Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots - September 10, 2019: Brown is in Town, On to Miami

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

With Antonio Brown now an official member of the New England Patriots, host Mike D’Abate welcomes Wayne Harvey Of 92.9 The Ticket in Maine to talk AB’s impact on the team, as well as the Pats prognosis on heading to Miami this week to face the Dolphins.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

and hello to all you Foxborough faithful and welcome to your Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots your daily home for news notes analysis and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champion the New England Patriots Locked On Patriots as always is a part of the Locked On Podcast Network I am your host Mike DeBate and I cover the Patriots for fullpresscoverage.com which is where you can always find my written work. And you can also reach out to me on Twitter at M-D-A-B-A-T-E-F-P-C. And be sure to follow Lockdown Patriots while you're at it on Twitter as well,

at L-O underscore Patriots. Today's show is one I hope that you enjoy, and I'm pretty sure that you will, as my guest today is Wayne Harvey of 92.9 The Ticket in Maine. And so much is made of the Pats being a Boston fan base, but all of New England loves their Pats football, and Wayne and his team in 92.9 do an amazing job. We'll get some Northern New England wisdom in council today, and I really think you're going to enjoy it, and I hope that you do, and I'm pretty sure that you will. But first we start with the news of the day and it is official folks, Antonio Brown is in town.

On Monday the New England Patriots announced that they have signed the prolific wide receiver. Terms of the contract were not officially announced but they did leak out and they are pretty well public knowledge. Now it was reported that the agreement was a one year 15 million dollar deal now that includes a nine million dollar signing bonus for the four time all pro it's also reported that the patriots added an option year for brown at 2020 at 20 million dollars so that becomes guaranteed if executed now this was likely done to help for cap probation purposes this season ian rapaportort of the NFL Network went into further detail and provided a little more background.

The deal essentially gives Brown a $1 million fully guaranteed base. Now, that $9 million signing bonus is going to be paid $5 million up front and then $4 million at a later time. There's also 500,000 in 46-man roster bonuses and incentives of 1.5 million for hitting each of these statistical marks. 105 catches, 1,298 yards, and 16 touchdowns. So it's a total of 15 million plus a 20 million dollar option that's guaranteed if picked up. So that's some smart structuring here by the Patriots. They do get some cap relief by breaking up the signing bonus, and some of these incentives will likely push Brown to put up numbers, but he has to produce. You might see the Pats feed the ball, maybe even force the ball to Brown a bit at the beginning, but they're not going to do that for too long. It's not Tom Brady style. It's not Bill Belichick's style.

Tom was actually on Westwood with Jim Gray last night. He always does his weekly radio appearance with Jim and said that, you know, the Patriots right now are in meaningful games and that the timeline of getting Brown up to speed has to be fast-tracked. So hopefully Brown can start to get some synergy with his teammates and he takes the practice field for the first time with the Pats on Wednesday. So keep an eye out for that. Always will be interesting. As for Bill Belichick, he addressed the media this morning, and he did speak about Antonio Brown,

and he can now do that because Antonio Brown is now under contract. And in true Bill fashion, he really didn't offer a ton of details, but he did get a laugh from the press corps when he was asked by NBC Sports Boston's Tom Curran what makes him confident that Antonio Brown won't be a disruption, like he was at times in Pittsburgh and even in Oakland. Belichick replied, it's the same thing you said when Randy Moss was brought in. And you can't make it up, folks. It's vintage Bill, mid-season form, but he does have a point.

And Moss worked great here. There's no question about it. I still have my personal doubts, but Bill has forgotten more about football than I'll ever know. I'm sure he sees a great deal of potential there, and we'll see how it all works out on the field. And I think everybody's eyes are going to be closely glued to Foxborough tomorrow to see how Brown practices and what he looks like on the field. And lastly, Mike Reese of ESPN was the first to report that tackle Marcus Cannon's shoulder injury

not considered anything serious or season-ending or really long-term in nature. That came from a source, and Reese confirmed it. Several other news outlets confirmed it shortly after. Now, Cannon did undergo some tests on Monday. Landed hard on that shoulder in the fourth quarter on Sunday night. We all saw that. He may still miss

some time though so keep a sharp eye on Corey Cunningham. The Patriots acquired Cunningham via a trade with Arizona a few weeks ago. He's been projected as the swing tackle so time's only going to tell if he can step into this role and we'll take a look on that. But good news on Cannon, doesn't look like it's long-term, and that is great news for

the Patriots offensive line and the team as a whole. So before I welcome Wayne in today, I just have one question for you. Yes, you, my listener. If you found $100 on the street, would you pick it up, or would you keep walking? Of course you'd take the money. So why do you keep picking winners and not betting on them? That's why I go to MyBookie. It's fast, it's easy, and they pay when you win.

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That's promo code LOCKEDON. Visit MyBookie today. You play, you win, you get paid with MyBookie. And we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. This morning I am joined by a host of the morning show at 92.9 The Ticket, and he brings great sports coverage to the state of Maine and all over New England. They really do an awesome job. He's welcomed me as his guest a couple of times this season, and I've had a blast.

And today I get to turn the tables on him a little bit, and I kind of like that. But Wayne Harvey joins me today. Wayne, welcome to Locked On Patriots, and thank you so much for joining me today. My pleasure, Mike. I actually prefer to be the one asking the questions. This will be weird. Well, I promise I won't put you on the hot seat for too, too much. But you offer a great perspective, and I've always had a great time coming on your show in the morning,

and I hope to be back several times throughout the season. But I thought our listeners would gain a little bit of a new perspective coming from the northern part of New England, which a lot of times I think people forget that New England is a six-state fan base. There's an awful lot more going on up here in New England than just Boston. And we love our Boston fans, there's no question about it. They're some of the most stark, raving, and loyal, but really all over New England offers great coverage. And we definitely saw the Patriots drop banner number six, which I said on my show yesterday, as a lifelong follower of this team, I had my doubts when I was a teenager and I was a young boy whether or not they would

actually even win one, and here they are with six Super Bowl titles. It's really, really mind-blowing. And they came out looking great against the Steelers. I know you were watching on Sunday night, as we all were. What were some of your first impressions of this Patriots team? And based on what you saw Sunday night, what do you think the ceiling is for this team moving forward? Well, I mean, I think the ceiling is the easy answer. I mean, the ceiling is another Super Bowl title.

I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility at all. The first thing I noticed, early first quarter, when Josh Gordon made the catch and just gets blown up by the secondary of Pittsburgh and holds on to the ball, he's just a monster. He's so big and so strong, so much

to deal with. You just, when you're watching him, if he stays healthy, that's a weapon that I don't know. You know, Randy Moss was great, Welker, Edelman, but he's never had the big, burly receiver that can go through and make all the different plays and be that fast and that strong. I just, the Josh Gordon, Tom Brady connection could be phenomenal this year,

and that's even without knowing that Antonio Brown's going to be part of it to take a little pressure off. It's just Gordon was the one that impressed me most. If he can stay healthy and ready to go, his numbers could be off the charts this year. Yeah, and I agree. I think that's a really great point on Gordon. And I'm glad you brought that play up because that was one of my favorite

plays of the night. And I do regret not mentioning that in my recap yesterday because you kind of go on and on, and sometimes things can slip your mind, but that was an amazing play. The fact that he went over the middle, caught the shot, really, really got hit hard. Gordon hopped right back up, and everybody

has questioned whether or not Gordon is locked in in terms of his, and there's a pun, absolutely, and I try to add those in every now and then, they're on locked on, but he was locked in, and a lot of people were questioning whether or not he would be, and the fact that you take a hit like that, especially after being off of the football field for meaningful snaps for so long, to be able to take a hit like that, pop right back up, get right back up,

and get into the swing of things again does show that he is in that mindset. He does have the ability to take these hits. So I completely agree with you on Gordon, and I think that that's an excellent, excellent, you know, really an acquisition if you think about it, because they didn't have him for that long on the season last year, showed some flashes of what, again, another pun, showed some flashes of what he could have done here.

And I think that this season with training camp and being able to come in and observe and work out and now be able to start a full season here, I think that only bodes well for him. But he's not the only wide receiver. I'm sorry, go ahead. He came into camp ready and in shape and willing to take the hits and has that mindset of team first, team first, team first, and it just shows that he was ready to go and ready to go after that first real big hit.

And that should answer a lot of questions. Absolutely, and especially after missing the first part of training camp as well. Don't forget, he wasn't reinstated until camp was almost ready to wrap. So the fact that he did keep himself in good physical condition allows him to take those hits, be able to come back, definitely a good sign for Patriots fans, and we're certainly glad to see that. But he isn't the only wide receiver in the news right now,

and you know I'm going to lead into this. And that is the Patriots signing of Antonio Brown. And look, after word broke that he was being released by the Oakland Raiders early Saturday morning, it almost had an inevitable feel to it. You kept looking at your news feed. I kept waiting to hear inside information that this was actually going to happen.

And it broke very, very shortly before it became official to everyone on Saturday afternoon that Antonio Brown had indeed signed with the Patriots. First impressions of the signing, first of all, I'm going to ask you, and then going forward, does this move have the potential to be, I opened the show with Belichick making the comment about Randy Moss, which I thought was an eye-opener. Belichick usually doesn't invoke the name of Randy Moss unless he really wants to praise a wide receiver.

So do you feel that he has the potential to be a very prolific talent here, or is there more of a potential that he could be a malcontent? Well, so the first question of my initial response was I was not shocked. I don't think anybody was. And it just seemed like that would be the next logical landing spot. Bill takes in malcontents and turns them into something. He takes overlooked players, turns them into something. He takes late-round draft picks, turns them into, you know,

and he just has that, and you just kind of see, well, this is where it's going to go. This is like the natural progression, the natural order of things. To compare him to Randy Moss, I don't know about that yet. Moss was so special, and he didn't do – and maybe it's looking back with rose-colored glasses. I don't think that Moss was a guy who was detrimental to his team. I don't think he quit on a team.

I don't think he made a mockery of the coaching staff by didn't go Facebook live in the middle of a locker room meeting. I think Moss is a different animal, different category than Antonio Brown is because you just have – yeah, they're both fruit. Apples and oranges are both fruit, but they're different. Because Moss seemed like he was still all about himself and wanted the numbers and wanted the showmanship and wanted the money and wanted the attention.

But he did it in a way that he wanted to do it and help his team win. But he wanted the ball and like, I can get the ball and it seems like Brown wants the attention, whether or not the ball comes with it, whether or not the winds come with it. And I, I understand the connection and the correlation between Moss and Brown. I'm just not ready to make that jump yet.

With the workout. I don't know. I'm still, I, I can see this going, but I can make a case on both sides. I am firmly on the fence on this one. Yeah, and I think that's a safe assessment. I think everybody really needs to take a wait-and-see approach to this. I know the initial reaction when he signs where you're getting a prolific talent like Antonio Brown, and listen, if he comes in here and he's ready to play and is

not a distraction, there's definitely an upgrade of talent in this wide receiver core. There's no question about it. From a football standpoint, you're getting one of the best in the business, but there is also a lot of controversy and a lot of what-ifs and question marks that come along with it. So I think the Patriots are taking a very slow wait-and-see approach when it comes to his character development, and I think that's going to be telltale because from a talent standpoint, there's certainly no slow wait-and-see approach when it comes to his character development, and I think that's going to be telltale because from a talent standpoint, there's certainly no question that he deserves to be here,

deserves to be on his team. I think the comparisons to Moss were a little strange as well. I'm not saying I don't believe Belichick was trying to compare Antonio Brown to Randy Moss, but it could be a situation where he strategically used that because Bill is very, very guarded and very careful in his statements to the press. He's not a guy that just goes out there and haphazardly speaks off the top of his head and then regrets it later. This is not a Rex Ryan situation or anything like that.

Belichick chooses his words very carefully, and those types of words might have been, it might have just been a message to the media. It might have been a message to all, you know, the NFL in general saying that there is something here that we believe that we can extract from him. And maybe new England is the best environment for him. Certainly hope so.

And we're certainly going to keep an eye on it. No question about it. And I have a feeling Wayne, that we're going to be talking about Antonio Brown a little more this season, either here on locked on or with with 92.9 The Ticket, and I think that's definitely something to keep an eye on going forward. In terms of the Patriots, we did also get a little bit of good news today from the Pats, and Mike Reese was the first to report it.

It was later confirmed by a number of different news outlets, and that's Marcus Cannon, and we discussed this yesterday morning on your show, that Cannon was questionable in terms of his injury status, that he was going to be someone that might indeed miss some time. I think he will, but it doesn't look to be long-term or significant here. So that's great news for the New England Patriots, especially the offensive line. When you take a look at a guy like Cannon and what he brings to the table, what's your first reaction when you hear naturally that he's going to be

okay? And do you believe that with Dante Skarnecchia in tow, that this is going to make the Patriots be able to weather this storm a lot better than they would have if they didn't have someone like Skar to be able to navigate them in the right direction? Because they're already missing David Andrews, and Cannon is a veteran presence on that line. So do you feel more secure knowing that Skarniecki is there, maybe to bring along a guy like Corey Cunningham as a swing tackle? Well, yes, definitely more comfortable that Skarniecki is there. I may be contrarian here and take the opposite side of this one. I actually don't know if it's a bad thing.

Okay, it's a bad thing that the injury happened, so that's the wrong way to word it. But to create that depth on the offensive line, to get more snaps for other players, if Kane is taking all the snaps, you're not seeing a Cunningham and see what he can develop into or see how those practice reps are working. You have to see game speed. And this gives a chance for whether it's Elmenor or Cunningham or whoever

to come in and take those extra snaps, those extra live game reps and see that and get the tutelage of Skarniecki and to see on film, hey, look, if you go here, if you plant your left foot there, if you plant your right hand here, and break those little things down, they're going to improve. Would those guys who the Patriots went and traded for that saw something in, would they improve and learn under Skarniecki if they're not seeing it on the game film? So while injuries are always horrible and you don't like to lose somebody on the ones, you have to be able to know if the twos can go. And I don't know if the

Patriots knew or know at this point if the twos can go. And this will answer a couple of those questions of can these guys who we went out and made the moves for, can these guys play and play the way we want them to and pick up the schemes that we want them to do and the blocking assignments that we want in game speed, or can they only do it in practice, or can we only see them do it, you know, on a Buffalo Bills tape or whatever? What can they do in real-life action in the Patriot system? Is that really the contrarian way to think of that, of take a positive out of a negative?

I mean, that seems kind of like the Bill Belichick Patriot way. No, I think so. I think it's actually not really a contrarian method. I think it's actually a smart look and an interesting take that most people wouldn't have. And by my own admission, it's probably not something that I took a closer look at, maybe as close as I should have. And I like the fact that you brought that up, that it does give that next man up mentality a chance to be here. And look, offensive line is definitely a position where depth is so important. Guys go down, there are injuries all the time. The lines, both offensive and defensive, tend to be a very, very fragile position.

So you need guys that can come in, be able to play different positions. I'm looking forward to seeing what Cunningham and Illuminor can do. They brought these guys in for a reason, and there's definitely talent and things that Skarnecchia and Belichick can do. They brought these guys in for a reason, and there's definitely talent and things that Skarniecki and Belichick can see here. So I really, really like what this brings to the table, and I like what this is going to have going forward. So I think you bring a very interesting perspective, and I'll definitely keep a sharp eye on that this week and beyond

as we see these guys emerge and we see how Cannon is going to weather through his shoulder injury. And a follow-up to that. Go ahead. So to kind of feed off of that, the Patriots aren't going to lose in the first eight weeks. There's no one on their schedule that is a – the injury, is that going to really impact a win or loss possibility?

So they're going to get reps. They're going to get time in very, very winnable games, whether they go with four offensive linemen or not. They could probably skip a lineman in some of these and still be fine because the Miami Dolphins are going to pose no threat to New England in terms of should they be worried about how the offensive line performs. I mean, Brady's still going to be fine, and they're still going to win these. The first eight games are pretty pathetic.

Once again, I'm speaking with Wayne Harvey of 92.9 The Ticket in the great state of Maine, and just made a great point about the Patriots' schedule and the teams that are coming up on the schedule. And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't let you go today, Wayne, without having your thoughts, or hearing your thoughts, I should say, on the Patriots' upcoming game this Sunday, September 15th, against the Miami Dolphins. We saw the Dolphins take on the Baltimore Ravens this past weekend and absolutely got

shellacked, for lack of a better term. They really were up and down in terms of what uh they went through and uh it's a tough situation in miami right now i know a lot of uh you know there's reports that players want out and fans are really really struggling but the patriots have a house of horrors when they go down to miami strange things happen to this team when they play in South Beach. So your initial reaction, your gut reaction as to what's going to happen, it sounds like you've got them already penciled in for a win,

and I don't necessarily think that's going too far out on a limb, but is there anything in this matchup that you could see that could potentially be a problem or a trap game for the New England Patriots this weekend? Oh, I will pick the Patriots to win, but with trepidation because it's at Miami. And it just, like you said, I mean, the Miami miracle, there have just been weird things that happen when New England goes down to Miami. And it always seems like it's a hot, swampy day in South Beach. And it's one of those weird circumstances.

I don't know what the weather forecast is for Miami for Sunday. Can things go wrong? Yes. I don't think they're going to. I just think if you look at the talent level on paper, there's no comparison. We've seen them on the field. I mean, the Patriots blew out Pittsburgh, although I don't have high thoughts of Pittsburgh this year. I'm kind of down on the Steelers. But I just think the Patriots' role, but it's a divisional game.

Weird things happen with the Patriot connection with the coaching staffs. Who knows? Although Belichick's disciples never beat them, though, do they? I mean, that should be another feather in the cap for the Patriots to know that they're going to get out a win. Absolutely. Although Patricia, in his debut in McDaniels, did have success the first time

around. It's usually the second time around that Bill's vengeance comes back to bite them. But I agree with you. I think it's going to be very difficult. The type of team that Brian Flores has been putting together and inherited. And look, I have tons of respect for Flores. I think he did a tremendous job with the defense last year. And he will eventually build a very good team in Miami.

I think that's just the way he goes about doing business. And I wish him the best, except for when they play the Pats. But at that point, I think that he's building something special. But I think right now there are going to be some lean times in South Beach. So I kind of agree with you when it comes to that. I'm cautiously optimistic when it comes to this game because it is in Miami. If it were up in Foxborough, I would be tremendously, tremendously more confident. But we'll see what happens when Miami does come up here toward the latter part of the season.

Wayne, I really want to thank you for joining me today on Locked on Patriots. Always great perspectives. I appreciate you bringing a lot of your candor and, like I said, some of that Northern New England wisdom and counsel that we would love to absorb here again on Locked on Patriots throughout the season. So before I let you go today, just please let our listeners know where they can listen to you, where they can find some of your great work,

and even where they can follow you on social media. The easiest way if you want to follow me on Twitter, it's Wayne Harvey. That's the easiest way. You can always listen to 929 The Ticket. We have an app. You can get anywhere you would download apps, just the 929 The Ticket app app you can listen to us at 929theticket.com we have all kinds of

there's pick them contests we have all kinds of things people can get involved into and yeah if people want to know more social media is probably the easiest way Wayne Harvey is the easiest way to find me on Twitter excellent and again I can't recommend the list highly enough, I really should say. Wayne is a great guy. These guys do a tremendous job. I've always enjoyed going on their show. And, like I said, I definitely hope to be back on again. And we look forward to having Wayne and some of the 92.9 guys here on Locked On

as well throughout the season. And I thank you, Wayne, for joining me today once again. But, as for me, I will be back tomorrow, and we will be back with Crossover Wednesday with the host of Locked on Dolphins. Travis Wingfield joins me tomorrow. He puts on an amazing show for Finns fans. If you are a Dolphins fan, definitely download and listen.

I encourage Patriots fans to listen this week as well. Little behind-the-enemy territory scenes that you want to get, so always a good look there. But we will look ahead to the Pats Week 2 matchup with the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, September 15th in Miami. As always, make sure to join me each and every day on the Locked On Patriots

podcast, and subscribe to Locked On Patriots via your favorite podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank you so much for listening today, and have a great day, everybody.