Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS - Sept. 6, 2016 - Roster reset: Recapping a wild weekend at Gillette Stadium

Episode Date: September 6, 2016

The Boston Herald's Jeff Howe takes one last look at the flurry of roster moves, gives his thought on Rob Ninkovich's suspension and eyes the biggest head-scratchers from the weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. What's up, everybody? This is Locked on Patriots. I'm your host, Jeff Howe, and this is your podcast for Tuesday, September 6th, Week 1. Time for some of that real football we've been talking about for so long. And this podcast is going to be all about the roster reset. Very busy weekend down at Gillette Stadium with the roster cuts, some other news coming about in terms of the Patriots finalizing that first 53.

I know last week I said, hey, you know what? Maybe I'll hit you guys with a bonus podcast on Labor Day weekend if it warrants it. Did it warrant it? Yeah, probably. Did I hit you with one? No, I didn't. I apologize for that. But you know what? The last few days going into week one, did a little family time, wanted to take a step back, take a breath, did some big things. You know, we bought a rug. That's what happens when you're 33 and you're married and you have a kid on Labor Day weekend, you buy rugs. So, hey, you know what? It was better than that. I don't want to undersell it, but that, you know, bought a rug on Labor Day weekend. Anyway, you are my priority now.

That's what's important. Again, Tuesday, September 6th, week oneth week one Patriots Cardinals on Sunday night first Sunday night game of the year and if you check out the Herald's season preview section on Wednesday you'll notice that I believe this Patriots Cardinals matchup is a Super Bowl third uh 31 where am I this is not the 1990s anymore the Super Bowl 51 preview. Pats Cardinals might meet each other again in Houston back in down in February there. So anyway, big week, but I want to just discuss the cuts. And there's a lot that we're going to do the rest of the week in terms of looking forward at this game, this highly anticipated matchup. But we got to look back real quick before we do that i do have a request uh you guys have been so great in helping me grow this podcast our our listeners are

continuing to grow on a very steady basis we're doing really well uh if you could go onto itunes this week for me give me five stars that'd help our growth considerably this week uh anyway big big request if you guys could help me out there. And tell your friends. Tell your friends to jump on board. I know you guys have been doing that. I said this once before. If you tell 10 friends and you tell each of those 10 friends to tell 10 friends and keep that cycle going, you know, we might just win the presidency together in four years. But, you know, one step at a time. Let's look back at the weekend. Biggest news, of course, started with Rob Ninkovich's suspension. That came down Friday. I spoke to Ninkovich.

He is extremely upset, rattled a little bit, heartbroken. He wanted to express his apologies to his Patriots fans. Because of the the suspension he maintains that it was a supplement that contained something illegal that pinged the positive test and he would never purposefully go out of his way to cheat or anything like that that's not how he's built his career I've got his full comments on bostonherald.com so try to check those out uh either on the website from friday or the paper saturday whatever you can get your hands on but again uh nicovich was was pretty disappointed about it and he didn't appeal because if you push that the appeals don't have a finite timetable as to when you'll hear back so let's say even he wins his appeal and it turns into what like a three

game suspension it's basically what happened different sort of circumstances but that's what happened for levy on bell went from four to three so you know best case scenario there but still let's say that doesn't come down until i don't know november and then all of a sudden ninkovich is missing three games he's got the the torn triceps muscle in his left arm that he's still recovering from so at this point it pretty much all makes sense to just bite the bullet he said he would uh take it like a man take it on the chin and then move forward and and all that stuff so again check out his full comments but importantly for the team because Ninkovich is going to miss some time because of that injury you know it might not have been the full four weeks but at least you're not talking about missing let's say three weeks or two weeks at

this point in the season and then another three or four games later in the season when it really matters so it all sort of makes sense there but the important thing for the team is they bought that extra roster spot so now they don't have to carry Ninkovich on the active roster for the first four weeks of the season. They'll get a roster exemption for week five. Same case for Tom Brady. Of course, Tom Brady is going to come back in week five and he's going to play. But let's just say Ninkovich has a setback or whatever. That means the Patriots can at least buy four weeks, if not five weeks, against that 53-man roster with Ninkovich's spot. The surprising thing was, as you kind of try to build that roster projection,

or the prediction, the first 53, is I thought that was going to be enough to get Geno Grissom onto the squad. And mostly in terms of numbers there, not necessarily in terms of production. I've told you guys throughout the summer, I didn't think Geno Grissom was having a great camp or preseason pretty much every single big play he made or any pressure he made was with the backups in the preseason didn't stand out but the Patriots wound up cutting him and not only that but nobody claimed him so he wound up on the practice squad which is a small victory for the Patriots. We'll get to some of the guys that they lost throughout the show, but that was a tough

summer for Geno Grissom. But the Pats got Grissom and Rufus Johnson back onto the practice squad. Rufus Johnson had a good summer. He had some minimal production with some starters, or at least some earlier in-game production than Geno Grissom did. But again, a little more surprising they got Johnson under the practice squad than Grissom. Actually, I shouldn't even say that, because Grissom was the third-round pick last year, and I thought the Patriots had a good chance of losing him because of that third-round pick status. But ultimately, they're both back on the practice squad so the Patriots are going into the regular season with five edge rushers on their roster Jabal Sheard Trey Flowers Chris Long Shay McClellan and Barkevious Mingo Ninkovich is on the suspended

list and Johnson and Grissom were cut and wound up on the practice squad Pat's pass rush has been tremendous so far in the preseason, and I expect it to continue just like everybody else does. And it's really all started with Chris Long and Trey Flowers. We'll see more from Jabal Shear at his recovery timetable. It's supposed to have him back for the regular season opener. So if you've got those three that you can try out there on the defensive edge, you're doing well for yourself.

Barkevious Mingo, too, got off to a terrific start against the Giants, played in the fourth series for the defense after all the starters were pulled, and then played throughout the game. Early returns have been fantastic for Mingo. They've loved his work ethic behind the scenes, loved what you saw on the field. I had a big film breakdown of his performance in Saturday's Herald, if you want to check that out, just in terms of what he is capable of doing with the Patriots defense, the positions he can play, the impact

he can have. Ultimately, I think he'll be a rotational player at a few different positions. He'll be on the edge, think in the three four and he might get a chance to line up off the line as an inside linebacker in base situations or even in or i'm sorry in sub situations and you might even get a chance to see sets where dante hightower will line up on the edge and then you'll have jamie collins and barquevious Mingo is inside linebackers. But again, there's a lot of time left before we see what Mingo can really grow into. As great as he was against the Giants, of course everybody is going to point to the fact that a lot of it, or his entire stretch of playing time, was with backups who were teammates. Some of the Giants starters were out there as the game obviously turned to the second

half it was all backups and guys who weren't going to make the team but either way I've said this before I said it with Trey Flowers after the first preseason game and I've said it with other guys if you are a backup playing against backups and you don't stick out that's not a good thing if you're a backup playing against backups and you dominate that is a good thing you can't stick out, that's not a good thing. If you're a backup playing against backups and you dominate, that is a good thing. You can't take that away from somebody. So if you are the superior player on that field and you're going out and you're playing like it, that's a good thing. And that's what Mingo did. So again, a lot of reason for optimism right there.

I'm going to stop real quick here and just try to make sure you guys are listening to my friends across the street. Locked on Celtics with Jay king and john corrales our our neighbor podcast if you want to call it that we've also got locked on nfl locked on fantasy so jump on board with those shows after you finish listening to mine of course we'll get back into it here with the rest of the roster breakdown we're going to go position by position going next to quarterback nothing surprising there that was as expected jimmy garoppolo jacoby brissetta on the team tom brady is on the suspended list he can come back october 3rd don't need to spend too much time on that at running back the patriots kept lagarra blunt james James White and Brandon Bolden like we thought they

would DJ Foster like we thought they would assuming he earned that playing time and played very well against the Giants and then James Devlin at fullback so they got five there in the offensive backfield Dion Lewis is on the pop list for at least the first six weeks and then they cut Tyler Gaffney and Joey Josefa. Gaffney wound up on injured reserve after injuring his foot in the preseason finale against the Giants. He was basically waived with an injury. So he will be gone from IR with that injury settlement once whatever timetable they agreed upon is reached. Now, when he becomes a free agent agent he can immediately sign with any other team

once he's released by the Patriots he cannot re-sign with them for another six weeks that's how those injury settlements work so Gaffney's gone the injury played a big role but ultimately I believed DJ Foster was a better running back and I don't know if the Patriots are going to put Foster out there too much too early in the season. He's going to have to earn the trust of his coaches. Had that fumble in the Giants game, which I thought was a great learning experience for him. Made a great catch, a great move, and then was carrying the ball like a loaf of bread. You can get away with that sometimes in college.

Can't do it in the NFL. That ball is going to get taken away 100% of the time and it was the Patriots really they trust James White to go out there and do everything they need him to do so James White is going to get he's going to have a monopoly on those passing down reps and if things you know fall off the rails if he gets hurt you know Brandon Bolden would probably step in first. LeGarrette Blount has done a good job to improve his stock in the passing game quite a bit. And then you've got D.J. Foster. So it's going to be tough for him.

I'm not saying Blount is going to get playing time over Foster exclusively if it gets to that point on the depth chart. But I'm just saying temper your expectations for Foster at least early in the season I think he's got a high ceiling but I wouldn't be surprised if the Patriots really force him to go out there and earn more playing time who knows maybe by the end of the season DJ Foster's the guy on passing downs and overlaps James White. But for now, I think, again, just rein in the expectations because I think the Patriots are going to be hard on him in forcing him to improve.

He did all right in blitz pickup. You know, he missed. He got overrun in one blocking assignment. A lot of pressure to Jacoby Brissett. Handled a nice blitz while protecting Tom Brady in the first half of that Giants game. So up and down, a guy who was going to have to improve in that area to get more playing time. Going over to tight ends, and the Pats kept all four, really, or the four guys that we thought were the four big guys.

They cut Bryce Williams, not unexpected there, but Gronk, Bennett, Derby, and Harbour are on the active roster. That's an extra tight end. They've carried four tight ends before, but I think that the number that you're usually looking at is three. So we all sort of looked at Derby and Harbour as the competition for that last job. Didn't see a scenario where they were going to unload Derby. But now you've got Harber, too, who has some versatility. And when the Patriots only keep four true wide receivers, plus Matthew Slater, that just gives you, that's where you can buy that extra tight end.

So that's what the Patriots did there. And it's not just about four tight ends and four receivers these tight ends can all split out wide they can all do different things you can get them the ball in different sorts of ways it's not like these guys are just going to be lining up you know this isn't 1960 you're not going to have these tight ends just sticking at the end of the line and blocking 100% of the time I mean really how often does Gronk block in the passing game? How often do you expect Martellus Bennett to block in the passing game? So these guys are going to be out there catching passes for Jimmy Garoppolo

somewhat out of necessity because of what they did at wide receiver, which was the most surprising position over the course of the weekend for a number of different reasons start with Danny Amendola and I hit on him during Friday's show I wasn't sure they were going to keep him on the active roster because they hadn't practiced him yet they wound up putting him on the active roster removing him from pop at the last possible moment, and he was out there practicing Sunday. How much can you expect from him in week one? I mean, I think a fair estimation is like 30% of the snaps, maybe a high of 40% of the snaps.

Just because, and I'm basing that off of what they've done with Gronk in the past, when he has missed the entire offseason or the majority of the offseason due to an injury. Came back and played like 40-50% of the snaps in the opener. And then it was a gradual increase from there. Danny Amendola is the type of veteran and has enough proven worth in this offense that he can go out there and command extra playing time if necessary but you don't want to over exert it you don't want to risk further injury and conditioning especially down in arizona although if the the dome is closed i guess that's not a factor at all but the conditioning is going to be a factor just after not practicing a single time before sunday

you're talking seven days before the regular season opener. They were off Monday. They're practicing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday before they fly out to Arizona Friday afternoon. So he's going to get five practices in. You got a Saturday walkthrough where I know he's been running around and all that stuff, but you can't simulate football shape with essentially track shape as you're running back and forth on a field so that's uh that's going to be the big area of concern for Amendola early in the season is conditioning but the Pats like I said they kept four wide receivers and it's almost not even about who they kept but who they didn't keep now of course Julian Edelman

Chris Hogan Malcolm Mitchell and Matthew Slater, he doesn't count. But those are the four guys with Amendola on the active roster. I want to make sure I recount that again so you're not confused. Edelman, Amendola, Hogan, and Mitchell are your four wide receivers. And they cut Aaron Dobson, Keyshawn Martin, Chris Harper, DeAndre Carter, and Devin Lucien. Lucien's back on the practice squad. But, I mean, we basically, I was thinking they were going to keep Aaron Dobson because of injuries. And it wasn't so much of what Dobson did or didn't do later in the summer.

It was really just about having a healthy body, a guy who's been in the system. They didn't do that. They didn't see fit. And actually, you know, his early hours in free agency hasn't gotten a lot of interest either. I'm sure he'll get some workouts as the week goes on and teams kind of reassess what their needs are. But a tough weekend for Dobson in terms of his career and where he can go from here. Keyshawn Martin was more surprising because I had him as a lock going into training camp. And that was, I'll be quick because I've hit this topic a million times for everybody who's listened to me, $600,000 signing bonus in January when he signed his two-year contract

extension. When you get a signing bonus of let's say more than 150 000 maybe in today's nfl with the inflation 200 000 you're usually pretty safe the patriots ate 300 000 at donald brown they had about 350 000 with terrence knighton in the signing bonus and workout bonus and then they just ate 600000 by cutting Keyshawn Martin. That is the most money the Patriots have given away within the first year of signing a contract since 2012 when they had their injury issue and ultimate lawsuit with Jonathan Fanene. It might be, you know, I don't have the tools to go back and recheck every single transaction but I would I would wager that

Keyshawn Martin's $600,000 signing bonus was the second biggest or the second most money that they have released within the first calendar year of signing either a free agent contract or a contract extension that's a huge chunk of money to get rid of. But really, what did Keyshawn Martin do over the course of August to deserve a roster spot? He was injured again. When he finally got on the field, he didn't stick out. That's not to say that he wouldn't have continued to grow when he was more comfortable or healthier or what have you. It's not to say he might not even come back and return at some point in the season but he just he had a tough summer and injuries have been a concern with Martin and the Patriots decided they were going to

cut bait they also got rid of as I said Chris Harper a little less surprising than Dobson and Martin but surprising nonetheless Harper's now with the 49ers practice squad. DeAndre Carter was released. He was definitely further down the totem pole. Had a nice opening in the training camp. Was a guy that I thought should stick around on the practice squad, but for whatever reason has not. And then you've got Devin Lucien, who was, you know, he was the last guy on the receiver depth chart

in terms of the guys that went into their weekend. So he was a long shot, the seventh round pick. Maybe he's got a chance to grow on the practice squad, but he's the wide receiver on the practice squad right now. Go to the interior offensive line. They kept Joe Tooney, left guard starter. David Andrews starting at center. Shaq Mason will start at right guard

when that broken hand is ready maybe it's ready this week maybe he can play with the club maybe they'll go with josh klein and then backups are definite backups you know assuming klein and and uh and or mason is healthy we've got ted caris the rookie and jonathan cooper caris is probably last on the depth chart when everybody's healthy and might end up being expendable uh really when all the veterans ahead of him are healthy guy they might try to get back onto the practice squad jonathan cooper has been there at practice in a limited capacity over the last week week plus after going down with a foot injury on july 30th first padded practice of training camp so we still don't know a damn thing about jonathan cooper i have no idea if he'll ever crack the lineup this season

might have dug himself too deep of a hole but really as long as joe tooney and shack mason are both healthy it really doesn't matter if Jonathan Cooper is able to crack the lineup because there's not a place for him but you still want to have that type that guy former first round pick you want to know what he's capable of before this offseason in case you want to keep him around give him a chance to compete for a job again next year who knows injuries all these things sort of end up sorting themselves out the Patriots have Trey Jackson on the pup list and then they released John Jalapio and Chris Barker and Barker is back on the practice squad if there's a scenario where let's say you know I was told

Josh Klein's shoulder is fine if Mason can't go and then you've got Klein as the right guard, if Cooper can't go, is Ted Karras going to be the only guy who can be your interior lineman backup? It's not too often that multiple guys go down on the offensive line in the same game, but when Karras is your only backup, you could have a scenario here where Chris Barker could be a late-week call-up to the active roster if things don't play out in terms of a positive standpoint as a health factor. Go to the tackles, a small surprise here.

Of course, they were going to keep Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon. Thoughtly Adrian Waddell was safe too. And then Cameron Fleming was uh kept as the fourth tackle now Waddle has been the left tackle backup and Fleming has been the the backup right tackle but I thought if they were looking to keep or keep somebody else on the roster Fleming was a guy you could probably uh wind up stashing on the squad. I didn't think he was in danger of getting plucked off waivers. So a surprise to me that they kept four tackles. They've got Sebastian Vollmer on the pup list, and they didn't cut anybody.

They did add a tackle to the practice squad throughout the weekend. Going to the defense now. Defensive tackle Malcolm Brown, Vincent Valentine, Alan Branch, and one of the summer's best stories, Anthony Johnson, all made the team. That means they released Marcus Kuhn, Woodrow Hamilton, and Joe Bellato. Hamilton is back on the practice squad. going to keep four or five defensive tackles keep five you obviously keep coon if you keep four i think they kept the right four especially with the way anthony johnson surged down the stretch there in the preseason a guy who's really got a i think a bright future as a pass rushing defensive tackle especially in nickel situations it's going to be a fun guy to watch this season as he continues to grow now who knows i mean for for his sake for uh his career development yeah you hope it doesn't turn into a situation like a uh you know Casey Walker who

flashed for a couple games and then sort of disappeared Anthony Johnson looks like the real deal so we'll see yeah came from a big time program at L. High pedigree as a recruit out of high school. So it's not like this guy just came out of nowhere. I mean, he kind of did after just basically disappearing in the NFL. But reshaped his body, lost 50 pounds. Has a good role as a pass-rushing defensive tackle. Which is, in my opinion, a bit more important than being a first- and second-down space eater, especially in today's NFL.

And the Pats have three of those guys with Malcolm Brown, Vincent Valentine, and Alan Branch. So Johnson could have a fun role for himself in this Patriots defense if his rise continues. I already went with the edge rushers, so we'll bypass them. Then you've got linebackers, Dante Hightower, Jamie Collins, Jonathan Freeney, all obviously locks. Alandon Roberts and then Brandon King.

I include King as a linebacker. You want to call him a safety, whatever, but he's a linebacker. He goes through positional drills with linebackers, so on and so forth. But anyway, Alandon Roberts was the guy who made the team over Camus Grugier-Hill, and they lost Grugier-Hill on waivers to the Philadelphia Eagles. That's a tough one that the Pats lost. One of their draft picks, guy looked like he had some coverage, definitely had some coverage ability, maybe in sub-packages,

could have given you some depth at linebacker there in passing situations. You know, I'm not saying he was ready week one or anything like that, but a guy that I think the Patriots probably, you know, gritted their teeth a little bit when they realized that Kamu Grugier-Hill wasn't coming back. Hightower and Collins obviously were locks. Two potential All-Pros this year. Jonathan Freeney got a two-year contract extension a week ago, so he wasn't going anywhere. And then Roberts has has looked good he's an early down linebacker in my opinion haven't seen too much out of him from a coverage standpoint but again at this point he's your fourth linebacker and might even filter down the list a bit more if Barkevius Mingo or Shane McClellan turns into an inside linebacker type so they kept Roberts I would say more as a developmental project a guy they didn't want to lose on waivers but again that came at the

expense of Grugier Hill they also waived Kevin Snyder with an injury settlement broke the same hand that he broke a year ago which actually before i saw it last year right before he made that or right after he made his his nfl debut in the afc championship loss to the broncos has a pretty nasty scar on that hand so he broke it again uh he's got an injury settlement looking at about six weeks then the patriots will release him same type of deal as gaffney when you are released with an injury settlement, you become a free agent. You're released off of IR, of course. You become a free agent, free to sign with anybody else. But if you want to sign with the team that is releasing you with

that settlement, you have to wait an extra six weeks. So if it does turn out to be a six-week injury settlement, if the Patriots want to keep him they'd have to wait 12 weeks from now to bring him back I'm not saying you know Snyder is a guy that they'll be they'll be dying to keep or anything like that just trying to explain the rule a little better for you because we have a firmer timeline on his settlement than we do with Gaffney it's not saying Snyder's a bad player or anything like that and they could keep him Rutgers background you know how Belichick feels about those guys so who knows we'll see how his what what his future has in store with him for for the Patriots Bennett quarterback interesting spot as we expected it to be and there was some movement there now of course Malcolm Butler Logan

Ryan Cyrus Jones were obvious locks. Felt pretty strongly about Justin Coleman, too. And then it came down to the last three. Jonathan Jones, the undrafted rookie, made the team as the fifth corner, has the most special teams value, which makes sense because Jonathan Jones, if you're the fifth cornerback, you have to do something on special teams. You can't just be a lawn ornament as you sit there on the sideline or what have you. If you're not on the field on defense, you've got to be doing something in the kicking game.

So Jonathan Jones had his value there. However, that came at the expense of Craven LeBlanc and Darryl Roberts. LeBlanc, he was the better coverage guy of Jonathan Jones, Darryl Roberts, and of course himself. Maybe even better than Justin Coleman. I don't know. Maybe not right now. Maybe over the course of this season he turns into that. But they lost LeBlanc. He was claimed by the Bears.

And I think that one might sting them. I think LeBlanc's got some game. And again, it might not be right now. It might not be as a rookie. You know, he might not turn into a starter with the Bears. Maybe you don't hear his name this year. But he's a kid who I think has some long-term potential. So we'll see. He's going to be a guy I'm going to continue to monitor throughout his career and you never know he goes to a place like chicago where yeah they're going to new regime under john fox but there are a lot of defensive players who go to chicago and you never hear from them again so is it maybe it's not the best situation for craven leblanc of course you can't choose who

you go to when the team claims you off waivers but again that's a kid who i thought had some long-term potential so a tough one for the patriots to lose roberts went to the jets he was claimed there he was also waived with an injury settlement so he was going to go to the patriots injured reserve if he went unclaimed Jets now have a choice to make or have had the choice to make. They could keep Roberts on the active roster or they could assess his medical situation and decide to put him on IR there as well. But ultimately, again, that's that's the Jets choice. Just because he was waived injured with the Patriots doesn't mean he goes to another team's IR. It's up to that new team to decide what they want to do with him. The Patriots claimed Tyler Gaffney when he was waived injured by the Panthers a couple years ago,

and that's what they did. They ended up putting him on IR, but I think they waited a little longer to do that so he wasn't stolen off waivers the way the Pats stole him from Carolina. Gaffney never panned out with the Pats safety Devin McCourty Patrick Chung Jaron Harmon obvious locks Jordan Richards felt pretty good there Nate Ebner obvious lock even though he's a special teamer they released Vinny Senseri who was uh as as much of a roster long shot as there was going into this weekend so nothing really nothing surprising whatsoever there that went as expected Jordan Richards had a tough summer but they weren't going to get rid of the second round pick from a year

ago uh too good of a guy has the makings of being a nice special teamer you want to see a little more out of them defensively especially as Jerron Harmon is going into the final year of his contract or I guess you can say now that it's week one is in the final year of his contract, or I guess you can say now that it's week one, is in the final year of his contract. Going to be a guy who will be tough to keep because he's probably going to get paid like a starter next year because that kid is continuing to stay on the right track. He's improving every single year. And I wouldn't begrudge him for wanting to take starting money

and a starting opportunity somewhere else, as opposed to being the third safety in New England. It's not like he has a role that isn't prominent with the Patriots, but when you can only play, I don't know, half the snaps or whatever it ultimately turns out to be this season, as opposed to playing 90-95% of the snaps somewhere else, assuming that somewhere else isn't like, you know, Cleveland, then you got to take that opportunity. You have to take the chance to better yourself.

So the Pats want to make sure, because they played, and I actually wrote about this in Tuesday's Herald, today's Herald, make sure you check out the story. But I went through every single personnel package the Patriots had on the fields back in 2015, which was a good idea at the time and then took me an hour to do this, and I kind of was whacking my head against the table. I guess that was my way of trying to make sure I didn't wander out to the store and buy another rug, but such is life. Anyway, the Pats ran 1,042 defensive plays last year. They were in the nickel for 640 of those plays,

so roughly 65%. Of those 640 plays that they were in nickel, 238 of them included three safeties and two cornerbacks. So the Pats used three safeties more than any team in the NFL, and about one-third of their plays in nickel included three safeties and not three cornerbacks. So not conventional, but a lot of that is a credit to Harmon, and what he's able to do for the Pats defense can roam center field and put Devin McCourty closer to the line, or you can just have two guys in center field with McCourty and Harmon back there. So again, that's a credit to Harmon. If they lose Harmon a year from now, getting too

far ahead of ourselves, I get that. But I'm just trying to, the point is you want to see Jordan Richards play better. And he might not even be a free safety type, a guy who can roam and protect the back end of it. But if he can grow, if the Patriots just want him to live up to that second round hype or the second round draft billing, so it won't be as difficult to replace somebody like Harmon a year from now if he does end up walking, which again, I think is a strong likelihood. So that's my thought there at safety. Specialists, you know know this was locked in place

from day one steven gustowski ryan allen joe cardona pats are all good there uh so anyway that's what the pats have in terms of the roster everything that's going on again they've got the exemption with ninkovich and brady for four weeks and it could turn into a five-week exemption, or you're on the suspended list, you get that one-week exemption at the end of that for everybody who comes back from the suspension. Clearly, they're not going to use that on Brady. Maybe they do with Ninkovich. The roster is going to continue to turn over in the course of the coming days, weeks, months, naturally. Pats add players every single week of the season. So they're not done.

They've been calling around about wide receivers. They added Bishop Sankey, the running back, to the practice squad. Who knows if Sankey finally lives up to the draft hype. Maybe he turns into Monty Ball last year that the Pats brought into the practice squad, a decorated college player who just did nothing with their system before his release due to off-the-field issues. But, yeah, that's Pat's first 53.

Come back every day this week. We're going to hit you with a bunch of preview shows looking into that week one game. Pat's Cardinals, again, my Super Bowl 51 preview. I think those are, you got the best team in the NFL, in the Patriots in my opinion, the best team in the NFC, in the Cardinals in my opinion, and they're going to be locking up.

No, you're not going to see, you don't think you're going to see Jimmy Garoppolo in Super Bowl 51. It's probably going to be Tom Brady's show by then, of course. But these games are never the same from week one to week four let alone week one to what week 21 or whatever the super bowl turns out being so fun week lots of stuff to get into got some really good stories planned for the herald this week too make sure you check out our preview section again it's running on wednesday this year normally we have it thursday's paper but check out wednesdays And then again, that last favor, now that you guys are ready to put

down the podcast and wander off into your real life lives, hit me up on iTunes, five stars, if you can, would be hugely appreciated. It'd help continue to grow this podcast. I'm Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald. This was Locked on Patriots. I'll see you guys on Wednesday. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Thank you.