Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 11, 2019 - Mock Draft Monday

Episode Date: March 11, 2019

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, welcome on in to Mock Draft Monday here at Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield slotted into the big chair for today, Monday, March 11th, 2019. It is Mock Draft Monday. We are doing Mock Draft 4.0 today. I know full well that today is a huge day on the NFL calendar. It is the start of the legal tampering period. So I am sure there will be news galore that will break throughout the day, throughout the overnight hours, I'm sure. And so we will dedicate a Tuesday show to all the big news on the free agency front. For example, we learned Sunday afternoon that the Kansas City Chiefs will be

moving on from Justin Houston. There's already discussion about whether he could fit in New England. And so we'll dedicate a show Tuesday to all the free agency news. But today is Mock Draft Monday, Mock Draft 4.0. We're going to dive into that in a moment. But before we do, a reminder to follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at a bevy of websites, including InsideThePylon.com, where today's well-executed piece will be going up. I do a piece on the AAF every week. Inside the Pylons, of course, Pro Football Weekly, The Score,

Matt Waldman's rookie scouting portfolio. Got a piece of Gardner Minshew that went up. Also a bevy of SB Nation sites, including Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scope Show, and Pat's Pulpit. But let's dive into it now. It is Mock Draft Monday, Mock Draft 4.0. And what we're going to do today, we're going to use the Mock Draft Monday, Mock Draft 4.0. And what we're going to do today, we're going to use the Mock Draft machine over at the Draft Network. We're going to use their predictive board. Assumptions in place will be Trey Flowers and Trent Brown are gone. Rob Gronkowski is back. And so again, where the team needs are listed by the guys over at the Draft

Network of edge, interior defensive line, wide receiver, tight end, cornerback, linebacker, quarterback, and safety. Edge might not be the need because yes, as we know, we covered it in the emergency podcast on Friday afternoon. Trey Flowers out, Michael Bennett in. And so there's at least another body there. So edge might not be the immediate need. So that gives us some flexibility when it

comes to the first pick, that 32nd overall selection, that last pick in the first round. Now, again, we are using the predictive board from the guys over at the draft network. And that's kind of how they're looking at how the league might sort of stack a big board collectively, how the draft might fall. And I like using this board because it's more realistic. Now, not taking anything away from the guys over at the Draft Network, but sometimes how we on the outside view players doesn't quite match up with how the league themselves views players. For example, a prime example of this came last year when i was doing this exercise and i was using over on fanspeak a big board from kyle krabs one of the people over

at the draft network and kyle like many people on the outside of the nfl wasn't as high on josh allen as the league was as we know the league was because josh allen was a top 10 pick and so i was able to secure in a mock draft exercise last year on one of these shows, Josh Allen for the Patriots in the fourth round. And I got a bit of blowback on that, which makes some sense because a lot of people would have figured Josh Allen would be well off the board. But when you're using a board like that, sometimes you get some results that might not be quite in line with how the league will view a specific player.

Using the predictive board is a nice exercise because it gives us a chance to see how the board might fall given how we're seeing the league view some of these players. Now that being said, doing this exercise right now shows you how some talent will still be there at that 30-second pick even using this predictive board. For example,rey simmons the interior defensive lineman from mississippi state he is still available chris lindstrom who's had a nice brutal rise an interior offensive lineman for from boston college he's available daniel jones the quarterback from duke he is available mac wilson greg little debo samuel those are some nice players that are available so are dalton Risner, Kelvin Harmon, a wide receiver.

A lot of people have linked to the New England Patriots. He is also available. Jerry Tillery is available, the interior defensive lineman from Notre Dame. I know a lot of people, the locked-on Patriots, Slack Channel, really like him and think he could be the kind of player that the Patriots would covet on the interior of their defensive line. There's also A.J. Brown, a wide receiver from Mississippi. Some people have made the claim that he might have been the better of the two wide

receivers or perhaps the better NFL prospect. Look at a D.K. Metcalf and his three-cone, his agility type drills, and wondered if he's maybe a one-trick type receiver. Interestingly enough, to that point, I think it was Pat Thornton who put out a tweet over the weekend that around 71% of DK Metcalf's yardage came on two routes, a go route and a hitch route. That could have sort of lent some credence to the idea that he might be

sort of a one-trick pony. But let's go to the two players that are left. These are guys that are ranked 14th and 15th, respectively, on the predictive board over at the draft network. And that is tight end T.J. Hawkinson and tight end Noah Fant. Now over at the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, we have talked about the tight ends at length. And the tight ends in the New England Patriots have been linked

throughout this entire pre-draft process. A lot of people thinking they might even double down, double dip at the tight end position. Rumford Johnny on Twitter, he's made that prediction, thinks it's the kind of year to do it, and I think it makes a lot of sense. Tight end, a pivotal position to the New England Patriots in what they do offensively.

Bill Belichick himself views a disruptive, multi-purpose tight end as the most dangerous thing a defense has to defend against in today's NFL. Obviously, that was shaped in part by his relationship with and ability to play with and coach, in a sense, Mark Bavaro, who sort of brought that element to the New York Giants when they made their Super Bowl runs under Bill Parcells. And so the idea that the Patriots could perhaps double dip and the idea that they could replace Rob Gronkowski with a tight end

is something that a lot of Patriots fans have considered and probably assume that the Patriots will look to do. And when you have arguably the two best tight ends available to you at that 30-second pick, maybe it's not the overwhelming need, but it's a position of need. With Dwayne Allen on his way out of town, we know this. He's going to Miami. Robert Gronkowski dealing with some injury issues, as well as the fact that he seems to have that retirement bug in his mind. You want to address tight end. And with the two best guys available, it's almost a situation where you're

going to get this one right. Now, the question is, which one do you pick? Do you pick the well-rounded guy that maybe isn't a compliment for Gronkowski out of the gate since there will be some overlap? Or do you pick the move-type guy that would be a compliment for Gronkowski because you can have Gronkowski as your in-line guy. You can move Noah Fant around, have him be a big X kind of thing. But I think when push comes to shove, the reason why we expect the Patriots to draft tight end is because you want to get Gronk's replacement.

And with the best guy on the board, T.J. Hawkinson, being available here at 32, it's really hard to pass on that option. And so here we go. Pick 32, best tight end on the board in many people's minds. Falls to us here. You take advantage of the opportunity, T.J. welcome to the new england patriots and so that makes things pretty easy here in the first round up next we're going to do the day two picks we've got some picks in the second and third

round to get through and a little bit later we're going to have those day three picks we've got now a lot of picks to get to we'll come kind of run through the day three ones a little quicker but day two i think is where the New England Patriots really sort of make or break their draft, and that is ahead on Mock Draft Monday here at Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to do day two here on this Mock Draft Monday. The Patriots, at least in this Mock Draft exercise that we're doing via the Mock Draft machine over at the Draft Network, address tight end with we're doing via the mock draft machine over at the draft network

address tight end with their first selection of the 2019 draft with a 32nd overall pick they draft tight end T.G. Hawkinson from the University of Iowa now we're into the second round of the Patriots on the clock here twice in the second round they've got a pick at 56 and a pick at 64 and haven't done a couple of these already i have a direction that i want to head into with this pick now what's interesting is first of all tight end dax raymond is in the realm here at least by the draft network's predictive board they have him at player 72 overall and he's so he's sort of in the mix if you are thinking wide receiver there are two names that have been linked to the patriots actually a handful of names that have been linked to the

patriots that are available here. You've got Debo Samuel. You've got Paris Campbell. You've got Emmanuel Hall, Andy Isabella, Preston Williams, Riley Ridley, Terry McLaurin. So there are a number of options here at the wide receiver position if you think the Patriots go in that direction. You also have Irv Smith Jr. as well.

He's still available. So there are some options. Jay Sternberger, he's available. So if they go tight end again, there are a couple of different options available to them. Now, having done a couple of these, though, there is a position that I do want to address because we've seen it really sort of thin out

as we get into that mid-day two range. It seems like there's a drop-off. And so I don't want to miss on a player. This might mean, and we've joked about this in the Slack channel and elsewhere, that when we get into sort of round two, round three, Belichick's going to reach early on our safety because he's done that before. Obviously with some mixed results. But it might happen again because of that drop-off we've seen.

So with pick 56, I'm going to possibly reach here. Again, when we do these, sometimes we reach a little bit or we can play around because we know how the board is stacked and so we can sort of game the exercise a bit. But with Juan Thornhill and Darnell Savage being sort of the last safeties I'm really interested in, I don't want to miss out. So maybe it's a little early to do it. Maybe we could get this player at 64, but I want to risk it. So Juan Thornhill from the University of Virginia, welcome to the New England Patriots.

Now the Patriots are going to be back on the clock again at 64. And Savage is still there. So maybe this might be the spot to address safety. But after Savage, look, there is a drop-off. And so I don't want to miss out on a safety. I don't want to miss out. Because I think it is a position that they want to address. And so with safety now being sort of off the board, we can look elsewhere.

Interestingly enough, Jay Sternberger is here. Now the Patriots pick at 64 and at 73. And so they can try to stretch things a bit. But I don't think they're going to do that. There are a couple of other players they could address here. The wide receivers remain available. Paris Campbell, for example, is out here. Andy Isabella

is out here. Preston Williams, Riley Ridley, Terry McLaurin, JJ Ortega-Whiteside. So there are some options here that I think the Patriots might kick the tires on. But we've all sort of assumed that Isaiah Wynn is going to slide in. He's going to be the tackle.

But I think even if he pans out, they still want to address tackle depth. And Kajusti from West Virginia, Johnny Kajusti, he's available here. He's the 56th overall player on TDN's predictive board. I think this would be a nice spot to address offensive tackle. Not the most exciting pick, but I think it does make some sense because that position also sort of drops off a bit as we sort of get into the day three range. And so I think waiting on offensive tackle might be a risk. I think it makes sense to address it. So we'll do that here with Kajusti from West Virginia. Now the Patriots back on the board at 73.

This is one of their third round picks. And some of the names we've been bandied about here already continue to remain on the board. Interestingly enough, some of the wide receivers are still here. Preston Williams and Riley Ridley, for example. Those guys I think are going to slide a little bit. JJ Arte, a white side. He's a bigger body type wide receiver. I think he's going to slide a little bit.

Because perhaps he's sort of a red zone weapon type guy. What do you really do with those types of guys in the NFL? Can they give you more to it? When you look at some other positions perhaps of need, interior defensive line, we're seeing that position thin out a little bit, but there's still a name that I like, so I'm going to wait on that. I think we can address that a little bit later. There's actually a couple of names, so I think we can sort of address that position a little bit later. So that brings us to some other positions that

might not be positions of need, perhaps. Maybe we double dip a tight end here. Maybe we look at, say, wide receiver here, even though it's maybe not the position of need that people think it is. There's a couple of names at the cornerback position I think make a lot of sense for New England. There's also one guy that I think people are really going to start to have to do their homework on. First is Julian Love, cornerback from Notre Dame. He's also one guy that I think people are really going to start to have to do their homework on. First is Julian Love, quarterback from Notre Dame. He's an intriguing player.

He's the 54th ranked player on the TDN big board. I think we can wait on him. The player I have in mind, and this is a player we all need to start doing work on, is David Long from Michigan. It seems like he's sort of the guy that's catching some buzz. You know, 5'11",11 187 not the biggest guy but look he does a lot in terms of the special teams type game

I think he's going to be that kind of game that kind of player that Belichick might like and so if they want to add a corner I've been told look keep an eye on him. So those are some names kicking around here. But I think when we sort of go back, look at where the board stacks right now, if they're going to address wide receiver, this might be a good spot to do it. And so we'll go with Terry McLaurin, the kid from Ohio State. I think he makes some sense for New England. And so that's how we'll address the wide receiver position.

Now let's get into the third round. There'll be some interesting ways we can sort of address the New England Patriots and some needs that they have, starting with that pick at 97. And lingering on the board when the Patriots come to the clock, at least in this example, is a quarterback that a lot of people have sort of said maybe this is your lottery pick type guy maybe you roll the dice on him i'm a bit worried about tyree jackson obviously his combine was fantastic so i will pass here look y'all know where i want to go with quarterback but there are some other positions that i think the patriots could address here and one of them is interior defensive line.

And a name that has been bandied about here and elsewhere is Gerald Willis, the interior defensive lineman from Miami. Yes, some question marks. Yes, some issues with him off the field. Some suspensions, walking away from the game, things like that. But I think for what the Patriots like, he sort of fits the mold. So we'll go Gerald Willis, the interior defensive lineman from Miami. That brings us back to the

clock here again at 101. And it's probably early to go for one of the quarterbacks I like. Brett Rippon is 208 on this predictive board, so I think we can wait on him. Interestingly enough, Will Greer is still available. He seems to have slid a bit on the predictive board. Tyree Jackson is 80. Greer is

122. So at least we could game the system and Jarrett Stidham at 204 and Brett, I mean Ryan Finley at 224. I think in this exercise we can push the envelope a bit and we still end up with a quarterback we like. So we don't need to worry about quarterback. Let's try to get some value here. Let's go value hunting for a bit. You've got some interesting running backs. Michael Hardman from Georgia, he's on the board. Max Crosby, the edge from Eastern Michigan. That might make some sense. I know we added Michael Bennett, but they might want to add an edge guy anyway. And when you sort of look at the edge class, he might be at the cusp of your, you know, he's ranked 104. After that, there's a bit of a drop off.

You don't get an edge player until 135, then 150, then 166. And so in terms of getting some value, this might be a sweet little pick. So we'll go Max Crosby, the edge from Eastern Michigan. That will do it now. We were getting into round four. And so up next, we will have the day three picks for the New England Patriots

on this March 11th mock draft Monday installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this mock draft Monday installment of the Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this mock draft Monday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And in case you're just joining us, which again, would be a little weird. It is a podcast, not a radio show, but just in case,

or in case you just missed it or you're listening to this in bits and pieces. And so you forget we're now into day three, the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh round picks. Here's what we've done so far. T.G. Hawkinson at 32. Juan Thornhill at 56. Yarny Kajusti at 64. Terry McLaurin at 73.

Gerald Willis at 97. And Max Crosby at 101, the edge from Eastern Michigan. Now, that's a big number of picks. I'd be surprised if the Patriots make all of them. But it allows me to talk about some extra players, and so that's always exciting. Patriots back on the clock now with pick 134 here in the fourth round, and there's another wide receiver that sort of stared me in the face,

Stanley Morgan Jr., and you know what? I'm just going to pull the trigger because I like Stanley Morgan. I love some of the agility drills, and from watching him at Nebraska, I'm a big fan of what he did, what he could bring to the table. I know Will Greer I love some of the agility drills. And from watching him at Nebraska, I'm a big fan of what he did, what he could bring to the table.

I know Will Greer is staring me in the face, but I'm going to sort of push the envelope a little bit here at the quarterback position. So we'll go Stanley Morgan. We'll sort of double down the wide receiver position. That might be interesting given how people say they might double down at the tight end position.

And the tight end position is thinning out a little bit. But I've got a name in mind that I'm going to address with that a little bit later. And so the Patriots will be on the clock here again. And positions of need sort of for New England that might be left, obviously quarterback, obviously maybe another tight end. And so we probably want to address one of those at some point. You know, corner, linebacker, those might be other positions that New England might want to address at some point. But probably a little bit later, given I think they've got some decent depth at least right now.

Maybe linebacker, they want to bring in a guy on day three here. So we'll maybe address that as well. But the Patriots now, this is their big gap. We all know Bill Belichick hates fifth round picks. And so that gap from the fourth to the sixth round is going to be a big one and it gets to be a little dicey because at least on this big board you've got the pick at 205 and a guy we were eyeing brett rippin well even on the tdn predictive board he's their 204th ranked player and he came off the board here at pick 200 and so that makes me a little

wary about waiting to the sixth round to get Brett Rippin just throwing that out there and again when he dropped the 59 miles per hour you're probably not gonna see him wait you know fall that much again the 59 miles per hour take it with a grain of salt, but I think that's going to move him upwards. That means I don't want to wait too much longer to address the quarterback position, meaning Ryan Finley, welcome to the New England Patriots.

And so, that brings us to the seventh round. The Patriots still have some picks left. Positions that we probably want to address here, I think we probably want to get another tight end. I'm hoping that we can do that, although it looks like that might be a bridge too far for us. So we learned something right there. Waiting on tight end might not be the thing to do

if we want to double dip because we're looking at Keenan Brown, Daniel Helm, Matt Skoll, Evan Butts, Marvin Sanders, Datron Evans. It really thins out here. And so pushing the envelope to the seventh round to double dip a tie, that doesn't make sense. Now, having gotten T.J. Hawkinson, we might not even think that that's a need for us. So let's just sort of go what's available here.

A lot of running backs here. Devin Zogbo from Nebraska, Devon Zogbo, excuse me, He's here. Bryce Love. He's on the board. Darwin Thompson from Utah State, who's a very interesting player. He's here. Benny Snell, Dexter Williams. So there's some interesting players available at the running back position. That might be tough to pass up. Khalil Hodge, I feel, has been a pick in this exercise a number of times and will probably end up making that again. As I said, the tight end position is thin. Offensive line, that's thin at this point. And so I think because of the fact the value falls to you,

we'll address running back. And a player that I do kind of like, I think he's an interesting player to watch, is Darwin Thompson from Utah State. He's more of a zone runner, pretty bursty, pretty explosive. He's not a pass protector type guy, but he's got good vision and decision making. So we'll go with Darwin Thompson from Utah State. We'll be up again here at pick 246. This might be a good spot to go with our good friend Khalil Hodge. Yeah, let's do that with pick 246. And with our final pick in this draft, this will be pick 252. We're going to think outside the box.

And I'm just saying, with a guy that posted the kind of three-cone numbers he did, if you're at pick 252 and he's on the board, Easton Stick can do some things as a quarterback, but an athletic kid, and it's not outside the realm of possibility that Easton Stick could be your next Julian Edwin type player. And so there you go. That is your draft class for the New England Patriots. To recap here, the New England Patriots kick off their 2019 draft, at least in mock draft 4.0 here at the Locked on Patriots podcast with TJ Hawkinson from Iowa, pick 32.

Pick 56, Juan Thornhill, the safety from Virginia. Pick 64, Johnny Kajusti, offensive tackle from West Virginia. Pick 73, Terry McLaurin, wide receiver from Ohio State. Pick 97, Gerald Willis from Miami. Pick 101, Max Crosby, edge Eastern Michigan. Pick 134, Stanley Morgan Jr., wide receiver from Nebraska. Pick 205, Ryan Finley, quarterback, NC State. Pick 239, Darwin Thompson, running back, Utah State. Pick 246, Khalil Hodge, linebacker from Buffalo. And pick 252, Eastern State quarterback slash athlete, we who tag them that

way north dakota state now i think it's important for this mock and for mocks going forward to kind of think about what we learned one we learned recently that if you wait on safety you see it thin out and it thins out at all these positions but some positions are deeper than others and so i think the idea of drafting Terry McLaurin at 73, that caused us to miss out on that second tight end, I think. Because then you see the guys like Jace and others sort of fall off the board and Dax Raymond. And so that might be an issue. Waiting on Brett Rippon was an issue. He comes off the board at 200 here. So we're forced to go Ryan Finley at 205. Again, I like Finley, but I love Rippon, and that's the guy I want. I think Easton Stick, that last pick in the seventh round, I think that is one to keep an eye on as well.

And so it's a fun exercise. We love it here. We'll do it again next week. Like I said, tomorrow we're going to talk free agency. The tampering period begins, and we'll know we'll get some news, and we'll cover all of that tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield, and Locked on

Patreon.