Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 6, 2019 - Tape Monday: Damien Harris

Episode Date: May 6, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a Monday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Monday, May 6th, 2019. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Those of you who do partake in the throne game, as it were, I hope you enjoyed Sunday night's episode. I hope you were able to avoid the spoilers. Woke up Sunday morning, fired up the Twitter machine, and people were posting videos. People were posting like whole on screenshots of Reddit threads. It was a minefield if you're trying to avoid game of

thrones spoilers out there on sunday the the timeline is dark and full of terrors i hope you were able to avoid it i'll be able to enjoy the episode for those of you that don't care about game of thrones i apologize for the last 25 seconds of your life what we're going to do today we're going to continue our series on the patriots draft picks, putting them all under the film microscope. We've talked so far about Nikhil Harry, Juwan Williams. We've talked Chase Winovich. We did Jared Stidham, slightly out of order on last Friday's show. What we're going to do today, get back into the order of their draft selections. We're going to talk Damian Harris, the running back from Alabama, a player I was excited to put under the film microscope. But before we do all of that, your usual reminders here at the start.

Please follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at a variety of websites, including InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and that trio of SB Nation websites, including Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scosio with the venerable Michael J. Kist, and, of course, Pat's Pulpit. Let's dive into Damian Harris. And I kind of want to take it out of order just a little bit

because what interests me about this draft pick is the potential he has as an every down back in the National Football League. And we'll talk a little bit more about potential scheme usage with him in the second part of the show. But I want to start with him, first off, as a receiver, believe it or not. And I think at the outset, and we'll talk about more specific route tree stuff in a minute, but he can get you swings, he can get a minute but he can get you swings he can get you flats he can get you check downs he can give you option routes out of the backfield those are things that the Patriots obviously ask their running backs to do particularly option

routes I was excited to see him in the SEC championship game very first play of the game running an option route out of the backfield working up to the linebacker breaking off of him reading and breaking and making a decision that's sort of advanced route running for a running back so i was excited to see that what's fascinating about him and there's a couple of videos that i put on the twitter timeline that you can check out of Damian Harris in pass protection. And this was one of the areas that we wondered about with Sonny Michelle when he was picked last year. Would the Patriots trust him in pass protection situations? Well, what's interesting because, you know, last year, Georgia, or two years ago, I guess, Georgia did not ask him to do too much in terms of pass protection.

Alabama tasked Damian Harris with doing a lot in pass protection. You can see, of course, chip and release. Basic chip, the edge defender, then get into your route. So you see a lot of him chipping flat, a couple of chip and then deep swing. So that's kind of how you have to chip and then get back behind the line of scrimmage. But they tasked him with doing that, which was good. But the two plays that I put on the timeline, I think, sort of really show outstanding awareness, outstanding mental processing,

and outstanding willingness from a running back in pass protection. The first one is a play where you see two blitzers. Both linebackers come. One comes to the outside, outside the right tackle, and the other sort of comes into the big B gap between the right guard and the right tackle. And he's Damian Harris in the backfield in a shotgun formation. Now he's going to be helping protect Tua's blind side

because let's remember here, Tua is a left-handed quarterback. And so the first linebacker goes to the outside, and Harris is tracking him. Harris is watching him, and he sees that the right tackle sort of takes him. And then that backside linebacker comes and blitzes through that B-gap, and Harris, you can see it. You can tell by the stripe on his helmet. He's tracking the one linebacker to the outside. He sees the second linebacker come, steps up and stones him.

Just an incredible job of execution from the running back. And I loved seeing that play. Another play that I saw was against the Citadel. The first one was a clay against Missouri. This one's against the Citadel. The first one was in clay against Missouri. This one's against the Citadel. And he's carrying out a run fake, a fake at the mesh point where they're in the shotgun. He's standing to the right of the side of the quarterback. They carry out the mesh fake. So he's now going from, say, behind the right tackle. Now he's over behind the center, closing in as he's moving to getting behind the left guard. And again, this time the defense citadel, they blitz a linebacker through that right side B gap,

trying to get to his blind side between the right guard and the right tackle. So Harris is moving away from this. But he has the presence of mind and the awareness to see that blitz coming. And once he carries out that run fake to immediately peel back, stone that blitz and linebacker just a few steps in front of Tua, and he gives Tua just enough time to drop a dime down the right sideline for a near touchdown. Just two plays.

But I was, dare we say, overjoyed at seeing Damian Harris carry out pass protection responsibilities like that. As a runner, he's obviously more Sonny Michel than, say, James White. He's a north-south runner. Diverse schematically. You'll see him in gap or power type designs where he's either attacking a hole or filling behind blockers and he does a very good job at reading blockers they will do some pin and pull stuff with him alabama and get him to the edge on power

designs where he's following a pair of blockers or sometimes just some power some trap stuff where he's following one he has very good feel and awareness for following blockers, letting them get to their blocking assignment and then cutting off of them. He helps set up blocks as well with his path, with his angle. But in zone type stuff, he's very decisive. He doesn't hesitate. He's not Le'Veon Bell. He's not sort of waiting back there and picking his spot. He sees the't get him to the ground.

Weak tackle attempts don't get him to the ground. You've got to really wrap him up. Sometimes you need to rally to the football to get him to the ground. He finishes most runs, if not all runs, through contact. As a receiver, I want to come back to that for a second. Catches with his hands. One step and gets upfield a couple plays against arkansas against missouri defenders had poor angles and arm tackle attempts after he makes a reception

in the flat it's one cut and go upfield now if there are some things that he sort of needs to clean up on or perhaps doesn't bring to the table let's talk about one area that he needs to clean up. He's a leaner. He's a pre-snap leaner. If he's getting the ball, or potentially getting the ball, say on a zone read type thing, you will see him leaning forward almost to the point where it should have been flagged. Saw this a couple of times against Arkansas,

a couple of times against Missouri, a couple of times against Georgia in the SEC Championship game. He caught leaning forward almost to the point where it should be flagged. And especially if he's going to be involved as a ball carrier. That's a tell that's something

that he needs to clean up on. Also, he doesn't have a ton of burst. He's got enough, but he doesn't have a second of burst like he's got enough but he doesn't have sort of a second gear or launch speed to really sort of run away from people and so he'll he's not going to hit a ton of home runs but he's a decisive enough ball carrier that he's going to get you you know if there's a chance to get eight he'll probably get you nine or ten but he's not going to turn that you know eight into 40 or 50 but he's also not going to turn what could have been four or five into a minus two or minus three because he's not going to dance he's going to see that glint that hole and he's going to run through smoke remember at the start of sony michelle's career last year there was a

concern that he wasn't identifying holes i think he can can do it. I think he can do that early. He's not going to have a situation where you're waiting for him to get up to speed for the NFL game. He might miss a couple of blocks. He's a willing blocker, but sometimes they would use him as a lead blocker. They did some things with Jalen Hurts on ender rounds, and he was the lead blocker, willing blocker in those situations. If he misses an initial block, whether in pass protection or as a lead blocker, he will make sure he gets that block finished somehow. There was a play against Georgia where he misses an A-gap blitzer.

Tua does a good job of stepping up. Harris peels back and finishes him off. So he misses the initial block, but he's got that competitive toughness and will finish his assignment. So that's sort of a film review of him. Up next, I'm going to talk about how I think the Patriots will use him as a rookie. That's ahead on this Monday installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Sofio back with you now, working our way through Damian Harris.

We just talked about some of his film, the Patriots' new running back from the University of Alabama. Now I want to talk about the ways the Patriots could use Harris as a rookie in his upcoming season here in the National Football League. And I want to start with the pass game. I know I talked about pass protection and some of the routes that he can run. I'm looking at the Patriots playbook right now, or a recent version of the Patriots playbook right now or a recent version of the Patriots playbook and at the start of their past game section they have a huge section on just routes routes by position routes by alignment etc etc etc so I've got the section on backfield routes up and I want to work through a couple where I think he's already shown he can give them as a rookie. For example, Chip M, which is described as a blitz pickup route. Blitz pickup, I'm just reading from it right now. Blitz pickup, then help tackle to his outside on

the defensive end and release on an abbreviated flare, which is a short little swing type route. Coaching point, into the boundary, inside edge, top of numbers. Into the field, split the hash in the numbers. That's your aiming point. That's what you want to aim for. So if you're running this towards the short side of the field, you want to get basically to the top of the numbers. If you're running it to the wide side of the field, you want to split the hash in the numbers.

So that gives you a visual on how deep, how abbreviated this route is. Then there's what they call chip flare. Same kind of thing. Blitz pickup that helped the tackle to his outside on the defensive's what they call chip flare. Same kind of thing. Blitz pickup that help the tackle to his outside on the defensive end and release on a flare. Coaching point. You want to catch the ball on the numbers and no deeper than one yard behind the line of scrimmage. So it's a really shallow type route. You're not getting that deep. And then there's what they call read. Blitz pickup. So that's your initial responsibility on all of these so far. Blitz

pickup then. Blitz pickup then. So here on read. Blitz pickup, then release outside and stem to four yards. At the top of the stem, you must break out or turn out and sit. Versus zone, you're going to turn out and sit. Versus man to man, break out towards the sideline off your inside foot. Coaching point, if the flat is unoccupied, take it. Coaching point, alert for trap corner, cover two flat plays. No wider than inside edge of the numbers. And so you don't want to get deeper than the top of the numbers.

Then there's diagonal, which is basically their flat route. Blitz pickup, and then release outside towards the sideline, looking over your outside shoulder. Coaching point, you must get to three yards. Coaching point, if you do not have the football by the time you're five yards from the sideline, turn to the quarterback and expect the ball on your upfield shoulder. So it basically becomes an out and up. Versus a trap corner, you're going to hook up on the numbers. So if you see that corner trapping you, you stop and look for the ball. Two more routes, angle and ram. Angle, free release, so there's no pass protection responsibility. Free release outside and sell the diagonal route, which is their flat route. Plant your outside foot two yards outside the tight end or a ghost

tight end, which means there's no tight end. So two yards outside of the tight end or where the tight end would be and two yards downfield coming under the defender at a 45 degree angle. Coaching point, catch the ball outside the near hash. Coaching point, pull out if walled off by an inside defender. What that means, and they show it on the route, if you get walled off, if the inside defender basically squats and takes away this route, then you just break to the outside. They call that pulling off. And then finally, ram. Free release. Again, no blitz responsibility here. To the seam and attack the seam or seam defender. Get on the toes of the defender and break across his face. So it's like

that angle route again. You get on his toes and you come across his face. But if you cannot get across his face, you must go behind him. You cannot pull out. So this will tell you that elsewhere on this play, there are going to be people to the flat to the outside. So you cannot pull out. You either go in front of him or over the top of him. So those are some routes where I think immediately, immediately, he can come in and run those. Now, in terms of running the football with Damian Harris, I think he is a schematically diverse running back. I think you can do both gap and power stuff as well as zone stuff with him. Now, some specific plays from New England's playbook.

For example, I think New England used their sprint series with him. Sprint 38, sprint 39. That's basically their outside zone series. Coaching point for the running back is this. Open a 45-degree angle and cross over. Key the tight ends block. Aim and point outside hip of the tight end. So you're basically aiming for the tight end, but you're reading and reacting.

And we know he's got good vision as a ball carrier. And so I think he can give you the outside zone stuff. Their sprint series. They also have sprint 38, sprint 39 boss, which is a two-back design where the fullback is sort of leading to you, leading the running back to the edge. I think he could give you that behind James Devlin. I think he can give you their jab series, which is a misdirection series.

The quarterback opens away from the play number and hands off at the aiming point. This is a power series. For example, jab 32. It's a base block misdirection run. That's how they call it. That's how they describe it in the playbook. I mean, the halfback's responsibilities here. Start run action.

Read first covered lineman to the outside read his inside out so you're reading inside to outside on this play and that's what the running back is tasked with doing there's also their jab bend series which is a misdirection again where you start and you really bend it back so you start run action read the first covered lineman to the onside. Read his inside out. Be sensitive to the alignment of the will under the mic. Excuse me. Be sensitive to the alignment of the will in under fronts or the mic in over fronts.

I'm not going to get too much into the weeds. But you're basically, again, angling this back towards almost the tackle side. So he can give you this stuff. He can give you inside zone as well. And so I think they could use him as a running back right away. I don't know if he's, I'd say as a runner, as a pure runner, he's basically a Sonny Michel. Maybe not as talented, doesn't have as much burst, but that's what you're getting.

It's sort of a lesser model Sonny Michel. But he gives you more in the pass game. I don't think there will be that sort of play script, usage, askew situation that we had with Sonny Michel where it was if you knew Michel was in the game, they were running the ball. I think it's a little bit different with Damian Harris because he can give you stuff as a receiver he can give you pass bro they trusted him Alabama 36 situations 30 long situations he

was in the game and so I think he can give you that as a rookie the one thing that I've been kicking around in my head obviously we've been thinking this offseason, how are they going to replace Gronk? Are we going to see a lot more two running back situations? Are we going to see a lot of 21 where it's maybe Devlin and Michelle, maybe Devlin and Harris? Are we going to see a situation where, dare we say, we see some 20 more than we thought where it's just two

running backs you could see a situation with maybe harris and white because harris can give you some of that between the tackle stuff and some pass pro stuff and then white you can move around do we see 30 where it's maybe harris White, and Devlin. Harris, Michelle, and Devlin. So are they going to use Harris as a small part of tight end replacement? It's just something I was thinking about the past couple of days. It's something I'm going to be watching for. Are we going to see more multi-running back packages this year

as a way to help replace what they lost in Gronkowski so something to think about but I like this pick in a sense I think it gives him some Michelle backstop some hedge there I like him on film I think Belichick's gonna like him Jeff Farrer um over at inside the pylon when I was tweeting out some of these video clips which again again, you can see on the timeline, he responded, Bill is going to love him, and I think you will too.

And that's kind of how I feel about him. I think this is that kind of player that can contribute more, maybe flew under the radar a bit, not a home run hitter, but I think the Patriots are going to find a way to use him and like him. So that's our look at Damian Harris.

Tomorrow, Yannick Jus will talk about his game against TCU. I really watched a bunch of his stuff, but I want to just talk about his outing against TCU. You'll know why tomorrow. You can probably figure it out. But that's tomorrow. We're going to put today's show to bed.

Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you