Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots March 8, 2018 - Mailbag Extravaganza Part 2

Episode Date: March 8, 2018

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Good morning, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for this Thursday, March 8th, 2018. Mark Schofield here in the big chair as I am, four days a week, until we get a little closer to the draft and we'll kick it back up to five. Bringing you all the Patriots news, notes, and analysis you need to stay up to date with everything in and around Foxborough. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com where I am one of the head writers over at ITP. Focusing my work on quarterbacks again. Patriots, they're going to be in on a quarterback at some point in this draft.

Or maybe during trades. More on that maybe next week. I'm going to dive into that topic a little bit later. But not here today. Again, part two of our mailbag extravaganza. I got so many great questions from all of you that I wanted

to dive into some more questions. We're going to talk some more draft stuff. We're going to talk a little bit about our expectations, perhaps, for some of the players that the Patriots might be in on or potentially in on. Some Malcolm Brown stuff, some more draft stuff. And finally, another burning question for football Twitter from my friend Michael Kist. Also, the InsideThePylon.com draft guide.

You can check it out, pre-order at itpdraftguide.com we are now above 500 players scouted let's put it this way if somebody gets drafted in this draft that we didn't scout I will be stunned now they might not be in the guide because we're not putting all 500 or so players in the guide

but we'll have looked at everybody if you want to get your hands on a pre-order of that save some money in the process use promo code TOTO at ITPDraftGuide.com when you sign up let's dive into some more of your questions again so many great questions and not to get all schmaltzy for a second here, but I've said it before.

This is your show. I'm just here, one guy with a microphone, but this is your show. I say it every day. Follow me on Twitter, at Mark Schofield. Hit me with questions. Hit me with takes. Slide into the DMs. As I ended yesterday's show, you want to slide into the DMs for non-football reasons.

And some of you have, and I appreciate it. And I mean it when I say I'm here to help any way I can, except for legal advice. I'm not a practicing lawyer anymore. My bar statuses are inactive. I can give some general legal advice, but I don't want to engage in the unauthorized practice of law. That's the last thing I need. Okay? I love you guys, but I don't want to get disbarred. Because I don't want to go back to that life as a lawyer, but if I have to, I'd like to at least still have my bar licenses. Okay? I love you guys, but I'm not getting disbarred here.

But tremendous, tremendous, tremendous hat tip. And I want to thank you all for all the great questions. Like I said, got so many great questions that came in that I had to do two shows. You guys don't want to listen to me drone on for 40 minutes, okay? Frankly, I like to be a little bit high energy. I don't know if I can sustain it for 40 minutes. I'm a 40-year-old man. 41 now. I'm a man.

I'm 41. You know? I'm trying to get back into the gym. That post-combine to training camp time frame, that's when I really can get back into the gym because when you're doing five pods a week, six pods, seven pods a week, radio hits, articles during the season, it gets to be a little tough. Anyway, like I said,

I'm rambling. You don't want to hear me ramble for 40 minutes. I like to keep it nice, tight, 20, 25 minutes, like a treadmill workout. So I broke it up into two shows, even though we got so many questions here. We're going to start with Matt Cook. Again, Matt had a great question yesterday about the Patriots' wide receiver depth. He is at TheMattCook13 on Twitter. Again, I read off the Twitter handle so you guys can follow each other too. Good to see other people interacting and stuff like that.

I love to see that stuff. This is the second question Matt had. Do you think the heir apparent to Patrick Chun as Bill's Swiss Army knife on the defense is in this draft and who would it be? Yes, I do. And that name is Justin Reed. And I've talked about Justin before. I talked about him on Tuesday's show. There was a great, great, great quote, which I read in its entirety that John Ledyard put on Twitter. John sat down with him out in Indianapolis at the combine

where he talked about his positional versatility. I think that fits what Matt's asking about here in terms of that Swiss Army knife role in Bill Belichick's defense, which right now Patrick Chun fits. And over at Pat's Pulpit, they do great work over there as well. Byron Burke-Masser over at Pat's Pulpit had a great piece on Justin Reed,

which I would recommend you all check out. I'm going to quote for some parts of that article as well. In his three years at Stanford, and I'm quoting from Byron's piece here, he played multiple defensive positions. He lined up at a free safety spot. He lined up at strong safety.

He played corner on both sides of the field. He played in the slot. And he was used as a linebacker at times. Byrne goes on and mentions an article that Doug Kide wrote over at Nesson. And he quotes from Justin Reed here. For 12 of our base coverages at Stanford, I can draw every single person. Again, this is Justin Reed and I'm quoting him here. I can draw all 11 players on the field and what each of their responsibilities are.

I pride myself at being able to do that. Can you imagine the look on Bill Belichick's face when he meets with Justin Reed? Sits down with him on a whiteboard session. And Reed walks him through what Stanford's doing on defense. Now, I've seen some people say,

look, they don't need a safety in this draft. They've got Chun, they've got Harmon, they've got McCourty. They have Jordan Richards, another Stanford safety. But Chun's had some injury issues. He's been banged up at times. Harmon and McCourty getting a little bit older. We've seen the New England Patriots use six, seven defensive back packages at times. They use a lot of three safety packages at times.

And I think Justin Reed, from a mental standpoint, really fits what they're doing. And I think Belichick is going to love him. So yeah, I think Justin Reed might be that guy, Matt. I think Justin Reed might be that Swiss Army knife type person. Up ahead, we're going to get into Jordan Thomas. Bit of an under-the-radar type name in the secondary. Dante Hightower's My Snapface page, quick take on Malcolm Butler,

deep draft prospects, linebacker prospects, and the one singular question that is dominating draft Twitter right now. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back here with you for part two of the mailbag extravaganza. We're going to chat now about Jordan Thomas, Oklahoma defensive back. Ian McDonald at Ian C. McDonald, M-A-C-D-O-N-A-L-D on Twitter.

Good friend of the show. Is Jordan Thomas from the future? How does someone do the three cone in 6.28 seconds? How could someone harness his pure athleticism? And as for Thomas, look, there are some issues there. Comes

into the combine just over 6 feet, 6 feet 1 eighths of an inch, 187 pounds. And first you have to address sort of the the legal issues there got a couple of arrests under his belt while he was out at oklahoma one for failure failure to pay a parking ticket the other for public intoxication and interference with police officers no charges were filed in either case but but that's an issue. The NFL was pointing out, the NFL network was pointing out during his drills on the combine, that no NFL teams wanted to even meet with him at the combine.

So you do wonder if teams are shying away from him, given the questions of his past. He ran a very slow 40-yard dash, 4.66, which is, I think, third or fourth in his defensive back group at the combine. So there are some issues there. But then, as Ian points out, busts out an incredible three-cone time, as Ian said. 6.28, one of the best in combine history. So yeah, there's some athleticism there, and how do you harness that?

I wonder if you try to bring him in as a bigger slot guy with that quickness, with that change of direction ability. You'd have to check into the other things. You'd have to be sure the other issues are surrounding him. The fact that teams didn't even want to meet with him, that's a bit of a red flag. And lawn speed is an issue. Yeah, but it isn't as critical an issue when you're talking about somebody playing inside, playing

in the slot. You know, you're not looking at that 4-6-6 and thinking, hey, can that work out on the boundary? Especially with a three-cone like that, somebody that can handle the shifty slot types. Do I think New England... Well, maybe they kick the tires on him.

Maybe after seeing that three cone, they kick the tires on him. Because that 6.2 number, that's a nice number. And I think if you're going to try to make that work in the NFL, I think that's it. He's a bigger slot type with the ability to sort of change directions on a dime. Next question from number one Cyrus Jones fan page, which is a fantastic Twitter handle. He is at R-U-D-A-W-G-G 59 at RudeDog59. Did Dante Hightower delete his Instagram?

Anything to do with the backlash after the Super Bowl-liking Brandon Browner's Instagram posts? As a quick outset, I am actually on Instagram. I don't do a ton on Instagram. Again, I'm a man. I'm 41. Technology scares me sometimes. New things scare me. You know, but if you want to check me out, you can find me over there

on Instagram. I don't, like I said, I don't do a ton of stuff over there, but if you want to see the occasional cat pic, the occasional picture

of one of my kids, or whatever else I feel like posting on there on a random day mascho3916 is me I mean literally the last picture I posted was July of 2016 so again don't do a ton of stuff over there but as for insta snap face as Belichick might call it I did dust off the IG account of my own to check out Hightower's Instagram and it does seem like he hasn't deleted it seems like it's still active was posting six days ago or so so I don't think he's deleted it if he has maybe I just can't

figure out IG what can I say but I think Belichick doesn't really care you think Belichick doesn't really care. You know, Belichick doesn't care what guys are doing on my Insta snap face or whatever. He means nothing to him. And so I wouldn't read too much into that. You know, but that's one of the interesting things about, you know, this era of journalism, this era of sports

writing, news reporting, political reporting, whatever. Social media, I mean, you want to know what an athlete is thinking, you go to their Twitter page, you at them on Twitter, you go to their Instagram page, you go follow them on Snapchat and see if they're putting out Snapchat stories. You want to know what's happening in the world of politics, you just follow the president who's tweeting his thoughts

almost around the clock. It's a new era makes it fun next question for my good buddy richard schrager who i am sure is waiting for the weather to get a little bit nicer here in the dc area so we can get out to blue mash and start hitting the links he is at rs schrager which is rs s ch r S-C-H-R-A-G-E-R on Twitter. He asked if the Patriots are going to use the franchise tag on Malcolm Butler. And as we can see, they have not. And that leads us to the discussion we had in yesterday's show, which is some potential landing spots for him.

I went through a ton of potential spots where Butler could end up. It's a good year if you're a free agent corner. There are a lot of teams that need some help there. Next question from Santiago Garibay. I hope I pronounced that right. I'm pretty sure I didn't. He is at Santiago underscore GB87 on Twitter. Give him a follow.

Great question here. Who are some deep draft prospects the Patriots can take in the late rounds? Should they address linebacker as well? I'll start with the last part of that question. I think they should definitely address linebacker.

This is something that I think was evident coming out of Super Bowl 52. Evan Lazar over at Nesson, Pat's Pulpit, Naked Bootleg Podcast, which I just did with him and Adam Kirchhen. Check that out as well. We talked about some quarterback prospects. But Evan's been bad in this get athleticism at the second level drum for a while.

And I think Evan is exactly right. The Patriots need to do that. So I anticipate them to address linebacker. In the new NFL, offenses are evolving. We saw the RPO game. You need athleticism there because the change of direction, the missed direction stuff needs to be athletic to keep up. Plus, I mean, I think they need linebacker depth anyway.

Hightowers had injury troubles. Linebacker depth anyway Hightower's had injury troubles linebacker depth was an issue for the team this year so I think they have to address it some guys I like earlier in the draft Leighton Vander Esch the kid from Boise State although he probably played himself out of the Patriots range at this point given the way he sort of caught fire here into the combine tested well at the combine

we're hearing about Green Bay in the first round hearing about Pittsburgh in the first round, so I doubt he's there at 31. Guys that might be there at 31 or 43, Malik Jefferson from Texas. I've mentioned him a little bit on this show. You want to see his pro day numbers to address athleticism,

but he looks athletic on film, looks like he can play in space on film, which matters. Rashawn Evans from Alabama. He might be there at 31 or 43. You'll have some scheme familiarity with him and what the Patriots do, the Saban-Belichick connection.

A guy in the later rounds, a guy that I think could be that athletic type. Is Fred Warner from BYU. And, you know, what's interesting about him is he was used in a strange little role by BYU. John Ledyard was talking to him about Warner. He was almost used as like a slot linebacker. But he did some nice things on film.

Had a really solid combine from an athletic profile. 3-cone of 6.9. 20-yard shuttle of 4.28, which is really good for a linebacker. Broad jump of 119 inches. 60-yard shuttle of 11.77 seconds.

I think he's a nice guy to address if you sort of wait on linebacker and do it a little bit later. Josie Jewell from Iowa, who's a player that I've seen a ton of dating back to 2015, multiple year starter at Iowa, doesn't look like he'd be an athletic guy on tape, but he came out and had a fantastic combine as well from an athletic profile you know talking about some of the drills the 60-yard shuttle he had the best time of any linebacker eleven point five two you know he put up a tremendous three cone as well if we talk about three cone and the importance of the three-cone,

the Patriots put on it, 6.8 in a three-cone, 4.27 in the 20-yard shuttle, a broad jump of 11 of 117 inches. So he's another guy that might be there in the later rounds that you could address the linebacker spot with. And finally, Shaquem Griffin from Central Florida. We've talked about him a lot. He crushed the combine. I think he's a great addition to any team.

I think he'd be a great choice if you want to get athletic at linebacker. So those are some linebacker names I want to mention. In terms of Santiago's first question, the deep draft prospects, the Patriots can take in the later rounds. Naeem Hines ran a blaze in 40-yard dash. Wasn't as impressive as a three-cone as I might have expected, but obviously has that lawn speed. I think he's still a later-round guy.

I think he might be the Deion Lewis replacement if the Patriots let Lewis walk. If the Patriots wait until day three to address the quarterback position, Logan Woodside, Luke Falk, I think are names to watch out for. Anthony Averitt, cornerback from Alabama, I've talked about on this show a bit. Keep coming back to him as a potential corner. And if they wait on Ed, your name, I'll throw out there. Dorrance Armstrong from Kansas.

Nick Folato over inside the pylon he scouted him for our draft guide which again if you want to get a copy of ITPDraftGuide.com you can get your pre-order in now use that promo code TOTO Nick scouted him for our draft guide absolutely loves him bit of a sleeper right now

but somebody I think will be there in the later rounds finally the question Bit of a sleeper right now, but somebody I think will be there in the later rounds. Finally, the question that is dominating the draft Twitter world right now, and it comes to me from a lot of different places, but the one that was at least in public from my friend Michael Kist, at MichaelKistNFL, and that question is this. Who is at Paw Patrol Scout? At Paw Patrol Scout has been the focus of conversation on Draft Twitter right now. Who is this person?

He popped up, I believe it was Sunday night. Put together a mock draft. In multicolored Comic Sans, I believe, font, or some different font that I haven't seen before. And he tweeted it, a screenshot of his top five picks to me and some other people, asking for our feedback and our thoughts. And he had Saquon Barkley coming off the board at, I believe, picks two and three, or three and four. And since there, he's made some other interesting comments.

Such as Lamar Jackson playing in the SEC. Which of course he did not. And so people are wondering. Who is this person? Who is this caped crusader? This masked man? Is it a parody account? And if so of whom?

Is it legit? And if so is this a cry for help? These questions I do not know. I have some ideas. I'm digging into the tweets, to the followers, to the people he follows. I'm leaning more towards parody.

Parody of perhaps one of the bigger names in the draft world. I won't unveil who that is right now. Because I don't want to get ahead of my skis here. This is like being Woodward and Bernstein here. You don't want to get too far. You've got to confirm with multiple sources. We've got to source this properly. But I have an idea that this is a parody account. I have an idea who it is a parody of.

Stay tuned for more on the burning question of our time. Who is at Paw Patrol Scout? That will do it for today's show. That will do it for the week. That's right. Four days a week until I'd say mid-April. Then we kick it up back to five days a week going up to and through the draft. But that will do it for today's show. I'll be back Monday. Until then, have a great weekend and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield,

and Locked on Patriots.