Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 21, 2018 - QB Watch List, The Gronkowski Drive, and "Undefeated"

Episode Date: May 21, 2018

Mark Schofield highlights his first QB to watch for the 2019 NFL Draft, breaks down Play(s) 2 on the Top 10 Countdown of the Patriots' top offensive plays from the 2017 season and talks about "Undefeated," a documentary that is definitely worth your time.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning, welcome into Lockdown Patriots for Monday, May 21st, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair, rested and refreshed after a nice weekend. Hope all of you listeners out there had an enjoyable and pleasant weekend as well. But it's Monday, we're back to it. Gonna be with you this week here. Gonna be breaking down a bunch of different things for you in the week to come here at Locked on Patriots. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can follow the work over at InsideThePylon.com where I'm a lead analyst,

as well as the work over at Pro Football Weekly. I've been contributing more and more over there, doing some quarterback analysis, some scheme analysis, some pretty cool stuff over at Pro Football Weekly. Also a reminder to keep checking out LockedOnPatriots.com. On tap for today's show, a couple of things. We're going to come down to play number two on our countdown of the top 10 offensive plays of the Patriots' 2017 season. Our football and film series will roll on.

As a reminder, this summer I am breaking down 20 movies that cover football in some way, shape, or form. And at the end, listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast will get a chance to chime in and rank these so we can come up with our definitive top 20. Our rankings, as voted on by Locked On Patriots and listeners of the top 20 football movies. In case you haven't been with us for this series, in case you're just coming to the show right now, the movies we've covered already include Varsity Blues, The Program, Any Given

Sunday, The Replacements, The Best of Times, Rudy, Remember the Titans, and Jerry Maguire. Got another movie on tap for you today as well. First things though, if you know me, if you know the work, you know that my first love is talking about the quarterback position. And so summertime is a perfect opportunity to start summer scouting and summer watch lists. And if you're a Patriots fan, chances are you're still intrigued about the potential idea of the Patriots drafting a quarterback in the 2019 NFL draft. And I know you're probably thinking, Mark, it's May 21st.

It's crazy. Isn't there anything else we can talk about? Yeah, maybe there is. But that's why I'm going to sprinkle in some quarterback watch list stuff for you. Because my day-to-day work is studying and evaluating quarterbacks. And I have a watch list of about, it keeps growing now. I think it's about, let's see here. Checking out my numbers. Looks like my watch list has gotten to about 39 quarterbacks for the 2019 nfl draft some of these guys are underclassmen that may not come out some of these guys

may not pan out but you start with a broad broad brush you watch anybody that remotely could surprise you from guys people know to guys people don't know, and you see where it goes. And it's all about getting a baseline on guys. No definitive takes are made. We're just trying to get a feel for where these guys are as passers. And I'm going to just talk about one guy in this little segment today. I want to start with quarterback Drew Locke from Missouri,

who in the wake of the past draft was already sort of anointed as perhaps QB1 by Mel Kuyper. He was listed in his immediate post-draft top 10 for the 2019 NFL draft. Locke is a very intriguing talent, put up just tremendous numbers over the past couple of seasons at the University of Missouri. And you're talking about a quarterback that functions in a very sort of high-powered type of offense. You look at the numbers he put up in 2016, completed 54.6% of his passes for 3,399 yards, 23 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. Last year, those numbers went up a bit, completed 58.2% of his passes for 3,695 yards, 43 touchdowns with 12 interceptions for quarterback rating of 169.4, a raw QBR on ESPN of 72.5, and an adjusted QBR of 74.4, listed at 6'4",

225. He's a player that this time last year I was studying because there was a thought that Locke might come out at the end of last year. So I did work on him last year. I've got a number of games on him both from 2016 as well as 2017. And here are basically sort of my introductory notes on him. I started with the notes that I had from last summer. Great arm talent, good process and speed on RPO-type plays, pretty good placement on most throws, can throw some routes with good anticipation,

such as hitch routes, comeback routes, corner routes, very good athlete. And then going through strengths here from the 2017 season, arm strength dipped to me a little bit in 2017. He seemed to hold some throws back. There's a play against Missouri State where it seems like he sort of held a little bit back when he was trying to make some throws. It seemed like he really wanted to play sort of an emphasis on touch. But there are also times when he can still dial it up.

And when those Missouri State plays that I'm talking about, on one, he throws a, on one play, he throws sort of a smoke or a tunnel screen, and it seems like he sort of takes something off of it. But then a couple of plays later, you know, he just stands in the pocket, stands tall, and just rips another throw with great velocity. And so I wonder if, you know, he was trying to really emphasize touch and placement, you know, this past season as a junior. And that's something that I noted, and we'll get to that in a minute. He shows pretty good ability to sort of read those middle of the field,

open middle of the field, closed play. Sometimes you want, as a quarterback, your read structure will change based on the defensive alignment. If the middle of the field is open, such as a cover two, cover four look with no safety in the middle of the field, your receivers are going to adjust their routes to attack there. Sometimes if the middle of the field is closed, again, the routes get adjusted. And so he shows good sort of deciphering and good processing speed on plays like that. He also shows a pretty good ability to sort of read and decipher when the defense rolls their coverage at the snap. And so

that's something I do like about him. In terms weaknesses on drew lock when i started him you know before last season the one of the main weaknesses i had was that i described it as a baylor-esque offense lots of you know quick hitches comebacks and go routes with the tunnel screens mixed in with your occasional sort of corner or post or slant route his footwork was sloppy when he was not in an RPO style of play. His offense was filled with a lot of half-field reads, stared down a lot of routes. He relied on the fastball much too much, and he needs to show touch and feel. Well, maybe, just maybe, just maybe Drew Locke was listening and reading the tweets because, as I mentioned earlier, it seemed like he almost reversed that in 2017. It's almost like where he relied more

on touch, relied more on feel. But it did show some good strides. Remember when we were talking about Josh Allen, that was a big concern, a big knock that I had on him. It seems like Locke showed some development there. I do want to see more manipulation from him in terms of using his eyes. I want to see him be better on set, reset, and throw situations. Sometimes when you move your feet in the pocket as a quarterback and then you have to reset your feet, sometimes accuracy dips, sometimes mechanics dips, sometimes ball placement itself dips, sometimes you make mistakes. And so I wanted to see him be better in those types of situations. And in areas where I want to see some improvement, I want to see him continue to grow

and grow beyond that Baylor-esque offense. I thought he took some strides in that direction this past season. I want to see more of that here in 2018. A weakness, again, that I noted from the summer of 2016-2017, studying that year, was touch and feel, and I think he's moving in that direction. I also want to see some more in terms of making progression-style reads, working through progressions and things like that. But he's definitely a very, very talented quarterback. And if you were to ask me where he sort of stands right now in this class of 39 guys that I've been scouting, I think he's in that top tier. And I do think that he has the potential to be a first round quarterback. I think he has the potential to be that first quarterback taken. Obviously, there's a lot of football left to be played,

and we'll have to see where he ends up, how he progresses and develops this season. But if you're interested in quarterbacks, if you're interested in perhaps your team draft and one like the New England Patriots, you're going to want to watch Drew Locke as we get through the 2018-2019 college football season. Up ahead, like I said, we're going to talk play two.

And I tease this a little bit. We're cheating a little bit, just a little bit on play two because it's really an assemblage of plays. Play two of our Countdown of the Patriots top ten offensive plays. And then we're going to continue with football and film. Going a little bit off script here. I'm going to do a documentary. But I rewatched this movie again this weekend.

It's a fantastic, fantastic piece of filmmaking. It's a fantastic story. If you haven't seen it, it's a must-see. That's all ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. A play on the north side of the two-minute warning. Pressure unloads. Got Gronkowski at the 50.

And Davis, who dropped the pass, drops Gronkowski. Brady down the field. An open is Gronk. He's getting separation now. Colvin plays at the line of scrimmage now, based on the coverage. He's getting separation now. Colvin plays at the line of scrimmage now based on the coverage. Here's the first down throw.

And off the ground, Gronkowski it is a catch. Gronkowski in man-to-man coverage runs across the field and does he make the catch? Game clock to one minute. One minute. That's a catch. Game clock to one minute. One minute.

That's a catch. Time out there by Pittsburgh trying to save time, and that's a catch. What an amazing catch. That size. Come on. Fade right here. If he's one-on-one. Are they going to go double?

Tom's looking at the safety. Got to go to him again. Wide open. And Gronk pulls it down for the two. He's killing Davis. Jim Nance, Tony Romo there on the call for CBS. And as you might have gleaned from that, that is what I term the Gronkowski drive. Not just one play, but just an entire drive from tight end Rob Gronkowski leading the Patriots to the go-ahead score against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh in week 15 in that pivotal showdown between the top two teams in the AFC. A game with

so many postseason implications on the line, number one overall seed. This was a period in time when I spent that entire week talking about how important this game was because you don't want a situation where you have to potentially see Jacksonville in the divisional round because that was going to be a tough team, a team that could go anywhere and beat anyone, and that's exactly what happened.

Patriots get the number one overall seed. You know, they get a chance to, you know, play Tennessee in the divisional round game. Pittsburgh, you know, they get the number two. They get a chance to host Jacksonville, and Jacksonville goes in there and beats them. And so that's why, you know, this game, this Week 15 game, was so important to the New England Patriots season. And it almost got away from them at many points.

And we're not done talking about this game. That's a teaser for the top 10 defensive plays countdown. But the Patriots get the ball back just over two minutes to go, trailing by five. They need a drive. And Gronkowski, basically, he and Brady just take over. Gronkowski, overall, on this this game had nine catches for 168 yards and a two-point conversion.

But on this drive of the 77 yards, Gronkowski had 69 of them. Nice. Obviously began on a second and ten play. Brady sort of pressured in the pocket. He spent a lot of time this year here at Locked on Patriots talking about Brady's sort of Brady sort of pressured in the pocket. He spent a lot of time this year here at Lockdown Patriots talking about Brady's sort of ability to move around in the pocket. Gronkowski runs a seam route. He's an inside trips receiver to the left, breaks up field. Brady's pressured, starts to climb, opens to his right, comes back to Gronkowski on the left

on the seam route, makes the catch in the middle of the field that is dragged down at the 50 later in the drive next play first and 10 basically at midfield another seam route up the middle just a pitch and catch brady hits gronkowski in stride perfect throw perfect catch patriots on the move again next play first and 10 gronkowski again on the left. Runs across. Brady scrambles and flushes to his right. Low throw on the move. Gronkowski somehow off his fingertips, off the turf at Heinz Field. Somehow pulls it in. Gets up. Flexes. Patriots are in business now. First and goal inside the 10-yard line. Dion Lewis would punch it in on an 8-yard touchdown run to give the Patriots the lead. They go for two to extend it to a three-point lead. Brady finds Gronkowski again. Gronkowski flexed out. Y. Iso to the right matched up against Davis,

and he just beats him with a stuttering go. Davis whiffs on a jam, and as you heard Nance say, he just, Gronk basically owned Davis that entire drive. Again, 69 of the 77 yards accounted for by Rob Gronkowski on that drive, giving the Patriots the lead. There was a lot more football left to be played. Another thrill and finish in store for the New England Patriots. But that drive from Brady and Gronkowski was really what gave the Patriots a chance to win that game. There were so many other great plays. We have two defensive plays that we're going to talk about

in that Top 10 Defensive Plays Countdown. But this drive from Brady and Gronkowski, stepping up at such a pivotal moment, really sort of put the Patriots in position to win that game, win that number one overall seed, and put themselves in the best overall position to win an AFC championship because they would have that home field advantage. So critical for teams when you come around to playoff time. So there you have it, your number two Patriots offensive play of the year. Again, playing quotes because it's really an entire drive

of just pure greatness from Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Up ahead, we're going to talk about a documentary that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in the 2011 Academy Awards. It's a movie called The Undefeated. I cannot recommend this movie enough, and we're going to talk about that next with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. All the things that we told you you had to not do.

And you're down 20 nothing. That's it. Now here's the deal. This is an unbelievably good opportunity. You come back from that, now you're talking about something. You lay down on that, well, then you forgot what we're about. I do not want to see anybody dropping their head.

I want to see us get a stop and score and see what happens. Can we do that? Yes, sir! Hey, you got to believe in yourselves, fellas. You can come back. You just got to go to work. He's coming back, man! C-I-D-E-R! You might not recognize the voice you heard just there.

That's the voice of Bill Courtney, who was the head coach, a volunteer head coach, of the Manassas Tigers, a high school in North Memphis, Tennessee. And what you just heard there was a clip from the movie Undefeated, a 2011 documentary film directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. This movie went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in February of 2012. And what this movie tells the story of is the story of the team, the Manassas Tigers, as I said, in North Memphis. North Memphis, a run-down area of Memphis. North Memphis, a run-down area of Memphis. The movie begins with a discussion about what happened to that area of Memphis when a firestone plant, the tire plant, closed and left town. The area is just run down, dilapidated. And this high school, the Manassas

Tigers, in over 100 years since they've been playing football, that team never won a playoff game. And as we learned at the beginning of the film, that school had become basically a punching bag. They had basically no financial resources, so they had to become a school that would travel to get beat up by much more talented and powerhouse-type schools. They would drive halfway across the state of Tennessee to collect a check and get

beat and destroyed by a really good team. And that's what they had to do a couple times a year to just make their costs. But Bill Courtney and a group of volunteer coaches have decided to sort of turn this program around. And it tells a story about their 2009 season when they have a core group of players, O.C. Brown, a left tackle, Montrell, Money, a right tackle, another couple of, another, you know, few players that came in as freshmen, started to buy into what Coach Courtney was doing. And this is their senior year. And what they want to do is to finally break that streak

to finally win a playoff game in the state you know playoff tournament and the juxtaposition between sort of the haves and the have-nots it plays out on so many different levels throughout this movie because not only do you have a sort of haves and the have-nots when it comes to the state of high school football in the state of Tennessee, but you have the haves and the have-nots when you see these volunteer coaches who go home to large homes,

three-car garages, and then you see the players that play for them, many of them living with a single parent or a grandparent. There's a scene where you see Money, the right tackle, who lives with his grandmother, and basically what looks to be a shack of a house, brushing his teeth in a bathroom where the wall is basically about to fall down.

The ceiling, excuse me, is basically about to fall down. The ceiling, excuse me, is basically about to fall down. And so you have the haves and the have-nots. But this is such a powerful film because you see what Bill Courtney, the coach, sort of the character and the values that he instills in these players and the battles that he has to fight to keep these guys, keep these players eligible, to keep them committed, to keep them driven, to keep them sort of on the path to achieving this goal. And I'm not trying to spoil too much of this movie,

but one of the more powerful moments for me takes place near the end of the film, near their final regular season game, which they need to win to sort of clinch district. And there's a lot of on-the-field and off-the-field trials and tribulations that these players have gone through. But there's an incredibly powerful moment where one of the players, Chavis, and that's what you're going to hear next.

The reason we're here, y'all, is not just to win football games, but to reach your hearts through something you love. We want to make you better. And then as individuals, if you get better, and then you get better as a team, you might start seeing that if you do something for somebody other than yourself, that you might be better for it. And every once in a while, problems come up.

Money. Two things mean most, most, same thing to him in the world is his father and football. His dad's dead and he's scared to death his football's dead. That's tough and we gotta make sure we're there for him. Our uncommon man of the game was clearly Chavis. He had an onside kick recovery. He had an interception he should have scored on. He was all of the field on defense.

And he stepped up and led. And Chavis has done some stupid crap this year. That stunt he pulled at Bolivar was off the hook. But, yeah, he was the uncommon man in the game. But most importantly, he's the uncommon man because he has tried to put a whole bunch of demons aside to be part of something bigger than himself. So, Chavis, you're the Uncommon Man that scene you heard that speech you just heard

was Courtney awarding the Uncommon Man award which is something he and the coaches would do each week you know and they would give the player that wanted

a copy of Tony Dungy's book Uncommon and what the award was meant to recognize was a player who was uncommon in both what he has done for

the team, both on and off the field, how he's comported himself both on and off the field. And the player that he awards that to is a player that, as you can probably glean from the comments, had given the coaching staff and given Courtney in particular the bulk of trouble both on and off the field throughout the season. But he started to buy in. The player did. And as a result, met with success on the field, helped the team on the field, and received this award.

And it's given at a church where the team has sort of their devotional time together before a pregame meal. And it's in a movie filled with sort of powerful and emotional moments. This is one of them. And there's even a bigger emotional with sort of powerful and emotional moments this is one of them and there's even a bigger emotional moment that comes right after this right after courtney's speech right during that moment from the player who receives the award that i won't play because i don't want to spoil you know it in any way but courtney's work with this team, it's incredible. And he says it sort of at the beginning of the movie,

at the beginning of the film, that he's not a savior. He's not a perfect man. But he's trying to instill character in these guys. He has this mantra that football doesn't build character, it reveals it. And so many of his halftime speeches, so many of his speeches and addresses to the team

talk about that idea that, you know, the true test of character in a person isn't how they behave, how they act when they win. It's how you handle failure. It's how you handle getting knocked down, what you do then, and Courtney talks about it in sort of these one-on-one moments where it's just, you know, him and you or him and the camera. And he talks about sort of the way that these inner-city schools, these inner-city teams are viewed. If you hit them, if you get up on them,

they're going to quit and they're going to fold. You get up on them 14-0 and they're going to just give up. That's the way that these other sort of suburban-type schools or other types of programs that these schools, this team, this Manassas High School team, would go and travel to and get paid to play. They'd get down 14-0 and quit and give up. And that's why he keeps instilling character in these guys.

And I think five or six times over the course of the season, they're down at halftime. And he keeps hitting them with this message. It's not how you handle success, but it's how you handle failure that shows the true character of a person. It won an Academy Award for a reason. It's a fantastic, fantastic film. I cannot recommend it enough.

And if you haven't seen it, please do. I think it just hits all the right notes for a documentary. It just hits all the right notes for a football movie. And of all the movies that we've talked about and that we're going to talk about, yes, it's a documentary. But this more than I think any other speaks to sort of the power of football and the power of a team sport like this where you have to rely on those around you, and they are relying on you to do the right things day in and day out and what that can mean for a person and how it can change lives. And so please, The Undefeated, cannot recommend this enough. Go check it out.

You can find it on Netflix, Amazon, YouTube. I think there's even a way to watch it for free on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, please check it out. The Undefeated, fantastic, fantastic documentary filmmaking. It won the Academy Award for a reason. Please check it out. That will do it for today's Locked On Patriots. I will be back tomorrow.

We will be, tomorrow, We will be tomorrow talking about our top offensive play of the 2017 Patriots season. We will be, I don't know, we'll do the outset, maybe peek at another quarterback, maybe address some takes from the timeline, maybe some OTA stuff, who knows. We'll have another film. We're going to probably

go the comedy route for tomorrow's show, just because a little bit of a heavy, heavy, heavy topic today in the football and film segment, but we'll try to even things out for you. That's all tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked

right here with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.