Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 13, 2018 - Let's Get Ready to Tamper

Episode Date: March 13, 2018

Mark Schofield opens the "legal tampering window" with thoughts on Drew Brees, Ndamukong Suh, Jimmy Graham, Malcolm Butler and Kirk Cousins.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's get ready to tamper! Tamper! Mark Schofield here for a special legal tampering edition of Locked on Patriots. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com. Check out all the first sound videos over. YouTube.com backslash InsideThePylon. Reminder, Locked on Patriots is your home for Patriots news, notes, and analysis

four days a week until we get a little bit closer to the draft. Want to give a shout out here at the top to my boys Murph and Steve. If you're a Pats fan, you know them or you should know them. They do a great show, One Patriot's Place. You can follow them on Twitter at tmurph207 and at steveb7sfg. I was just on with them a few minutes ago on their show. Two of my absolute favorites out there. I still remember back when I first started writing about football, when I got the follow from

Steve, I was just like, wow, this is amazing. Because I had been following Steve for years. So it was just great to chat with those guys. Hope to be on with them again soon. Again, I know there is so much great Patriots content out there, but you got to be listening to those dudes. They do such a great job. It was a blast to be on them. As you heard, it is now 12.09 Eastern on Monday. The legal tampering window has opened.

Super excited, I know. But I figured why not we'll record a little special episode here and get all super excited for the legal tampering window to be opened because all sorts of crazy, crazy things have happened. But as of this moment, the Patriots have not signed anybody. Is Belichick over? Is he finished as a general manager? Only time will tell.

I kid, of course, because people. Let's calm down here. Also, I'm going to quote a tweet from Bob Tsochi, the voice of the Patriots. Again, another great follow on Twitter. Please, please, please tell me you're following him. His quote is, A reminder that I should have given myself a few days ago and will need again a few days from now. We won't truly know the NFL's real winners the next week or two

until this time next year. Same for the losers. So it's super fun to overreact to all of the moves that are being made over the next couple of days and to declare off-season winners, free agency winners. But the last time I checked, the Washington Redskins, they've got a couple of NFL free agency winners banners handed in at FedEx Field, but not a super champion banner, at least not a recent one.

So let's not overreact. We can agree to do that, right? Of course. So what are we going to do? Let's overreact. We can agree to do that, right? Of course. So what are we going to do? Let's overreact! Okay, there's nothing really to overreact to yet, but here's something. And literally, what I'm just going to do today

for the next couple of, you know, next 20 minutes or so, we're going to run through some crazy stuff happening, or at least potentially happening out there. And the biggest thing that hasn't happened yet is Drew Brees has not resigned with the New Orleans Saints. And, you know, over the past couple of weeks, when I addressed the quarterback position, you know, and how the Patriots might choose to address that, I threw out the flyer that, you know, Drew Brees, he's technically a free agent,

and in all likelihood he's going to be back in New Orleans, and they're going to get a deal done. Well, they haven't. There's no deal done between the team. Tom Belisario tweeted this out last night. Less than 16 hours before the negotiating window opens, which is now open, no deal is done yet between the Saints and Drew Brees, per source. Still time to get it done in the morning.

Otherwise, teams can start legally making their pitch to the 39-year-old quarterback at noon Eastern, and that hour is upon us. And, you know, I come from a legal background. I come from a lawyer's background I'm somebody that has negotiated cases negotiated settlements tried cases etc etc etc and I know this firsthand deadlines make deals okay because it's one thing to try to settle a case to make a deal three months before trial when you're not doing anything else on the case but when you've got like a pre-trial statement due when you've got to start paying experts when you're not doing anything else on the case. But when you've got like a pre-trial statement due,

when you've got to start paying experts, when you've got, you know, hard deadlines, that's when you're motivated to come to terms. And here's a hard deadline. If the Saints don't sign Drew Brees, this is from Field Yates on Twitter. If the Saints don't sign Drew Brees to a new deal before Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern,

$18 million in dead money will count on the team's salary cap for 2018. That's a massive deadline. That's some motivation to get a deal done. So I assume, I know what they say about assuming, but I assume that that is going to be all of the motivation that the Saints and Drew Brees have to come to terms and to get a deal done. It's one thing to move on from Drew Brees. It's another when you have to add in the fact 18 million will count against the cap in dead money. And the Saints just made a nice little run.

It's clear that with Kamara, the addition there, the upgrades they made defensively, they can make a run at a Super Bowl with Drew Brees in the next couple of years. And so I anticipate there that a deal is going to get done and that Drew Brees will be a Saint once training camp opens. But let's take a step away from the quarterback position as much as it pains me to do that. Let's talk Ndamukong Suh.

Because to me, to a guy that has sort of adopted the Nebraska Cornhuskers as his college football team, I've kind of been a Ndamukong Suh fan for a while. And I know that there are some question marks about the way he plays the game, whether he's sort of a dirty player, whether he takes cheap shots and things like that, and there are certainly instances where he has done so. But he is also a very good defensive player. He's a core component and could be a core component of many defensive lines. But word out of Miami, and this was from Jeff Darlington earlier today, the plan is for Ndamukongsu to be released as early as today as the Dolphins continue their attempt at a culture change,

a plan that has purged arguably Miami's three most talented players within last year. Now, this will come at a cost. According to Ross Tucker, $22 million in dead money for Sue. $22 million. And as Tucker goes on to say, that has to be a record.

But when you have a chance to get rid of your best defensive player a couple of days after you shipped out your best offensive player, you have to do it. Obviously, a little bit of a ton in cheek there comment from Ross Tucker. But not that pro football focus is the be all and end all of Graydon players,

but according to their grading, his run defense grade 92.4, second best in the league behind only Damon Harrison. So he's going to have a lot of interest as pro football focus said, and kicking up the excitement, perhaps, was a video that Sue just posted a couple of hours ago, a couple of seconds long, 525 in the morning out in Seattle, where he talks about he's going to have an exciting day,

he's going to get in a workout first, but to stay tuned. The fact that he's in Seattle, well, it's not too hard to sort of connect the dots there. And so Ndamukong Su might be one of the first sort of defensive shoes to drop as we get into sort of this legal tampering window. Up next, I'm going to scroll through the timeline, drop some thoughts on what else is happening as legal tampering gets underway here in the National Football League. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots.

Mark Schofield, back with you now on this legal tampering edition of Locked On Patriots. And let's go out west for just a few minutes and talk about the Los Angeles Rams. Because it's go out west for just a few minutes and talk about the Los Angeles Rams because it's fascinating to see the new economics of the National Football League at work here

because, as I mentioned, I just got done talking with Murph and Steve over on Patriots Place, and we were talking about how Kirk Cousins is going to command a potentially game-changing type contract in free agency, and more on that in a bit. But we talked about how the new economy of the National Football League, the new economics of the quarterback position are changing, and we knew this, but they really are changing how teams construct rosters,

because there's probably no better way to become competitive than to get a very good quarterback on a rookie deal. We saw that with the Seattle Seahawks. They were competitive when they had Russell Wilson on his rookie deal. It allowed them to address other needs via free agency, via trade, however they wanted to do it, but they had resources to go out. They had capital to go out and to get players at other positions of need because they didn't have to spend a lot of money on the quarterback spot. And we're seeing this play out again with the Rams and with the Eagles because they have Carson Wentz, they have Jared Goff, good quarterbacks now on rookie deals, and they can go out and address other positions of need.

And when you look at the acquisitions that the Rams have made so far, Marcus Peters in a trade, Aqib Tlaib in a trade. They signed Sam Shields as well. And so now they can address that secondary. They've made that secondary a whole heck of a lot better already. Now, some other moves that the Rams are going to have to make, we're hearing right now Jason LaConfora over at CBS is saying that they're going to move on. They're going to part ways with Taewon Austin which I don't think should come as a surprise to anybody you know Austin never really sort of panned out in the way that

the Rams and their fans probably hoped and he's a gadget player and they tried to do some different things with him they used him as a running back at times running them between the tackles they used him on jet sweeps with McVay but it's clear that that wasn't quite working out the way they would have dreamed. And so they're going to move on from him. The big question offensively right now for the Rams is what to do about Sammy Watkins. Because they need to decide whether they're going to move on from him. My assumption would be that they're going to find a way to bring him back. And so I think that the Rams are going to be smart to try to work out a deal with Watkins. He was a big boost to them in sort of that vertical passing game.

Jared Goff was able to do some things down the field as a passer. Targeting Sammy Watkins had a big play against the Giants. When I think you look at Watkins and his ability to sort of take the top off a defense and serve as that downfield threat. And I think if you look at that Rams offense right now, assuming they get Watkins back in the fold, you've got Watkins at the X. You've got guys like Josh Reynolds and Robert Woods at the Z spot.

Mike Thomas, the other Mike Thomas, as well in the mix there. You've got Cooper Cup. I think you can run an offense with maybe Watkins on one side, Cooper Cup on the other, maybe a Pharoah Cooper on the slot. There's some potential there, even moving on from Tavon Austin, but I think the big component to that receiving core is getting Watkins back in the fold. And so I'd imagine that to be sort of the focal point of the Rams right now

over the next couple of days, next couple of hours even, as we are, as I said, 30 minutes now into the legal tampering window. Up next, we're going to talk about some other teams around the league, and we're going to close things out with some discussion on Kirk Cousins because the numbers and the stuff that's being thrown about, just incredible. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you for this legal tampering edition of Locked on Patriots, and we're going to sort of circle back to the New Orleans Saints for a minute here

with a couple of things that are just coming around on the Twitter feed right now. First, not totally related to the Patriots, but perhaps a window into the expectations that Drew Brees will be back because rap sheet, Ian Rappaport, just put out a tweet saying, the Saints have strong interest in a reunion with tight end Jimmy Graham.

The feeling is mutual. Mike Garofalo mentioned this weeks ago. There is a lot of momentum towards this, a good reason to never burn bridges. First, little lesson from Uncle Mark here. That's a great point. You never want to burn bridges in life. Just trust me on this one. I've learned it both the good way and the hard way. You never know who's going to be able to help you out down the road. Secondly, you can't imagine that Jimmy Graham would want to go back to New Orleans if he was being told or if he was hearing from Breeze directly or from other people that Breeze wasn't going to be back. You know, Breeze isn't going, I mean, Graham's not going back to New Orleans to be the tight

end for a rookie quarterback or for a non-drew breeze quarterback you know graham's not going there to be the the tight end for taysom hill fresh off his stint as a special teams gunner turned back into a quarterback and so i think the fact that there's mutual interest from both sides the fact that we're hearing that again graham wants to go back to new orleans both parties are interested in making a deal that makes me me think that, you know, there's going to be a lot of smoke and mirror and fire, perhaps a little bit of fire, around Breeze moving on from New Orleans.

But in the end, I think it gets done. And I think this is a good indication that a deal will get done. More on the Saints. And this is a little bit Patriots related in a way because remember last year, there was talk about Malcolm Butler going to New Orleans, a trade being worked out between those teams.

That didn't get done, but Diana Rossini from ESPN, remember when the Saints and the Patriots almost made a trade for Malcolm Butler? I'm told there is new interest in getting him to New Orleans as a free agent, but they also have their eyes on veteran corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Now, we expected that Butler was going to be, you know, not a part of New England's plans going forward in the 2018 season. And the fact that there was mutual interest between these teams last year about potentially doing a deal,

potentially for a first-rounder at one point, that was the talk. I'm not surprised that now, you know, the Saints are getting back into the mix with Butler being available in free agency. That would make a lot of sense for them. You know, you put Butler across from, you know, the rookie corner that they had last year, who played extremely well, and his name is escaping me right now. Marshawn Lattimore, there it is. But I think you have Butler and you have Lattimore. That's a pretty good cornerback tandem. Because the Saints had questions at CB2.

They were running guys like Ken Crawley and P.J. Williams and other guys out there. And I think they're better served with a P.J. Williams inside in the slot. And Butler, I think, upgrades that cornerback two spot across from Lattimore. And so I think that would be a move that would make a lot of sense from the Saints' perspective. And so this legal tampering window now is 37 minutes old. What's going to be interesting listening to this show

once it's edited and spliced together is how I... It's not going to match up completely here because we're about 16 minutes into the show, but I'll take a pause here and refresh the timeline and poke around and check with my quote sources, close quote. I don't really have any sources. I've got one or two, but not, not much because you're not coming to me for sourced information, folks. You're coming to me for reasoned analysis on this legal tampering day. Up ahead, I'll take another spin around the timeline, see if there's any news breaking, and we'll close this out with a discussion about Kirk Cousins and guaranteed money.

That's on the other side with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield now. Going to talk a little Denver Broncos for a minute here. This coming out from Mike Kills, who is at Mike Kills on Twitter. Who covers the Broncos for 9 News out there in Colorado. Two new moves of note. First off, Broncos do not tender Benny Fowler III, so he's a free agent. Outside linebacker Shaq Barrett receives a second round tender. On Fowler first, he's an interesting sort of slot type receiver. You know, I studied

him two years ago for Bleacher Report's NFL 1000 project when I was studying wide receivers and tight ends. And he's somebody that I think the Patriots might want to at least make an inquiry about a potential depth spot at slot receiver. I've talked about slot receiver being an and he's somebody that I think the Patriots might want to at least make an inquiry about, a potential depth spot at slot receiver. I've talked about slot receiver being an underrated position of need here for New England because you've got Edelman coming off of injury. You've got Amendola who, as we talked about with Noah Princey, they kind of kept him on a pitch count, but obviously he was a huge contributor in the playoffs,

both in the AFC Championship game, a big game against the Titans, had some big catches in the Super Bowl. But still, those are older guys that have dealt with some injury issues and you probably want to have at least an option behind them. And so they might want to at least make an inquiry about Fowler, who I think could serve in a slot type role for New England. Shaq Barrett, I mean, you know, athletic type linebacker, hasn't done much since he's come into the league. You know, he had, I think as a rookie, what did he have? One and a half sacks as a rookie. Actually, excuse me, in 2014, he had one, 2016 had one and a half sacks. Last year, he played in all 16 games with nine starts, 37 tackles and a half sacks. Last year, he played in all 16 games with nine starts, 37

tackles and just four sacks, which was actually third on the team, but Denver's defense took a step back. You know, he was an undrafted player coming out in 2014. You know, if they want to get an edge depth type player,

that's a high tender though, a second round pick. You know, I'm sure that, you know, if the Patriots want to draft an edge player in the second round, they could probably get somebody with a little bit more of a ceiling to them than getting Shaq there for a second round tender. So I wouldn't expect the Patriots to be in on that. But Fowler might make some sense for New England. Looking around the timeline right now,

doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on, so we're going to kind of draw this show to a close with a couple of other quick topics to dive into. And first is Kirk Cousins. Just, as I said, the economics of the quarterback position are changing and changing drastically. Because we are now looking at Kirk Cousins

and Rappaport has this. Other places have this as well. He's set to get two fully guaranteed three-year contracts if that's what it takes. Fully guaranteed. It would make him the highest paid quarterback in the National Football League. There's a third team that's going to offer him what's close to be expected.

They're expected to offer him a similar deal, nearly fully guaranteed. And look at the salary numbers on Kirk Cousins over the past six, seven seasons. As a rookie, $390,000. 2013, $480,000. 2014, $570,000. 2015, $660,000. 2016, $19.95 million. Last year, $23.94 million.

And now we're talking about a fully guaranteed salary for three years or close to it being fully guaranteed. And there are teams out there that have a ton of cap space. The Cleveland Browns have over $100 million in cap space. But is that the right decision? Because as we were talking about with Seattle and the moves that the Rams and the Eagles are making, you know, the easiest way to sort of get yourself through and get yourself competitive and construct your roster,

the easiest way to do it is get a quarterback on his rookie deal, making cost-controlled dollars, and build the rest, the easiest way to do it is get a quarterback on his rookie deal, making cost-controlled dollars and build the rest of the roster. If you have to fully guarantee Kirk Cousins a three-year deal, it's going to be tough unless you have a ton of cap space to really address other positions.

You're going to have to get lucky in the draft and get other players on cost-controlled deals. But now you're asking to hit on a bunch of different positions and a bunch of different players rather than just one. And so that's certainly going to be interesting, how this Cousins stuff plays out. Is Kirk Cousins a good quarterback? Yeah.

Will he solidify the quarterback position for potentially a number of teams on the field and schematically? I think so. But he's going to be a big big cost he's going to you know change and skew the economy or at least the cap number for a lot of different teams depending on where he ends up depending on where he could end up so that's going to be fascinating to watch speaking of things to watch i just want to give a quick plug plug a couple of different things here tom versus time you've probably seen some of the tweets now.

You know, the final part to it is available. You see the photos and the images of Brady's cut. Oi. Hope you don't mind the sight of blood. Because it's as deep as we kind of thought it might have been. There's also a great moment with Brady and Gisele after the AFC Championship game in the car

giving a call to Gronkowski. Fascinating to see that. Gisele asking about how Rob was feeling. So you definitely want to give that a view if you can. Again, shout out to my boys Murph and Steve. Patriots Place, their podcast.

Thanks again for having me on. Finally, I do want to mention something. You might have seen this on Friday. I do this from time to time on Twitter where I just basically throw it out there. Look, if you've got content you want to get a signal boost, some stuff you want shared, let me know. I'll share it around.

If you want advice, need advice, whatever, hop into the DMs. I got some people sort of reaching out about, you know, some different things that they're working on and that was great. You know, I've said before, I've said it many times that I wouldn't be sort of where I am, you know, were it not for the listeners, the readers, the people I interact with on Twitter that have, you know, shared my work and appreciated my work. So anything I can do to help other people, you know, I'll gladly do so. In that vein, two people I want to mention. Tyler Steege, who writes for a bunch of different places about the Eagles. He's been on Bleacher Report, Fox Sports Radio, and others. He's at

T-S-T-E-E-G-E-N-F-L on Twitter. His nephew, recently diagnosed with leukemia. His parents are struggling to afford the chemo, the travel expenses and things like that. They've got a GoFundMe set up. I tweeted it out. I'll tweet it out again. If you can, you know, check that out. Maybe retweet it yourselves.

You know, chip in a couple of dollars if you can. You know, let's help that family, help that young son their young nephew also good friend of the show formerly of locked on egos now he's the perhaps the better half of the kissed and solak show benjamin solak he also is going to be traveling on spring break. He's got a GoFundMe setup as well called Real Break Project Mexico. He's making a trip to St. Innocence Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.

That's how he spent his spring break to help an orphanage down there. He's already met his fundraising goal. Any additional money will be given directly to the orphanage to help them in the work that they do i tweeted this out as well if you can check that out maybe give it another little signal boost chip a few dollars ben's way you know that would be tremendously appreciated ben great young guy

sort of in the football media world but he's got whatever ben wants i've talked to ben about this whatever he wants to do in life he's going to crush. Part of me wants to see him go save the world. Maybe he'll keep writing about football because he crushes that as well, but tremendous what Ben's doing here with this Real Break Project Mexico. So if you can check that out as well, it'll be greatly appreciated. I will be back. This will sort of count as the

Tuesday show. If something breaks free agency-wise, I'll hop on the mic and do some additional stuff. Hope you enjoyed sort of this quasi-live, legal tamper-and-window edition of Locked on Patriots. Until next time, do keep it locked right here. From me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.