Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 1, 2018 - Talking Draft with Brian Phillips

Episode Date: May 1, 2018

Brian Phillips from PatsPulpit stops by to give his thoughts on the 2018 Patriots' draft class.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, welcome on into Lockdown Patriots for Tuesday, May 1st, 2018. We have made it to May. Mark Schofield here in the big chair as I am five days a week. Reminded to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com,, profootballweekly.com as well. Get a new piece in the works for the guys over there. Also check out the videos over at youtube.com slash insidethepylon. We do have now three, yes, three first sound videos already for the 2019 quarterback class. So the work goes on. We're going to dive back into the patriots draft

class today and to do that i'm bringing in a fantastic guest excited to talk to him he is brian phillips staff writer from pats pulpit over at sb nation brian my friend how are you buddy happy monday well thanks for having me on man i mean i'm excited to dive into some of this uh some of this draft content here very excited to do that, and happy Monday to you as well. To all of you out there listening, please follow Brian on Twitter. You can do that at bphillips, that's B-P-H-I-L-L-I-P-S underscore S-B. Please follow Brian on the world's greatest website. That is thetwitter.com.

And Brian, obviously we're going to dive into this rookie class that the Patriots just got their hands on we're going to dive into this rookie class that the patriots just got their hands on before going sort of player by player what are your thoughts on this class as a whole well i think it kind of i think we got a good a good look at what bill thought of the class uh with with a record eight trade downs uh obviously we were left on the edge of our seats quite a few times there um you know building for the future uh the draft showed us um uh that the team is moving in in a direction where they're going to supply tom brady with as much firepower as they can down this final stretch uh you know obviously adding isaiah win and sony michelle which we'll get into and then uh and then really just punting the rest of the way, stockpiling for next year.

And we know what kind of pro personnel Bill can add when he's got some second and third-round picks in the holster for the future too. So it's exciting to see what he'll be able to do with that kind of capital moving forward too. Brian, did it surprise you at all? And maybe it it's just me maybe it's because of the build-up that we all go through in any draft season when we talk about these prospects for so long but it did it surprise you in the sense that like you said it seems like belichick just was not high on this draft class at all it did because it will and you know and it's it's really just it seemed as if it was just

a timing thing um you know people were were pretty high on especially right you know it seemed like right before the draft on wednesday and thursday there was a lot of you know talk about how how good the quality is of this interior offensive line class and we know know with the Dan Feeney rumors from last year that the Patriots were looking to upgrade on the interior. But, you know, it became less and less likely as you look in their pain, you know, and really in the NFL team's history, it's very rare that an inside guy, a guard or center is taken that early and then, you know, sat on the pine for a year. So, you know, when you look at how they evaluate the position groupings, if they're not feeling that they're getting that value in those premium positions

that that draft board has and it's not slotting perfectly for them, especially with this mentality that they have where they've been adding so much pro personnel by trading their draft capital at other points in the season. I think it was really just a combination of that. And what was really interesting to me is how they looked at the linebacker class. And obviously with Rashawn Evans going a pick before, you know, with Rabel and Robinson jumping up to 22 to get Evans. I think at that point they were reserved and said, let's stick with the more long-term game plan and add some capital.

Let's look at those two first-round picks now. Isaiah Wynn, Sonny Michel. What are your thoughts on those two guys, those two additions? I think, from my standpoint, I really like the Wynn pick, and Sonny Michel is obviously a fantastically talented running back. I know there have been some

that have questioned drafting a running back in the first round, but where do you stand on those two picks? I was a big fan, a really big fan of both picks. I was right up there with a colleague of everybody's that I know he's been on your show here a couple, a time or two. John Ledyard was pretty high on Sonny Michel coming in and he had a first-round grade on him.

I was right in that same boat. I mean, watching what he did last year, you know, nothing about what he did last year and put on tape didn't screen first-round pick, especially with the way he passed protects and that burst he has and that balance through contact. I thought he was the second-best balance through contact running back in the class behind Darius Geis. But then I was – I'm in the Evan Lazard camp of Isaiah Wynn fanatics. I got to watch some of the clips that I saw of the senior bowl.

I know you guys were down there, and I wasn't able to go. But some of the clips I saw of that strong base and and he all the reports were that you know his functional strength and athleticism and quick feet would translate and so I understood why he was being being talked about as a guard all throughout the draft process but you know I believejko said, if Dante Skarniecki feels that he's a tackle, he's a tackle. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a very good point. Mark Schofield, Brian Phillips working our way through

the Patriots draft picks in the 2018 NFL draft. Let's get to their one pick on day two, which was a really interesting day because many people thought maybe that's the day they go quarterback. Maybe they go linebacker. trade down a couple times they just make the one pick duke dawson a corner from the university of florida florida brian what are your thoughts on him you know i think this was just the the most bill belichick style pick a little more of an off the radar guy um you know more of us you know more of a specialized corner obviously he's he's projected to go right to the slot he's a slot guy he's

smaller build um but he's got some good tape he's got some questionable tape but uh i think it's really interesting to watch how how they always want to provide competition to certain spots on their roster uh patriots fans will get into the mentality of favoring the current personnel like Jonathan Jones, and we saw the progress he made. But he's going to need competition to keep him going, especially with the injury at the end of the year last year. Bill always is adding layers of competition to training camp. And Dawson, obviously, spending a high pick, a third-round pick on him, will give him some time to develop. And it also says a lot about where they think Cyrus Jones is.

Obviously, this is a big couple months coming up for that young man, too. I was interested to hear what you thought of Dawson's tape. I think he sort of fits schematically with what New England wants. I mean, he's a lot more of a press corner type guy. So I do think that the pick makes sense from a schematic standpoint. I was just, in a sense, surprised to see them go corner early. And I think, I'll get your thoughts on this too.

It's just emblematic of how the Patriots could have gone in so many different directions and basically did go in so many different directions in this draft because there weren't really positions that were absolute just glaring needs you know like you could have got a cold or you you know offensive tackle offensive line was probably an issue and they did address it early but you know they could have gone running back and they did they could have gone tight end and they did very late so I mean they just could have gone in a million different directions i think the dawson pick was kind of emblematic of the fact that they could do different things from

a roster construction standpoint based on like you said brian and it's a great point the additions that they've made in free agency well absolutely and in some of the ways you know and we always get into this mode and especially especially in Patriots Nation, you hear so much of, well, the needs. And and it's it's been said so many times how little Bill Belichick cares about what we feel the needs are, you know. And when you when you're talking edge rushers and corners, I mean, really to the two most important spots on the defensive side of the football. You can't have enough corners. And I really feel that they are comfortable where they're at with their edgerushers. Bringing in Adrian Claiborne was huge to provide that help.

And, yeah, I'm excited to see how it shakes out uh and how many they carry into uh into the first week of the regular season that's going to be a really interesting training camp watching these corners go at it something was also very interesting the patriots double dip in at linebacker although they're two very different linebackers stylistically but you got juwan bentley in the fifth round pick 143 out of purdue and then christian Bentley in the fifth round, picked 143 out of Purdue. And then Christian Sam in the sixth round, picked 178 out of Arizona State. Interested in the double-tip at linebacker? Interested in the linebackers they chose? Brian, what were your thoughts on those two picks?

So my thoughts, very interesting. Christian Sam pick really kind of screamed to me, almost like a Camille Grugier-Hill type. He's obviously a little bigger, but a guy who can come in and he's got a little more functional athleticism, can provide special teams help. With Bentley, personally I would have rather if they were going to go with a Big Ten linebacker that can't cover and comes downhill in the run game.

I would have liked to see them go with one of my michigan wolverines mike mccray uh i thought he i thought he fit uh perfectly um intelligent kid you know uh can can read and react pretty well um but uh you know it it begs the question you know how many how many guys that that's clearly another one of those situations where they're bringing in some competition for a rostered spot that is going to be up for grabs. A Landon Roberts role, downhill thumper, that spot's up for grabs. David Harris retiring obviously opened up a little more of that competition as well. I'm excited.

Obviously it didn't go the way they wanted to with what we feel, how we feel they thought it would go with Rashawn Evans, which would have been really exciting. But we'll see how it goes with these two. And I think this also signals that Dante Hightower won't be playing that overhang quite as much as we think. Were you surprised in a sense? I mean, I know Sam brings some athleticism,

but one of the things we heard, and Evan Lazar talked about this all offseason, anybody who covers the Patriots talked about it all offseason, they needed to get more athletic at that second level of the defense. Do you feel they accomplished that, or was that just kind of a function of maybe a Super Bowl 52 handover in our own minds? Or do you think that was addressed at all?

You know what? I really don't feel that they did. Specifically as it relates to this draft, I was all over the we need to trade everything possible to get up and get Derwin James as he started slipping down the board. I thought he would have been a perfect kind of guy to be that chess piece. You could put him in the slot right away, have him work some of that while he filters in. And Jordan Richards had about 25% of the defensive snaps last year. And that just cannot happen, as we all know.

And a guy like Derwin James would have been absolutely crazy. You know, he seems like the perfect Belichick kind of defensive player. But obviously that didn't happen. And I really don't see much of an infusion of athleticism into that secondary and into that second level that we were expecting. Hopefully Christian Sand can bring a little bit of that. But I think they're going to roll with the guys. They're rolling with what they got.

I mean, do you think um in a sense marquise flowers might have been the winner at the linebacker spot this draft weekend because he seems to have carved out a nice sort of role as the athletic linebacker type and i know that christian sam might do some of that stuff but i think flowers may have found himself a nice little role with New England going ahead into the training camp. Oh, I think he's about on there. You know, bringing him back on that one-year deal was huge. And he's one of those guys, I've got a piece that I'm going to be working on here coming up that I did it last year where I just analyzed the middle class of rosters around the league and the Patriots, you know, year in and year out, have the biggest, most robust middle class of rosters around the league. And the Patriots, you know, year in and year out,

have the biggest, most robust middle class. They have the most guys making a million dollars or more. And he's just one of a numerous amount of guys on the roster that you bring them in, you incentivize them, and they produce. And he's the guy that, you know, he was so good. I believe he was listening to Lockdown Patriots from yesterday, I believe it was, where you were talking about that quarterback spiral too. Something he can do as well on third downs that he excelled at last year.

They're rolling with him and guys like Flowers and Sam. Mark Schofield, Brian Phillips, working our way through the New England Patriots draft picks in the 2018 class. And, you know, Brian, there was a pick that was made at the end of the sixth round that I think most people expected at some point to happen. That was Braxton Berrios, the wide receiver from Miami, down at the Senior Bowl. Everybody that was in tennis was basically saying this kid's going to be on the Patriots at some point. They make it happen in the sixth round. What are your thoughts on the slot receiver

from the University of Miami, the U? Gotta love him, right? I think we get enamored with this guy every year. The Braxton Berrios, the Austin Kars. Austin Kars being a little bit of a bigger body.

I've got to be the wet blanket here when it comes to Braxton Berrios. I just don't see a spot. It's going to be the same exact scenario as Austin Carr. You can just see it. The writing's on the wall. He's going to come out bald during training camp because the guy works his ass off. And he's excited, and he's going to put up some preseason numbers excited and he's going to put up some preseason numbers and there's going to be folks clamoring. We're already seeing Danny Amendola replacement.

You know, here we go. And it's just going to be tough for him to get a spot on this roster with how deep the wide receiver room is with the additions of guys, you know, like Jordan Matthews. And I'm so interested in Kenny Britt, too. Obviously, completely different style receiver, but with Jules coming back. And along those lines, how much is Berrios going to be – can he provide enough in the return game at all on special teams

to even think about carving out a roster spot? I think he's more competing with Riley McCarron for a practice squad spot than he is a 53-man roster spot. But it's a fun story. We get to tell this story every year, right? That's exactly right. And I did see you had the Riley McCarron tweet earlier today, and I think that's a great point.

And obviously we're sitting here now on the cusp of May, but in that sort of potential battle between Berrios and McCarron, is there a guy you would give an edge to let's go with barrios man let's go there we go fresh the fresh face you know i can't i can't be the you know i'm a damp blanket oh that's what that's what we'll be we'll be the various damp blanket on this but yeah the you know recency bias let's go with barrios sorry riley that's perfect the next pick i think not the one that anybody really expected and this was a draft filled with sort of unexpected picks but this one might have been the most unexpected danny edlin from lsu was this quarterback anywhere near your radar because as locked on listen patriots listeners know he was basically nowhere near mine yeah no um absolutely not uh I think

we're tuned to automatically uh you know filter out LSU quarterbacks from our minds as if they don't even exist um these you know these days um strong you know decent arm uh you know you're the quarterback guy here uh if you haven't seen him haven't seen him I haven't watched much Danny yet I've watched some DJ Shark on the outside but you never really put two and two together oh yeah that's right a quarterback actually throws the football to these guys

somebody has to hand it off to Darius guys but you know it's just a big kid bring him in the camp see if he can put some good tape on and maybe catch on, you know, somewhere. And, you know, maybe grab a practice squad squad. You know, a Patriots practice squad spot pays pretty well these days with how they maximize these guys' earnings on the practice squad.

Did, you know, the selection of Etlin and the fact, you know, that they passed on so many quarterbacks, so many different spots throughout this draft did that also kind of give you an indication similar as we talked on the more global perspective that they were down on this class that they were also down on these quarterbacks maybe outside of the top four or five oh absolutely and i think uh i think everybody kind of had that same momentum when looking at this class. You know, it was so top-heavy and so much talent up at the front,

more than we've seen in quite a long time, that it's almost easy to get into the mode where you start overrating some of the traits you see in some of the middle-round guys. The Kyle Aleta mock drafts to the Patriots were starting to get, you know, it was starting to become an automatic, you know, pick 95 Kyle Oletta. So right off the bat there, you know, something's up because it doesn't really fly in Belichick mock drafts. Those don't typically work out too well,

the guys that are constantly, you know, mocked to New England, except for Berrios. There we go, except for Berrios. There we go, except for Berrios. But no, the quarterback class as a whole, yeah, I think if they didn't think that they had a good value opportunity to get up and get the guys they wanted way at the top, then maybe this does show that they're in it for the next couple, at least two or three years with Tom,

and they're really not even thinking about an exit strategy at this point, which is a little crazy to some, but that might be the case. That might be the case. Two last names, Keon Crossan from Western Carolina, Ryan Izzo, tight end from Florida State, guys picked in the seventh round, 243 overall, Crossan 250 from Izzo tight end from Florida State guys picked in the seventh round 243 overall crossing 250 from Izzo interesting that they go sort of blocking tight end and then athletic sparky type corner but what were your thoughts on those guys sparky corner yeah um you know I think the most popular

name today on the pod's been Evan Lazar but he had the thread go out of this kid. And I was talking a little bit with Ethan Hammerman at Pat's Pulpit about crossing, and the kid is lightning fast. That's, you know, you'll see it right away. He'll be the fastest guy in the field. There was some talk about him being a kicker turner a little bit as well, but in talking to Ethan Hammerman, he said he was really just a shadow guy and never really had any opportunities but um you'd be excited to see what a guy with that kind of athleticism could do with the ball on his hands on a kick return basis um you know any yards you can churn out of kick returns

these days is uh is certainly a bonus but uh you know we'll see how he looks in the slot too he'll you know he'll be right up there with uh with duke dawson and jonathan jones working that slot and training camp and we'll see you know see if he can turn some heads before we let you go my friend i do know that you have interests away from the football field so i'm going to ask you you, we're almost a month and a week or so from the U.S. Open at Shinnecock. Yes. I'm going to get your takes. What should we be thinking about the U.S. Open?

Man, when it comes to the U.S. Open, I'm the purist, man. I want to see carnage. I want to see— You want to see the lawnmower off and the cut line be like plus 10? Yeah, I want to see plus 4 gets see the lawn off and yes I want to be like plus 10 yeah I want to see you know plus four gets you into a playoff on Sunday you know just nasty let's get the fire hoses out on the greens again and Shinnecock you know back in like they did back in the day um you know there'll be a lot of Tiger Woods talk um he never plays well at Shinnecock apparently uh I'm in the middle of his book and he's had some pretty rough episodes at uh at Shinnecock apparently, I'm in the middle of his book, and he's had some pretty rough episodes at Shinnecock.

But I think we're going to see Phil take it down to the wire and probably come up maybe a stroke or two short again, unfortunately. And it's probably going to be, maybe we'll get a Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas playoff at four over par. You heard that here first, my friend. See, we do it all over here at Locked On Patriots. And also before I go, Brian, I saw you guys over at Pat's Pulpit.

You guys got a poll up right now. Which rookie has the biggest impact? I think you guys phrased it week one, but let's do this. Which rookie do you think has the biggest impact week one out of this class? And then which rookie has the biggest impact on the entire 2018-2019 season?

Well, yeah, I'll go with a chalk. I'll go with, you know, let me rephrase that. I'll go with week one. I'll go with Sonny Michel. The burst he's going to add, you know, lacking Deion Lewis now. My son, Deion, is gone. There you go. Oh, man. Deion Lewis now. My son, Deion, is gone.

Sony's going to be fun to watch, especially with Rex and James White and the packages they're going to be putting out there. I think in the long run, Isaiah Wynn is going to be, this guy's going to ball. He's fun to watch. People get really caught up in the measurables, the arm length and everything, but this guy can play football, and we talked about it earlier. If Scar thinks he's a left tackle, he's going to play

left tackle, and I think in the long run, this guy's going to be a pillar of this football team for a lot of years. Fantastic stuff, Brian. Before we go, I'm going to turn the microphone over to you plug some stuff let the people know where to find you and what to expect i know you mentioned that piece

about the middle class of nfl rosters yeah uh patspulpit.com part of the sb nation network uh staff writer there you guys can catch my work there and then then at my twitter handle at b phillips underscore sb uh on twitter.com and uh yeah i'm working on i'll be putting that piece together uh again about breaking down the nfl's middle class and uh and i believe i already know who's going to be coming out on top but uh yeah so look for that here in the next few days and uh some more offseason this is my bread and butter this time of year some of the offseason stuff, deep narrative stuff. So, yeah, check me out there.

That's fantastic stuff, Brian. Folks, please do follow Brian on Twitter. He's a great football mind, as you just heard here. Notice his stuff inside out. Look for that piece on the middle class of NFL rosters. That's going to be great stuff going up over at patspulpick.com. And if you're a golf fan at all, as you just heard, Brian does some golf work as well.

So you want to follow him on Twitter for that stuff in addition to the great football knowledge you're going to get from his Twitter feed. That will do it for today's show. I'll be back tomorrow breaking down some more stuff from the 2018 NFL Draft. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patrons.