Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 25, 2019 - Mock Draft Monday and Gronk Week

Episode Date: March 25, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Mock Draft Monday here at the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield sliding back into the big chair for today, Monday, March 25th, 2019. It is a Mock Draft Monday show and we will be working our way through yet another mock draft. But I did want to let everybody know that I dropped an emergency podcast last night, Sunday night, on the retirement of Rob Gronkowski. But we are going to make this Gronk Week here at Locked On Patriots. There will be one, maybe even two segments a day dedicated to memories of Gronk, people's thoughts on Gronk, stories about Gronk, things like that. So I'll need your help in that effort.

Hit me up via Twitter at Mark Schofield. Email me, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Those of you in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, this would be a great time to get in touch with me. You can get in touch with your stories on Gronk. I would love to read as many stories as I can on the air.

I'm going to have two Gronk stories of my own here in a second, but we're going to devote some time to Robert Gronkowski this week because look, it's March. We're not that close to the draft yet, and this is a pretty big retirement. You know, I said it sort of on last night's show, the Emergency Podcast. If there was a retirement that would necessitate

an immediate, like, drop what you're doing, get to a microphone and record an episode, it was Gronk and it was Brady. Maybe Edelman and that mix too, but look look this was a guy that was a staple of this team for nine years changed the way that the tight end position was played and so I think it's appropriate to dedicate some time to him this week and so we will be doing that again you know send some thoughts over email slack twitter whatever would love to hear from you and read some of your takes throughout the week as we dedicate some time here to number 87. Before we get into the mock draft, though,

a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scosho with Michael Kist, also part of the SB Nation family of websites. Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Sco Show with Michael Kist, also part of the SB Nation family of websites. And finally, of course, Pat's Pulpit. Yes, part of the SB Nation family of websites.

Let's get into it, though, because we're going to kick things off here. I want to talk about two plays in particular, just two plays from the 2014 season as we sort of kick off Gronk Week. And the reason why I want to talk about these plays is because they came down during the 2014 season, which astute followers of my work know is that was the year that Inside the Pai Wong was launched. It was launched as a website called Football Central. And since we grew out of a Red Sox message board, our focus most of that season was on the Patriots, which was fantastic for me, who is a Patriots fan. It was great to just follow

them, write about them all the time. It's part of the reason why I love doing this show, and that 2014 season obviously has some sort of personal memories of mine because it was my first year covering the NFL on a pseudo-professional basis. And with the site that we started tied to the Patriots, there was a sense in my mind and others that the better a season the Patriots have, the better our fortunes will be at making this site work. And so there was a sense more than ever before for me of living and dying with every Patriots play. the better our fortunes will be at making this site work. And so there was a sense more than ever before for me of living and dying with every Patriots play,

which is why when you see Gronk, week nine against the Denver Broncos, have that sort of ridiculous one-handed catch down to the one-yard line, you just, you feel it more than you usually would. He's running sort of a post route to the middle of the field. He's at the five yard line. Brady tries to hit him.

It's slightly behind him. So Gronk sticks that left arm out and reels it in somehow and seemingly rolls into the end zone. Now on replay, they ruled him down at the one. But it was just an incredible athletic feat because he's in the midst of one, two, three, four, five defenders. I mean, he's NFL open, but he's got five defenders around him. He's over the middle, has to go up backwards, basically, reach back, expose his entire ribcage,

but has absolutely no regard for his own human well-being. And still makes the catch. With T.J. Ward, it looks like, bearing down on him. It is T.J. Ward who got the hit on him. And just in a career of memorable moments, that one will always stick with me. But he seemingly almost topped it a couple of weeks later because you had that Sunday night game in Indianapolis, seven minutes left in the game, New England up 35-20. It's a third and four at the plus 26-yard line, and Brady's just looking to move the sticks. You're

looking to move clock here. He hits Gronk on a flat route for the first down, and Brady's just looking to move the sticks. You're looking to move clock here. He hits Gronk on a flat route for the first down and he's got a linebacker number 52 on him. Gronk makes the catch again. Has to kind of awkwardly spin back to reel it in. Spins away from this defender. Then a defensive back goes to tackle him and Gronk literally like karate chops his arm. Gets that away. Hurdles through defender, and somehow splits another double team, vaults into the end zone for a touchdown. Al Michaels, Chris Collinsworth in the booth were just cackling, cackling at how ridiculous a play this was.

But he did stuff like that all the time. And I remember the night that play happened, everybody inside the pond was like, we have to write something, But he did stuff like that all the time. And I remember the night that play happened, everybody inside the pond was like, we have to write something, something about that. So we turned around an article quickly. I think it was me that wrote it. I don't even know who wrote it. But just trying to break down how ridiculous a play it was.

And it was one of our most viewed pieces that month, I think, that entire month of December. And those moments will stick with you. And we talked in the emergency show just for a few moments Sunday night about how he'll be remembered for the two Super Bowl catches. But then you also have the AFC Championship game catches against the Chiefs. And you look through his season, and he had some huge moments as well.

Just a tremendous player, and at times he just seemed like a freak of nature, just an unstoppable force, an absolute wrecking ball of a human being. And he is going to be sorely missed, which is why we are going to take some time talking about him here at the Locked On Patriots podcast, doing a little Gronk Week action.

So that's me kicking it off. Get your stories in if you can. Again, your thoughts on Gronk, you could do it via Twitter, at Mark Schofield. You can hit me up, email mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. You can check me out on Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Those of you that are members of the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, please, you can hit me up over there. You can also use the Locked on Patriots phone line.

Remember, we have that up. 2-4-0-6-7-0-6-0-1-6 is the Locked on Patriots podcast hotline. You could call in. That would be fantastic to hear from you that way as well. I'm going to get as much as I can onto this show. So the more I get from you, the better. So I would love to hear from you that way as well I'm going to get as much as I can on to this show so the more I get from you the better so I'd love to hear from you all up next we're going to roll back into our usual mock draft stuff

here in mock draft Monday but I just wanted to kick off for all of you a little bit of Gronk Week Mark Schofield back with you now on this Monday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast and again as you just heard we kicked off Gronk Week. My thoughts on Gronk, two plays that stuck out in my mind from the 2014 season.

Again, reach out with yours. Now, let's get into our standard Monday fair here in the pre-draft phase of the calendar. And what we're going to do today, I'm over at Fanspeak, Fanspeak Premium. So we're going to have some trades here. And we're going to do today, I'm over at Fanspeak, Fanspeak Premium. So we're going to have some trades here and we're going to do our usual mock draft. And obviously we're going to keep an eye on the tight end position because with this news, tight end is probably a very big need for the New England Patriots. And so TJ Hawkins and Noah Fant, we're going to keep an eye on these guys. I still think, having done on so many of these simulations so

far, that one of those guys or both of those guys might be there at 32. And so I think there's a possibility that the Patriots will be able to address that. The problem is, as we just saw in this mock, Hawkinson comes off the board at 30. And when you look at Noah Fant, he comes off the board at 14, at least in this draft at the Atlanta Falcons. And when you look at Noah Fant, he comes off the board at 14, at least in this draft at the Atlanta Falcons. Now, I'm using a CBS aggregate board, so it's basically all the CBS people aggregated their boards together. But at least in this mock, we don't trade up,

then we don't get either one of those guys. Now, Irv Smith is a nice little consolation prize. If the Patriots are going to need to trade up, I think, to get a tight end, obviously the team you're worried about most, at least at 30, is the Green Bay Packers. So you might have to get up to 29. Moving from 32 to 29 might not cost a ton, but it might. But here, at 32, we're going with Irv Smith Jr. Now let's sort of get into the second round

here. And what's interesting about the second round is the Patriots, again, they've got picks in the 24th spot and the 32 spot of the second round. And if they're still thinking about double dipping on tight end, they might want to, I don't think they need to really trade up to do that. I think the Patriots could get a nice tight end type guy in the third round. And so I think they can make maybe both of these picks at different positions and then use that pick, that ninth pick in the third round to address a different position. Now, I just had a trade proposed to me. The Dallas Cowboys were sending a third round pick at 26 and third, fourth round picks at 26 and 34 and a fifth round pick at 26 and third fourth round picks at 26 and 34 and a fifth round pick for this pick here the second round pick at 24 I don't want

to trade down out of 24 I don't like that so we're going to stay on the clock here we're going to make a pick at 24 in the second round and there are some wide receivers here that I think are probably worth talking about J.J. Arteaga at white side, for example, Hakeem Butler, and Paris Campbell. Now, of those players, I think Ortega at white side and Hakeem Butler are more of your boundary-type guys that the Patriots might look to sort of need. You know, if you look at this Patriots offense, you know, and some of the acquisitions that they made and the players that they have on the roster right now, they're more your slot types, which is more, I think, Paris Campbell's sort of skill set. You could sort of use him on underneath stuff, working him around the slots. But that being said, he's a tremendous talent, and I'm sort of sold on him more than the other two guys.

So we're going to go Paris Campbell here rather than J.J. Arte, Whiteside, or Hakeem Butler. They might be very good guys as well, but I think that's what we're going to address. Now, we're on the clock here at the end of the second round. 49ers are proposing a trade to us. A fourth round pick, two sixth round picks, and a future third for this pick here at 32. And we also have another trade proposal from the Arizona's arizona cardinals um a fourth a fifth and two sixths for this pick so people clearly want to get something now there are some players here that i like and so i'm going to stay and make a pick and maybe this

isn't sort of a pick that people would make. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. But Chase Winovich, the edge from Michigan. I think he's done some stuff to merit a selection. I think the Patriots would look to address edge. And so we're going to go Chase Winovich out of Michigan. So there we go. We've addressed some positions of need already. We get Irv Smith, that pick at 32.

And we go wide receiver Paris Campbell and Chase Winovich to the edge. And now we're going to be on the clock here pretty quickly. Very curious to see how the Patriots handle these picks here in the third round because they do have three of them and we're on the clock again at 39 and this is an

interesting deal. The Patriots are on the clock. The ninth pick in the third round. Dallas Cowboys proposed a trade. Pick 26 in the third, pick 26 in the fourth, and pick 34 in the fourth. There's also another trade from the Indianapolis Colts. This is pick 25 in the third, 27 in the fourth, and 26th. So let's have some fun here, and let's trade now.

We'll accept this trade with the Colts. We won't be on the clock again until 25 here in the third round. So we'll have picks at 25, 33, and 37. So we can do some stuff here in the third round. And this is where I think the Patriots will double dip at tight end. Now the player I'm watching is Jay Sternberger, and he just comes off the board to the Detroit Lions. And so if they trade back, you probably don't want to go back that far

because if the Lions are going to draft a tight end, you're probably going to miss out. And so having done that, that leaves us with some options here at the tight end position, but guys that we probably won't look at until later. And so that's a little frustrating. So if you want to double dip on on Jay Sternberger You're probably gonna want to do it before the lines are on the clock at least via this simulator, but now look We've got some options available to us. We're now on the clock with pick 89 overall and

This is where I think we're probably gonna want to address safety And here's a name a Amani Hooker from Iowa. I don't want to wait on the safety position because as we've seen in these mocks over and over and over again, safeties tend to fall off quickly. And so I think you sit here and you draft safety. Otherwise, on this board, you don't see another safety ranked until the 140s. It's Amani Hooker and Jaquan Johnson from Miami. So we're going to draft Hooker here at 87.

We'll be on the clock again pretty quickly. And what's interesting about this board is both Will Greer and Ryan Finley both just came off the board here. 97 overall to the Giants and 96 overall. I mean, excuse me, 95 overall. Finley to the Giants, 96 overall. I mean, excuse me, 95 overall. Finley to the Giants, 96 overall. Greer to the Redskins.

Tyree Jackson, Jarrett Stidham, Brett Rippon, all still available. So I think we're going to stay here. We're going to look to address a different position here. Defensive line is a position that I think the Patriots want to add some depth at. Colleen Saunders from Western Illinois is available. He's a player that I've eyed in a lot of these mocks. I haven't had a chance to draft yet. I'm not going to wait.

He's staring me in the face. I don't want to risk that he's not going to be here and save four picks when we're on the clock again, thanks to this trade. So Colleen Saunders, welcome to the New England Patriots. According to this, the needs that we still have are quarterback, linebacker, offensive tackle, and running back. I do think we want to address offensive tackle.

And we are going to do that here with this pick at 101 overall. We're going to draft out of Oklahoma, offensive tackle Bobby Evans. At least give us some depth there because we're assuming, yes, Isaiah Wynn slotted into left tackle, but we still want to address that position. Leidron Waddle gone. We're going to need a swing tackle too. So we're going to add an offensive tackle, Bobby Evans from Oklahoma. So that's going to do it for days one and two.

Sort of to summarize where we are, with our first pick at 32, we took Irv Smith Jr., the tight end from Alabama. And then we made our picks in the second round. We drafted Paris Campbell from Ohio State, Chase Winovich from Michigan. And then we made an additional pick in the third round. We traded back.

We were at nine. We moved back a bit. We drafted Amarni Hooker at that 25th pick in the third round. We traded back. We were at nine. We moved back a bit. We drafted Amarni Hooker at that 25th spot in the third round, and then Cleen Saunders, the defensive lineman from Western Illinois, and offensive tackle Bobby Evans from Oklahoma. So that's where we stand so far. Up next, day three on this Mock Draft Monday here at Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this mock draft Monday installment of Locked On Patriots podcast.

And we are going to do our day free picks right now. And we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight picks to make. Again, part of that is because we now have a fifth round pick thanks to that trade we made with the Indianapolis Colts here in this draft. And what I'm looking for, I'm looking looking for offensive weapons that's what i want to get and so we are now on the clock at 129 and i want to address quarterback i want to get maybe another wide receiver into the mix and then i want to sort of maybe fill in some other pieces here and so and so here we are on the clock like i, we're on the clock here at 129.

It's our first pick of two in the fourth round. And at the quarterback position, we've got Jared Stidham and then Brett Rippon, who are still out there. These are the two guys that I'm left eyeing. And frankly, I'm going to still wait here. I know we can address one of these guys a little bit later, or at least the guy that I still like. And so at the wide receiver position, I see another player that I'd really like and I think would really sort of fit with the New England Patriots. I'm going to address wide receiver a little bit later too, but I don't mind getting in a couple of different wide receivers. And so Penny Hart from Georgia State, who was a player I loved watching at the Senior Bowl. I think he can do stuff on the inside, stuff on the outside. I think he's a very versatile wide receiver.

I'm going to take a shot on him here. Now we're on the clock again. Our second pick in the fourth round. This is pick 134 overall. And in terms of some overall depth, there's a player here I think is going to be a nice sort of Belichick-type guy at the linebacker position. We've drafted him before in some mocks, seen him here. I'm going to draft him again.

That's Drew Tranquil, the linebacker from Notre Dame, who had a nice little handwritten note to Jim Nagy, the executive director of the senior bowl. So, hey, he's a nice gentleman, and so we like that. Now we get an extra pick to play with, and we know Bill Belichick does not like fifth-round picks. We know this. Dave Archibald has written about it.

But this is that area of the draft that I'm worried about the most because they have that big gap from the fourth to the sixth round. It's about 70 picks or so, and a lot of times in doing these mocks, I've seen some players that I think the Patriots would really sort of like to get their hands on come off the board. And we're seeing that sort of play out a little bit right now even though we've got a pick upcoming there are still some players that get picked here that I think the Patriots might be interested in you know we for example here just saw a Myles Gaskin the running back Jacoby Myers a wide receiver

David Sills another wide receiver sort of come off the board and we'll get into the range we're going to see some other players like Alizi Mack Isaac Notta receiver, sort of come off the board. And we'll get into the range where you're going to see some other players like Alizi Mack, Isaac Notta, some other tight ends come off the board. And so I think the Patriots are probably going to want to get into the fifth round somehow. And so now with this pick here, there are still some guys that I like that we can address. And I still think we can get perhaps the quarterback that we want. And so at this spot with this fifth round pick, sometimes I've thought maybe we need to go quarterback here. And I still might trade up in the sixth to do that just to make sure I get my guy.

But here at this spot in the draft, I like Dax Raymond from Utah State, the tight end. I love the way he plays the game. I love how he plays it angry. And so I'm going to go get him now with this pick and here in the fifth round. That brings us to the sixth round where we get that one pick. And I want to make sure we get our quarterback. I've had my eye on Brett Rippon. Longtime listeners of the show know that.

So I want to make sure that I get him. And so we're going to try to move up here in the sixth round to make sure we get our hands on Brett Rippin. And to make sure we did that, I just executed a trade to move up to the eighth pick in the sixth round, send to the Buffalo Bills my pick at 32 here in this round, a seventh rounder here, and a future fifth rounder because, again, Bill Belichick doesn't like those fifth rounders. And so it might seem like a lot, but I want to make sure we are on the clock early enough in this round. And sure enough, Patriots are now on the board here at pick 181, and I can make sure I get them Brett Rippon quarterback, Boise State.

And so now I think this is a pretty good draft to begin with. We still have a bunch of seventh rounders here to play with, but I still think that we can at least say we came out of this draft with the necessities. So now we're going to make these three seventh round picks. We're going to start it off with this pick here at 243. We're going to go wide receiver Anthony Ratliff-Williams out of North Carolina. Some sort of late interest in him. And so I think that gives us a couple of wide receivers, Paris Campbell, Penny Hart, and Anthony Ratliff-Williams,

which is a nice little haul at the wide receiver position. So that's not too bad here. And now with that next seventh round pick, this is at 246. We're going to go William Sweet, offensive tackle from North Carolina. Again, sort of just making sure we've got some bodies in positions of need, positions of necessity. And then finally, our final pick here, this is pick 252 overall. This is pick 38 in the seventh round.

I'm going to go with, believe it or not, we did it before with Easton Stick, but I'm going to go another North Dakota State player, running back Bruce Anderson, who's gotten some interest and buzz. He's a fun player that I liked watching when I was watching Easton Stick. And so there you have it. That is our sort of haul here in this mock. Running back through it, Irv Smith Jr. at 32.

Paris Campbell at 56. Chase Winovich at 64. Armani Hooker, the safety, at 89. Colleen Saunders at 97. Bobby Evans, offensive tackle from Oklahoma at 101. Penny Hart, wide receiver from Georgia State at 129. Drew Twanquill, linebacker from Notre Dame at 134. Dax Raymond, tight end Utah State, 164.

He's become one of my non-quarterback binkies in this draft. Brett Rippon, another quarterback speaking of that position. At pick 181, that was a trade we made, traded up in the 6th round to get him. That picks in the 7th round. Anthony Ratliff-Williams, wide receiver from North Carolina. William Sweet,

offensive tackle from North Carolina, and Bruce Anderson, the running back, excuse me, from North Dakota State. We had two trades. We sent our first pick in the third round to the Colts for that pick, a 25 in the third round, a fourth round pick, a 27, and a fifth round pick, a 26. I do think the Patriots actually get into the fifth round. Again, I'm worried about that gap. And then a little bit later, we moved up in the sixth round. We traded our pick at 32, a seventh rounder at 25 in the seventh round, and a future fifth round to make sure we got up to 608 to draft Brett Rippon.

And so there you have it. I want to do some more of these sort of fan-speak mocks with some trades as we get going here. But as far as the immediate impact with the Gronk stuff, look, Irv Smith Jr. and Dax Raymond, not a bad double dip. People might want to see Hawkinson and Fant, but if you don't move up to get one of those guys, I think Irv Smith is going to be there at 32. Now, maybe they move up.

Maybe they don't. But if you don't, I think you're going to get a tight end you like there. Now, maybe looking back at this, where I might have missed on this draft was in that sort of 64, 89 range, not getting to Jay Sternberger there too, because that would be a really nice double dip. But I like Dax Raymond. I like him a lot from when I watched him. And so that's how this one went down. We'll be doing this again next Monday. But don't forget, look, it's going to be Gronk Week here. Get your memories in, your stories in on Twitter, email, Locked on Patriots Slack channel, Locked on Patriots phone line,

240-670-6016. I'm going to try to get some guests on, some people to talk about Gronk as well. So we're going to do it upright for number 87. That will do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.