Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 20, 2018 - Mock It! We'll Do It Live!

Episode Date: March 20, 2018

Mark Schofield walks listeners through a live Patriots' mock draft, using Kyle Crabbs's board on Fanspeak. Then he talks a little Logan Woodside, Shea McClellin, the Draft Industrial Complex and whether you needed to have played the game to analyze the game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning and welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, March 20th, 2018. Mark Schofield with you back in the big chair. Reminder to follow me over on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com. New Check With Me piece that came out yesterday. Also what dropped yesterday yesterday a new video i broke down kyle law let his entire game against william and mary you can see that over at youtube dot com backslash inside the pylon on tap for today's show we're going to talk quarterbacks

with a little logan woodside he had his pro day yesterday patriots were in attendance we're going to talk briefly on the idea of draft Twitter versus big draft. But first, we're going to do something a little different. As some of you probably know, I'm doing some daily mock drafts every other day over at dailymockdraft.com, where I, along with Doug Moore, am covering the New England Patriots. And so what I'm going to do is I'm doing a live mock draft with you. I'm going to talk through my options that are on the board at each pick, my thought process going into each selection, other players that I might have considered, and then make the pick and sort of give some thoughts on why I went that way.

Sort of give the listeners of the Locked On Patriots podcast sort of a live look into my head as we work through some of the draft prospects that the Patriots might be considering here in the 2018 draft. Now, what I've done is I am doing a draft on Fanspeak, fanspeak.com, on the difficult set and team needs. We're set to Fanspeak's team needs, which right now lists as the team needs for the New England Patriots. Defensive line, edge, offensive tackle, center, quarterback, linebacker, guard, running back, wide receiver. The board I am using is from Kyle Krabs of NDT Scouting. I consider Kyle a friend, consider him a very good football mind, along with everybody over at NDT Scouting, including John Ledyard, who I've worked with, Joe Marino, who I've worked with, Benjamin Solak, who I've worked with,

a lot of really smart people over there, John Onan. And so what I've done is I've taken Kyle's board, and that's the board that I'm using. Now, a word of caution before we get through these. Kyle's board is going to be a little bit different. Kyle's board is usually very much against the grain of sort of conventional draft thinking. So there might be some players available at some spots in the draft that probably won't happen. So I'm just throwing that out there.

For example, the Patriots are now on the clock at 31. The quarterbacks available include Kyle Lalletta, Chase Litton, Mason Rudolph, Kirk Bankert, and Josh Allen. Those are Kyle Krabs' top five quarterbacks left late here in the first round. The other players on Kyle's board that are available are Anthony Miller, wide receiver from Memphis, Austin Corbett, guard from Nevada, Billy Price, center from Ohio State, Josh Jackson, the long cornerback from Iowa, which is a consideration here at this pick. Will Hernandez, the guard from UTEP.

Vida Vey, the defensive lineman from Washington. Dallas Goddard, tight end, South Dakota State. But the direction I'm going to go is I'm going to address linebacker. The Patriots need to get athletic at the linebacker spot. Three options, actually. Four options on the board right now. We could go with Fred Warner, Brigham Young. We could go Darius Leonard, South Carolina State. Bit of an unknown player here in the draft process.

Sky Moore from South Carolina. But I'm going to go Leighton Vander Esch from Boise State. He's a player that's caught some attention during this draft process. He's been thought of as one of the more interesting players in this draft cycle in terms of a linebacker standpoint. So that's what the Patriots got to do here in this draft with their first selection at the end of the first round. And here we are again. Patriots back on the clock at pick 43, that early of the two picks that they have in the second round.

Now, in terms of quarterbacks, Kyle Lauletta is on the board. And then there's a drop-off. There's Chase Litton, there's Mason Rudolph, Kirk Banker, linton there's mason rudolph kirk banker josh allen so there are still some options here now again kyle ranks these quarterbacks a little bit differently a little bit afar of the conventional wisdom but i'm going to forego quarterback here look at some of the best players available billy price is still on the board dallas goddard still on the board vita vey still on the board we Vita Vey still on the board. We just went linebacker, so we're probably not going to double down on linebacker.

Although there are some nice options. Darius Leonard is still there. Tigre Scales is on the board. Jack Cici, although he's coming back from injury, he's on the board. There are some interesting options here on the defensive side of the ball. Also some options at wide receiver. James Washington is available now. Do the Patriots go wide receiver here if this is how the board looks?

Got some other options as well. Looking at Sonny Michel, the running back from Georgia. He's available here. I'd be surprised if the Patriots went offensive skill position at this point, even if these are the options available to them. Looking at Edge, that's thinned out a little bit. Hercules Marafata, he's available, but Kyle's not high on him.

Kameko Torre is available, Kyle not high on him. Dorrance Armstrong, Kyle Fitz, those are some guys that are still there. But we will address Edge. We'll go with Tyquann Lewis from Ohio State. Perhaps a little bit of a reach here. Maybe a little bit earlier than Taequann's going to come off the board. But again, the Patriots need to add to that pass rush. They've done some of it in this draft cycle with Adrian Claiborne,

but I'm of the mind that you can't have enough pass rush. So the Patriots address that again, added in the Ohio State edge defender. And now as we go through the rest of the second round, you'll see that Kyle Lauletta just came off the board to the Buffalo Bills, sort of foreclosing the quarterback option, at least if you're thinking about Lauletta. But the Patriots back on the clock now, pick 63. That second of their two picks here in the second round

some options here include some of the guys we've been talking about tight ends more into focus here Hayden Hurst is available Mike Jacecki is available he's been somebody I've mocked to the Patriots before the tight end from Penn State some defensive lineman

also here and on the board Andrew Brown from Virginia but the Patriots will go with Taven Bryan a defensive lineman from the University of Florida here and I know it might sound like you're doubling down here but it's good value given the fact that he's still on the board I know that they've added Danny Shelton from the Cleveland Browns But with you know Shelton contract a little bit in the air Malcolm Brown his contract is gonna be up after this season Patriots always looking to add some depth up front and they do that with Brian from the University of Florida.

So the Patriots address defense with the first three picks of their draft here. Now it's time to sort of move to the offensive side of the ball. And there are some considerations for the Patriots here at the end of the third round. Some offensive players include Sonny Michel still on the board. John Kelly still on the board. Kerrion Johnson still on the board. Some wide receivers included

Auden Tate, Deshaun Hamilton, Michael Gallup from Colorado State, a player I really like. Quarterbacks have thinned out a bit. But seeing how this board's stacked, might be able to sort of game the system here. So we can wait on that for a little bit longer,

address a position that I think is a quiet position of need, and that's tight end. The Patriots selected Mike Jacecki with their fourth selection in this mock draft. Pick 31 of the third round. The interesting thing about Jacecki is I think that he could go higher in this draft. I think if he's there at the end of the third round, it's incredible value. I think he's more of a big wide receiver. Blocking isn't his forte, but I think Jacek would be great

value at this point in the draft. It would give you some sort of insurance if Robert Gronkowski decides to walk away earlier than you expect. It gives you a nice little if Robert Gronkowski decides to walk away earlier than you expect. Gives you a nice little option behind Gronkowski if he's still there. So I like that and it's great value here at the end of the third round. And now we come up to the Patriots next selection in the draft. This is going to be a pick in the fourth round. Selection 136, Josh Allen, quarterback, Wyoming. Now, I know what you were going to say. There is no way that Josh Allen is available at pick 136 of this draft, and I would agree with that. Again, as I've been saying, with Josh Allen, it is a will versus should type of situation.

Will he go early in the draft? Yes. Should he? No. There's obviously no way that Josh Allen is going to be available to pick 135. I think everybody can sort of agree with that. But as I said at the outset, look, Kyle's board is going to be different. Kyle's board is not going to look like your consensus big draft board.

Not many people will have Josh Allen graded as their eighth quarterback in this class. But using this board, Josh Allen is available here and it gives us a chance to talk briefly about how this would be an ideal fit for Josh Allen. A situation where he wouldn't have to play right away. A situation where Josh Allen could sit behind somebody like Tom Brady, wait for a little bit, develop what he needs to develop, and become hopefully the quarterback that he can be. Because I do think that there is a good quarterback inside of him. The issue will be that Josh Allen will get pushed up draft boards.

Josh Allen will probably come off in the first five picks. And so he'll probably be in a situation where he might have to play sooner than he should. I would love for him to fall to a team like New England. I would love for him to fall to a team like Buffalo. I mean, excuse me, like the Ravens, like the Chargers, like Pittsburgh. You know, teams that have established starters, don't need to replace somebody right away, but he could wait. Now, the argument will be that if he's drafted by a team with a bridge quarterback, say Buffalo and A.J. McCarron

or Cleveland and Tyrod Taylor or even Denver with Case Keenum, that he wouldn't have to play right away. And okay, but we were saying similar things this time last year or a little bit shorter than a year ago with Mike Glenn and Mitchell Trubisky. But the problem becomes if you have a fan base that's eager to see the guy on the field, a fan base that maybe hasn't won in a while, and a bridge quarterback who struggles, there's going to be a clamoring to get that guy on the field,

potentially from the fans, potentially from ownership. And so that's my fear with Josh Allen, that he goes to a place where he's not going to be able to get the season that he needs. He's going to be pushed into action. But for purposes of this exercise, Josh Allen's on the board here in the fourth round. The Patriots decide to pull the trigger on perhaps the next quarterback of their franchise. Mark Schofield back with you, doing something a little bit differently today here at Locked On Patriots. I am walking you through live as they do a mock draft for the New England Patriots for the website dailymockdraft.com, which you should check out.

Myself, Doug Moore, we do a patriots mock draft every single day i'm walking you through the process as i do one for tuesday march 20th we are now one two three four five picks in leighton vander esch coming off the board to the patriots at the end of the first round taekwon lewis edge defender from ohio state taven brian that second pick in the second round, defensive lineman from Florida. Then the Patriots address offense with their next two picks, Mike Jacecki from Penn State, the tight end, and Josh Allen, who as we talked about just a few moments ago, he won't be there in the fourth round, but if he is, I think this would be a perfect place for Josh Allen to

learn, be in New England. Now the Patriots are on the clock here in the sixth round to pick 185. Again, we're using Kyle Krabs' board, Kyle, the brilliant draft mind behind NDT Scouting. We're using Fanspeak's team needs as we do this draft over at Fanspeak, which is a great resource. If you want to do some of these own drafts, you've got different boards you can play with, different settings you can use. The team settings are set by fanspeak. That means each simulated team will draft according to their needs. Right now, the remaining team needs for the New England Patriots, according to fanspeak, offensive tackle, center, guard, running back, wide receiver. Now we're getting into that point where I'd imagine that the Patriots might address running back. They might address wide receiver. And there's a guy staring me at the face here that will probably, might not be here.

And I know the Patriots just added a running back, but it's somebody to consider, Naeem Hines, running back from North Carolina State. I've been talking about him a lot on this show. There are some good value picks here as well, just available overall. You look at players like, you know, Deshaun Hand, defensive lineman from Alabama,

who's a player that I like a lot. Bo Scarbo, another running back who you've probably seen a lot of. You look at some of the defensive positions. Get a little bit thin here in the defensive backfield. Anthony Averitt, who's a player I've talked about here, he's available in this draft. Safety is really thin right now. You know, there might be a player that we could reach for a little bit later. But I think what we're going to do is we're going to try to shore up wide receiver.

We're going to try to shore up that position here. And the player we're going to do it, it's a bit of a risk. Antonio Callaway from Florida, who's an extremely talented wide receiver, but somebody that has gotten himself into some off-the-field troubles. He's had some issues staying eligible at Florida, had some off-the-field issues, some legal issues he's run into,

but he's a tremendous value here at this point in the draft. And so that's what the Patriots do. Antonio Callaway early in the sixth round. And now we get into round seven, the Patriots on the clock again. Some interesting options. A guy I liked when I was writing about the SEC, Ethan Wolfe, a tight end from Tennessee. He's kind of really been under the radar here. Sean Welsh, offensive guard from Iowa. Dalton Schultz, another tight end from Stanford, who I know Ryan Dukarm over at Inside the Pile and likes a lot.

He's got a video on our YouTube page about that tight end. But we're going to address, of all positions, safety. I know we just got done talking about this a little bit, but there's a player that we haven't heard much about during this entire process, but I think he's one of those guys that can play down in the box, potential replacement down the road for Patrick Chena. That's Damon Webb, Safety Ohio State. Speaking of Ryan Dukarm, he's got a great video about Damon Webb and sort of his ability as a tackler, taking great angles to the football. That's something I highly recommend that you

check out. Matter of fact, if you go over to dailymockdraft.com, when this draft gets posted, that is the link that I will use. I will use Ryan's video to describe Damon Webb, the safety from Ohio State. What's really interesting about these daily mock drafts that we're doing over there, each mock draft has a video where you can then break down the player. So as we work through this draft, if you want to see more about the players that were listed here, the players that I've talked about, the picks that were made, you can go to dailymarkdraft.com. You can look at the Patriots draft, this one that we're doing, and you will see videos linked for all of these guys. And so you can do some work on your own. But there it is. Your 2018 Patriots draft class.

Again, to sort of run back through it. Leighton Vander Esch, linebacker from Boise State. The first round pick. Taequann Lewis, edge defender from Ohio State. At the start of the second round with Taven Bryan. Later in the second round, Mike Juseki comes off the board in the third round to address the tight end spot. Josh Allen. Again, he won't be there, but if he is, that would be great value in the second round. Mike Jacecki comes off the board in the third round to address the tight end spot. Josh Allen, again, he won't be there, but if he is, that would be great value in the fourth round.

Antonio Callaway, wide receiver from Florida. And Damon Webb to round things off. Safety from Ohio State. Let me know your thoughts on this at Mark Schofield on Twitter, or you can always slide into the DMs. They are always open. Up ahead, some brief thoughts on Logan Woodside as well as the big draft versus draft Twitter debates

that are always raging online. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield now back with you here. We've finished going through a mock draft that I did with you live, walking you through sort of my thought process using Kyle Krause's board. Again, check out Kyle's work over at NDTScout and check out Fanspeak,

fanspeak.com. You can do some of these drafts of your own. You can sort of play around with different scenarios. I know here we are before free agency being over. Maybe mock drafts don't make a ton of sense, especially when you're using different boards that may or may not match up with what's really going to happen. But it's interesting to work through some scenarios. What we're going to do now, some quick hit thoughts before we go. First, Logan Woodside, pro day, went down on Monday. Patriots were in attendance. Logan Woodside, a potential late round option who I do like. The fit in New England, I think he's a nice experienced quarterback I like his ability in the pocket I like I love his footwork really good footwork in the pocket

like his ability to sort of slide around move around climb the pocket when need be when facing edge pressure I think the Patriots decide that they're going to wait on a quarterback a dress quarterback on day three Woodside would be a guy that I would look to the Patriots to have some interest in. And the fact that they had somebody at Toledo's Pro Day, that makes me think that they're at least doing their homework on him, as I would imagine the Patriots would do their homework on most guys in this draft class. Also, some news coming down just in the past few minutes. Patriots releasing linebacker Shane McClellan, according to Field Yates. Veteran linebacker who's been with the Patriots for the past two seasons didn't see a lot of action last season due to injury. They've now released him. I think

that that, again, points to the Patriots not being done in terms of adding pass rush. McClellan was somebody they were using as sort of an edge rusher at times. They're probably going to try to get somebody into the mix that can replace, basically replace Rob Ninkovich. That's kind of the guy that they're looking to replace here. That was who they sort of envisioned

Shane McClellan probably being. And so now I wonder if, again, guys like Sam Hubbard, other edge defenders, might be in the mix here for the Patriots early in the draft. Finally, before edge defenders, might be in the mix here for the Patriots early in the draft. Finally, before we go, a topic that came up over the weekend here.

You might have seen a piece in The Rainer, in rainer.com that came out last week, titled The New Draft Gurus. It talked about people like myself, people like Matt Waldman, who was interviewed for this piece, people like Kyle Krabs, who was interviewed for this piece, who we've talked about a little bit today. And how there's this new sort of breed, this new generation of draft minds that maybe don't have NFL scouting experience or GM experience. That haven't been on the inside, but grind the film like everybody else.

That watch the tape like everybody else. That do their homework. And instead of being in a front office, they write about it. Maybe some of them have playing experience like Kyle Krabs and maybe some of them don't. But that's touched off sort of the underpinning to a lot of sort of the angst you might see on Twitter or elsewhere between sort of what's called big draft and say draft and, say, draft Twitter, as I sometimes like to call the whole thing, put it all together,

the draft industrial complex, whether it's big draft and ESPN and Mel Kiper and those guys or guys like myself. We're all under the same draft industrial complex header. And this really sort of reached ahead over the weekend when a guy named Paul Peck, who's at Peck on Ports, put out a tweet that said, so glad to have a real draft expert at Greg Gabriel on Buff Sports page, which is the website that he runs, that Paul runs.

30 plus years of scouting and NFL front office experience. It means a lot. Would you hire a plumber who just watches video of fix and pipes? And he tweets this out directly in response to the article on the Renner. And of course, that touched off some consternation. And let me just kind of say this, that I sort of approach this whole thing as we're trying to inform consumers so they can make the most, not the best choices, not the most informed choices, but they can be the most informed fans. I've been shown and I've been privy to some market

research where there's 70% or so of football fans. That's a number in the millions that feel like they aren't being served well when it comes to the media options available to them. They want more in-depth coverage. They want smarter coverage. They're smart about the game. They're knowledgeable about the game. And they want coverage that's commensurate with that.

And that was part of what we were doing over at Inside the Pylon when we launched that site. And that's part of what I try to bring here over at Locked on Patriots. I'm not dumbing things down. I'm treating everybody that listens to this show like, look, you're just as smart about this game as I am. And I'm just giving you my thoughts. And my assumption is you're not going to take what I'm saying as gospel. You're going to take it and factor it into your own analysis or thinking about the game or whatever it is, however it is you approach the game of football and your absorption of the game and of the knowledge and of being a fan. That's kind of how I approach it. And so I just assume that, you know, you're listening to me,

you're listening to other shows, you're reading other stuff and, you know, you want to know more about the game. That's why you're here. And I don't think there has to be this sort of, you know, big guy versus small guy sort of fight, scrap, whatever. That's why you're here. And I don't think there has to be this sort of, you know, big guy versus small guy sort of fight, scrap, whatever. That's because consumers out there, football fans out there, they're starved for stuff like this. And there's a market for it. There's also a market for the other types of coverage where it's just, you know, at the more peripheral surface type level, it doesn't really dive down deep, but if that's what you want, then great. If you want more than places like NDT Scouting, places like Matt Waldman and the RSP Rookie Portfolio, the Rookie Scouting Portfolio. Matt does great work with that. Places like Inside the Pylon, you know, we're here for you. You know, and so if you want surface level

stuff, like fine, there's places you can go for that. If you want to dive into it more, there's places you can go for that too. And this idea that, you know, the people in the draft Twitter world, you know, have just watched some videos and that's all that they really know. I think that's a pretty big mischaracterization of a lot of the people that are doing this, people like myself. I mean, I played the quarterback position starting when I was nine. I played for my entire life until I couldn't do it anymore. And that was even after I left college. I was playing in sort of alumni flag leagues. And I know that doesn't really count, but I'm still running past concepts and stuff like that.

I've been studying this game since I was a kid. I study it now. Offseason comes and what am I doing? I'm going to this game since I was a kid. I study it now. You know, off-season comes and what am I doing? I'm going to coaching clinics. I'm watching more stuff and reading more stuff and constantly updating my knowledge base about the game. You know, and I'm just one guy, but a lot of the people that I've talked about in this show, Matt Waldman, Kyle Krabs, John Ledyard, all the guys over at Inside the Pylon,

Dan Hattman and his Scouting Academy resource, which if you want to get smarter and more knowledgeable about the game, that's a great resource for you. And so it's a great time to be a football fan. It's a great time to be a fan of this game because there are so many knowledgeable people out there putting out such great work, where if you want to learn about the salary cap, boom, Miguel Benzon, at PatsCap on Twitter, PatsCap.com. There's a guy to go to for the salary cap. boom, Miguel Benzon, at PatsCap on Twitter, PatsCap.com. There's a guy to go to for the salary cap. I listen to him on shows. I'll have him on shows.

I don't understand half of what he's saying, but the knowledge base is there. It's an incredible resource. If you want stuff on metrics, there's guys like Ethan Young, even though he's now at UCLA and his slate ticks. There's all sorts of people out there. There's Spark with Zach Whitman. There's, you know, Josh Frisco. I first go Josh on Twitter. He's doing great stuff with air yards and things like that.

You know, if you're a fan of other teams like the Minnesota Vikings, Luke Inman, who's been on the show, Arif Hassan. There are just so many really smart men and women out there doing great work about this game and it just sort of made me sad in a way to see the work that people are doing some of whom are doing it just for the love not everybody's getting paid for it you know i'm one of the lucky ones here not everybody's getting paid for this they do it for the love they do it because they bring their their passion to it and they'll have day jobs and other things that draw on their life, but they still do it. And so that just kind of depressed me to see the group of people of whom I consider myself a member just sort of dismissed like that because, oh, we haven't been in the league. That would be like me saying to somebody that never played the game, you can't do this because you've never been in the arena.

You've never been in the huddle. You've never dropped back and thrown a pass with pads on. No. I don't feel that way at all. There are people that are much smarter than me about other positions that have never played a down of football in their life and never will. But I listen to them. I trust their opinions on everything because I know they've done the work.

And that should be the bottom line. That should be the measuring stick for all of this. If you've done the work, if you've put in the time, if you do your homework, if you have a process and you stick by it and you're a knowledgeable resource,

then people should take you seriously. And that's sort of my final rant on this. I'm always on the mind, take the work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously. And if you've listened to the show, if you've seen me on Twitter, you know I pretty much don't take yourself seriously. If you've listened to this show, if you've seen me on Twitter,

you know I pretty much don't take myself seriously. I'm talking about Toto half the time. Half the time I'm dunking on myself. I'm poking fun at myself because it's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be fun. But I take the work seriously. I take the time that I put into it seriously because I want you to get something out of it.

And if I was just winning it, you guys wouldn't know. So sorry about the little rant there. I just wanted to get something out there on it. There are great people out there doing great work, men and women doing great work, and all sorts of facts. Again, it's a great time to be a football fan because you can get anything you want at your fingertips in a matter of seconds,

and it'll be really, really, really good work. And so if I can leave you with one thought, and it's probably something you're already doing, it's this. Support the little guys. You know, the NDT scoutings, the RSP film rooms, you know, all the men and women doing great stuff in the fantasy realm as well. There are so many great independent sites that are doing great work. Give them a click, share their stuff around, tell your friends about them, you know,

because I've long been of the mind that a rising tide lifts all boats and we can all get a little slice of the pie that's out there. We can all get a little bit of something for our effort. And I really think that that can happen. And if you're listening to this show, chances are you agree, you feel the same way. Thanks for listening to this show.

Probably going to do some timeline takes, maybe some reader questions, something like that. I haven't really mapped out Wednesday's show yet. Hope you enjoyed this one. Again, tell your friends. Tell your loved ones that it's a good show to listen to.

I hope you do. Leave reviews over at iTunes. Those help too. I've been getting some good reviews and really appreciate that. Again, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me I hope you do. Leave reviews over at iTunes. Those help too. I've been getting some good reviews and really appreciate that. Again, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield and Locked on Patreon.