Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots June 25, 2018 - Arizona Over/Under, AFC East Poaching, and the 2004 Draft

Episode Date: June 25, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Monday, June 25th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair. Come around here 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. A couple new pieces out. A new piece that went out Friday. Breaking down part one of my game script.

Harkening back to my days at Wesleyan University. Sitting on a couch in Coach Hauser's office and stalling the game plan while I'm drawing up a game plan of my own. Plays that I would call based on situation, down, distance, things like that. Part one went up over at InsideThehepylon.com on Friday. You can also check out the video work, youtube.com slash insidethepylon.

Loaded show for you today. We're going to start a couple of new things. We're going to go on, we're going to do a timeline take in the middle segment. We're going to continue with our series on the Patriots, revisiting some draft classes, looking at the 2004 draft. And we're going to start off, though, with some over-unders. We've done storylines. Now it's time to really start getting into some predictions

and looking ahead at these seasons. And I love over-unders when it comes to win totals. And hey, thanks to the United States Supreme Court, you can now probably, maybe, place a wager on some of these. But before I dive in, just one quick note. As you all probably know, if you followed me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield on Twitter, survived the weekend. And what I mean by that is you probably saw a couple of photos from me at Sky Zone, a trampoline park here in the suburban Washington DC area. My son Owen turned seven on Sunday. Happy birthday to Owen.

And his party was Saturday at Sky Zone, a trampoline park. And I did survive. My ACLs are still intact after an hour straight of trampoline enjoyment. Also, a couple of times, not just once, but a couple of times, they have one of those warped walls like on American Ninja Warrior. Made my way up the big one a couple of times. I was rather pleased with myself. You can also see some photos of that in action if you check me out on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Again, you can follow me on Twitter. We can reach out on Twitter, all that fun, fun, good stuff. Let's dive in, though, do some over-unders, and we're going to start with the Arizona Cardinals. We're just going to do this alphabetical order.

How about that? And Arizona Cardinals over-under win total headed into the 2017-2018 season, five and a half. Now, we probably do have to start looking at this team from a roster construction standpoint. We talked about it on the storylines portion of this show. While we see the big storyline, who's going to be taking the snaps with him?

You all know how I feel about Josh Rosen. He was my QB1. I do expect him to see playing time sooner rather than later. It would not surprise me to see him win this job, competing against Sam Bradford, Mike Lennon, and Chad Kanoff, whom I also like. But perhaps they do bring him along slowly. That's the storyline though. Strength of schedule. While that's not the best and most indicative way to look at a team to start to project them out a year ahead of time strength of schedule changes so much from year to year teams change so much from year to year but purely on a

strength of schedule basis the arizona cardinals right now have one of the top 10 toughest schedules based upon opponents combined 2017 win percentage 5 5-20. Their combined record of the teams that they're playing in this next season 133-123. And when you look at how their schedule shakes out they got a home game against Washington to start out. Then they go at the Rams home against Chicago, home against

Seattle, at San Francisco, at Minnesota, home against Denver, home against San Francisco, then a, home against Denver, home against San Francisco, then a bye. And when you think about how the San Francisco 49ers have improved, how the Rams certainly were a playoff team last year, going to Minnesota who made it to the NFC Championship game last year, Denver probably improved as well. That's a Thursday night game. That's a tough turnaround right there. That week six, week seven stretch is going to, actually that week five, six, seven stretch is going to be brutal for the Arizona Cardinals.

You have a Sunday afternoon 425 Eastern game at San Francisco. Then the next week you're at Minnesota. Then you turn around after playing at Minnesota on Sunday afternoon, a Thursday night game home against Denver. That's a tough little stretch for a team that's going to have some question marks at the quarterback position, perhaps playing a rookie quarterback then. That's a tough way to open the season as well. Things get a little bit different as they get into the back half of their season. Coming out of that bye, they go at Kansas City, home against the Raiders, at the Chargers, three AFC West teams sort of out of the gate there

to start the second half of their season. Then at Green Bay, home against Detroit at Atlanta, home against the Rams at Seattle. You can see why this is shaping up to be a very, very tough schedule. They get some tough stretches in there, that week 5, 6, 7 stretch is tough. That stretch from, say, week 12 to week, basically, 17 is tough when you've got at the Chargers, at the Packers, home against the Lions,

at Atlanta, a playoff team, home against the Rams, a playoff team, then at Seattle in that environment on a Sunday afternoon, December 30th, to end the season. That's a really tough schedule overall. Vegas typically knows what they're doing. Five and a half. I could see, just looking at this team right here,

going game by game, I could see a win against Chicago at home. Maybe you see them winning that. It's tough to even say they didn't win that Seattle game at home. That stretch at San Francisco, at Minnesota, I'm not sure they them winning that. It's tough to even say they didn't win that Seattle game at home. You know, that stretch at San Francisco, at Minnesota, I'm not sure they're winning that game. Even that Thursday night game against Denver, even though that's at home,

that's coming off a tough stretch right there. I'm struggling to see five and a half wins out of this team. And so for me, looking at the Arizona Cardinals, I'm saying that's an under, even though it's five and a half, even.5 Look, they have some weapons on offense You still have Larry Fitzgerald So there's something You've got David Johnson So there's something there Hopefully you can piece together some other receivers

Out of Christian Kirk, Chad Williams maybe JJ Nelson maybe Defense does have some pieces as well Brutha, Patrick Peterson. But still, this looks to be a team that is going to struggle putting together wins. They've got a tough schedule they're facing. And so for me, that 5.5 over under, 8's an under for me, my friends. So there's your Arizona Cardinals over under.

Up next, we're going to do, there was a fantastic tweet put out over the past couple of days that's sparked a ton of discussion on the timeline. I'm going to tackle that question ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield, back with you here

on this Monday installment of Locked On Patriots, your favorite daily Patriots podcast. And we're going to do a quick little timeline take here. And it was a very, very interesting tweet put out by at AJ Draft Scout on Twitter. And he put it out on June 22nd, you know, early in the afternoon. And the tweet was, if you guys had to take one player from each team in your favorite team's division and put them on your team, who would it be? And I, once I saw this, thought it was just a brilliant tweet. It blew up as it well should have. Lots of people chiming in

with thoughts on what players they would take. Again, you can follow AJ on Twitter, at AJDraftScout. For a creative tweet like that. I think you should do it. And so that got me thinking, looking around the AFC East team by team, what other players would you take? And I want to start with the Buffalo Bills. And you look at the Buffalo Bills roster and there are certainly some players that are intriguing. You look at them on the offensive side of the ball, you can make a case for LeSean McCoy. You know, very, very talented running back. You could probably run that off.

You could do a lot of stuff in New England's offense. He's good out of the backfield as a receiver. He's great in the screen game. You could do inside, outside zone stuff with him. You know, more of a zone style runner. But he can certainly run behind New England's offensive line and run behind some of the gap man-blocking schemes they use up front. New England does do a very good job

of variety between zone and man-blocking schemes. So he's an option. Charles Clay is an option just because I like Clay as a tight end. I think he's a talented tight end. Doesn't get a lot of consideration, doesn't get a lot of consideration. Doesn't get a lot of buzz or attention. But I like him. Maybe that's just me. But I've got a soft spot for him. He's an option there.

You look at the defensive ball guys like Kyle Williams, Shaq Lawson, Jerry Hughes. Those are some stout guys up front. I gave them a ton of consideration as well. Particularly a guy like Shaq Lawson. Some athleticism off the edge. Same thing with Jerry Hughes. Kyle Williams is just your lunch pail type guy. Comes in, gets it done.

Stout on the interior of the offensive line. But I think the Patriots, they have some guys that can fit that mold. Obviously with Shelton coming over, Malcolm Brown still in the middle of their defense. So I don't think Kyle Williams would be a bit redundant. But Lawson and Hughes were certainly some interesting options. But I went with a different direction. I went with Tredavious White, the young corner out of LSU who I admittedly have to take a little bit of an L on over at Inside the Pylon when we did our draft guide two seasons ago.

You know, we weren't that high on him, but he certainly had a fantastic rookie campaign. And you put him across from Stephon Gilmore, I think you're getting into two lockdown corners type territory. Tredavious White might not be there yet, but he's close and he can become that. And then you've got a guy in place that can become your number one corner if at some point you have to move on from Stephon Gilmore. And so I like the idea of getting Tredavious White in. I think that would be a fantastic pickup for the New England Patriots.

And since I just mentioned the Inside the Pylon draft guide, I do want to let people know that if you go to itpdraftguide.com, we're now getting ready to put out our post-draft supplement. Some of the players that we didn't cover in our main draft guide, they're out there now. We're also doing some team-by-team supplements too. So I'd remind you to check out itpdraftguide.com. You can check out some of the stuff we're doing post draft over at Inside the Pylon. Now the next two teams, I struggled with these.

I gave it a lot of thought, sitting around the house Friday afternoon when I was getting ready to put my show notes together for when we record this Sunday as well. I still was undecided. We can start with the dolphins and looking at this offensive side of the ball. I, I went back and forth with a couple of different players. I looked at Danny Hamondola, I'll be honest. And I said, you know, obviously the things that he can do we know what he can do the relationship that he has with Tom Brady we know what that means you know the way he stepped up in the playoffs last year so he was certainly an option somebody I give a lot of consideration to Mike Jacecki I raved about him a lot on this show was very excited about what he could potentially

bring to the table as a tight end two type more of a big x big receiver type guy i thought he could make a great parent with rob gorkowski who's more of your all-around type tight end who can block for you can do all the things a tight end needs to do but i like mike joseki so i gave him consideration defensive side of the wall cam rake was was interesting robert quinn was Again, when you're talking about the Patriots, you always want to get pass rush and help. Those two guys, I think, would come in and do it. Raekwon McMillan, although he lost his rookie season to a knee injury,

also an intriguing option there. But I went defensive back again, and I went young, and I went Minka Fitzpatrick. And this might seem like really outside of the box, but when you look at Minka Fitzpatrick's skill set as a defensive back, he can play some safety. He can play some corner. He can play in the slot. You can use him all over the place. As my friend Dave Archibald, at Dave Archibald on Twitter, would say, he is your Swiss Army knife type defensive player. And you saw how Nick Saban used him. You can just

imagine how Bill Belichick would be able to use a guy like Minka Fitzpatrick. And so that would be the guy I would pluck off the Miami Dolphins roster. I know it's an outside of the box pick. He's not really an established player, but I would love the idea of seeing Bill Belichick get his hands on him and what he could possibly do with him. So there's your pick from the Bills, and there's your pick from the Dolphins. Now we get to the Jets. And this is an interesting roster. My initial thought, honestly, was one of the safeties.

Jamal Adams, Marcus May, I like both of those guys a lot. I've written pieces about them over at Inside the Pylon. I've written pieces about them over at LockdownPatriots.com. I like both of those guys. But I'm going to go in a different direction. I'm going to go with Sam Donald because of all the things that I identify in Sam Donald that he needs to fix, I think there are things that he can sort of fix while watching Tom Brady.

And as much as I talk about other quarterbacks, as much as I talk about already the 2019 class, which we'll be working our way through, you know, as we get into July and probably a little bit into August, Sam Donald is a very good quarterback with incredible upside. You probably remember me talking about him. New to the position. Was a linebacker until his sophomore year in high school.

Coming out young. He would be the youngest quarterback to start in NFL history if he started week one. He'd be younger than Bledsoe and Stafford. You know, he'd be 21 in 90 days or something like that. So there's room for him to grow. There's room for him to develop. But obviously in New England, he won't have to play right away.

There's a potential he could play right away with the Jets. We'll see how the Bridgewater thing shakes out. Maybe they entertain the notion of a trade to get some pass rush and help. I've seen some ideas floating around with the Jets package in Bridgewater in some way if he has a pretty decent preseason. You still have Josh McCown, but there's a chance that Darnold's starting week one.

That could ruin a quarterback. It's not going to ruin him if he's learning behind Tom Brady and waiting to get his turn. And so if I'm going to take one player off the Jets, that's who it's going to be. It's going to be Sam Darnold. And so those are my three guys. Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins, Tredavious White, the cornerback from the Buffalo Bills,

and Sam Donald, the quarterback from the New York Jets. Yes, I went with three young players, two rookies, and a second-year player. But let me ask you this. I'm going to pose this to the Locked On Patriots listeners. You guys answered that question. What three players would you want from the other teams in the AFC East? Let me know your thoughts at MarkScoffield on Twitter. Also, one last plug.

Remember, you can still go to LockedOnPatriots.com. I've got that survey running over via SurveyMonkey. I'll talk about it on the other side here in a second, how those polls are going. But again, LockedOnPatriots.com. There's a piece up there. It would take you over to the survey for football and film you guys can get your thoughts in on football and film in the top 20 football movies up ahead i'll tell you how those poll results are looking and we'll also get into the 2004 patriots draft that's next with me

mark schofield and locked on patriots mark schofield back with you now to close out this monday installment of locked on patriots and as iofield back with you now to close out this Monday installment of Locked on Patriots. And as I mentioned there a few minutes ago, I'm going to let you know how the poll results are going so far on your favorite football movies. Again, I spent most of June breaking down football movies. So far, it's a pretty close race at the top. Remember the Titans, Any Given Sunday, Jerry Maguire, The Blindside, and Friday

Night Lights. Those are your top five in that order. And it's fairly close. I mean, most people look at, I mean, Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights, and Jerry Maguire. You know, those are basically pretty close to the top, a little bit farther behind them, you know, in terms of how the polls are shaking out right now of the blindside and Friday night lights. Your next five, the replacements, the longest yard, varsity blues, the water boy, and the program. Those are sort of your next five. I'm a little surprised though, seeing Rudy and Brian's on sort of outside the top 10. I figured those were some movies of, you know, maybe they weren't going to get into the top one or two,

but seeing them on the outside, that kind of surprises me. All the Right Moves, Newt Rockne, All-American, those are basically the guys, the two movies, pulling up the caboose, the rear, as it were, of this poll right now. Other got a couple of votes here, and I forget who it was. It was at Jim Reynolds, I believe, on Twitter, who, good friend of the show. I know he voted other.

There might have been some other votes for other as well. But that's where you have it right now. So remember, go to LockedOnPatriots.com. You can get over to this survey via SurveyMonkey, and you can get in your selections. Before we go, though, 2004 Patriots draft. Now, remember, this is a team coming off a Super Bowl victory, finishing the regular season 14-2 the year prior,

winning Super Bowl 39. Off-season moves, they replaced Antoine Smith with Corey Dillon. That was a big sort of off-season move. They did make some interesting draft picks. And the two guys at the top, both first round picks, the Patriots making a move to get into the first round again. At 21 overall,

they get Vince Woolfolk. I don't think there's much you have to say about Vince Woolfolk, other than look, probably got at least the Patriots Hall of Fame, if not the NFL Hall of Fame. He should at least get some consideration with that. And then a pick 32 overall, they have Ben Watson,

who's still currently kicking around the league. You know, last year he caught 61 passes for 522 yards and four touchdowns. You know, he's a finalist for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award last year, which was won by J.J. Watt, obviously, with what he did, you know, with the Houston area following that hurricane. But look what he did with the New England Patriots. You know, he struggled with some injuries.

He played in only one game his rookie season. He started just 47 games in six seasons with the team. But if nothing else, when he tracked down Champ Bailey in that loss to the Broncos in the playoffs in 2006, still one of the most amazing plays I've ever seen any football player at any level ever make. And I'm not just saying that because I threw a cell phone against a wall and shattered it when I saw that play happen.

Well, I didn't really shatter it. It still worked, but I broke the antenna. This was the days of the flip phone kids before iPhones and stuff like that. That was just a fantastic play. And so, look, Watson was a nice contributor for this team. Maybe didn't live up to first round billion, but still, I think a pretty nice pick. Obviously, the Will Fork pick that kind of knocked that one out of the park. Rest of this draft, however, not the best production-wise.

Marquise Hill was their second-round pick at pick 63. Defensive end out of LSU. Played one game in 2004, eight games in 2005, making three tackles. And then he passed away in a jet ski accident after he and his friend Ashley Blasio

fell off a jet ski in Lake Pontchartrain. Neither one of them was wearing a life jacket or a tracking device. Hill basically helped her, got her onto a buoy, kept her calm. She was rescued. He couldn't be rescued. So a tragic, tragic accident. Heroic effort by Hill at the end there. But as far as his NFL career,

didn't really quite pan out for the New England Patriots. Gus Scott, a third-round pick, safety out of Florida. And in terms of a professional career, he was a member of the team, but really just kind of bounced around, didn't do much with the Patriots. Dexter Reed, another safety out of North Carolina, did win a Super much with the Patriots. Dexter Reed, another safety out of North Carolina, did win a Super Bowl with the Patriots.

Started two games his rookie season, appeared in 13 games, had 23 tackles, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble. He did have a breakdown in coverage in the Super Bowl, in Super Bowl 39, that resulted in a Greg Lewis touchdown, but he was released in 2005. Cedric Cobbs, a running back out of Arkansas,

he was released during final roster cuts and didn't make the team as a rookie. PK Sam, wide receiver from Florida State, he also earned a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots. He was inactive for six contests and placed on injured reserve. Then he was on the reserve suspended list for violation of team rules, but he did earn

a Super Bowl win. Then he was waived prior to the next season. Again, another pick that didn't really quite pan out. And finally, Christian Morton, a cornerback out of Illinois. He was the last of the supplemental picks,

and he was released by the team prior to the 2004 season. So really, looking at Watson and how you view him, Wilfork was a great pick. Watson maybe didn't live up to what people were hoping for. And then after that, this draft wasn't great at all. And when you consider some of the guys that the Patriots could have gotten their hands on, it looks even tougher in hindsight. Now, let's give them the Watson.

Let's give them the Wilfork picks. We'll say that those are good ones. Their next selection is Marquise Hill at 63. Last pick of the second round. The next three picks from an

Arizona Cardinals, Darnell Dawkins, defensive tackle, Florida State. Pick 65, the second pick in the third round, Nate Keeton, a kicker, but he's been a good one. Then Nick Hardwick, a center who's been a very good one. Going through the rest of the third round, Randy Starks, defensive tackle from Maryland by the Titans. That's a good pick. Made numerous Pro Bowls. When you look at his career, you look at Chris Cooley, a tight end for the Redskins. He was drafted in the middle

of the third round. I know that they had just drafted Benjamin Watson. He's still at Daniel Graham, who you drafted a couple of years before. We talked about him on one of last week's shows, but Chris Cooley went on to have a really nice career. Matt Schaub drafted near the end of the third round. Perhaps the Patriots could have used Matt Schaub similarly to how he was used by other teams and spun into resources and draft capital along the way. Other guys throughout this draft that made Pro Bowl, Sean Phillips, a defensive end out of Purdue.

Chargers had a nice little draft in 2004. I mean, you look at some of the picks that they made in this draft. We just talked about two of them. You know, getting those guys, Keating and Hardwick, to center. Now you get Sean Phillips in the fourth round to pick 98. Those are some nice picks. Jared Allen at the end of the fourth round. You know, the Kansas City Chiefs took Jared Allen at 126,

and at 128, the Patriots drafted Cedric Cobbs, the running back out of Arkansas. And that was after taking 15 picks earlier, taking Dexter Reed, that free safety, out of North Carolina. And, yeah. Okay, so look at him. Michael Turner, the Chargers drafted him in the fifth round of this draft. Hold on, hold on one second.

And now after a few minutes of research, it just clicked into my head. This was the Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers draft. So this was the draft where the Chargers took Manning first overall, and then they work out the trade to get Phillip Rivers. They also draft at pick 35, Igor Olshansky, a defensive tackle, who did some very good things for the Chargers. Then Nate Keating, Nick Hardwick, Sean Phillips. They draft Dave Ball at 133 overall, a pick in the fifth round,

the defensive end out of UCLA. Then Michael Turner. I mean, this was a very good draft. And reading about it, there's a Bleach Report article back from 2011, 2004 NFL draft, a look back at one of the best drafts a team has ever had. And it's a piece breaking down this entire draft because you get Philip Rivers out of it. You get Igor Olshansky. He played five years in San Diego, racked up 179 tackles, 11 sacks, forced three fumbles. Nate Keaton,

who was a fantastic kicker for them, Nick Hardwick, Sean Phillips, Michael Turner. They signed Malcolm Floyd as an undrafted free agent. I mean, they did some work in this 2004 draft. The Patriots, however, did not. They still went on and won a Super Bowl, but for those of you out there, you don't have to identify yourselves because we don't want to put you in the cone of shame or anything,

but for those of you out there who look at Belichick and say, look, he can't draft, he can't assemble teams, he can't do that stuff like that. You know, you could look at the 2004 draft and kind of say, all right, well, you know, this is the one that I'm going to hang my argument on. You know, this is the draft class that I'm kind of going to point to and say, look, you know, this one, not a good group. You know, not a good group at all. And, you know, Nick Crescero was, you know, the director of pro personnel. Thomas Dimitrioff was the director of college scouting. You know, Thomas Dimitrioff, you know,

obviously he's gone on to do some great things with the Atlanta Falcons. You know, so they had to steal it. Ernie Adams as football research director doing whatever he's doing. Scott Pioli, you know, he was there as well. And so you've got smart guys in the room, but what does this tell you? That sometimes even the smartest guys in the room can miss on stuff like this.

And so that's your look at the 2004 Patriots draft. That will do it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow yapping about some more stuff. Until tomorrow, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Sch and locked on peter