Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots October 24, 2018 - Trade Talk Redux and the 2019 Quarterback Situation

Episode Date: October 24, 2018

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Hey there, everybody. Welcome on into a Wednesday edition of Locked on Patriots. And don't adjust your listening device, your iPhone, your Android, your Alexa. You're just getting me today. I know Wednesday is typically your crossover show. It's Wednesday. It's October 24th. You're thinking, I'm going to sit down.

I'm going to hear a little Pats Bills talk, right? Well, you're going to get it tomorrow. You see, sat down with the guys over at Locked on Bills, and we realized, hey, look, we get an extra day this week. We don't want to drop a great show on you guys and have you guys forget about all the information. We don't want you guys and girls forgetting about everything come game time. So we're going to get you the crossover for Thursday's show,

which means you get me for the entire 23 minutes or so today. I know you're super excited about that. Seriously, I know you are. But don't worry. Fear not. I've got some great stuff planned for you today. Parts B and C of the show, the B block and the C block, we're going to do some quarterback talk.

Yes, we're going to think about next year. I know. I know. Don't want to do it yet. But, look, all of us in the room, Tom Brady, he's 41, still playing well. Yes, still love watching him, of course. Would we want anybody else?

No. Might we need somebody else in the future? Yes, Father Time is still undefeated. And so we're going to check in with the 2019 draft class. And because you probably know how this is going to go, or you might realize what I'm about to say next tells you all you need to know about the 2019 draft class. We're going to talk about potential trades and free agents. Yeah, that probably gives you a little foreshadowing as to what I'm going to say about the 2019 draft class. But before we do that, we're going to visit some trade talk and how the Patriots could create space for, say,

a Patrick Peterson or my sudden new trade crush, Gary on Conley. But before we do all of that, a quick reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. 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, Friends, if there's a place that's writing about football, covering football, talking about football, sneezing in a football's general direction, they've got me sneezing with them too. So let's start here.

Let's start with the basic premises here, the basic framework of the moment. The trade deadline is October 30th at 4 p.m. Eastern. And we're seeing more and more teams make moves. We're seeing Amari Cooper get dealt. We're seeing the New York Giants start to send some signals out there that they're going to look to move some guys. They trade Eli Apple to the New Orleans Saints for a fourth and a seventh. The reason why that's interesting for our purposes here is that New Orleans was considered to be a potential destination for one Patrick Peterson, a defensive back, a cornerback with the Arizona Cardinals that a lot of people have been talking about in and around New England. Might this be a

potential target for the Patriots given some of the backfield woes that they've had. And so it's important to start with numbers. By numbers, I mean salary cap. And when I say salary cap, the first name that should pop into your head is, no, not mine, Miguel Benzon, at Pat's Cap on Twitter. Why? Nobody does it better when it comes to the Patriots and their salary cap position than Miguel. He is at Pat's Cap on Twitter. Part of the reason why you have to follow him on Twitter is because it's the easiest way. If you're sitting there and you're wondering, what's the Patriots' current cap number? Just at Pat's Cap on Twitter.

Why? Because his handle is the Patriots' current cap number. He updates it every single time. He changes how his name looks on Twitter. So right now, you look at at Pat's cap on Twitter, cap space equals $5,262,629. There you go. It's so easy. He makes it so easy for you. But he goes above and beyond, of course, because he does great work over at Boston Sports Journal and what he does in his latest mailbag, which came out, let me check, check notes, check notes.

Oh, Tuesday, so yesterday. He focuses on trading for a player. He did two mailbags. He's going to do two mailbags for you this week. Part of the great subscription. I'm telling you, go get it, bostonsportsjournal.com. I got one too. Is you get Miguel's whip mailbags.

And he's doing two this week because he wanted to come out and say, what can the Patriots do? How would a trade work from a numbers perspective? And he sets the framework as such. When a team trades for a player, it becomes responsible for paying the player's remaining salary and remaining bonuses if there are any. The player's sign-on bonus proration remains with his old team. Any incentives are re-evaluated.

A trade this week means becoming responsible for paying the acquired player's salary for 10 weeks. Meaning, if as I'm recording this, the news drops that the Patriots make a trade for anybody, they're on the hook for 10 weeks. A trade next week, however, means that the team that acquires that player is now responsible for paying a salary for nine weeks. Also note, payers are played for 17 weeks during the season because they are paid during their bye week. That's kind of how it works. Okay, let's get into it now. for a player in order for the Patriots to perhaps acquire a player whose new cap number would be

higher than the Patriots current cap space of what is it say it with me now 5.262 or 5,262,629 and one player whose remaining cap number remaining salary is higher than that is Patrick Peterson one of four things or a combination of four things would have to happen. The first thing you can do is something the Patriots just did with Stephon Gilmore. You lower your team's cap number. You lower a player's cap number, i.e. increasing the team's cap number, by converting most of his remaining salary into a sign-in bonus. That's what they did with Gilmore. And you could do it for a player like Tom Brady.

You know, you could convert some of his into a sign-in bonus. Miguel has a table in this article where he walks you through a number of different players and scenarios. For example, with Brady, you do some conversion there. You can save $800,000. With Gilmore, $3 million is what they did. You could save $1.9 million if you do it with Gronkowski. And so that's one thing you can do. You convert most of the

remaining salary due this year into a sign-in bonus. There. Create some space that way. Two, you could extend the player with a large salary, lowering his salary to the minimum as part of the extension. For example, Steven Duskowski, he's just signed through the end of this year. You sign him to an extension, but you lower the salary to the minimum. Lots of years, minimum salary over that period of time. Duskowski makes sense in that scenario. A third way is the player's old team could, before the trade,

pay the player a sign-in bonus while lowering his 2018 salary. Doing so would then lower the cap number for the Patriots. For example, using Patrick Peterson, the Patriots could ask Arizona to give Peterson a sign-in bonus before the trade. In exchange for receiving the same sign-in bonus, Peterson would agree to lower his salary. For example, Miguel writes it out this way. If the Cardinals were to give him this week a $5.932 million sign-in bonus,

Peterson's salary with the Patriots for the last 10 weeks of the season would be the remainder of his current salary, which is $538,000. And this has been done before by Arizona. For example, the Levy Brown trade back in 2013, Pittsburgh gets Levy Brown at $840,000, the veteran minimum, while the Cardinals pay $2.8 million of the remainder of his money due that year. How? Via a signing bonus. There you go. Arizona's done it before. Maybe they'd do it again. The fourth way, you include a Patriot in the trade to offset partially the incoming cap hit. So say you trade right now for Patrick Peterson. One way that you could offset that and come and cap it and create space,

include a player like Dwayne Allen, who's 10 weeks left on his salary, 1.7 million. So you could do it with one of these ways, you could do it with four of these ways, but that's where the discussion has to start. How do you make the room for the player? Now with Patrick Peterson, it's tough.

But you might still want to do it because, look, while I was a little lukewarm on the idea of trading for Patrick Peterson or some other corner, I'm starting to warm up to watching this defense over the past couple of weeks. But the guy I'm really interested in right now, two other corners, a little bit cheaper. Jarrett Jenkins with the Giants. And Garyon Conley, the Oakland Raiders.

And I'm really excited about the Conley idea. The Raiders seem to be clearing house. Raiders seem to be looking to move on from some guys. Conley has been playing well. You look at some of what he's done, some PFF grades, for example. You look at PFF had an article a couple weeks ago on him, and they were basically saying that he has been so solid in press coverage. He's been very good in those situations.

In fact, nobody has really been better than him in those situations. I'm pulling this up right here. This was through week four. Second year, cornerback Gary Ann Conley has allowed a passer rating of just 25.1 when lined up in press coverage this year. The second best marker among quarterbacks with at least 10 targets. He's allowed just five receptions from 15 targets for 83 yards and an interception. I would love him across from Stephon Gilmore for the next couple of years. That sounds pretty good to me. Another position the Patriots might address,

they might look to address running back. We got some good news, obviously, with Sonny Michel's health. But, you know, you've already lost Jeremy Hill, of course. Burkhead has been injured as well. And so you wonder, do they make a move with the running back spot? There are a couple of things they could do. They could bring Kenneth Farrell up from the practice squad. It wouldn't be splashy, but obviously he's been in and around Gillette. You could sign a free agent, a name like Mike Gilleslie.

You could bring him back. Some other veteran guys, Orleans Darkwatch, Chikandrick West, Andre Ellington, all of whom have worked out for the Patriots in the past two months. You could look at Christine Michael. Maybe DeMarco Murray. You tired of calling Oklahoma games for Fox Sports? Come over and carry the rock a little bit. Guys you could trade for, Amir Abdullah perhaps from Detroit,

who's kind of been stuck behind Kerryon Johnson, Theo Riddick, and LeGarrette Blount. CJ Anderson and Carolina Oloke, I think he's closer to cooked more than anything else. DeAndre Washington in Oakland, although Marshawn Lynch's injury might sort of change the calculus on that one. Alfred Morris, maybe you think about him, but Matt Breida has been banned up, so maybe not there. People have been obviously bandied about the levy on Bell, but the price tag there is probably just too steep,

both in terms of the financials as well as what they would want to return. You know, Albert Breer has said that the floor for any bell return would be a second round pick. I'm not so sure they're going to trade a second round pick, but maybe. It's not the craziest thing in the world, but I think more than anything, the money would be the tougher part there. But trades could happen. If it were me, I think it's more likely to be a corner, one of those guys, than a running back. But I've been wrong before. I've been surprised before.

I'll be surprised again. But that's some trade talk. Up next, we're going to talk some quarterback stuff. But first, friends, it's getting closer. It's almost here. It's just over two weeks away. No, I'm not talking about the midterms, which I, again, please go out and vote.

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or any other favorite event. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Wednesday edition of Locked on Patriots. And I know you're a little disappointed. I get it. You were expecting to hear the guys over at Locked on Bills today. And it's going to be a great crossover show. We're just going to give it to you a day later.

Because look, you know, we get Monday Night Football this week. We get a little Jason Witten. We get Booger. And have people seen this? There was a great video out from the Monday night game, Atlanta, New York. You know how booger they have him on this little sideline thing, this little cart where he goes up and down the sidelines? Well, they've got a video screen because the cart blocks the view of people

sitting in the front row. Somebody put out a video from Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday night where you can't see the game. Imagine paying for premium seats and you're stuck out a video from Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday night where you can't see the game. Imagine paying for premium seats and you're stuck behind a screen. That's kind of annoying. But anyway, anyway. So you're going to get the crossover show tomorrow. So I figured, look, we get an extra day here.

And if I get extra time, there's two things I'm going to talk about. Toto or quarterbacks. And you're probably sick of Toto right now. No one full well you're going to get Toto right now. No one full well. You're going to get me reviewing a concert in a couple of weeks. And so I figured it's a good time to sort of take a step back,

talk quarterbacks for a minute because look, the elephant in the room is Tom Brady and I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. But work through it, Mark. Look, they might want to draft a guy this year. And I remember saying that last year, and maybe a little bit the year before,

and I don't know what to say anymore, but eventually they're going to draft a quarterback, and I'll get a chance to break down a quarterback selection for the New England Patriots that's not Danny Edlund. So there's that. But there's just one sort of kind of fly in the ointment. It's that this quarterback class has been, shall we say, underwhelming.

There are two guys at the top, Justin Herbert, Dwayne Haskins, who have been very good. But the issue with those two guys is there are rumors, depending on who you want to believe, that one or both of them are going back to school. I think Haskins probably is definitely going to go back. Herbert, he's probably going to get a top five grade in this class.

But his younger brother is going to be playing for Oregon next year as a tight end. There have been rumors Jason Lock and Four has said, look, he's going to go back. He's leaning that way. I've been told through some Pac-12 sources that no he's coming out but who knows and obviously look if he comes out it'd be unimaginable to think that the Giants would pass on a quarterback again so you can probably set him to the side the issue with some of the other guys in this class Drew Locke he's stumbled seems like he can't deal with pressure. Seems like he's struggling to move past the guy that throws hitches and screens and go routes.

I know Mel Kuyper had him as like a top five first round pick, but he stumbled. Will Greer got off to a very good start, but he stumbled as of late. Had a bad game against Iowa State. Looked pretty rough in that game at spots. Jared Stidham has fallen big time, and I've talked about that a bit, but he was a player that I thought, look, you know, if they put more on his plate at Auburn, he could make the kind of leap. That hasn't happened. I'd be stunned if he decided to come out.

He probably goes back because he's going to need another year. Ryan Finley, I was on that train. I thought he was who we thought Mason Rudolph was. He had a big sort of resume game against Clemson. It did not go well. So maybe we back away from that little platform, that hill. Maybe we don't want to plant our flag there. Brian Lewerke just got benched against Michigan after starting like 5 for 22 or something. So maybe the hype train has cooled on that one. Daniel Jones looked good, got injured.

I liked him a lot, but he hasn't been the same since that injury. And so you do wonder if as a result, he goes back to school. Maybe he's trying to play through injury, but he's a guy that I think could catch some buzz still. I know a lot of people in the draft Twitter world kind of like him. Daniel Jones over at Duke. Tyree Jackson of Buffalo. I've talked about him a lot. Again, very raw. Not sure that he would really be kind of the Patriots type, but maybe.

You know, some other names. Nate Stanley at Iowa. Clayton Thorsett had a nice little comeback against Nebraska. Easton Stick, we've talked about him. Taron Christian. Jake Brown, and I'm not sure he's really NFL material. Trace McSorley, I think great college quarterback, not the best sort of NFL prospect.

Pat Schumer at Vanderbilt. Steven Montez, the kid at Colorado. Mackenzie Milton, the UCF kid. Those are kids to sort of keep in mind. But the name I just keep coming back to for New England is Brett Rippon at Boise State. And what's been interesting in the sort of bubble that is draft Twitter

is that as these other guys have fallen, Brett Rippon is the guy, the one that seems to be rising to the point where, you know, earlier the Brett Rippon table was like me and, you know, Nick Martin, who is at the McNart, you know, earlier the Brett Rippon table was like me and, you know, Nick Martin, who is at the Mick Norton on Twitter, another guy that watches quarterbacks.

Then you got Benjamin Solak getting into the mix. Now Kyle Krabs and the rest of the guys over at the Draft Network are getting on board the Rippon train, having jumped off the Brian DeWerke train. The Rippon train seems to be picking up steam. And the thing with him is, you know, if you look at one of the things that the Patriots, when they pick quarterbacks in one of the things that seems to fit what they do, the Parcells rules. And now the Parcells rules have kind of

fallen out of favor a little bit because of the number of guys that leave school early, because of the financials involved and things like that. But his rules were basically this. You get four requirements you have to have to draft a quarterback. He must be a senior. He must be a graduate because you want somebody that takes the responsibility seriously. He's got to be a three-year starter because you need to make sure that his success wasn't a flash in the pan, that he's lived life as the guy.

And he's got to have 23 wins because the big passing numbers must come in the context of winning games. Well, Brett Rippin, he's a senior. He's on track to graduate. He started as a freshman. And he had 23 wins coming into this season. He's got 31 now. I've used the expression the guy should start shopping for condos in Foxborough right now before. I've used it.

I probably said it about Kyle a lot. But the more this class starts to take shape, the more I get the vibe with him. Now, the problem might be the more this class starts to take shape, the more and more people get the same vibe. And look, I've been writing about this kid since he started as a freshman.

I'm a big Brett Rippon guy. I've, you know, made no inkling of hiding that. But sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong. It looks like in this case, my like of this kid was justified. And so we'll see how it plays out. But given the way this class is shaping up, he might make a ton of sense. Now, before we go into the C block, before we start talking about some of the free agent names out there, I want to remind everybody that, look, the Lockdown Podcast Network, including Lockdown Patriots here, we are open to local advertisers as well. If you want to tap into the New England media market and get a bunch of engaged listeners

every single day, five days a week, six days a week, because sometimes, you know, the Sunday morning tailgate show, you want to tap into that market, get a product, a company you want to advertise, hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. We're doing some great sort of second half of the season sales packages. So if you want to tap into that media market, you want to tap into that audience, please reach out to me. Also, don't forget, we've got so many great shows across the Locked On Podcast Network, with the NBA getting started up.

Look, Locked On Celtics is the best bet for Celtics fans to keep up with the guys in green. Mark Schofield back with you now to quickly close out this October 24th edition of Locked On Patriots and quickly, I'm working on a piece over for Big Blue View right now because yeah, the Giants, look, it's move on to quarterback time yeah, yeah, yeah anyway, so I took a look, a gander at some of the names

that might be out there via sort of free agency. And free agency market, probably not that great when it comes to quarterbacks. I looked at and I pulled out the five, well, six best names. Well, really just the five best names because I threw the sixth one in there a joke. You've got Tyrod Taylor. He's not a joke. I'm not sure the Patriots would go down that road. And I've been told by people around the Browns

that Cleveland loves him. And they're probably going to bring him back to help with Mayfield. And so if you're looking at signing a Browns quarterback, it's probably Drew Stanton. So you could probably say no to that. Teddy Bridgewater, very intriguing. Taysom Hill, they love using him.

I do think that Bridgewater's the quarterback of the future, but there might be a way to pry him away. I'd be very intrigued by that. My good buddy, John LaMarocas, over from Sons of Sanhorn, as well as the Locked On Patriots podcast. I mean, Locked On Patriots podcast Slack channel. I know he was a Bridgewater

fan. Maybe that could work. But other guys, you're looking at Ryan Fitzpatrick, you're looking at Brett Hundley. Those don't really excite me too much. Geno Smith is out there. I'm going to include him in the Giants piece just because it kind of made me laugh. A name that's intriguing is Nate Sudfeld. And we saw this kid in the preseason dropping dimes on nine balls, looking great. Obviously, with both Foles and Wentz, they're probably not going to need three quarterbacks, but maybe the guy they move on from is Foles. I'm not sure.

But if Nate Sudfeld is available and he hits the market, that would be an intriguing option. Also, you do have sort of some trade options. Derek Carr, maybe he gets shopped. Ryan Tannehill, maybe the Dolphins move on. Joe Flacco, Blake Bortles, Andy Dalton. None of whom I'd like to see New England Patriots. So I don't think we go that route. Maybe for the Giants, we can explore that opportunity,

and I will in a piece. But look, if Blake Bortles comes to town, I'm not buying a number five Patriots jersey. I'm just not. You know, if Andy Dalton comes to town, I'm buying a 14 Patriots jersey and I'm putting Grogan on the back. I'll wear that one. You know, but those guys don't excite me. So look, this just brings me back to the Brett Rippon thing. Because out of all these names, the one that excites me the most,

other than maybe a Nate Sudfeld or a Teddy Bridgewater, is Rippon right now. Unless somehow Justin Herbert falls into the Patriots' lap. I doubt it. That's kind of a quick look at the quarterback landscape right now. Let's put it this way. It's not pretty. Last draft season was fantastic for me.

I barely slept because, look, everybody wanted to talk about quarterbacks. You had five going the first round. This draft season, it's going to be like tumbleweeds on my calendar. Nobody's going to want to talk to me. Except for maybe the guys at Toto. Anyway, before we go, a quick personal note. I mentioned a couple of times today, October 24th. Date near and dear to my heart.

Why? Perhaps the biggest fan of this show. It is her birthday. So, Mom, I know you're listening out there. Thank you so much for your love and your support and everything you've done for me and my family over the years. Thank you so much for everything. Can't wait to celebrate with you soon. Hope you have a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous day. We will be seeing you and celebrating with you soon and we cannot wait to do so. That will do

it for today's show. I will be back tomorrow for the Locked On Crossover. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked On crossover. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, in Locked On Patriots.