Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 14, 2017 - Mailbag Live!

Episode Date: September 14, 2017

Mark Schofield takes listener questions on a special live edition of Locked On Patriots, simulcast on Facebook Live as well through the Locked On Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash get more. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Good afternoon and welcome to a very special edition of Locked On Patriots for Thursday, September 14th. Mark Schofield with you here in the big chair and why is this a special edition? Well, you can kind of see the big chair if you're looking at this the right way because I am recording this, but we are also broadcasting it live on Facebook Live via the Locked On Podcast Network. We're going to try to do this every single Thursday.

All the Locked On shows from across our podcast network will be going live as often as we can to sort of give you some live radio action as well as all the podcasts we do across the network in the NFL and the NBA every single day. This Thursday is our mailbag show. I've got a ton of questions from a lot of Patriots fans and even some non-Patriots fans, some non-Pats fans snuck in some questions that we'll get to as well. All questions are welcome. What is also welcome, leave some reviews. The reason why, if you want an Edge subscription from Pro Football Focus, which is a $39.99 value, you want this. They have great chart and data. They have their player grades, a wealth of information at your fingertips. If you want one of those, go to the Locked On Patriots page

on iTunes, leave a review for the podcast, make sure your Twitter handle is in there, and you can be entered to win a subscription from the great people at Pro Football Focus. You can do that for all of the podcasts across the Locked On network. Go leave a review for every single podcast, make sure your Twitter handle is in there, and be entered for a chance to win. Let's get to some of your mailbag questions right now. We're going to start off with a question from Ryan Jackson. He is on Twitter at this Ryan Jackson. Give Ryan a follow. His question is, are the Patriots going to draft another quarterback this year? And I think the reason why Ryan got that question into me is because he knows that I do a ton of quarterback evaluation work for

inside the pylon where I do a lot of my work, a lot of my writing, as well as various other places around the internet. And Ryan, I think they will. And the reason being is, look, the odds were high anyway. And now the Patriots, obviously they've traded Jacoby Brissett. They've only got two quarterbacks on the active roster. They've been working out some quarterbacks. They had Mitch Leidner out of the University of Minnesota. He was in working out with them this week. They have a history of drafting quarterbacks as well. When you look back, since they drafted Tom Brady in the year 2000, they have drafted eight quarterbacks over that 16-year period. They drafted Rohan Davey in 2002, Cliff Clainsbury in 2003, Matt Castle in 2005, Kevin O'Connell 2008, Zach Robbins in 2010, Ryan Mallett 2011, Garoppolo in 2014, and then Jacoby Brissett two years ago.

So that's 16 years, 16 drafts, eight quarterbacks. That's basically a quarterback every other year. They didn't take a quarterback in the last draft class. I was wondering if they would or not. They didn't do that because they had three guys in. Now with Brissette being traded to the Indianapolis Colts, it's my expectations that they do draft another quarterback. And about this quarterback class, this 2018 quarterback class, I don't want to spend a lot of time on it, but it's an extremely deep class. If you want, go to insidethepylon.com. I have my four quarterback watch list pieces up there. 40 quarterbacks that I'm keeping an eye on for this draft class. And you know the big names, Josh Rosen, Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, Lamar Jackson, Baker Mayfield after planting the flag down in Ohio State.

But this is a deep senior class as well, and a name that I've thrown out before for the Patriots if they want to sort of address the quarterback position but do it later in the draft. Matt Linehan from the University of Idaho. He comes from sort of an NFL lineage. His father, Scott Linehan, the offensive coordinator down in Dallas with the Dallas Cowboys, runs a pro-style offense. You see concepts like the Haas concept, that hitch seam concept that Tom Brady runs. Linehan's running that out in Moscow with the Idaho Vandals. And so he's a name to keep an eye on,

somebody I'm anticipating to see down in Mobile at the Senior Bowl. Austin Allen, another senior quarterback at the University of Arkansas. Arkansas's off to a bit of a tough start, but another name to keep in mind. So Ryan, my expectation is New England drafts a quarterback. Keep an eye on some of the guys in the senior class. Next question from my friend Jeff Risdon, at Jeff Risdon. I would tell you all the places Jeff works, but there are simply too many to list and not enough time to get through them all. But he works over at Texans Wire, Browns Wire. He does stuff for Real GM. He's all over the place. Make sure you're following Jeff at Jeff Risden.

How many catches will Daniel Braverman get in his debut over under of 11? Okay, Jeff. Jeff's having a little fun with us because the Patriots had Braverman in this week to work out. And, you know, while the 11 catch over and under is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek kind of question, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Patriots sign Braverman. And when you look at the wide receiver core right now, Amandol today, we're recording this on Thursday, he did not practice again today.

He's a big question mark now for this team, particularly for this weekend against the Saints. But going forward now, you have to wonder about his status. That leaves you with Brandon Cooks, Phillip Dorsett, Chris Hogan, and then some question marks at the wide receiver spot. So they need to get another guy in. Braverman might fit with what they want to do. People in the draft community liked him coming out of Western Michigan. He only saw two targets for the Bears last year and very limited action at the end of the season. But given the depth concerns we have in New England right now in that wide receiver room, wouldn't surprise me at all to see them bring in Daniel Braverman, give him some looks, maybe get him on the active

roster and see what they have in him because they need some help with that position right now this week and going forward. Next question is from CS. He's at CSSnyder128 on Twitter. Why do the Patriots stink? Fair question right now, I guess, in the wake of that opening night loss. But it's a question. Why did they lose that game? And we've spent some time this week here on Locked on Patriots going through what happened in that game and to sort of address CS's question here.

Again, give him a follow. Nice guy out there on Twitter. He's having a little fun with us. But we saw a couple of things on both sides of the football. We know Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia, they like to take away an offense's biggest weapon. They went into this game against Kansas City with one main goal in mind, limit Travis Kelsey.

And to a certain extent, they did that. He saw seven targets for five catches and 40 yards, didn't score a touchdown. A lot of those catches came on that little shoveled pass design that they were running, that sort of option slash shoveled look, which is a very creative play design from Andy Reid and the Chiefs. But they had a little game plan to sort of limit Travis Kelsey. They had Devin McCourty sort of shadow him all over the field. There were times when McCourty was down across from him in man coverage, whether Kelsey was

split out wide or even in line or in the wind in the tight end spot. And so they had a game plan. They were trying to limit what Kelsey could do. The problem was full faith and credit to the Chiefs, their coaching staff, their advanced scouts, and of course the guys that executed these plays, Alex Smith and company. They realized that the Patriots were to do that. So what did they do? They sort of used Kelsey almost as a decoy at times. I broke this down, but again, if you look at that Tyreek Hill touchdown pass, they come out in that double stack formation, two receivers to each side of the field, that stack alignment one behind the other, and you have Kelsey and Hill to one side of the formation. What do they get? They get a Tampa 2 coverage from the New England Patriots

where you've got two deep safeties, Harmon and McCourty, and you have Kyle Van Noy dropping in from the linebacker spot into that sort of intermediate middle area between the safeties. That's to help on the post route that Kelsey eventually runs. But because this team, this defense, was so worried about what Kelsey might do, Van Noy drops under it. Both Harmon and McCourty have their eyes on Kelsey as well because they're worried about that post route

to the middle of the field. Tampa 2 coverage, those cornerbacks, sometimes you're taught to sync with vertical routes, but with their out and up routes, they don't necessarily sync with them as much as they should. Both those out and up routes, one side of the field, hill on the other side of the field, where Smith eventually goes with the ball, they're both open because again, Patriots were worried about Kelsey. Kareem Hunt's touchdown, same kind of thing. They're worried about Kelsey.

They have McCourty down in the box to cover Kelsey off the line of scrimmage. You have Eric Rowe in the slot lined up across from Tyreek Hill. Hill goes in motion towards Kelsey's side of the field. Now defense is worried about what they might do with Hill, whether it's a jet sweep, a little swing pass to him. So what do they do? Harmon, the free safety, rotates down towards the line of scrimmage. Now he's in the box as well as McCourty. That forces Eric Rowe to rotate back to play free safety.

And Rowe's a cornerback by trade. He's not a safety by trade. So that's an unfamiliar spot for him. Again, because now they're worried about Kelsey. When Kelsey runs that post route across the middle, McCourty trails him, but that's the first thing Rowe sees. And being sort of an unfamiliar spot, Rowe jumps that route from Kelsey, worried about what Kelsey might do in that post route. Two linebackers try to carry Kareem Hunt out of the backfield on his deep route. There's no safety help in the middle. Linebackers might have been expecting somebody back there to help. There's nobody there. Touchdown. And so a lot of credit goes to the Chiefs, their offensive game plan,

their advanced scouts for what happened on Thursday night. I think this Sunday down in New Orleans, we're going to see a different Patriots team for a number of reasons, but I think that New England is going to be ready. They're going to have better execution on both sides of the football, and I think they're going to come out of this game with a victory. We're going to get to some more questions in a minute, but again, I want to remind everybody that's watching, that's listening, about that option, that opportunity to win a PFF Edge subscription.

They do great work over at Pro Football Focus, charting the games, giving out player grades. They have fantasy analysis for you as well. If you listen to the Locked On podcast, you know Locked On Fantasy, they're going to have guys from Pro Football Focus join in that show as well to talk about the upcoming week ahead and fantasy implications.

If you want a PFF Edge subscription, and I know you do, trust me, it's a great value, go to all of the Locked On pages on iTunes, Locked On Patriots for one. Leave a review of the show there. Make sure your Twitter handle is in your review. You'll be entered for a chance to win. We're going to be giving away one each week per show.

It's a great opportunity to get your hands on a PFF Ed subscription, so I can't recommend enough that you go to the iTunes page for every Locked On podcast, leave a review, get your Twitter handle in there, and get yourself entered. Next question comes from our friend Deuce Windham. Deuce was on this show earlier this week, and he was a fantastic guest. Deuce writes for Canal Street Chronicles. He does some work for ESPN 97.7 out of Monroe, Louisiana.

He is a brilliant football mind. Did some work for the Scouting Academy. Finished third in their Prove It competition where you had to do reports on players and have them graded. Deuce does incredible work. He's a great football mind, so he's somebody you should definitely follow.

You can follow him at RevDeuceWindham. And he's a brilliant Saints mind, as you heard from him this week. Knows the Saints inside and out. He submitted a question. What frightens you more, Michael Thomas and his ability to form mismatches, one-on-one situations, or Sean Payton's ability to scheme Alvin Kamara open? And I think, Deuce, in response to your question, it's the latter.

I'm a little bit more concerned about what Payton might design for guys like Kamara and other guys on that offensive side of the ball than I am in Michael Thomas in one-on-one situations, because I'm fairly confident that Thomas is an incredible route runner. We all know what he can do, running routes, getting in and out of breaks, getting defenders to bite on certain concepts. You've probably seen that Twitter video of him running that sort of double move concept against Virginia Tech while he was at Ohio State, getting the defender to bite on a quick little hitch route and then releasing vertically for an easy touchdown.

Thomas is a dangerous route runner. But when you watch that Vikings-Saints game, one of the things I really came away with and one of the things that really sort of concerns me was there were opportunities, particularly in the red zone, for the Saints to score points points to put the ball in the end zone but they only came away with three points on a lot of drives and now you might be wondering why is that concerning I mean doesn't that bode well for New England what was happening was the Vikings were able to get

pressure on Breeze they were able to make him to get rid of the ball quickly get it out of his hands before route concepts could develop Everson Griffin is a great defensive end. He can get pressure from either side of the formation. He can get pressure on any kind of snap in any kind of situation. Even when he's double-teamed, he beat Ryan Ramsey on a fantastic spin move. I'm not sure that New England can dial up the kinds of pressure and get the kinds of pressure on Drew Brees that the Minnesota Vikings were able to do on Monday night. And so then those route concepts that Brees didn't have time to throw on Monday night against the Vikings, he might have time to throw those against the Patriots. There was one play John Gruden talked about at length. There was sort of a rub route concept to the left, and that sort of fell apart.

But the pressure got to Brees, and he had to get rid of the ball quickly. If he had time, he could have looked backside to where he had a post route breaking open. Those are the kind of things where if the pressure doesn't get home, the quarterback, Drew Breeze, will have time to hit those. If the Patriots can't get to Breeze in those situations, he's going to have time to get to his third read, to his fourth read. There was another play, and Deuce actually sent me this video clip when he was going through the tape, where they got Alvin Kamara open in the corner of the end zone on a sort of a scissors concept, where you have a post route from the outside, and Kamara's running that corner route out of the backfield. Brees didn't have time to throw it, didn't have time to look for Kamara. That route was there as well. And so if the Patriots can't get pressure, I'm concerned

about Sean Payton's ability to dial up some designs that will scheme some guys open, particularly in the red zone. We saw the Saints struggle to get the ball in the end zone against the Vikings. That's one of my concerns about this game. Will they struggle? Will they have those similar struggles? Or will Breeze afforded more protection against this pass rush as opposed to the Vikings' pass rush, be able to get to those options that they can scheme open?

Next question from my friend Matt Johnson at Matt J underscore sports over under touchdowns 1.5 for Mike Gillisley this week and I can see exactly why Matt asked this question again give Matt a follow but you see what Dalvin Cook did for the Vikings against the Saints on that opening night you see him put up 22 carries for 127 didn't get the ball in the Saints on that opening night. You see him put up 22 carries for 127, didn't get the ball in the end zone, but had success running the football. And you think, look, are the Patriots going to look to do that again? As well as the fact that Gilleslie put the ball in the end zone three times for New England on opening night. And I get that, but I'm going

to take the under here, and here's why. When you watch that game on Monday night, when you go through that tape and see what Minnesota did in the running game, a lot of the success that they had came on that outside zone, that stretch zone where you get the running back the ball headed to the edge using speed and quickness and vision to read how the blocking sets up and then make either that band read where you cut right through the hole, that bounce read where you bounce it around to the outside, or even that bend read where you cut back. I think we're going to see the Patriots use similar concepts, that stretch zone, that outside zone that the Vikings had success with. And I think that sets up better for James White. A little bit of a quicker back. It seemed like they want Gilleslie in those power situations, those fourth downs that New England got stopped on. Gilleslie was the guy they gave the football to. So I think we're going to see a little bit more James White involved in the game plan this week, try to get on the ball, on stretch zone looks, on outside zone looks that the Vikings had success with.

Also, this Saints defense, to me when I look at it, I think it gets a little bit more inexperienced as you get deeper down the field. Look at this defense up front. Sheldon Rankin, second-year player out of Louisville, tremendous talent. Missed a lot of time last year with a broken leg, but he's a great three tech. He's a guy that will line up on the outside shoulder of each guard. They're going to have some trouble dealing with him. You look at Tyler Davidson, who was mentioned by Deuce while Deuce was on with us this week. That one tech guy, he's going to be on either shoulder of David

Andrews, depending on the strength of the offensive formation. David Andrews is going to have his hands full with him. And then Cameron Jordan, 46 and a half sacks coming into this year. He had one on open night, so that's a strong defensive front. You get to that second level, you get guys like Manti Teo, started with the Chargers, now he's down in New Orleans. Decent player, not phenomenal at the linebacker spot. Alex Anzalone, who I kind of liked coming out of the University of Florida, did some nice things down at the senior bowl, but a little inexperience there. And then you get to the secondary where you've got some of these rookies. You've got Lattimore, the rookie out of Ohio State. You've got Marcus Williams, the rookie

free safety out of the University of Utah. Two rookies who saw, in Lattimore's case, he was in for 91% of the Saints defensive snaps on opening night. And Williams was in on every defensive snap at the free safety spot. And so I think you're going to see some opportunities as you get into the second and third level from the New England offense. So coming back to James White, you're going to see him probably involved in the passing game, try to get him matched up on a Manti tail or on an Alex Anzalone. And so for reasons like that, I think White's going to be an integral part of this game plan. And that's why I'm sort of taking the under on Mike Gilleslie, one and a half touchdowns. And if you give me that same number on James White, I'm probably taking the over. Question from Tom Meade does some work for us over at Inside the Pylon.

You can follow Tom at THMeade, M-E-A-D, three. What will be the headline if they start out 0-2? I don't want to think about that. Now, I don't think if you're listening to this show, you're watching it on Facebook Live, you want to think about that either. It would make for great content, I'm sure. I'm sure that WEI, Sports Hub 98.5,

would be must-listen appointment-style radio Sunday night, Monday morning if the Patriots drop to 0-2. But here's the thing, and we mentioned this with Deuce on Wednesday's show. Teams that start 0-2, 11% chance, historically speaking, of getting to the playoffs. It's a tough uphill slide. It's a slog to get to the playoffs when you start in an 0-2 hole. And so if that happens, we're going to hear Brady's done.

Belichick, maybe it's time. We're going to hear questions about the defense. We're going to hear questions about how they've handled the draft over the past couple of years because now you've got some deficiencies up front. Derek Rivers, the injury there hurts, but there are going to be questions there. There are going to be questions about how they handled

some other positions as well. And so those will sort of be the headlines. And I'll tell a quick story. When I was in law school, back before I did all this football stuff, I had a little bit of a rutting sort of prank style feud with my roommate, Louis. Louis, if you're out there watching, man, you probably know the story I'm about to tell. And one night I came home and since my parents might be watching, let's just say I was coming home from the library.

I was studying. Okay. Wink. I come home and I go into my room and I get ready for bed and I pull back the covers. And now it's like midnight. There's a Chucky doll. And it might've been one of the scariest things I've ever seen in my life. And the look on my face, that look of sheer horror, that will be the look on most Patriots fans come Monday morning if the

Patriots drop to 0-2 because this was a season that had such high expectations coming into it. They lose week one. Okay, you expect them to regroup, have a better game plan, come back, and at least get to 1-1. If they drop that game, that look of terror in my eyes when I saw that Chucky doll, you're going to see it on the face of every Patriots fan. So Tom, for my sake and for yours and for all of those fans out there in Patriots Nation, let's not see that Chucky look because it's a scary one. Believe me. A couple more questions now.

We get back-to-back questions from a personal friend of mine, Richard Schrager. You can follow Richard at R-S Schrager. That's R-S-S-C-H-R-A-G-E-R. Richard is a friend of mine, again, from my lawyer in days, a golfing buddy. He's also a Giants fan. So you probably know what questions Richard peppered me with this week. I'll give you two of them. These were the ones I could use over the air and not edit. Safe for work kind of questions. Are the Pats still win this? Question, is 0-16 still a possibility? Thanks, Richard. Love you, buddy. But yes, they are still win this. 0-16 is not a possibility. I'll see you next time on the golf course. Maybe we're going to hit blue sometimes soon. Okay, buddy. Final question now. somebody also very near and dear to my heart my dad

who along with my mom introduced me to this team years ago my dad you can follow him at alden a l d e n m three will patriots brady overcome edelman And it's a good question. And again, in the wake of what we saw in opening night, it's a concern. How are they going to manufacture and produce offense in the passing game without Julian Edelman? It seems like the loss of Edelman impacted this passing game. We saw they were off on Thursday night. Brady missed throws, missed opportunities in the passing game. Again, credit to what the Chiefs did defensively. They had a game plan. They played tight man coverage on a variety of snaps, particularly between the 20s, but when they got down into the red zone, they dropped more guys

into coverage. That sort of pivotal third down near the end of the third quarter where Brady had that illegal forward pass penalty. Chiefs dropped seven. They still got pressure off the edge with Justin Houston, forced Brady to climb the pocket, but he had nowhere to go with the football. Hogan was double covered. Gronkowski was double covered. And so they need to sort of figure some things out in the passing game. But I think coming into this game, going up against this young, talented, but inexperienced secondary, they'll get a chance to sort those things out. And remember, this is a team and an organization that over the years has shown a chance to sort those things out and remember this is a team and an organization that over the years has shown the ability to sort of overcome losing guys to injury

that next man up mentality that philosophy that they have we saw they lose rob gronkowski last year they win the super bowl right in the offense through julian edelman now they lose edelman we'll probably see something similar where they start to run that offense through Rob Gronkowski. I expect to see a better performance from them on Sunday. I expect Brady in the passing game to be able to hit some of those plays that they missed against Kansas City against this Saints secondary, this young, talented, and inexperienced group. And so I think we're going to start to see this week and going forward, the Patriots sort of come into their own, fix these things, execute better on offense, get back to 500 with a victory down in the Big Easy,

and hopefully start to round into the team that we were expecting to see when this preseason started, when training camp started. So that's been a very special mailbag edition of Locked On Patriots. It's been a blast talking to you both on the podcast and on Facebook Live.

We're going to be doing this across the Locked On Podcast Network every Thursday. We're going to be doing these live shows as well. It's been a blast talking to you today as always. It's a blast bringing you Patriots information from my point of view every week. I know, again, I say it a lot. You have tons of options out there to listen to and get your Patriots information from. I'm glad that you're letting me come into your homes five days a week to talk about this team. It means the world to me.

What would mean the world to you? A Pro Football Focus Edge subscription. So again, go to Locked On Patriots on iTunes. Go to all the Locked On sites on iTunes. Leave reviews for the shows. Make sure your Twitter handle is in there. Leave a review for the show. You'll be entered for a chance to win that PFF Edge subscription.

It's a great value. I can't recommend it enough. Thank you so much for listening to this edition, this mailbag edition of Locked on Patriots. I will be back tomorrow with your Saints game scheme preview as well as some odds and some predictions. Until then, keep it locked right here to Locked on Patriots with me, Mark Schofield.

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