Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 22, 2018 - Thanksgiving Take Thursday

Episode Date: November 22, 2018

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Hello and happy Thanksgiving, friends. Welcome on into a special Thanksgiving Take Thursday installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. I do want to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all of my listeners in the United States who are celebrating Thanksgiving today. Whether you're in the car on the way to Grandma's house, whether you're home getting the turkey started, wherever you're at, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I hope you enjoy some football. And I just wanted to hop on the microphone for a couple minutes here and just give you something to listen to

while you're going about your day, whether it's here in the States celebrating Thanksgiving or elsewhere around the world and it's just another day that you're trying to get by and you need a little something to listen to, well, I'm here to help you out at least for the next 15, 20 minutes or so. What we're going to do today, our usual Take Thursday stuff, we're going to take some questions from listeners. I can tell from the questions that got submitted that people are looking forward to the future on a day where you traditionally look back and give some thanks for what you've enjoyed

over the past year or so, but we're going to address those questions and get into some more Thanksgiving-related stuff a little bit later. But before we do all that, a reminder to please follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, FootballGuys.com, yes, FootballGuys.com, where I contribute to the staff roundtable every now and again. You'll hear some thoughts or read some thoughts from me this week

on guys like Lamar Jackson, Kenny Galladay, and how to prepare for a playoff push if you are lucky enough to be in that position as a fantasy football guy or girl. And I'm lucky enough to be in that position this year on a couple of teams. Thank you so much, Alvin Kamara. I got in an auction league last year, a keeper league. I signed Alvin Kamara off waivers. So he didn't cost me anything last year.

He cost me a dollar this year. Smartest decision I ever made. Other than marry my wife, of course. Let's get into it now. And we're going to start with a question from our great friend John Lemarakis, at J-O-H-N-L-I-M-B-E-R-A-K-I-S on Twitter. Please, please, please follow John.

Let me just double check that, because sometimes I screw up his ad, and I don't like to do that, because I want to make sure that you do follow the people who are kind enough to get in some questions. It's J-O-H-N-L-I-M-B-E-R-K-I-S. And he asks, question for our future podcast. What do you think Trent Brown and Trey Flowers will get contract-wise? This scares me a lot. Short answer is, it scares me too, because those guys are cheap right now.

Let's start, for example, with Trey Flowers. Trey Flowers right now, his base contract for 2018, which is the final year he's under contract with New England, $1,046,733 that's it and he is an unrestricted free agent next season so if the Patriots want to bring him back for 2019 they're probably going to have to offer him a little bit more than that so why don't we take a look at what other 4-3

defensive ends are being paid right now let's just take a look. Let's pull that up here. Let's pull that. Oh, oh boy. Yeah, that's a lot of money. For example, in terms of, let's do it this way. As I said, this year, Trey Flowers, his base salary is $1.9 million. Okay? You look at a player like, let's try to find a comparable type player here.

Let's say Adrian Claiborne. How about that? We've seen Adrian Claiborne. How about that? We've seen Adrian Claiborne this year. Let's see what he's making this year. Adrian Claiborne's base salary is $1.5 million, which is guaranteed, and a prorated $2 million bonus with a cap number of $4 million. That's for 2018. Next year, his base salary bumps up to $3.5 million

with a prorated bonus of $2 million, also a roster bonus of half a million dollars for a total number of $6 million. So you'd have to think if you're Trey Flowers, you're going to want at least Adrian Claiborne money and probably more. Which brings us back to the list of 4 three defensive ends let's look at somebody who's getting a little bit more money say how about this cassius marsh his base salary this year

1.1 million plus guaranteed 3.1 million total base salary 4.2 million plus a roster bonus of 2 million 300 000 next year cassius marsh is getting 3.2 million, plus a roster bonus of $2,300,000. Next year, Cassidy's March is getting $3.8 million. So you can see where I'm going with this. Trey Flowers is going to be expensive, and that's comparing him to players that he's probably better than. You know, if you want to bump it up a little bit, I'm not saying he's Jason Pierre Paul, but this year the Bucks are paying Jason Pierre Paul $11 million.

Next year it's $13 million. I think you're looking at Petre Flowers probably something at least in the 5 to7, 5-8 range, at least. Probably more given how intelligent of a player he is. We've seen that show up on tape time and time again. And so he's going to be expensive to bring back. And in terms of a jump from what he's being paid now to what he's being paid down the road, it's going to be a big one. But perhaps not as big as Trent Brown, who was the other player that John asked about. Trent Brown right now,

his salary is not a lot, especially for a left tackle in the national football league. His base salary, $1.9 million. That's it. No bonuses, nothing. and he's just 25 you look at other left tackles other left tackles that aren't even that good and you can see that there's going to be a bump a big one for example we will start with another Patriots comparison. Isaiah Wynn, obviously a first round pick. His base salary doesn't get over $2 million until 2021. But you get to imagine when Trent Brown would want at least that. You know, at least $2 million. Get him on par with Isaiah Wynn.

But let's keep going. Let's look at more veteran type players. Matt Khalil for the Panthers, who gets beaten up all the time. People always talk about him not being a great left tackle. Next year, $7 million. 2020, $10 million. The year after that, $10.5 million.

David Bacardi for the Packers. 27-year-old left tackle. This year, it's a bit of a split salary type situation. Again, $1 million plus $6 million guaranteed. Next year, $8.5 million. The year after that, $10 million. So again, I think with Trent Brown, you're probably going to see that bump

to at least the 5 or 8 million range, something in there at least. And that's if you're trying to do it cheap. I think he's probably going to want more than that. And so both of those players are going to be expensive to bring back, going to be a difficult situation. Between the two,

I'd imagine that they're more inclined to bring back. Going to be a difficult situation. Between the two, I'd imagine that they're more inclined to bring back Flowers than Brown, given the addition of Isaiah Wynn, but that could change. And I haven't started diving into edge rushers versus offensive tackles in the draft yet, but I know our great friends over

at Locked On NFL Draft or the Draft Network might have some thoughts on that. So you might want to listen to Trevor Sykema, John Ledyard, to get a feel on those positions in the draft class. Obviously, I've been spending most of my time on quarterbacks, which has driven me to... Well, it's given me some gray hairs. Let's put it that way. But that's a quick look at Trey Flowers, Trent Brown, both of those players playing for cheap this year. Going to get big bucks next year. I'd expect between the two, Flowers is probably the guy that comes back, but who knows.

Up next, a question about other free agents that the Patriots might want to retain for the 2019 season. And a little bit later, some sort of off-the-wall type stuff about Thanksgiving. That's ahead on this Take Thursday installment installment of the locked on patriots podcast mark scoffield back with you now on this thanksgiving take thursday installment of the locked on patriots podcast and we're going to get into some additional free agency type stuff here. And a question from one of our great listeners from across the pond, at Reluctant, R-E-L-U-C-T-A-N-T underscore trade

on Twitter. He asks, a question for Thursday's episode. At the end of the year, the team has a few important players up for contract renewal. Where and who would you prioritize spending limited cap space on? And who is the most vulnerable to be cut to make more room? McCourty, Hogan, Allen.

Great content as always. And I thank you, my friend, for the question from Dublin, Ireland. Again, it's just fantastic to have people around the world listen to the show. It brings me such joy. Let's look at who the Patriots have as free agents next year. And it's a pretty long list. Steven Gustavski, Coral Patterson, Chris Hogan, Danny Shelton, Jason McCourty, Ryan Allen, Malcolm Brown, Jeremy Hill,

Adrian Waddle, Philip Dorsett, Eric Rowe, John Simon, Ramon Humber, Josh Gordon, Matt Tobin, Brian Schwenke, Albert McClellan, Elric John, the aforementioned Flowers and Brown, Jonathan Jones, and Cody Hollister. Now, I think Gostowski is probably back. I think Flowers is probably back. And I think everybody else on this list might want to start making some plans.

Because when you look at this list, there isn't a lot that really jumps out at me that's a must-retain type player. Patterson's certainly been excited at times. He's shown an admirable job to fill in at the running back spot when he had some injuries, but I'm not sure that you need to move heaven and earth to bring him back. Chris Hogan has fallen off. You know, I keep thinking, every time I see Chris Hogan, I think of our great friend Dave Archibald, at Dave Archibald on Twitter and the Locked On Patriots Slack channel saying we need to change his nickname to the post office because he's never open. Danny Shelton is an interesting one. I think it depends on between him and Malcolm Brown.

You're probably just printing one back Given how much sub package stuff the Patriots do Given how much stuff they do with kicking edge defenders inside I'm not sure you need both of those guys on the roster So they probably pick one, keep one, let the other one go Jason McCourty I think, JC Jackson And some of the other younger defensive backs that they've got on this roster that they kept, he's probably going to be able to move on, going to be allowed to move on.

But Adrian Waddell's an interesting one because what they do with Trent Brown might sort of move that decision. You know, if they decide to move on from Trent Brown, then you probably bring Waddell back as an extra swing tackle again, and you hope Isaiah Wynn can hold down the left tackle spot and you hope Marcus Cannon can stay healthy. Josh Gordon is a name that's probably going to get a lot of interest. He's a restricted free agent.

Everybody else we've talked about so far is an unrestricted free agent. So that might impact the decision whether to try to retain him or not because he could get some compensation for him if he signs elsewhere. So they probably do make a move at least to try to sign him. And then if not, you get something in return. Similar situation there with Jonathan Jones. Maybe they try to bring Jones back as well and you get something for him if he moves on. But everybody else, I think it's kind of, I don't want to say expendable because that's a horrible way to talk about human beings that are playing something for your enjoyment. But there are guys from sort of a roster construction standpoint that you don't really need to go out of your way to bring back.

So that's kind of where I'd put it. I mean, I don't think it's a really deep list here in terms of guys that you want to do everything you can to bring back into the organization. I think. Obviously, Chris Hogan was talking about it this week, sort of his struggles on the field. And, well, I think he can see sort of the handwriting on the wall. Another quick question to get to. Our great friend, Michael Kist.

First, I haven't even told you people about this. Michael and I are now hosting the QB Scosho, a part of Bleeding Green Nation, where I talk about the Eagles quarterbacks, more specifically who they're going to be going up against. And you might want to give that a listen. We talk some historical references. We talk some video game stuff.

You can check that out over at bleedinggreennation.com. He asks, how does Bill typically go after rookie quarterbacks from a blitzing perspective? And this is sort of one of those philosophical debates when you talk about sort of how to go after a rookie quarterback. Do you blitz him? Do you play coverage? How do you handle it? A lot of people like to blitz rookie quarterbacks

because you want to sort of speed up their thought process. But I've always been of the mind that when you do that, you're always making the decisions easier for them. Because if you just drop seven or eight into coverage and you show different coverage looks, he's got to think a little bit more. And when a rookie quarterback thinks, chances are he's dead because they're not good at thinking yet. But if you blitz, you give him a hot read.

You give him no decisions to make. He doesn't have to think. It's like, oh, I get a blitz here. This is why blitz, you give him a hot read. You give him no decisions to make. He doesn't have to think. It's like, oh, I get a blitz here. This is why I throw it. That's what I do when I'm pressured. I check it down. I throw the pop route to the tight end. I throw the smoke route. And I think Belichick, for the most part, sort of shares that sentiment. You don't see him, the Patriots don't blitz a ton. You know, They don't blitz a ton to begin with. When they do it, they typically bring slot corner blitzes here and there. Sparingly, I'd say. More often than not, you're seeing cross blitzes from the linebackers,

you're seeing mug looks from the A-gaps, and one of them coming, usually not both of them, sometimes both of them. And then you're seeing more than anything else, you're seeing twist stuff up front. Patriots like to use twist more than anything else because sometimes you can bait the quarterback into running into a sack.

A great example is a piece I did, I think early week one or week two, Dallas versus Carolina over at the score where Carolina showed Dallas a double tackle and exchange stunt. Dak Prescott thinks he sees grass in front of him, but he runs into the loopers coming around. And so I think more than anything else, you see sort of that restricted, you know, that stunt game up front.

So that's how they typically do that. They don't blitz so much as, like I said, use twist games and things like that. So thanks to our good friend Michael for the question. I will see you a little bit later when we record the QBsco show. Up next, some Thanksgiving-related stuff that you guys sent in,

as well as some thoughts of my own about the holiday and about hosting the show and we'll wrap it up. Thanks so much for listening to this Take Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back with you now

to close out this Thanksgiving Take Thursday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Last question we got in comes to me from my good friend Bryce Rossler. He's on Twitter at B-T-R-O-S-S-L-E-R. He's somebody that great football mind. You definitely should be following him. Does a lot of work for the Lions Wire.

Working over at Sports Info Solutions right now. If you're looking to, you know, maybe you out there listening to the show, maybe you have connections to a sports media outlet that might want to hire somebody, give my boy Bryce a look. Anyway, he asks, and it's a very interesting question, something that's near and dear to the hearts of many Patriots fans and fans of other teams also, what do you make of the Matt Patricia situation? And obviously, he asked that question because he covers the lines for a living. Well, partially for a living.

And it's an interesting one because we've seen so many times the sort of coaches off the Belichick tree sort of stumble a little bit when they get out from under the umbrella. And I think it sort of speaks to the fact that this is still a Bill Belichick organization. And when you sort of get away from the nest, so to speak,

you'll have your own struggles. I think Patricia's kind of finding it a little bit hard to be Bill Belichick when you're not Bill Belichick. And what I mean by that is you see some of his interactions with the media. He practiced in the snow last week. And when he was asked about it at the next press conference, he referenced all the head coaches in the room trying to push back on the media members from Detroit, trying to ask them some questions and do their jobs. And it's sort of hard to have

that sort of gruff exterior with the media and have that push back to the media when your name isn't Bill Belichick and you haven't won multiple Super Bowls as a head coach and you haven't established yourself as that type of person. I think he's trying to find his way through it as other former Patriots assistants, whether it's Charlie Weiss, the head coaching jobs that he had, Romeo Cronell, Josh McDaniels, of course. Bill O'Brien has had some success with Houston, getting them to the playoffs and stuff, but probably not the level of success that Houston Texans fans would like.

And so I think that's a real thing. Getting away from Bill Belichick and having to do things on your own sometimes is tough. And it probably speaks to how much Bill Belichick and having to do things on your own sometimes is tough. It probably speaks to how much Bill Belichick is involved in the day-to-day operations of that team. You can see that play itself out. We talk a lot about Brian Flores and how he

adapted to life as the defensive play caller, but you watch Showtime, you watch the NFL Network, you see mic'd up segments when he's the one talking to the defense when they come off the field, Bill Belichick is. He's the one that's going over things with them when they come off the field. And so it still seems like it's a Bill Belichick defense.

And you can't tell me he doesn't have a ton of input there. And so if you're now stepping out from under that shadow, and now you've got to get your hands into everything, it might be tough. Now, there's probably ways that guys can do it. You look at the Sean McVay model and say, if Josh McDaniels finally decides that, look, I'm going to go move on and do my own thing, you've got to believe that he's going to find his Wade Phillips and say, look, the defense, that's you.

When the defense is on the field, I'm going to have my back to the field because I'm going to be talking to the quarterback. You go do it And maybe that's something similar to Nat Nagy and Vic Fangio Defense is your game man I'm going to take care of the offense and our quarterback So that's kind of where I am on that Let's close this out now

With some thoughts on Thanksgiving By the time you're listening to this Maybe you've got your hands in the bird and you're getting it stuffed um do know that i'll probably have been up for hours because i don't want to say i handle all the cooking um but i handle a lot of it i do the turkey i do and our family we're incredibly lucky because both my parents and my wife's parents live in the area as well down here in the DC area. And so we get the families together, my wife and I, we host. We make both stuffings. You know, my family growing up in the Northeast, Italian kid, Boston area,

you know, the Italian sausage stuffing, that's what I grew up on. My wife from the Midwest, born in Nebraska, raised in Illinois. They do it a little differently, water chestnuts, raisins. But when we first sort of got the families together a while ago, we made both stuffings and everybody really liked my wife's side, which puzzled me, troubled me a bit because we're giving up on that.

So we still make both. So I'll be making the Italian sausage stuffing. Then we'll make the other one in the morning. That goes in the bird. The sausage and stuffing gets baked, but we still make both. Doing some braised cabbage this year. Some Tagos Algot, which are basically, they turn into elasticky mashed potatoes with like, I think it's like five pounds of cheese melted in there.

Excited about that. We try some new things each year. But since it is a day about thanks, I'm going to get sappy for a second because I'm grateful that I get to do what I do. I get to talk and write and opine about football. I get to spend 20, 25, 30 minutes a day with all of you. And I'm incredibly lucky and blessed to be able to do that. And I know sometimes that life can be tough, life can be hard.

Believe me, I know that full well. I think back to my days as a lawyer when perhaps the only respite and breaks that I got from the grind were the moments of solitude on the train or driving to a court appearance I didn't want to go to. I would crave listening to Tony Conris' radio show for 20, 25 minutes in the car or listening to a podcast for 30 minutes so I could drown out as best as I could what awaited me at the end of that train ride. And I always think that I try to do this show for that person that needs that relief, that needs that time away from work, from life, from whatever. And I do like to think that I help those people. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I'd like to think that I do. And I'm grateful that I have the chance to try to do that because, you know, in this season of like giving thanks, I want to try to give back to you know not the same people that did that for me

but I want to try to pay that forward you know because that helped me so much in so many of my moments that I feel like it's the least I can do is to try to provide something like that to others out there and as I've always said look my dms are open if some of you I's the least I can do is to try to provide something like that to others out there. And as I've always said, look, my DMs are open. I know the holiday season can be tough for people as well. And so if you're struggling with those issues, if you're struggling with anxiety, depression, all that stuff, please know my Twitter DMs are always open at Mark Schofield. My email, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com is always available to you. I'm here to help. Some of you have reached out in the past.

I truly appreciate it. If you do want to reach out again, if you've already done so, please do so. You know I'm here. I'm trying to help as best as I can, just one guy with a microphone. But please don't hesitate to reach out. I hope all of you have a fantastic holiday. I hope all of you enjoy the football on Thursday. I will be back Friday for our game day edition.

Until then, happy Thanksgiving everybody. And keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots. ... ... ... ...