Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 3, 2019 - Tape Friday: Jarrett Stidham

Episode Date: May 3, 2019

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Hey there, everybody. Welcome on into a Friday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Friday, May 3rd, 2019. Today, we're going to continue our series as we close out this week on the 2019 Patriots draft class. We've looked at first round pick Nikhil Harry, second round pick Juwan Williams, and yesterday's show was Chase Winovich, the edge defender from the University of Michigan. And in each show, I talk through about some of the film notes that I have on each player after sort of re-watching them or going back through notes that I have on them previously. And then in the second segment, talk about my

vision for how the Patriots might use that player immediately during their rookie season. Now, we're going to jump the order a bit. I know yesterday at the end of yesterday's show, I said I want to talk about Damian Harris, the running back from the University of Alabama today. But I'm going to skip ahead. We'll come back to Harris and Kajus the rest of the day two picks to start off next week. But because of some time constraints, i.e. a dentist appointment and some other things I had going on on Thursday, I didn't get a chance to sit down and finish the work, the film work I wanted to do on Harris. And so rather than give you sort of an incomplete picture of the player, I figured I would draw upon knowledge that I have, i.e. the quarterback position. So today we're going to talk about Jared Stidham. And you can actually follow along

for what I'm going to talk about today if you go over to Pat's Pulpit, because a piece went up Thursday with my sort of review of two of his games. And I'm going to focus on those two games. For reasons I'll outline in a moment. So Jarrett Stidham is the topic of conversation today. I'm going to talk about some things on him. And then in the second part of the show. Sort of not as much of a scheme fit thing. Because we're not expecting to see Jarrett Stidham.

Just sort of my thoughts on his fit in the New England Patriots offense. And how I'd expect to see him brought along. But before we do any of this, your usual reminders to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield, to 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 am the co-host of the one and only QB Scosio, and of course, Pat's Pulpit, as was just mentioned. Now, the piece that I wrote over at Pat's Pulpit just focused on two games

from Stidham's final season at Auburn. The Georgia game and the Alabama game. And the reason why I wanted to watch those games or re-watch those games in the case of the Alabama game is to give us a sense of how Stidham fared against the closest facsimile a college quarterback can have to life in the National Football League. And that's against upper-tier elite competition running as close as you're going to get to NFL defenses. Nick Saban, his rip, his liz, all those coverage concepts that he uses are things that you will see in the National Football League. And obviously, Kirby Smart, Saban disciple, runs similar concepts.

And let's not forget, Saban sort of cut his teeth under Bill Belichick. And so you're getting a glimpse of NFL concepts. You're getting a glimpse of NFL talent. Both those defenses had defenders picked in the first round of this draft. And so going up against Georgia, going up against Alabama, is a sense of how you might fare against the closest thing you'll find against NFL competition. And at first blush, at the outset. The numbers were not great. Against Georgia last year, sitting with 24-36 for 163.

Against Alabama, 13-30 for 127, a touchdown and an interception. So overall, 37-66, just barely over 50%. 290 yards, so the yards per attempt, not great there. One touchdown, one interception. Now, not great production. I think we could all agree on that. But I want to dive into the film just a little bit.

And again, I'd invite you to go over to Pat's Pulpit. You can follow along. The first four plays that I break down from these games are all instances of Stidham identifying the blitz, replacing it with the ball, staying calm in the face of pressure, and executing for his team. The first play that we break down, it's a situation where he gets blitzed, but makes a very good read

against the blitz. And it's only a great recovery from the defensive back that prevents this from converting to a third down situation. He gets a linebacker blitz. The left linebacker. So from the offense's perspective. One of the two linebackers on the left side blitzes. And they run mesh concept. This is against Alabama. And so the crossing route from the right to the left.

Occupies that space vacated by the blitzer. And that's exactly where Stidham goes with the ball. He doesn't panic. He doesn't get phased. He doesn't drop his eyes. He knows that they have the protection to pick this up, so he stays in the pocket, delivers a throw, replaces the blitz with the ball, and it's only a great recovery by the defender that prevents this from becoming a first down.

The defender chases it down from the backside and trail coverage, but it's a great read. It's a great throw, and it's a great example of replacing the blitz with the ball. Second play, a breakdown, also against Alabama. This is a boundary blitz type situation, a corner blitz from the right side. B boundary blitzes are plays that younger quarterbacks sometimes struggle with. The year he was coming out, I remember doing a piece on Deshaun Watson and the cornerback blitz. And he saw it early in the game, and he beat it.

Then later in the game, they showed him a fake corner blitz. It baited him, and he threw an interception on it. He basically threw it right to the defender because he got outsmarted. So boundary blitzes are something I always look for from a quarterback, a young quarterback. They're hard to see. On this play, it comes late. There's no pre-snap indication of it. There's no sudden movements before the snap where he can say, i think this is coming it's not a situation where we sometimes see including some of those examples i was just talking about with watson where the tackle is pointed it out or the receiver's pointed out but he misses it

no this is well timed it's well executed and he gets blitz from the other side as well but he sees it he immediately goes to the uncovered receiver that is now vacated by that blitzing corner on the right, replaces that blitzer with the ball, and converts a first down. Now, the throw is a little bit underthrown, so the receiver has to go to his knees to make the catch, and the play is blown dead. Once he catches it and the receiver gets up, he's frustrated because he could have scored maybe. But in the NFL, he's still running. And this is one of those process over results kind of things because you see Stidham identify the blitz and make the right reads. So an impressive play there. Then we get to two plays

against Georgia, where again, the first play, it's a linebacker blitz. He identifies it and he replaces the blitz with the ball. And I know you've heard that phrase a lot now, but that's what you want to do. That blitz vacates a spot on the field. If you've got a route going there, that's where you go with the football. And the fourth play, the second one against Georgia, he gets a double blitz, both the slot corner and the safety come off the right side. Hangs in there, doesn't panic Replaces the blitz with a ball. First down.

So I loved seeing those plays. You know, defensive coordinators have a tendency to blitz young quarterbacks. To try to force them into mistakes. To force them to panic. Stenum was clean on these plays. Against NFL type competition. So I loved seeing those Next thing I want to talk about

Running some Patriots concepts Because in that game Particularly against Alabama You will see him running Tosser or all slant Things out of the Patriots playbook And the Stidham evaluation Was tough in part

Because of the offensive concepts he was running. But I know I talked in the pre-draft phase of this draft cycle about his offensive concepts. And if you dig in, you will find him doing some timing and rhythm stuff. And you will find him doing some choreo stuff. Here you see him doing tosser. You see him running all slant. Patriots concepts against Alabama. So there will be some schematic familiarity when he gets to New England. So that's exciting to see.

There's a play against Georgia where he gets blitzed, keeps his eyes downfield, flushes to the right, makes a throw on the move for a first down and i loved seeing that because his numbers against pressure were pretty good you see it in the blitz plays that we talked about and now you see it here where when a quarterback gets pressured sometimes there's that tendency to drop the eyes to panic a bit and maybe take off running not here he keeps the eyes downfield and makes a throw and moves the chains. Love seeing that. Final play I want to talk about. A play against Georgia where they're down 10 in the second half.

They're backed up on their own one-yard line. It's a road game. The crowd is going nuts. And he throws another slant route but manipulates the underneath hole linebacker. Number 32 on Georgia. He's in the path of the slant route. He's in the spot where you want to throw it. He freezes him, holds him in the middle of the field as the play develops, and then flashes his eyes to the slant route to throw the slant route, and he throws an

absolute strike. I mean, just an absolute dart, perfect spot, perfect placement, perfect velocity while manipulating a defender. It was as Brady-esque as you can get from a college quarterback. And my mind seeing that play flashed to the senior bowl. The Wednesday of the senior bowl where we did not get to see the practices live because of the rainout situation. So I was watching the practice that night at the hotel, the film of it, and I was watching the seven-on-sevens, and Jones was struggling, and other quarterbacks were struggling, and there's Stidham. And he has this play where he opens to one side of the formation to move the Mike linebacker, moves him with his eyes,

comes back and throws a slant route right to where Mike linebacker, moves him with his eyes, comes back and throws a slant route right to where that linebacker vacated. And I thought, finally, we have a pro play from one of these quarterbacks today. And it was from Stidham. And it was something that I hadn't quite seen from him, but it's only because I hadn't seen this game. I didn't watch the Georgia game of his. Until yesterday. And so.

Seeing that from him. One play. Just one. Was impressive. It made me happy about this selection. And it's funny. I was on a podcast on Thursday. A recorded Thursday.

A Giants podcast. And I was asked. One of the hosts brought up that you don't see a lot of NFL throws from Daniel Jones. And sort of responding to that question, I talked about how I talk about all these quarterbacks for so many months. It's just a matter of time until I'm going to start talking about the 2020 class on here and on other shows. And that will go on for seven, eight, nine months. And over the course of studying quarterbacks and doing all these different shows, it almost gets to be like a comedian doing a set, right? Where I've got go-tos.

I'll get asked about ripping, and I'll go to the throw against San Diego State. I'll go to some of his throws against Colorado State. I'll break down some of his throws against other teams that he played. Fresno State. I'll talk about hand size. I'll talk about the fumble a couple of years ago against Wyoming that cost him a game when they were number 13 in the country. It's like I've got a set. I've got my routine for each quarterback that I can go to. Plays that I remember. Boom, boom, boom. These are the things that I liked about him. These are some plays that highlight those traits. Kyler Murray. Oh, the throw against

Alabama. Some of his throws against TCU. The tuck and go against Army, process over results, results over process. With Jones, I've got one play. I've got one play to come to, a throw against Virginia on the Ohio concept, that go-flat design where the corner traps the slot receiver running the out route so he comes right to the go route along the boundary, drills and a throw against cover two. I've got one for him, but I've got a ton for Stidham, and I'm adding moments as we keep watching film. And so maybe in that fact, there's something to take away

from these two different quarterbacks, Jones and Stidham. There's just more NFL stuff from Stidham than there is from Jones. And Stidham was running a very un-NFL offense. And so I thought that was interesting, so I just wanted to put that out there. Up next, we're going to do some quick stuff just to close out the show of the week on Jared Stidham's fit in the Patriots offense. That's ahead to close out another great week of shows here on Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Friday installment of the Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Friday installment

of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And before we sort of get into Jarrett Stidham and scheme fit usage and things like that, I do want to thank everybody for listening to all the shows throughout the draft process. We closed out April, had one of our biggest months yet here at the show. And that's, you know, we've had Super Bowl runs and playoff runs, but this draft season, you guys crushed it as listeners.

I can't thank you enough for listening to the show, for spreading the word about the show. A lot of you have joined the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, and I'm excited to see some new names in there, some great new contributors, people talking about the Patriots all the time. I love seeing that. I love the interaction with all of you on a day-to-day basis.

It's truly the best part about doing the show is to interact with all of you, the listeners. And we had John Lamarakis on the day of the draft, and I'm hoping to maybe get some more listeners on to talk about the Patriots, go through some stuff. So I'm excited about the future of the show. Everything's trending in the right direction. We'd love seeing that. If you could continue to spread the word about the show, I mean,

the world to me, to get more listeners, the more people that listen, the better. And the more stuff I can do here on the show. So I again, thank all of you. Some of you have probably seen a tweet out for me on the timeline,

you know, about opportunities and looking for more stuff to take on. Nothing to worry about. Just look, this is what I do. And the more work I can take on, the more places I can write, the better the all-around product will be. And so I've seen some of you share that tweet around. And again, I do appreciate you. if you happen to be someone listening to the show who knows of a potential writing opportunity, a gig, or something about quarterbacks or X's and O's or film or Toto, whatever.

Keep your boy in mind. Let's close out the show of the week. Just a couple of words on Jarrett Stidham and a scheme fit. And I know I've sort of relayed this before, but to sort of reiterate my process, a process that has begun anew for the 2020 class already. I'm doing it a little bit differently. We're doing it via computer this year. No more pen and paper.

Trying to be more detailed, and I'm digging the process so far. But it's a process that does begin now for some quarterbacks that I'll be watching for the first time, for guys like a Nate Stanley or a Justin Herbert or a Kelly Bryant. These are guys that I've already had a year or two of games on. And so I've already got some information on these guys. But the process will begin again. We're looking at these guys over the summer, not for definitive opinions on them, but for baselines, for foundations to see how they develop and to get a sense of where they

are right now as a quarterback. And yes, to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential scheme fits. And it was during that process last year that when I sat down and thought about Jared Stenum in a scheme fit, I thought he was pretty scheme diverse. I thought that when you saw him on film, you saw a quarterback that could do quick game stuff, could do air raid stuff, could do some downfield stuff like we saw at Baylor, and yes, showed you flashes of the ability to function in a time and a rhythm based offense. And over the course of his film and his play last year, my position on that softened a little bit. I was almost left with the impression

and I have it in my notes. When I got done studying him for the senior bowl, scheme fit was just a question mark. I just wasn't sure. And then sort of going back through everything a third or a fourth time as we got as January became February and March, I realized that, again, if you dug into his film and really looked hard enough, you could see examples of him running some choreo concepts. You could see examples of him doing some things on a time and a rhythm based off. And so you still had some of those examples. It just wasn't as clean as I thought it might be this time last year.

But that being said, I do think when now you know his new home and you can see examples of him running Patriots designs, you can see from a trait-based perspective, the manipulation, some of the placement things, some of the decision making, this does seem like a good offensive fit for him. Now that being said, when do we expect to see him play? Probably not anytime soon. I anticipate he will be quarterback three this year. I do think it's fairly likely that he comes in and immediately beats out Danny Atlin for the QB three spot. And if you invest a fourth

round pick in him, I think it's fairly likely that they see something in him that isn't just he's a practice squad guy, he's a body, he's a camp arm, maybe nothing more. They kept Atlin. And so I would imagine that he's sticking on this roster with an eye towards the future. Does he unseat Hoyer for QB2? Probably not. I'd love to see him get the opportunity to try because I think there's something here. And I do want to close with this. And, you know, it's an example

of why we don't sort of die on hills, especially in the summer. But if you were to have asked me, and I said this, you can go back. It's been tweeted out. Matt Waldron and I did an RSP on Jared Stidham where we looked at him

for we spent an hour working through some of his film. At the start of last year, I think we recorded it August, maybe early September before games were played. So we were pretty much looking at his 2017 film.

And both of us came away thinking, look, there's something here. And if things break right, we could be talking about a first-round quarterback. There's a lot of hedges. There's a lot of ifs. There's a lot of qualifiers there. But there was this belief that if things fall into place for him, Jared Stidham has the potential to be a first round draft choice. Now it didn't end up that way, but some of his traits are still there

with him. And so there's something about him as a quarterback where you could see it clicking into place and in an environment where he won't have to play right away and in an environment where he can learn and sit from Tom Brady and learn from Tom Brady, that might be perhaps the ideal situation for any quarterback. I was on the radio in Vancouver, as I am every Thursday

throughout the football season. It's going to be more sporadic here in the offseason in the summer because, look, they've got the NHL and NHL drafts and baseball and other stuff to talk about. And football takes a little bit of a backseat in May and June. But one of the things that they said when we were talking about the Patriots and their draft prospects and drafting Stidham,

in addition to the fact that, hey, that's a rather handsome Twitter header photo you have of you and Jared Stidham, is that they'll probably, it was an off-the-cuff remark, but one of the hosts said, yeah, you know what's going to happen is they're going to bring him along and they'll trade him for a second round pick, because that's what's going to happen. So there's this expectation that they're going to turn Jared Stidham into some sort of asset down the road. Now, whether that's a draft pick via trade or whether that's their future starter

remains to be seen. But I don't think they drafted him just as an afterthought. I think there's a plan in place to give them an opportunity to see what they have in them a year or two down the road. Now, I want to leave you with this. Again, the draft process is so fascinating because it gives us, perhaps more than any other time throughout the calendar year, a window into the minds of every organization and how they feel about their roster both in the short term and in the long term. And with the New England Patriots,

they drafted a quarterback now in the long term. And with the New England Patriots, they drafted a quarterback now in the fourth round. Not late, not early, but in the fourth round. And it gives them an option to now take a year, see what they have in him, before maybe they have to make the definitive call. Because we all know that Tom Brady wants to play until he's 45. And he's about to turn 42 in a month or so. He's out there slanting it at UCLA. I'm getting

texts from people on UCLA staff, oh yeah, he's back. And we all believe that and we know that and we've seen it. The guy just won a Super Bowl. But by drafting Stidham now, you have the opportunity over the next NFL season to evaluate what you have in him and if you like what you see if you believe you've got something to work with

you don't have to address that position next year as people think you might have to given the fact that it's going to be, people hope, the quarterback class that was promised. Again, we're seeing the way too early mocks. We're seeing a lot of quarterbacks mocked in the first round

already. Well, things can change. Jacob East and Brad Kaya, I'm just saying. But if Stidham doesn't seem to have it, if you get through a year with him running scout team, doing things like that, and you've come to the realization that maybe this isn't the guy,

maybe this isn't the quarterback that we thought we were getting, maybe this isn't going to happen with him. Here's what the Patriots currently have in the 2020 draft. A first, a second, a third, a third, and a third. here's what the Patriots currently have in the 2020 draft. A first, a second, a third, a third, and a third. Those last two thirds are projected comp picks. A fourth, a fourth via the Bears. A sixth, two projected sixth round comp picks. A seventh, a seventh, a seventh, and a seventh.

That is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 draft picks. You now have a potential quarterback to develop this year. See what you've got. And if it isn't there and you realize that the Brady decline is here, we've got to get a guy. You have 14 draft picks to play with in next year's draft alone. The ability of organizations to think ahead and to give themselves potential paths, potential outs, potential roads to choose, a myriad of options at their disposal. That's what separates

good teams from great teams and elite teams from everybody else. And the Patriots are an elite team because of the way they give themselves multiple pathways to success and multiple cracks at the apple. 12 draft picks in this draft. They made a lot. Maybe more than we thought.

But they enter next year's draft because of the way they work the comp market and the way they work trades with 14 picks as we sit here right now. And let's throw this out there. You get a mid-season injury before the trading deadline, but you've liked what you've seen so far from Stidham. You can just move some of that draft capital to acquire a player before the deadline. And so they have multiple ways to attack potential problems

because of the capital that they have in next year's draft. And so that's what I want to leave you with. The stint and pick is great at this time because they still have time to evaluate. They have draft capital next year. They could go in a bunch of different ways depending on how things shake out because smart teams save for rainy days.

Speaking of rainy days, that's going to do it here in the D.C. area. I will be back on Monday post-Game of Thrones. I know I've been promising some Game of Thrones talk, but let's just face it. This is a Patriots show. If you want to listen to some Game of Thrones discussion,

Binge Mode is a fantastic podcast. The Rainer is just crushing it. Crushing it with their Game of Thrones coverage this year from the articles, from Talk to Thrones, after the show, Ask the Maester, Jason Concepcion, Mallory Rubin. They're crushing it.

And this is completely unsponsored, like, just off the cuff. I've been listening to their pods, their shows. They've been crushing it. So if you want Game of Thrones talk, go over there. Like, don't listen to me. Listen to them.

Matter of fact, stop. Stop. Just stop. Stop. Just shut this one off. Go listen to them. Okay, bye. I'll see you on Monday. Thank you.