Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots May 9, 2019 - Tape Thursday: Byron Cowart

Episode Date: May 9, 2019

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Hello again everybody and welcome on into a Thursday installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. One of your favorite daily Patriots Podcasts. I don't even know if it's your favorite daily Patriots Podcast. I don't even know if it's the only daily Patriots podcast. I don't even know if it's the only daily Patriots podcast out there anymore. Let's face it. There are a lot of Patriots podcasts, but I'm so glad that you are along for the ride here. It has been a long and wonderful journey this draft season.

We are continuing today our series, Breaking Down on Film, all of the Patriots 2019 draftees. And yes, next week we'll get into the undrafted free agents as well. No stone left unturned here at the Locked On Patriots podcast. Today, Brian Cowart, the Patriots' new defensive lineman and a player that actually did a couple of nice things on tape when I got a chance to actually sit down on Wednesday and watch him. Got a chance to watch his games against Iowa, his game against Texas, his game against, what was the other game I watched?

Michigan State, which was a game I was actually at, but let's face it. When I go to see a game live, I'm not looking for late day three defensive end type players. I was there to see Brian Lewerke. And I left early because I was there to see Brian Lewerke.

Actually, the one and only Kyle Kravis was at the game as well. Ask him sometime about that Maryland-Michigan State game at grinding the tape on the old Twitter machine. But speaking of Twitter, your usual reminder, please do follow me on that lovely website at Mark Schofield. And you can also check out the work at a variety of places, insidethepylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score,

Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and yes, the trio of SB Nation websites, including Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scope show with the one and only Michael J. Kist, and of course, Pat's Pulpit, where yesterday in yesterday's show, we broke down Heldiff Froholt. If you go to Pat's Pulpit right now, you will see an article basically with me breaking them down. All the stuff I talked about is right there for all of you to see. Let's talk Brian Cowart. And

what really sort of jumped out at me was usage at the start. You know, when you see a player get drafted and you wonder about how they're going to fit in, one of the first things you want to do, especially if you have had no exposure to the player before, is see what he was asked to do and then sort of look at the traits. Because one of the knocks on him was sort of a lack of production. And so I wanted to see usage. And what was really interesting watching him is that he spent most of his time head up outside shade or outside the tackle, basically used as an edge defender. But what was interesting about his usage was it almost seemed that his primary job or at least how he interpreted his primary job

was to set the edge was to get outside so many times on tape i saw him say he's out lined up head up or outside say the the right tackle. Okay? Now picture that in your mind. A defensive player, head up or outside, the right tackle of the offense. His first step with his left foot is towards the sideline. He's getting lateral, lateral to the edge and then upfield. He is very concerned with setting the edge and turning things back to the inside. So much so that I think it sacrifices his ability to get upfield, his ability to get that good, quick first step off the line of scrimmage.

If you look at some of the reports on him, for example, Lance Zerline talks about how sometimes slow to get off the line of scrimmage, slow off the ball. And I think that that is technically true, but I do think part of it was he was so concerned with setting the edge and getting that lateral foot, that lateral step, that it hampered his ability to get off the line of scrimmage. And so that was one thing I was very interested to see with him. Another thing that I noticed with him,

he would love, love to sort of work on the backside and stay home. If he sees the play going away from him, he's not very concerned with sort of chasing it down. His primary focus is initially, I'm going to stay home and make sure nothing comes back my way, which is good. You sort of like that. You're not going to expose home and make sure nothing comes back my way which is good you sort of like that you're not going to expose yourself in the defense to some big plays working back towards you so i didn't like to see that now that being said one of the first plays i saw when i threw on the table is him losing contain on a brian lewerke play where he doesn't have enough to chase him down he lets the quarterback get outside of him and the quarterback scrambles for a 10-yard gain.

And what was interesting about that, Lewerke, the Michigan State quarterback, was hurt coming into this game. Now, as for that sort of lack of production, him as a pass rusher, I think, is a work in progress. He doesn't have the most consistent of pass rushing plans. He fails to string together a move or two or even three into a rep. His primary focus as a pass rusher seemed to be, I'm going to head fake and step to the inside and then try to get around you to the edge. And maybe if I remember, I'll use a rip move or a

swim move on you. And that's pretty much it. He doesn't have the ability right now to say, I'm going to put together a plan, I'm going to step up field, and then I'm going to rip to the inside, and if I see that isn't going to work, then I'll spin back to the outside. He needs a better pass rushing plan. That's if he's going to be used as a pass rusher. I don't know if that's going to be his primary usage. We'll talk more about scheme, fit, and the second half of this show.

But I'm curious to see if the Patriots do end up using him on the outside, if he can develop that kind of stuff. Where I really liked him was against the run. For example, play against Michigan State, it takes on a double team, forces the run back into the inside where there's help. Again, so concerned with forcing things to the inside and setting the edge. Has good upper body strength. I saw this again on a play against Michigan State.

Can stack, extend, and lock out the elbows. Has great length. That's one of the things that shows up on tape. And then once he stacks and extends, he has the upper body strength to control the blocker and to disengage and get to the ball carrier. So I like him against the run, against tackles, even against guards when he has a chance to sort of work inside, depending on what they're doing up front defensively.

His game against Iowa, I thought, was perhaps his best game on tape of the three games that I watched. Iowa game was the best. One of the plays that jumped out early, a great play versus outside zone. He stacks the right tackle sets the edge forces the ball carrier to bounce to the inside and then again he's got that offensive tackle locked out with the arms scrapes off and makes a tackle right near the line of scrimmage another play he's point of attack on a counter scrapes off their third tight end who

i don't know his name but it'll probably be a first round tight end by this time next year, makes a tackle at the line of scrimmage. One thing he does need to clean up as a pass rusher, recognition. When you see three one-step drops, forget the rush plan, get the hands up. I saw him a lot of times against Iowa. Iowa uses a ton. I just got done studying Nate Stanley for some summer study. Iowa uses a ton of three and one step drops from the gun, quick game stuff.

There were so many times where he had a chance to knock the ball down if he just got his arms up. As a defensive lineman, you see that quick game, forget you're not going to get home, get up. Don't get it there, get up. Inside shade of left tackle. Stacks the left guard, scrapes off and makes tackle on a gap power design. Again, I love him against the run.

Perhaps my favorite play of his is a red zone play. He gets the legit double team, not a combination block, not where the tackle makes sure that the guard has him and then works to the second level. This is a legit double team at the point of attack in the red zone.

He fights through both players, lower body anchor anchor upper body strength to rip through them and then makes the tackle at the line of scrimmage i love i jumped out of my chair when i saw that play i think that is his best trait working into some of the texas game again you see him early stacking shed and locking out the arms run offense run defense at the point of attack is his strength. So this is why Lance Zerline, this is why some of the guys over at the Draft Network, they opine that you're looking at him as a guy that's going to kick inside. He's probably not.

His best trait, run defense at the point of attack. An incomplete trait on him is the array of pass rushing moves and what he can string together as a pass rusher. So I think if there's a way to use him initially, and we'll talk about this more after this break, it's to stack at the point of attack as a run defender. That's why I'm excited to see him. So up next, we'll talk a little bit more about his potential usage.

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I know you are as excited as I am for that show to come out. I mean, what better way to spend a Friday in May when the weather is probably going to be nice. And let's face it, we've all been there, right? It's getting to be springtime. It's around three o'clock. Maybe you're getting back from lunch. I used to always love when I was working in the office,

taking that late lunch, like going to lunch or like 1.30. And I used to like doing that because then you get back and look, you've only got a couple of hours left before you get to sneak out for the day, go home and forget about going back to the office for at least a couple of hours. But that got to be tough on Fridays because you duck out and we all look, we all take a little bit of a longer lunch

on Fridays than we should. That 50 minutes gets stretched to about 125 or so. And so if you're ducking out at like 130 for lunchtime, you know, and you take maybe an hour and 20, you know, maybe you're talking about getting back into the office at three and let's face it, three o'clock on Friday, you're not opening up something new. You're not starting a new project. Oh, that motion I need to write. Yeah, that's going to wait till Monday. Although I would always delude myself. Oh, I'll take this home and work on the weekend. Anyway, so let's face it. It might be, you know, a Friday and you're looking to duck out. What better way to spend that last, say, hour or so at the office than elicited to some chucklehead talk about a punter? But that's what's on tap for Friday's show.

We're going to talk, you know, Jake Bailey and Ken Webster. And on Monday, we'll do the undrafted free agents. So that's what you've got to look forward to up here at the Locked On Patriots podcast. Now let's talk about Brian Coward and sort of some usage. And I think looking at him on tape, yeah, he was a guy that was used as an edge defender in college,

but I don't think that's his best usage when it comes to the National Football League. I think his best usage is on the interior. I think you're looking at a situation where he isn't a guy that's going to be in their pass rushing plans. They got that guy in Chase Winovich. He's Lawrence Guy insurance. He's Mike Pennell insurance. Frankly, he's probably Adam Butler insurance because I think if you're sitting here right now and looking at your base defense say your base four down lineman situation you're looking Dietrich Wise and Michael Bennett on the outside you're looking at Lawrence Guy and Mike Pennell on the inside probably with Butler to rotate in behind them and then probably

your third or fourth defensive tackle is Cower and I think that's all you can reasonably expect from him. I don't see him with the guys that they have being used as a pure pass rusher off the edge. That's not his best role. His best role is in the interior at the point of attack. I want to see him in some heavy packages, some goal line stuff, some short yardage stuff. I wouldn't mind a short yardage package where, yes, in that sort of limited situation maybe you do see him on the tackles you know maybe you do see him head up on a tackle with Butler and I mean with Guy and Pennell inside and then you've got your edge guys more on the outside over the tight ends but other than that I don't think pass rush edge rusher is his role his role is run defense taking on blocks setting the point of

attack forcing stuff back to the inside and getting some interior push there's upper body strength to him and what i think works for him as a pass rusher is this. One of the things that Lance Zerline noted was bull rush potential. And so I wouldn't mind seeing him kicked inside against guards, using some bull rush stuff against them. And there, in those situations, I think his lack of a pass rush plan might actually work because you could see him, okay, going up against tackles that are used to some quicker guys, that are used to guys that get off the line better, that are used to guys with a variety of pass rushing plans. His limitations as a pass rusher would work against him.

Against some guards? I could see some situations where he might get himself some sacks here or there because, okay, maybe his array of pass rusher moves or lack thereof isn't going to work on the outside against experienced tackles when it comes to pass rush and pass pro. It could work on the interior. It could work up against guards. So I think that's his role. I want to see him on guards.

I want to see him when they go four-man front situations, head up or outside shade or inside shade, depending on the front that they're playing, of guards. I don't want to see him outside on the tackles unless it's a short yardage defense situation. And that's when he's going to be kicked outside a bit. They're a little bit heavier up front and he's still going to have edge defenders to the outside of him. I want to see him as a run defender. I think there is room for growth here. I think there are some things that he brings to the table as a prospect. Like, I don't think it's a sure thing at all. Like, obviously, of all the prospects we've talked about, I've been really excited about everybody to this point. Here, it's a more cautious, I don't even know if I'd go as

far as to say cautious optimism. I think there's a path where he could be a rotational player for the Patriots. But now that we're getting into this point of the draft, that's kind of what you're looking for anyway. That's what you're hoping for. A home run pick out of this point of the draft is probably a guy that's a rotational player during his first contract. I think he could do that.

I just think we need to sort of set the expectations and the usage expectations, perhaps more importantly, when we start to think about where he's going to contribute. I think he's a rotational interior defender with some ability to get some pass rush stuff against guards. I don't think he's refined to the point where he could be an outside edge rusher. Now, maybe he gets there at some point, but for right now, that's where I expect him. So that's sort of a look at Brian Cowart.

Hope you enjoyed the show. Again, tomorrow we're talking punter, we're talking corner, and then on Monday's show some UDFA talk. As always, please, if you'd like an invitation to the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, you can hit me up for that invitation at Mark Schofield on Twitter. You could also send me an email, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Got some new faces in there. People talking all the time.

Yes, even games of throw and talk. We have a dedicated channel for that. But it is a super fun way to connect with other Patriots fans. People are talking about some of their favorite podcasts. In addition to this one, this show still gets some love. After all, I mean, that would be a blow to the ego. You know, if I'm sitting there looking through the lockdown Patriots Slack channel, everybody's like crushing the pod.

That would be a tough one. But, you know if again you like that invite you can check that out also again please check out support the work variety of places insidethepylon.com pro football weekly matt wallerman's rookie scouting portfolio and a bunch of other places again please if you could some reviews itunes five stars only now say what you want i i read all the reviews and people have had some criticism and I've tried to get better, trying to get better every day. So that will do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow.

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