Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots November 9, 2017 - The Return of Bennett and Draft QB Talk

Episode Date: November 9, 2017

Mark Schofield breaks down the potential return of Martellus Bennett to the Patriots, as well as some draft QB discussion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everybody, Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots, and I just wanted to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our great friends at mybookie.ag. Good morning there, everybody. Mark Schofield here with you over at Locked On Patriots for Thursday, November 9th. A bit of an unscheduled day off. Hope you didn't miss me too much there. Yesterday had a little bit of a real-world situation to deal with, but everything is fine. For those of you that perhaps, as I asked for a Tuesday show maybe kept my family

in your thoughts and your prayers and your moments of reflection I thank you for doing that also want to give a on the minimal minimal chance that any listeners to this show work at or know somebody that works at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda Maryland I want I want to thank you for the way you took care of my family and someone especially close to me over the past couple of days. Just a world-class operation over there, so I thank you for that. But I'm back in the big chair. We're going to do two things here today. First, we're going to talk Martellius Bennett for a little bit at the outset.

Waved by the Packers. Does he make sense back in New England? Then look, I know it's Broncos week. We got to talk about the Broncos. We will do that in your game day show for Friday. But here's the thing, folks. And if you know me, if you know my work, you know one thing about me.

I like to talk about quarterbacks. And when Adam Kirchhen over the Boston Herald writes a piece over the weekend about potential draft quarterback matches for the New England Patriots, I get excited and I'm going to want to talk about that. So I'm going to dive into that list that Adam has and add some names to

it as well. Also, as you heard at the outset, mybookie.ag. Please check them out. Go to mybookie.ag. Use promo code LOCKEDON to sign up. You play, you win, you get paid. And we all like getting paid, right? So go get yourself set up over there.

Let's talk Martellius Bennett here quickly because he was waived by the Packers and as you might expect, instant thoughts in the New England area were, does a return to New England make sense? Now, obviously, there are some things you have to think about from a cap standpoint. And whenever the salary cap comes into play, there is one name and one name only that I trust. And that is Miguel Benzon, at Patscap on Twitter, friend of the show,

listener to the show, guest of the show. Miguel has a piece over on bostonsportsjournal.com. Highly recommend that you check it out. Get a subscription to that site. If you don't have one, it is well worth it. And there are some Sally Cap implications to a possible return to New England

for Martellius Bennett. Any team that claims him, there are some salary cap implications to a possible return to New England for Mattelius Bennett. Any team that claims him, they become responsible for eight 17th of his 2017 salary, his base salary, $900,000. So they're immediately responsible for $423,000 and change. They also would be responsible for his 46-man roster bonuses.

Bennett is due a $37,500 roster bonus each week he is active. So they will be responsible. When Miguel breaks it down, it will be $300,000 for a team who has had their buy. So if the Patriots claim him, you're looking at over $700,000 that they are due to pay him, and that's for this year. He is due contracts for, he's under contract for both 2018 and 2019 any team that claims him would be responsible for that but none of those years are guaranteed so his claimant team could simply cut him before his 2018 roster bonus is due on march 16th and have no dead money on their salary cap but the bigger issue is this.

Does it make sense from a football standpoint? And I think at the bare minimum, it makes sense to at least kick the tires on it. And here's why. Say what you want about Bennett. Say it hasn't quite worked out. Obviously, there's an injury disclosure issue that caused the Packers to waive him. He's still at least providing something at the tight end position for the Packers. 27 catches for 233 yards, no touchdowns,

but back at the end of September against Chicago, we had six catches for 39 yards, three catches a week after that at Dallas for 53 yards. That's more than the Patriots are getting right now from Dwayne Allen. And so I think that the Patriots have to at least explore the possibility of bringing him back in. Because he would, I think, serve as an upgrade. There wouldn't be a steep learning curve. He knows the offense.

Now the issue is, will there be a team ahead of New England that puts in a claim? And part of the issue there is Bennett has said that this is it. This is his last year. He's going to hand them up. So that might sort of limit the teams that would be interested. I mean, if you're a team that's going nowhere fast, why bring on a guy that's just going to take up a roster spot

when you get to figure out next year? But if you're a team trying to make a run at a Super Bowl, like the New England Patriots are, I think kicking the tires on Bennett makes sense. And so it would not surprise me at all to see New England do that. Up next, we're going to talk some draft quarterbacks here. I know people are probably tuning out, but look, everybody, man, I just love talking quarterbacks and I get excited about it.

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they're a home dog, getting one and a half against the Minnesota Vikings who are trying to figure out their quarterback position. I really like Washington in this game coming off that huge emotional win out in Seattle. Pittsburgh Steelers, look, they're giving 10 to the Colts. Colts can't stop anybody. That team's in disarray right now. I like the Steelers in that game too.

So Washington and Pittsburgh like those picks this week. Now let's dive into some quarterbacks here. And here's the thing. As I mentioned, Adam Kirchian over at Boston Herald had a piece out on Sunday talking about how the Patriots are probably going to look at the quarterback position in the draft. And he has some names here, some 10 names that I'm going to go through quickly.

He lists them alphabetically. That's how I'm going to go through them. These aren't ranked in any way. I'm also going to have some names sort of at the end that some more day two, day three type guys that you should have in mind. But let's start with Josh Allen. Junior, 6'5", 234 pounds at the University of Wyoming.

And here's the comp I've made for Josh Allen before, and I'll make it again. And it's Nucleoluche. And you might be wondering where I'm going with this. And here's the thing. Josh Allen has a $10 million arm. Friend of mine in this industry, Bill Carroll, who we call the professor, he's been studying football for years,

told me once on a podcast that Jeff George made grown men weep when he threw the football. That's how impressive his arm was. You will see that again at the combine at josh allen's pro day if he does come out but there's more to play in the quarterback position than just throwing the football through a brick wall and when i studied josh this past season over the summer the thing i wanted to see from him was can he be more than the fastball because there's more to play in the position of just being a thrower you have to be a passer

you have to learn touch anticipation learn an off-speed pitch and I just haven't seen that develop yet from Allen as he's gone through his junior year. I went through his entire game against the University of Hawaii. There's a video. You can find it on the InsideThePylon.com YouTube page. I will tweet out the link today as well. I take you through every pass he threw in that game. And yeah, there are some moments that are wow moments. There are some throws that are wow moments.

There are some throws that are incredibly impressive, but I still need to see more, and I'm not there yet, and I don't know if I'll ever be there with him. But these two things can be true. Josh Allen will get drafted in the first round, and Josh Allen should not get drafted in the first round. In a limited situation, like say a team like Pittsburgh wants to draft him in the first round and sit him for a couple years, maybe. Sure, maybe if the New England Patriots want to draft him in the first round

and sit him for a couple years, maybe. But if you're looking at Josh Allen to come in and start right away, let's go back to that Nucla Luce thing for a second because Nuke had Crash Davis. Nuke had a chance to go down to the Carolina League and sort things out. There's no Carolina League in the National Football League. There's no Crash Davis to sort of hold your bags,

to sit next to you on the bus and teach you the cliches. You cut your teeth against Seattle and the Legion of Boom. You cut your teeth against the best of the best. And that worries me about Josh Allen getting thrown to the wolves in a bad situation. Next guy, JT Barrett, senior, 6'1", 223 at Ohio State. And for me watching JT Barrett, I get the sense that he is an incredible college football quarterback. Runs Urban Meyer's system extremely well.

Had a huge win against Penn State a few weeks ago. But I'm not sure he can translate the skill set to the National Football League. There are times when I watch him and I just, I almost yell at the screen. Because he's, well, he's just sometimes too slow to process and diagnose and throw. So those are some things that I would die in to see this year from him. And I just still haven't seen it yet. Next on the list is Sam Donald, the kid down at USC. Donald, sophomore, 6'4", 220.

And Donald was the talk of the football world, the last combine. People were saying, look, he's surefire number one overall pick. But Donald's status has taken a hit this year, and there are some that are right now pointing to the fact that he's probably going to go back to school. Eric Galco, who is at Optimum Scouting on Twitter, said the other day on Twitter that if he were to bet on it, Donald's going back to school.

And I think that makes sense because what we've seen from Donald this year is a turnover-laden season. And the thing with Donald is the throw in motion. And I've often been of the mind that if the ball gets where it needs to be, on time, well-placed, I don't care how you throw it. But with Darnold, what we're seeing is his elongated delivery, it has caused him some problems. There are times when the ball doesn't get where it needs to be when it should. And that's going to even be a bigger concern when you get to the NFL because it's one thing when you can get away with it in college.

Maybe you can get away with it in the NFL, but when it's causing you problems in college, the game's going to be that much faster. The guys you're going against are going to be that much quicker. Throwing windows are going to be that much smaller. And so every millisecond counts. And so with Donald, his throwing motion, the turnovers and stuff like that, I think there's a huge chance that he just goes back to school.

And I think that would be the best thing for him. Next guy is a bit of an interesting name. That's Ryan Ferguson, who initially enrolled at Tennessee. Then he transferred after an injury. Now he's at the University of Memphis, senior, 6'4", 210, and he's sort of running the offense that Paxton Lynch ran when Lynch was in first-round draft choice two years ago. And the thing with Ferguson is we're seeing some of the sort of similar stuff

that we saw from Paxton Lynch. When I studied him this summer, I'm looking back at my notes right now, and, you know, what sort of stood out to me was good timing and placement on routes like curls and hitches, can climb the pocket, usually pretty elusive, pretty good velocity and placement. He can make bucket throws, good three-step drops out of a shotgun. He can make some anticipation throws, good process and speed on RPO-type plays. Good arm talent, pretty effective against zone coverages. And things that bothered me at the time were accuracy can be spotty.

His mechanics can be a mess at times. His lower body leads back. He seems to be working against him. He has a sort of loop to his throwing motion as well. Upper body timing is sometimes off. So it was really sort of a mechanical issue. But he's gotten a little bit better with that this year. Mechanics seem to be cleaning up.

Accuracy has been better. So if you're looking at a guy in sort of that developmental arc type area, maybe Riley Ferguson is a guy to keep in mind. He's not going to be a first-round guy, but as a day-two type, he might make some sense. Next guy makes some sense too, and that's Ryan Finley, junior 6'4", 210 out of North Carolina State, and he has seen his stock rise incredibly well.

Finley was somebody not a lot of people were talking about this offseason. But when I studied him this past summer, I saw clean mechanics, does a good job identifying coverage pre-snap, identifying leverage pre-snap, good at moving safeties

with his eyes, freezing safeties with his eyes, pretty accurate in the short intermediate area, can make some anticipation throws, can make full free-load reads. Does that sound like anybody to you? I'm not saying that he's the next Tom Brady.

But it seems to me like Finley could come in and run this offense, run what the Patriots do offensively. He's been relatively clean this year too. I believe as of the time of this recording, just one interception. You know, he struggled against Notre Dame, but definitely a guy to keep an eye on. Now as a junior, does he come out?

Maybe. I mean, I think he's somebody that has improved his stock so much that it would almost make sense for him to come out because as we sometimes see these guys that go back to school maybe it doesn't pan out for them maybe they don't develop as well as people expect them to so that's sort of an issue there up, we're going to get into the final five guys on Adam's list here. Again, check out Adam, Adam Kirchhen from the Boston Herald. You can find him on Twitter, at Adam Kirchhen, K-U-R-K-J-I-A-N.

I'm working off of his piece here. Then I'll add my own stuff as well. But like I said, coming up, the final five names on Adam's list. Then I'll have some dark horse guys for you to keep an eye on. That's next here on Locked On Patriots with Mark Schofield. Okay, so let's get back into it here. And the next guy on Adam's list is another sort of guy that was sort of really flying under the radar, that's Will

Greer, quarterback at West Virginia, the University of Florida of all places. He was off to a great start as a redshirt freshman two years ago, but was suspended after failing a PED test. He transferred to West Virginia. And what stands out watching him, it's the arm strength. It's similar to Allen. The raw arm talent, the ability to sort of make that, you know, deep, deep throw with velocity. But also when you're watching him, it's the process and speed, I think, is an area with him that is not talked about as much as it should be. You know, because in Dana Holdrenson's offense, he's making a lot of those RPO type reads where you have to make quick decisions. And Greer can do that and does that very well.

He'll face some questions over the PED suspension. He'll face some questions over the style of offense that he's running, but the numbers are great. The numbers are great right now, and sometimes it's hard to argue with results. So he's definitely a guy to keep in mind. I think that, you know, he might go back to school. It might be a situation where he goes back.

But numbers on the season, completing 65% of his passes, 30 touchdowns, just 10 interceptions. You know, quarterback rating in college is a little bit different, but our quarterback rating of 165.8, thrown through over 3,000 yards. West Virginia is 6-3 right now, having a pretty good season. So Will Greer, another guy to keep in mind. Next is the defending Heisman Trophy champion, and that's Lamar Jackson. And it would surprise me to see Lamar Jackson in a Patriots uniform next year. But Patriots fans might want to be familiar with him because I've been hearing that the New York Jets are extremely interested in Lamar Jackson. And I think that is a marriage made in heaven. Because Lamar Jackson, when I

watch him play the position, he runs a lot of things like slant flat, which if you've been listening to the show, you know that that's something that the Jets like to do. I think Lamar Jackson could step in and run the Jets offense under John Morton right now. And a lot of the sort of consternation that you've heard with Lamar Jackson is that perhaps he should even switch positions. He should become a slot receiver. He should play a different position in the National Football League because he's not going to play quarterback at the next level.

And I think that is patently absurd. Some of the argument around making him switch positions is that he's so explosive with the football in his hands. He's such an explosive transcendent type athlete as a ball carrier that you make him a wide receiver. But when you do that, you're relying on

other guys to get him the ball. And as somebody that watches all these quarterbacks, there's some bad quarterback play out there. Why are you going to rely on a bad quarterback to get him the ball? It just doesn't make sense to me. So I think Lamar Jackson should definitely be playing quarterback

at the next level. I think he can play quarterback at the next level. And I think Patriots fans need to know who he is and need to be ready for him because I think he might be in a Jets uniform next year. Next is another guy I love, Baker Mayfield, senior 6'1", 209.

And look, he is fun to watch you know confidence competitive toughness he's got it in spades and similar to Lamar Jackson when I watch him I see a quarterback that can run a West Coast offense because he does the quick type decision-making things that you need to do in a West Coast offense to succeed. He's going to face some questions about his size. Like he's listed at 6'1". He might come in at 6 or even under. But I wrote a piece about him two years ago,

or last year actually, called The Conundrum of comfort and chaos and when i was watching him last year it almost seemed to me like he was inviting pressure he was inviting pockets to collapse because he seemed to be at his best in those situations those scramble drill situations where you're running around playing backyard type football. And he's still great at that. But what I've seen from him this year is he's not seeking those out. He's doing a little bit more from the pocket.

Not a ton more, but just a little bit more. And in today's National Football League, you need to be able to do some of that stuff outside of the pocket you know i've talked a lot about brady's pocket movement and while brady doesn't leave pockets he's still sliding and moving around back there mayfield's more of a guy that's going to bail on pockets going to extend plays to the boundary like a russell wilson and that's the comparison that I think is most apt. People are trying to make the Baker Mayfield, Johnny Mansell comparison. It's more of a Russell Wilson situation.

Because with Johnny Mansell, there was no structure to the pocket. There was no plays from the pocket. It was all scramble rule stuff. Mayfield can still give you that stuff from the pocket. It was all scramble rule stuff. Mayfield can still give you that stuff from the pocket. So this play style similarity is more of a Russell Wilson than anything. But he'll face questions about his size. He certainly will.

Next guy, Josh Rosen. 6'4", 218. Junior at UCLA. If I were to put together a video on how to throw the football, it would feature a lot of Josh Rosen. Clean, crisp mechanics textbook. And in a year where sort of the big three quarterbacks right now

are Rosen, Mayfield, and Lamar Jackson. You know, I think Rosen is probably the safest of those three. He's more your prototypical pro-style quarterback, clean, crisp mechanics, had a big comeback win early in the season against Texas A&M but he's going to face a red flag situation based on off the field stuff the rumblings that we're hearing

about his outspokenness what he does away from football some personality concerns that's going to be an issue missed a lot of time last year to do a shoulder injury that's going to be an issue. Missed a lot of time last year due to a shoulder injury, that's going to be an issue. Does the shoulder check out?

But I think of those three guys, at least with respect to playing the quarterback position, he might be the safest. But all those three guys are going to face some red flags, at least with some GMs. You know, and there's another sort of red flag that in this day and age, you have to at least throw out there, and that's the fact that he was photographed golfing with a hat that did not have, shall we say,

the most supportive of phrases regarding our current president. And in this Twitter-driven environment, you can imagine that some owners and some general managers might be wary of drafting a first-round quarterback that might incur the wrath of the presidential tweet storm. Just something to throw out there. Last guy on Adam's list, Mason Rudolph, senior 6'5", 229, Oklahoma State,

and playing in the Big 12, putting up Big 12-type numbers. And he's, oddly enough, one of the more polarizing quarterbacks in a very polarizing quarterback class because there are some that look at Mason Rudolph and they think first round, easy, sure, I've seen enough. And there are others that look at him and say, eh, he's more of a day two, day three guy. And that's kind of where I am in.

I'm more in that latter category. There are some things he does well, like throwing against zone, throwing against off coverage, throwing anticipation routes along the boundary like curls and out routes. I think he does that very well. What's been interesting with him is we talked a little bit about arm talent with Josh Allen. And here's Mason Rudolph, similarly big kid,

but you'd almost expect to see more of that from him, and it's just not quite what you see. There are some times where he struggles with accuracy too, particularly throwing dig routes over the middle, challenging the intermediate areas, challenging between the hash marks. Sometimes those throws are left high. It's a release point then with him.

It's been a little bit better this year than it was the last year, so he's cleaned that up, which is nice to see. him it's been a little bit better this past this year than it was the last year so he's cleaned that up which is nice to see but I'm still a little wary but those are sort of the top 10 guys

that Adam identified I'm going to throw quickly some some other guys to keep in mind first is Matt

Mike White Mike White is Western Kentucky's quarterback he sort of took over two years ago for Brandon Doty who

was a put up big time numbers he was a 60 year senior for the Hilltoppers, but he put up big-time numbers. Mike White has come in and put up similarly good numbers. And with White, there's sort of been a similar leap to him this year. As with some of the other guys guys have maybe regressed a little bit

White's made a little bit of a leap forward and you know what I liked watching him quick drops good footwork he can stick and climb in the pocket usually pretty patient on the slower more slowly developing concepts doesn't speed up his process very accurate on deep crossing routes on the nine ball. He can make full free-hand reads when the offense requires it. And so Mike is probably at the top of the day three list of guys in my mind for the New England Patriots because I think he sort of fits the mold of what the Patriots are looking for in a quarterback.

Another guy that I think fits that mold, Matt Linehan, the University of Idaho. Linehan, if his name sounds familiar, it should. His father, Scott Linehan, the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. Linehan runs an offense that has many concepts that the Patriots run. You know, Linehan's dad. I mean, Linehan is playing for a Petrino brother. The Petrinos are schooled in that Art Perkins system that the Patriots run. So he's running that type of offense to begin with.

Now, he suffered an injury to his throwing shoulder. He's currently sidelined. They hope to get him back against Coastal Carolina in two weeks. They're trying to get him back for their final home game November 18th. This year he's completed 173 of 281 passes for over 2,000 yards, 16 touchdowns, four interceptions. Idaho made it to a bowl game last year. They're 3-6 this year with three games remaining.

They'll have to win all three to get to a bowl. That's a bit of an uphill climb, but I think Linehan, because of the style of offense that he's familiar with, I think is another sort of that day three guy to keep in mind. You know, and looking around this class, there's two more guys that I think

people want to keep in mind. Actually, we'll go three. Brandon Silvers, University of Troy. You know, not somebody you hear a lot about, but Troy, they upset LSU this year. And he's a guy that's really good at those manipulation-type throws where you've got to move a defender with your eyes.

That really stood out watching him. Brian Shore, James Madison University, an FCS school. Shore led them to a national championship last year. He's gotten even better this year. Big, big arm. But there's more to his play in the position. It's not just an arm.

There's more to it. And finally, look quickly, Austin Allen, University of Arkansas. Pro-style offense type stuff. Very intrigued by him. Lastly, I'll throw out there quickly, Luke Falk. Air raid guy from Washington State playing under Mike Leach. You know, somebody that I thought might make that leap into sort of the first round conversation to that top tier of quarterbacks.

He got benched for a period of time by Leach, but I still think there's something there. I'm really hoping he gets a senior bowl invite and I get a chance to see him up close and personal. You know, but those are sort of the guys out there that are floating around that, you know, we'll get into it more with these guys. But the Patriots are going to be in the market for a quarterback. They're going to need one. So this has been kind of your primer on this quarterback class. Obviously, we'll have more on it as we get going

forward. Tomorrow, we'll dive into the Broncos, but see an Adams piece. Wanted to touch on this. Again, head over to mybookie.ag Get yourself set up over there. Use promo code LOCKEDON. Redskins, Steelers, those are to mybookie.ag. Get yourself set up over there. Use promo code LOCKEDON. Redskins, Steelers, those are my plays this week.

I'll be back tomorrow with your game day edition of Locked on Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Thank you.