Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 26, 2019 - Tape Tuesday and More Gronk Week

Episode Date: March 26, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Tape Tuesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back into the big chair for today, Tuesday, March 26th, 2019. And yes, Gronk Week will roll on. We're going to kick off the show with another segment of Gronk memories that I got from some listeners, as well as some members of the Locked On Patriots Slack channel talking about some Gronk memories, things that stood out to them watching No. 87 play the game, memories that they had, similar to the ones that I shared in yesterday's show talking about Gronk in the 2014 season.

But this is a Tape Tuesday. Life does go on. We're going to talk about quarterback Ryan Finley. Worked up a piece for Pat's pulpit about his potential fit with the New England Patriots. So I'm going to talk about Ryan Finley, the quarterback from NC State, some fun things I learned about him while researching this piece and putting it together.

But before we do any of that, I'm reminded 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, a trio of SB Nation websites, including Big Blue View,

Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scow Show with the one and only Michael J. Kist, and of course, Pat's Pulpit, where the aforementioned Ryan Finley piece will be shared. We'll get to Finley, the NC State quarterback, in a few moments. But let's return to Gronk Week. Again, we are honoring number 87 with a segment or two in every show this week. If you haven't listened to either the Emergency Podcast or the Mock Draft Monday show

where I had some memories of Gronk, I would invite you to check those out. I put out a tweet asking people to share sort of their Gronk memories, and I did get some interesting responses to that. First was from Paul Esden, who is at BoyGreen25 on the Twitter machine. He is the host of the Man Child show with Boy Green up in the Syracuse area on the score 1260.

And it was interesting to hear from a Jets guy on this. You know, because look, let's face it. Gronk was a guy, and we talked about this a little bit. You know, Gronk was a guy that sort of transcended just the Patriots nation, just Patriots fans, and he was a national figure. And Paul points out, Gronk was a physical mismatch for my Jets during his entire career. Too big for a corner, too fast for a linebacker. I'll be candid, I won't miss facing him every season twice. A future Hall of Famer, didn't play forever, but was dynamic when he was on the field.

Thanks, Paul, for chiming in. And I think that's a fantastic point. He was that mismatch type player that, in a sense, revolutionized how the tight end position was viewed. Dan Orlovsky, who does some great work over at ESPN, talked about how he revolutionized the position. You wouldn't have like the Kelseys or the Engrams or some of the other guys that we're currently seeing in the league if you didn't have the Rob Gronkowski. We view 12 personnel now as more of

an offensive weapon schematically than it used to be. 12 personnel used to be sort of a jumbo run type package, right? Maybe there were some offenses like, say, Baltimore that used to run it and run it with some effect. But Gronk changed how we viewed that. And so I think his impact on the tight end position as a whole is something that we should remember. Another message I got was from Andrew at AndrewM301. Not so much a story, but a mindset that I bet a lot of New England Patriots fans share. Since 2010, without exception, I never felt that the New England Patriots was how classed Solana's 12 and 87 were playing. Such was the difference that Gronk made.

A queen on the chessboard, unique and unmatched. I miss him. I love that. A queen on the chessboard, unique and unmatched. I miss him. I love that. A queen on the chessboard. We always hear that sort of, this guy's a chess piece type player. And our great friend Dave Archibald pointed out that that's a bit of an awkward comparison. Most chess pieces move in just one general manner, whether it's a knight in that L figure or a pawn that can only move forward or attack diagonally just one space at a time. As far as chess pieces go, it's either the queen or nothing. It's that true versatile type do-it-all type thing.

Andrew's point, calling up a queen on the chessboard unique and unmatched, is just fantastic language. I love that. Andrew, thanks for getting that in. And that is Gronk. A queen on the chessboard. You can put him in line. You can put him on the wind. You can put him on the slot. You can put him on the slot.

You can split him outside. Put him Y-ISO. What do you do as a defense when you're in the red zone and he goes Y-ISO? Do you put a corner on him? In which case, they're throwing the fade. Do you put a linebacker on him? Okay, he's going to run a slant to beat the guy inside with the quickness. That's Gronk.

He was that mismatch type player that was so hard to defend. And you forced the defense to dictate what they were going to do when you put him outside. I mean, think about that touchdown in the Super Bowl against Seattle right before halftime. They flex him out to the boundary. They get a linebacker on him. They go a nine route. Touchdown. Patriots needed that at that point in the game. And so a special, special player. Also, of course, as you might expect, the conversation was going on in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. A lot of people sort of

reminiscing about Tom Brady, of course, and what he did with Robert Gronkowski and Gronk, the player himself. Now, people mentioned that he was a boogeyman against the Steelers. Dave Rochibald, that drive in the 2017 game was like peak Gronk. And let's remember what

he did in that drive. They had three straight completions, 26 yards, 26 yards, 17 yards. They run behind him for the touchdown. Then the two-point conversion where he beats Sean Davis, pointed, basically laughed at him before spiking the football. And as Dave Archibald put it, and this is another great way to think about Gronkowski, he had so many outstanding qualities, but I think his hands are what I'll remember most. The ball just looked tiny. He'd make the spectacular catch, but he also made really difficult catches look easy because the ball just landed so soft into those big mitts. That's a fantastic way to think about it. And as Dave said, the final catch in the Super Bowl was

a dive and grab between two players and he made it look routine. He made the spectacular look routine. You came to expect it. I mean, let's face it, when that ball was in the air at the end of Super Bowl 53 and you saw basically double coverage, we all expected Gronk to come down with that no matter what. He made the spectacular look routine. Think about one of those catches on that drive against the Steelers, that shoestring catch where he was basically diving. Not many players make that catch, particularly players of his size and build, but he made it almost look routine. You expected him to make it. And so the memories will roll on all week long here at the Locked on Patriots podcast, talking about Rob Gronkowski. But up next, we're going to talk perhaps about the future. We're

going to talk about Ryan Finley, a quarterback that maybe doesn't excite people that much, but he might excite somebody in a big way. More on that on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Stofiel back with you now on this Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And before we dive into Ryan Finley,

I want to talk about our great new friends over at Himalaya. It's a brand new podcast and app. I've got it on my phone. It's fantastic. You can follow shows and things like that. I follow the Bleeding Green shows of which, of course, I co-host the QB Scots show. I follow this one, Locked On NFL Draft with Trevor Sycamore and John Ledyard.

It's super easy. It's super fun to use. I can get the podcasts while I'm at the gym, which is great because look, let's face it, summertime is coming and this dad bod isn't going to fix itself. And so I get to listen to the pods while I'm at the gym for about two hours

doing the weight training and the cardio and trying to shed a couple of extra pounds that I put on over the winter here. And so check out our great friends over at Himalaya. Fantastic new podcast and app. And also follow the show, Locked on Patriots, on this great app. Now, let's talk Ryan Finley. The way we're going to do this, we're going to talk strengths and weaknesses here at the start.

And a little bit later, sort of overall scheme fit in New England and where I think he might sort of fit with the New England Patriots. And when you're talking about strengths with Ryan Finley, I believe you've got to start between the ears. Similar, there are going to be comparisons drawn between Finley and our great friend, Brett Rippon. Obviously, you know my thoughts on Brett Rippon. And look, if push comes to shove and the Patriots are thinking of drafting a quarterback, say sometime day two, day three,

and these are the two guys that are decided in between, I would jump up and down for the Brett Rippon pick, but I would be okay with defending one. And I'm about to tell you why. He's a quarterback that the mental approach fits with him. He's refined, experienced. He combines an efficient, conservative approach with the mental makeup of a veteran passer i love his activity in the pre-snap phase of plays now yes with ripping it's usually on him with finley it's more from the sideline but still with his level of experience he was tasked with making some calls and adjustments at the line of scrimmage on his own he's versed under center versed in the pistol versed in the pistol, versed in the shotgun. If that matters to you, you check all three boxes. One of the things I love about him, sort of traditional

play action plays, under center, deep drop, back to the defense, wheeling the eyes downfield, picking up the action in the secondary and making a quick decision and throw. For a team like New England that ran play action, I think, third most in the league last year on something like 31% of their snaps and also averaged, I think, 9.8 yards per play on play action plays, which was most in the league. A guy that can do that checks some boxes for the Patriots. 31% was fourth most in the league, my bad. So still, I think what he does schematically fits what he does with that ability to work deep drop under center, make that deep throw like that. Good footwork on his drops, good release from the line of scrimmage when aligned under center, clean mechanically, crisp release,

crisp follow-through, good balance between lower body involvement and upper body torque. I like how he identifies leverage and alignment in the pre-snap phase and then exploits it in the post-snap phase. He is conservative. Now, this may bother some people. For example, when I wrote him up for the Giants over Big Blue View, I put in there, look, if you were frustrated at the start of last year when they wouldn't push the ball downfield, this might not be the guy for you. But as Patriots fans, we've seen how a willingness to take what the defense gives you can be effective. Now, let's face it.

When you look at defenses and how offenses play against them, you never go bankrupt taking a profit, right? Tom Brady and the New England Patriots have lived that way over the past couple of years, over the past couple of decades almost. If you're going to give me this route, fine, I'll throw it. If you're going to give me this check down, fine, I'll throw it. Now, maybe people don't like that style of play. It's worked for the New England Patriots. Brady has been accused of being a scheme quarterback, throwing lots of screens and dump-offs and check-downs and things like that.

And he probably can't hear the criticism because he has six Super Bowl wins clogging his ear canals. And if you can win games playing that style of play, fine. Finley would fit into that. He's a pretty good manipulator. He can move defenders with his eyes and freeze safeties accordingly. He is a very accurate passer in the short and intermediate areas of the field. He can make some full field reads. He can deliver on anticipation throws. And on the videos that I put up over at Pat's Pulpit, you can see him working through reads. Watch his Syracuse game.

I've probably mentioned it before. That Syracuse tape is one of those games that sticks with you. Why? Because you see him dealing with spun safeties at the snap, making reads, and reacting to the defense on the fly when that post-snap look doesn't match up with the pre-snap look. And if you want to see him running some Patriots stuff, look, there are videos of him running Haas concept. We know and love the Haas concept here on the show. And so you will see him running Patriots stuff. Another concept in that Syracuse game,

off of a deep drop, under play action back to the defense comes up wheels to throw pout post and out pout is what the Patriots call that he has his back to the defense then spins around sees sort of a breakdown in the coverage throws the post over the top for a touchdown ball hands a little bit again we'll talk about arm strength in a second but it's a big throw for a touchdown now why do I talk a lot about sort of the back to the defense moments? Because again, it stresses the quarterback's process and speed. It's one thing if your eyes are trained on the secondary throughout the course of an entire play, right? Take, for example, that RPO style concept, shotgun, ball snapped to you, you're reading the

defense, your eyes are always trained on the secondary, you pull and throw. When you've got that back to the defense, you lose sight of what's happening in the secondary for a split second. And sometimes that split second can matter. So I love seeing when quarterbacks can turn their back to the defense, come out, make a quick throw and come out firing. And that shows me that, look, they can still read, decipher, diagnose, and decide quickly. Process and speed is huge. Process and speed is a big one for the Patriots. And so I think they'll like that. As far as weaknesses, arm strength is one. And I don't think he's going to be a quarterback that's going to be looked at favorably for more downfield systems. I don't think Bruce Arians is going to have him in his top couple of quarterbacks.

He might not even have him ranked. So that's going to be a big question for him. I think he spun the ball well down at Mobile, but it is a concern, something to think about. And look, if you're a big arm strength person, maybe he's not your guy. The conservative nature can hurt him at times. And there's a play that combines the conservative elements of him with the arm strength issue. And it's a play I break down against Clemson. They run four verticals against a Tampa 2 look. He opens to his right. And against

that Tampa 2 coverage, you can squeeze in that vertical route along the boundary. It's the turkey hole shot, but you got to dial up the RPMs and you got to throw it quickly. He sees it. It's open. He comes off of it. He sees that safety rotating over and he tries to sort of get the inside seam route working against that linebacker, drop it in the middle of the field. Doesn't get enough on it, under throws it, and it's intercepted. So there you've got that more conservative nature. He takes the easier throw, but it doesn't place it perfectly. Doesn't get enough on it, on the vertical throw down down the middle of the field, and he gets intercepted. So that's kind of one of the flaws just summed up in one play with him. And it is something to think about. And you do sort of wonder about the ultimate ceiling for

him. He's a bit of an older quarterback, six years in college. You know, he was a graduate transfer, smart guy. We'll talk about that in a second, a little bit more, but you do wonder about the ultimate sort of season with him. Might have a great floor to him, at least as that spot starter, long-term backup type guy. But if you're looking for someone to replace TB12, you might not be too excited about him. So that's kind of a strengths and weaknesses look. Up next, the Foxborough fit, as it were. We'll talk about that, some scheme stuff, and ultimately where I think the Patriots might view them. That's ahead on this Tape Tuesday installment of Locked on Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you now to sort of close out this Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I want to talk a little bit about the Foxborough fit. We'll get to some of the schematic stuff in a moment. But I think it's important to sort of talk about the Parcells rules here for a bit. Now, are they outdated? Perhaps. Is it tough to find a quarterback that satisfies them these days? Yeah, as we'll see in a second. But some teams still look at them, and there's a part of me that wonders if the Patriots might be one of those teams. Now, for those of you that don't know about the Parcells rules, here's what they are.

There are seven criteria that Bill Parcells, the venerable head coach, would use when evaluating quarterbacks, and these are the rules. Was he a three-year starter? Was he a senior in college? Did he graduate? Did he start 30 games? Did he win 23 of them? Did he post a two-to-one touchdown to interception ratio? And did he complete at least 60% of his passes thrown? Now, I can hear you, dear listener to the podcast. Mark, look, the top two guys in this class, they're not checking those boxes because neither Kyler Murray nor Dwayne Haskins started 30 games. They did not win 23 games. And so many guys come out early where they're not graduating.

So they weren't a senior. They weren't a three-year starter. It's going to be impossible to check those boxes. It might be only possible for these guys to check the last two. The 2-1 touchdown to interception ratio and the 60% of his passes thrown. But for Parcells, look, this was the criteria. And he wanted guys that were veterans, guys that were sort of one-year wonders, guys that had been through the system, that were winners, that showed some seriousness when it comes to life, the senior, the graduation, all that stuff.

This is what he went by. And if you apply it to two of the most recent Patriots quarterbacks drafted, you will see, for example, Jimmy Garoppolo checked all seven of those boxes. He started the final eight games of his freshman year at Eastern Illinois and then never gave up the job, started the rest of his games there. Graduated as a senior with a degree in management, started more than 30 games, led them to exactly 23 wins over his years as their starter, completed 62.8% of his passage, had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of well over 2.1. It was 118 touchdowns to 51 interceptions. Now, they draft Jacoby Brissett. He missed on a lot of these boxes.

He didn't start 30 games. He didn't win 23. He did not complete 60% of his passes. He was not a three-year starter. He was a senior. He did graduate. He posted a better than 2-to-1 touchdown-to to interception ratio. So he checked three of the boxes, but he also checked the big one because Parcells himself sort of went to bat for Jacoby Brissett. And it was

that right there that makes me wonder if the Patriots might be one of those teams that still looks at it. So applying it to Finley, does he check them all? You bet he does. Spent at least three years as a starter. Started with his time at Boise State and then over to NC State. Started 42 games, 27 wins. Touchdown ratio is a notch over the 2.1. Completed 64.2% of his passes. He graduated early from Boise State.

He was a graduate transfer. Got a degree in psychology from Boise State. He's on track to earn two master's degrees from NC State by the time he graduates. Also, I did not know this, but he is a noted advocate of the TB12 pliability method. So there's something there. I'm just saying. The scheme fit works as well. So let's say, look, the Parcells rules, they don't care about him. The scheme fit, I think, works too because his strength from the mental standpoint and everything else fits good with a timing and rhythm-based offense. It puts a lot on the quarterback's mind to read and react to the defense.

And he does that. Ultimately, would I be overjoyed if they draft Finley? I don't know if I'd go that far. But I think it would make a lot of sense. And the Patriots are in an interesting position where they have 12 draft picks, and yes, they have some needs. Offensive tackle might be one. Wide receiver might be one. Tight end is certainly one now. But you know me, I'm always going to talk quarterbacks. And if they decide sometime late day two, early day three, that look, we want to get a guy to compete with Edlin,

to compete with Hoyer, to maybe, maybe be the next guy, but we're not going to go all in on a guy early. Finley makes some sense from the Parcells rules to the experience, to the scheme fit. Are there weaknesses to his game? Yeah. But I think that out of the quarterbacks in this group, I would certainly understand it. There of the quarterbacks in this group, I would certainly understand it.

There might be some guys in this group that I wouldn't quite get. Clayton Thorson, of course, having said that, we're now doomed to see them draft Clayton Thorson. Or maybe some of the other guys. But Finley, I think, would make some sense. And so it would not surprise me at all to see the Patriots excited about him. It would not surprise me to learn that he was one of the guys that they're very interested in whether they ultimately draft him or not that remains to be seen but we got a month to talk about quarterback takes still and believe me once this draft ends if they don't address the quarterback position you are hearing some Tua and Herbert takes pretty quickly my friends but

also we're going to talk about in June? So just get ready. But that will do it for today. I think they'll like Finley. Maybe he doesn't get people excited, but there are some nice things that he does that I think would fit well with New England. Of course, you know we're going to talk about Brett Rippin. We're going to talk Tyree Jackson.

We're going to talk Will Greer. I'm going to be doing pieces on those guys over at the pulpit, so check that out. Again, share the work around. Let people know that you're digging the work over at the pulpit that's it for today tomorrow we'll be back do some more

Gronk Week stuff maybe do some timeline takes who knows I'll figure it out as we go but until next time keep it locked right here to me Mark Scoville and Locked on

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