Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 21, 2018 - Snow Day Smorgasbord

Episode Date: March 21, 2018

With everyone snowed in Mark Schofield addresses a variety of topics including the proposed changes to the catch rule, Sam Darnold's Pro Day, some QB thoughts from the archives, curing meat and even plagiarism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to Lockdown Patriots for Wednesday, March 21st, 2018, a snow day episode of Lockdown Patriots. Mark Schofield here in the big chair. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com. Videos all the time over at YouTube.com backslash InsideThePylon. As I was talking about in a previous show, new video up looking at Kyle Lauletta,

his entire game against William & Mary. If you think the Patriots are going to be in on Lauletta, you might want to check that out. Also a reminder to check out the ITP Draft Guide, ITPDraftGuide.com. We're getting close to almost 1,000 reports submitted on players. We've got over 500 players graded and evaluated. We're finishing touches on this. If you go to InsideThePylon.com all the time, we're putting up updates. Our man Dave Archibald, at DaveArchie on Twitter, is doing

a fantastic job putting this thing together for you. Also, a reminder to use that promo code TOTO to get $5 off when you pre-order your copy of the ITP draft guide. From what we did last year, from the feedback we got on it, from some big names that have purchased it that used it for their work for last year's drafts and people I know that will be using it for this year's draft, you're going to want to get your hands on this. Let's dive in today's show. And since it's a snow day show, since I've been running with the kids all day and I'm just squeezing this in in between episodes of Transformers, I'm going to do a quick little smorgasbord. But I didn't want to leave the people without some content because maybe

you're snowed in as well. What we're going to do today, we're going to talk pro days and Sam Darnold specifically. We're going to talk a little bit about decision making in a vacuum, development not being linear because I reposted some of my pieces from the archives. Those are two pieces I want to talk about briefly. We're going to talk about curing some meat. That's right. You heard me.

We're going to talk curing meat just for a few minutes because it just came up on the timeline and I thought it'd be fun to talk about. We're going to talk briefly about plagiarism. Yes, plagiarism, if you can believe that. But first, we're going to talk about the catch rule. The catch rule now, my friends, if you've been listening to the show, you know it's been a point of contention and it was a point of contention throughout the Patriots season obviously Jesse James in the Steelers game

Kelvin Benjamin in the Bills game and of course in Super Bowl 52 itself wondering if Corey Clement was down the catch with Zach Ertz. The catch rule has been an issue, shall we say, with the National Football League for

the past couple of years. So in their attempt to try to sort things out, the NFL sought input, had deliberation with coaches, with players, with former players, club executives, the competition committee, everybody got together. They're trying to fix the catch rule. Here's their recommendation on the catch rule. First, control. Okay. I'm on board with that. Got to have control of the ball. I get it. Part two. Two feet down or another body part. So control two feet down or control with another body part down.

The elbow, the back, the knee, something. All right. I'm with you. Steps one and two, I'm good. Step three. A football move such as a third step. Okay. I can, okay, all right, I can see that.

A football move such as reaching or extending for the line to gain. Okay, I assume that will include the goal line in that. So reaching for the goal line is performing a football move. Or the ability to perform such an act. Whoa, Nelly. Nelly. That's going to be the loophole that is going to drive everybody batty. The ability to perform such an act. Look, it's not just the lawyer in me that has his ears up at this.

Judging by the instant reaction to this on Twitter, on Deadspin, on other sites, and the Slack channels of Inside the Pylon, and the Twitter DMs I've been getting, the reaction to a tweet I put out where I basically said, Oh boy, this is going to be a problem. This is going to be a problem. Because that leaves a lot of room for interpretation. And that was part of the whole problem with the catch rule to begin with. Allowing for interpretation.

Because people are going to look at that phrase and have different views on every single play. There's going to be a catch. A guy's going to have two feet down and get hit. And the question will be, did he have the ability to perform such an act? And there's almost... Now I'm really getting into the weeds

and into the nitty-gritty here, but you could almost make the case that that could be determined in part by how athletic the player himself was physically able to do such a thing in that moment, whether he had the skill set, the play strength, the play speed, the athletic ability to do something. And you can envision scenarios where some people will think, yes, he could have, and others will say, no, he couldn't, and the refs will rule in any which way,

and Tony Romo's going to be wondering things, and we're all going to be mad, and the timeline's going to go crazy, and we're going to be back where we started, wondering what in the world a catch is. It's March 21st of 2018 humankind has endeavored to put a man on the moon humankind has endeavored

to have people circle an earth year round on a space station we've climbed the highest mountains we've explored the deepest of seas, but we cannot figure out how to determine what it catches. It boggles the mind.

You would think at this point in human history, we could get top men and women on this one and figure this one out. But we can't. And maybe it's just one of those instances in life where we won't all be able

to come to terms on what should be a rather simple thing. But you'd think at this point we could get that one figured out. Because it's kind of a big one. You could easily make the case that

forget about the CTE stuff. Forget about the equality protests that were unfairly deemed the anthem protests. Forget about everything else. The inability to figure out what a catch is and what a catch isn't is driving people away from the game. Now, this is sort of the recommendation right

now. This is the recommended language to quote unquote simplify the catch rule. I don't think it simplifies it at all. I think they need to do something differently because this is going to just allow for more of a gray area, more interpretation. Maybe there's no perfect answer. Maybe that's just it. There's no perfect answer, but I'm not sure that this fixes the problem. Up next, we're going to talk a little pro day. We're going to talk about development, decision making at the quarterback spot, some curate beat stuff, some plagiarism stuff. We're just kind of doing a brain dump here in the snow day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this

snow day edition of Locked On Patriots. Again, this is going to be a brained up episode. We're just throwing some stuff out there because look, I'm running up against the timeline here. I got to get back downstairs before this episode of Rescue Bots is over. We're going to talk briefly about Sam Darnold's pro day because that was kind of the last sort of quarterback piece we were going to talk briefly about Sam Darnold's pro day because that was kind of the last sort of quarterback piece we were waiting to see in this sort of draft process here. I don't think anybody's really waited on, you know, Josh Allen's pro day.

We saw what he can do. Maybe people are waiting on Lamar Jackson's pro day. Maybe you're curious to see him run the 40. I'm not. Do you think he's going to post a slow 40-yard dash time? I don't think so. We're hearing some private workouts as well. I heard over the weekend that the Bills were giving Josh Rosen the private workout.

That has now been confirmed. I was sworn to silence on it. So I took my vow of silence. I did sworn to silence on it. So I took my vow of silence. I did not let it leak, but Bruce Feldman confirmed it today on Twitter, so it can now be reported that yes, the Bills put Josh Rosen through a private workout.

Then they were out to see Sam Donald throw at his pro day. The reason why we wanted to see Donald throw at his pro day was because he didn't throw at the combine. And his mechanics are an issue. We want to see what it looks like. We want to see what he's doing.

We want to see if he's improving. And the early returns, let's just say this. I know a lot of you that listen to the show are Browns fans. I know a lot of you that listen to the show know that, you know, I'm watching all the quarterback movement. I've had different thoughts on Darnold. But the early returns are in. And most of Brown's Twitter has already basically said,

might as well lock it up now. Darnold's going to Cleveland at one. I mean, I'm reading a tweet right now from at Yogi Roth on Twitter, who covers the Pac-12. Sam Darnold, when you combine the high stakes and heavy rain, delivered one of the top pro day performances in the last decade for a quarterback. And when you sort of look at some of the clips from him throwing, you see him moving, footwork better, the release looks a little bit better. He's had the quick release, but the throw in motion itself was nice. It does look like he's tightening things up a bit Chris Trapasso at CBS wrote it up as well over at CBS calm basically said that you know Donald put on a show

he wasn't fazed by the rain his passes didn't lag zip accuracy or a tight spiral He wasn't phased by the rain His passes didn't lack zip, accuracy Or a tight spiral And the Browns sent their entire Scouting department to Los Angeles The owner was there, the head coach was there The offensive coordinator was there And I'm usually of the mind that, look, pro days, they're good opportunities for guys that didn't get combine invites.

They're opportunities for guys that maybe had a downed combine, like, say, Orlando Brown, to get a chance to sort of reboost their stock a bit. But for Donald, this was a big one because he didn't throw at the combine. And we want to see some improvement there. And it looks like Donald sort of lived up to what he needed to do, lived up to some of the hype.

And so I think he had a good day. I think if you're a Browns fan, I think you should be comforted by this. Because I know a lot of Browns fans were starting to talk themselves into the possibility of Josh Allen at one. And if you've followed my work, you've listened to me on this show or others, you know that while I think that there's a good quarterback inside of Josh Allen, I just worry about the environment that he might find himself in. I worry about Josh Allen in a number one overall pick type situation or a top five pick type situation.

I'm much more comfortable with him not facing such expectations. I don't have such reservations about Donald I have them to an extent But I think he's talented enough to work through an environment like that And I do think that If forced He could play earlier than I think Allen And be more successful

Because of the mental component to him I think he could work through some adversity When he's in a bad situation And so I think that This day should have Browns fans feeling a little bit better about the state of play. I think they'll get a chance to perhaps get their guy, let Tyrod Taylor play, and it'll be a Mahomes-type situation where it's Sam Darnold's show next year.

So that's quick thoughts on Pro Day. I also wanted to talk briefly about two pieces of mine from the archives that got dredged up today. I put out some Snow Day tweets. One was development is not linear. And this is a little bit of evergreen content. I've talked about it before.

And it's a simple process that, look, guys grow at different rates. Guys develop at different rates. We often expect that there's going to be a straight diagonal line going from left to right, growth on a nice little perfect line, but it's never that way. It's not that way for doctors. It's not that way for lawyers. It's not that way for people just in their lives, and it's not that way for doctors. It's not that way for lawyers. It's not that way for people just in their lives. And it's not that way for quarterbacks. It's not a linear process. There are bumps, there are peaks, there are valleys along the way. And none of the quarterbacks in this class are perfect right now. I think Josh Rosen is the closest to being a well-rounded,

complete quarterback prospect right now. But they all have weaknesses to their game. They all have things that they need to improve. They all have areas, whether it's physical or mental, that they could stand to get better at. We're still talking about guys that are in their early 20s here. They're kids. And as I said in the piece that I'm talking about here,

think about what you were like then. You weren't a finished product. Maybe 22 was great. Maybe 23 wasn't. Maybe 24 was great. Maybe 25 wasn't. You know, we're putting these guys on the big stage. We're asking them to be the face of the franchise. We're asking them to take on

the hopes and the dreams of a fan base. That can be a lot to take. And so it's important to remember that development, it's not linear. These guys will have some highs and some lows and it's good to just remember that. Up next, we're going to finish things off. We're going to talk decision-making.

It doesn't happen in a vacuum. That's another piece that I wrote. Also, we're going to talk briefly about curing media and, yes, plagiarism. I know, a random set of topics here, but we're rolling through it here on the snow day edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now the one of the other pieces that i briefly wanted to mention was the idea that decision making doesn't happen in a vacuum and the premise of the piece is basically this i walk you through a play i walk you through a play that legitimately happened to me in college probably can't even say how many years ago

but i walk you through a quarterback's thought process on a given play everything that happens It'll be, can't even say how many years ago. But I walk you through a quarterback's thought process on a given play. Everything that happens from picking yourself off the ground on the previous play, the pre-snap phase, the huddle, the thought process, everything that goes on before the ball is snapped, everything that the quarterback is looking for before the snap, every little key, every little read, every little indicator, every little movement in the secondary that might give you some clue as to what is actually happening back there. To how everything happens just in a blink of an eye once the play begins.

And I don't want to dwell on the piece too much, but the basic premise is this. There is so much information that goes into a single snap of football. From the play structure, from the reads, from everything that's been drilled into the quarterback's head, starting back in training camp to that moment. How the reads might have been adjusted during the week. How the reads might have been adjusted on the sidelines based upon adjustments that they were seeing from the defense that the offensive coaches were not expecting coming into that game. Sometimes progressions might change on a play from game to game, from week to week, from quarter to quarter, from drive to drive, from play to play.

It's a ton of information to know. It's a ton of information to work through. It's a ton of information to know. It's a ton of information to work through. It's a ton of information to base decisions upon. All while grown men, much bigger than you in most cases, are trying to cause you physical harm. And in my case, one guy who went on to play for many seasons in the National Football League, strangely, as an offensive lineman. And he hit me once so hard that I don't think I've ever recovered from it.

But I digress. It's a tough position. It's an impossible position to play. It's an impossible position to evaluate. In the piece, I basically say, look, Ted Williams said that hitting a baseball was the hardest thing to do. I'm not going to argue with Ted Williams, but I think quarterback is pretty tough to do as well.

And so remember that too. It kind of goes in tandem with what we were just talking about. Development's not linear and decision-making doesn't happen in a vacuum. Those are some words to live by when it comes to quarterbacks. Before we go, two quick hit topics. My friend Andy Carlson, he's a great Vikings mind. He hosts the 4Win podcast, Luke Edmond and Arif Hassan. Andy's a good buddy of mine. Got to know him a little bit offline as well. A couple of days a week when he's at the gym, he asks for questions while he's on the elliptical. And I hit him with a question because I know Andy loves to smoke meat. I know he likes to try some different things with brisket and things like that. So I asked him if he had cured meat before. Because we're getting close to the off season, my friends. And especially in that month of June, not going to be a lot of new content to talk about.

That might be some time where I talk to some farming, some lawn care, who knows? I mean, we're going to be looking for content. Maybe there will be a show dedicated to curing me because yes, I have been called before a renaissance man. There are things that I do that might seem strange to some. Building my own furniture. Have a field of crops. I mean, it's a raised garden bed,

but come on, let me play it up just a little bit. And yes, I've cured my own meat. Saucer you on sec. Say that 10 times fast. My one tip, if you're going to try this, okay? Well, there's more than one tip. There are, you know, curing refrigerators that you can buy because they need to be in a nice controlled environment with humidity and at the right temperature. I've rigged it with a little water bottle type humidifier as well as a little fan into a wine fridge.

That's what I use. But you got to be on top of it. You got to have your gauges in there so you know you're at the right humidity and the right temperature. But when you're actually assembling the sausages, the freezer is key. You have to keep everything frozen. The tools, the grinding stuff, the gears, the plates, the blades. You really want to have that meat nice and cold, especially the fat too. You cannot skimp on the pork fat. That's an important element to curing your own meat and curing your own sausage.

There are great books out there, Roman's Salumi, Roman's Charcuterie. There are two great resources if you want to get into this. I've got copies of them. That's what I refer to all the time. So definitely check those out. And I know there's probably one of you out there listening that has any sort of interest into this. Hit me up on Twitter if that's you.

Slide into the DMs, at Mark Schofield. They are always open. Help me help you. That's what I've been saying. Finally, before we go, I said that I was going to talk plagiarism. And you might have heard my son just yelling there. Getting close to go time here. Before we go, plagiarism. I saw a couple of instances of plagiarism come across the timeline in the

past couple of days. People taking work of others and passing it off as their own, whether it's in scholarly reports or different articles. And I put out a tweet and basically said this, look, we're all trying to make a name for ourselves in this industry. We're all trying to make a name for ourselves out there. And, you know, sometimes you might want to cut corners. You might want to make it seem like you're doing more than you are. A wise friend once told me, the reverend himself, that citation is what makes the world go round. And I live in constant, constant fear of missing something, of having an opinion or a thought or a discussion of a play that somebody had done before. I mean, maybe I go too far in the other direction, but I am constantly referring to other people, referring to their work, shouting out people in videos. For example, the Baker Mayfield interceptions piece that I did, I shouted out at Billy M underscore 91 on Twitter, who's a smart football mind, a Panthers fan.

He had broken down one of the plays that I was included. So I wanted to make sure that I referenced his work because he identified the class concept that they were running on that play. He didn't talk that much about the interception, but I still wanted to make sure I referenced him. There are other guys, Nick Martin, Will Stevenson, that talk about quarterbacks on Twitter. Sometimes I'll mention them in videos or in pieces because I try to read as much work as I can. I try to see as much work from other people as I can and try to reference them as much as I can, because I think it gives my work a little bit of credence to it, because I know I'm not going to get everything right. I'm not getting

half of things right. And if I start dropping takes, and you've heard it on this show, if I'm talking about tight ends or wide receivers or defensive linemen or linebackers, I'm trying to reference other people because I'm not studying them as much as other people are. And there are smarter people than me covering those positions, so I try to reference their work. The whole point of this is, look, I'm a big fan of citation. I'm a big fan of showing your work. I'm a big fan of giving other people credit when they've of showing your work. I'm a big fan of giving other people credit when they've done the work.

And that's just the way I am. Maybe it's the lawyer in me. Probably. But citation makes the world go round. And I got that from my friend, the Reverend. And I believe in it. Now my kids are ready to probably jump down their throats. So I got to go.

I hope you enjoyed this random smorgasbord snow day episode of Locked on Patriots. I will be back tomorrow. We'll do some timeline takes because everybody was snowed in today. The timeline got a little bit heated. There's some stuff to talk about. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Scofield and Locked on Patriots. on Patreon.