Kleckle contributed here and there.

So let's look at what perhaps, perhaps, one spot where maybe the Patriots could have gone in a different direction and had something pan out. You know, it's hard to sort of look at, you know, a lot of these and say, oh, you know, they could have done this differently. They could have done that differently. They could have, you know, made a better pick here. But I look at, you know, the way this draft came together. And you look at that Dan Kleckle pick at 177, and it might have changed the way this draft fell

had the Patriots done this, but maybe Brandon Lloyd, who eventually made his way to the Patriots, he was on the board there at 120. He eventually comes off the board at 124, but he's there at 117. I know they had just taken Bethel Johnson, but maybe you go in a different direction. Or let's look at some other guys. This is probably even a better way to do this.

They came off the board after Bethel Johnson, who was taken a pick 45 by the New England Patriots. About nine picks later, the Arizona Cardinals are on the clock, and Quan Bolden comes off the board. Two picks after that, the Giants are on the clock, Osiyu Minoru, defensive end from Troy State. Get into the early third round, Lance Briggs from Arizona to the Chicago Bears, Jason Witten to the Dallas Cowboys. I think, again, it's so easy to sit here 15 years later and say, man, could have nailed it with these guys. But I mean, those are, you know, four potentially Hall of Fame guys coming off the board, or at least if not NFL Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, at least, you know, team Hall of Fame type guys

that they passed on for Bethel Johnson. So that does kind of sting a little bit. But again, it's so easy to sit here in 2018 and second guess that stuff. You know, sure, I get it. But I also get the fact that it's June and I need stuff to talk about. So that's where we are. That will do it for this week. I will be back Monday. I don't know what we're going to do for our next little lead-in intro series.

We might start doing NFL over-unders. I always get excited about stuff like that. We will continue with probably doing some timeline takes in that middle segment. And then a little bit later, we'll continue revisiting the draft, looking through the Patriots draft and things like that. Before we go, I want to give a shout-out to Rob Lonsdale, who reached out to me on Twitter, thanking me for the show and, you know, talking about some of the other stuff that he's going through. And I won't get into that, Rob, but I will say I am thinking of you every single day. Now, I'm so grateful

that you reached out, that you listened. I'm so glad to hear that the show helps. Stay strong, my man. Stay strong. I am rooting for you. I am thinking of you all the time. I wish you nothing but the best. If there's anything I can do, please reach out and let me know.

Maybe there's somebody listening, myself, anybody that can help, let us know I'm here for you, man, and just stay strong, my friend. I will be back Monday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots.