Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 20, 2018 - News and Jeff Risdon

Episode Date: September 20, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome on into Lockdown Patriots for Thursday, September 20th, 2018. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for a loaded Thursday installment of your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com where I'm one of the head writers. Pro Football Weekly where I'm a scheme analyst. Got a rather philosophical piece on Patrick Mahomes and a paradigm shift in the National Football League that's going to be dropping a little bit later today. You can also check out the work at places like The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View,

part of the SB Nation family of websites. If they're covering football, chances are I'm doing some work for them. Loaded show for you today. A little bit later, I'm going to talk with Jeff Risden. Jeff Risden is one of my favorite, favorite people on all of football Twitter. He's a proud member of Football Dad Twitter, which is always fun. It's always great to catch up with Jeff in person, whether it's down at the Senior Bowl or other places. Jeff is a rather in-demand person this week. Reason being, he's the managing editor of not only BrownsWire, but LionsWire. So obviously,

a lot of people in the New England area really want to get a chance to talk to Jeff. So I got a chance to sit down with him, talk some Jeff Gordon, as well as talk to Detroit Lions. But first, since it's been a while since we've done something like this, little news, little notes, some stuff did happen over the past couple of days. Started with Cyrus Jones. He's back, baby. Jeff Howe and others reported that the Patriots signed Cyrus Jones off the Ravens practice squad. The 2016 second-round pick, who was released this month

during final roster cuts, has returned. Will likely return, punt, and be in the mix at cornerback. And to further solidify his position on this team, not only did they just sign him off the Ravens practice squad, Cyrus Jones signed a two-year deal worth $1.81 million. So he's under contract now through 2019. This probably tells you a couple things. One, punt returner.

With Riley McCarron's muffin game one patrick chun battle in a concussion they want somebody back there who can be dependable and cyrus jones can fit that role at least until julian edelman turns so that's one bit of news patriots releasing kenyan barner that's another bit of news as far as injuries. Let's go into that quickly. No sign of Patrick Chun at practice on Wednesday. No sign of Trey Flowers at practice on Wednesday. Both of those players dealing with concussions suffered in that game against Jacksonville. Dietrich Wise, he was back on the practice field with notable protection over the injured finger on his left hand, that figure which was dislocated. You can see a picture at Mike Reese on Twitter,

Patriots beat reporter for ESPN. He has a great photograph. You can see Dietrich Weiss with a big sort of glove, black type glove over his left hand, protecting that band up left hand. Other little bit of news that we're going to get to, Josh Gordon. Obviously, he's been a focal point of Patriots fandom, of

the Patriots media, of Boston media the past couple of days with the trade between New England and the Cleveland Browns sending Josh Gordon to New England. You'll hear in the discussion, though, that I have with Jeff Rizdin, he will also temper expectations somewhat. You will see in Jeff, in my conversation, Jeff makes the point. We're getting 2018 Josh Gordon, not 2013. So people that are expecting the basic superhero we saw in 2013 when Josh Gordon went for almost 1,700 yards receiving, he's a different player now.

Now, as Jeff points out, that player can still be very effective for the New England Patriots. But speaking of Josh Gordon, I know there was a lot of discussion in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, which, if you would like an invitation to, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield or mark.schofield

at InsideThePylon.com. We were talking about ways to sort of keep Josh Gordon in line. Well, where do you think Josh Gordon has his locker? Right next to Tom Brady. That probably speaks volumes. But Tom Brady's locker room, locker is right next to Josh Gordon.

And on the other side of Brady from Gordon, Chris Hogan. And then just down one more, Brian Horner, and then Philip Dorsett. Those are the people that are going to be closest to Josh Gordon as he makes his life and his transition to the New England Patriots. Before my conversation with Jeff, though, I want to talk a little bit about Bill Belichick. Obviously, that new book coming out about Bill Belichick has a great story about his time at Wesleyan, my alma mater. Ian Conner's book, Belichick, The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time, details the play that wrecked Belichick's

leg at Wesleyan. The Belichick never complained about the events that led to the injury, spoke volumes. That's from a piece that Mike Reese wrote on ESPN, which I would invite you to check out. Talks about an injury he suffered while a sophomore at Wesleyan, a dangerous practice drill, left him injured and fuming. Check out that piece. But Belichick wasn't talking so much about the book when he spoke to the media on Wednesday, but he was talking about the Detroit Lions. Belichick saying, On Detroit, this is a team that's a very explosive team. Obviously, we have quite a bit of familiarity with Bob Quitt and Matt Patricia and several other people out there, players as well.

But there's quite a bit of continuity from what they did last year where they're kicking game and offense, and the coordinators and some of the schemes that they're using defensively, things are a bit different, similar, obviously, to what we did, but certainly not the same. I think that we can, you can definitely see how competitive the Lions were last week with the interception that could call back. That would have obviously changed the game around. A tough competitive team, very explosive, can score in a hurry and in the kicking game offensively and turn the ball over on defense. So they were very good at that last year and

obviously start off with that type of play against the Jets. We've got a lot of work to do on this team, so we'll start working our way through it here today. We're going to have to do a good job offensively of identifying the many variables that Matt will put in front of us, and defensively and in the kicking game, defending two of the most explosive groups that we'll face all year. A typical Belichick, talking up an opponent, but in some cases, particularly with the Lions, this is an explosive offense. They can score in a hurry. Matthew Stafford is a dangerous quarterback. And as Belichick points out, he's asked, how dangerous of a downfield passer is Matthew Stafford? Belichick's answer, as good as there is in football.

He's got great weapons. He does an excellent job of seeing down the field in all situations. No matter how much pressure he's under, he seems to find guys down there. Sometimes it appears that they're covered, but he can put the ball with Marvin Jones in particular, but also Kenny Galladay can go up and make plays on the ball. He's very accurate and he's got a strong arm. He can stand in there and make those throws with or without a rush, in or out of the pocket, stationary or on the run. He's extremely dangerous. One of the very best in the league for sure. Side note, I'm now having flashbacks to the summer when I made Matthew Stafford my number five

quarterback in the league on Twitter on Traits Alone, and I had Atlanta Twitter in my mentions for weeks. Weeks. Talk to my boy Bill here about Matthew Stafford. One of the very best in the league for sure. But he wasn't done talking about this Lions team. Particularly this Lions offense.

Closing out his comments to the media. What's the challenge of getting Golden Tate on the ground? That's the question. Belichick's answer, very challenging. Golden's excellent with the ball in his hands. He's good without the ball in his hands too. He gets open a lot, runs very good routes. He's a hard guy to cover, but then once he touches the ball, he's strong. He runs through contact. He's fast. He's quick. He changes directions well, and he has good vision. So he

sees openings and space in the field from his punt return background, kick return background, and so forth. When he gets the ball, he can get into those spaces and he runs through tackles. He has good balance. So, yeah, all those, I mean, Jones does it too. Galladay, obviously the backs, they have a lot of good run after catch players, yards after contact players. The backs are good.

Tate's good. Jones is good too. His quick screens plays like that. He looks likely to gain two or three yards, but he ends up with 15. So that's a big challenge. It's not just covering him, but getting him on the ground. Bill Belichick getting everybody ready for the lightning strike, lightning quick Detroit Lions offense. Struggled in week one, but obviously came to play in week two. I'll have more on the Detroit offense and defense when we get into Friday's show, a little game day edition stuff.

But up next, my conversation with the one and only Jeff Risdon from both Browns and Lions Wire. That's ahead on this Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. Welcome everybody back on into this Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots, Thursday, September 20th. And I'm going to bring in a guest now because, frankly, I'm pretty sure you guys are sick of hearing me drone on and on and on. And believe me, I get it.

I get your texts and your tweets and all that stuff. And I've got a good one. He is the managing editor of not just BrownsWire but also LionsWire. And that makes him probably the perfect person to talk to right now given the Gordon trade and given the fact that these Patriots play the Detroit Lions on Monday night. He is Jeff Risden, at Jeff Risden on Twitter. Jeff, my friend, how are you, buddy? It's fun to wear all these hats this week.

It's maybe an unusual person in demand. So I'm happy to be with you, Mark. I would imagine that you were quite the person to talk to for a lot of people between the Gordon trade and the Lions start in 0-2 and Matt Patricia perhaps angering veterans by staying an extra night in San Francisco. I'd imagine you had a pretty busy dance card this week. It's been fun deciphering all the negativity directed at the two teams. They're both winless, by the way, so that doesn't help things either.

But, you know, it's fun to cover. They're both very interesting teams, and interesting is better than good or bad. Right, because interesting makes people click and listen and watch, right? There is nothing worse than an apathetic fan base. Ask Tennessee. That's a great point. And folks, you need to be following Jeff on Twitter, at Jeff Risden. Besides all the hats he wears, he is the main head banner of football Twitter, and I had to get that in there. Yes, well, I'm actually wearing a mega tank top right now. I'm totally on brand today for you, Mark.

That is just fantastic, my friend. Let's start with some Brown stuff because, obviously, the trade between New Englandland and the cleveland browns new england acquiring the talented yet troubled wide receiver josh gordon from the cleveland browns in exchange for is it now a fifth that new england is given but getting a seventh in return has that actually been finalized jeff uh not if you ask bill belichick but the rest of the world thinks so, yes. Bill keeps denying it, but it's already been filed on the NFL transaction wire, so it does seem to be done that, yes, the Patriots will in fact get back a seventh-round pick with Gordon,

and they gave up a fifth. So, Jeff, I guess the way to sort of phrase this is, what are the Patriots potentially getting on the field? What are they getting off the field? And what was perhaps, and I know you used this phrase in something you wrote this week, the final straw out in Cleveland? Yeah. The last thing that he did, he showed up late on Saturday morning as the team is getting ready to travel to New Orleans for their game. He came out with a hamstring injury that he suffered at a promotional shoot that was not sanctioned by the team.

They had decided that he was already on double-secret last probation for all of his off-field indiscretions, and everybody knows what they are. And that was the last. It was a violation of trust that they could no longer accept, and it was just that that was it. of trust that they could no longer accept um and and it was just that that was it they had they felt they had to move on that it wasn't worth the the constant headache and i'll say that i i had an exchange with a browns teammate of his on uh what was that uh monday night and he was he described it this way he said that it's like having when you have

a house and you don't you don't usually have kids, and somebody brings a toddler over, and all of a sudden, like, everything is a danger. Like, you've got to worry about the steps being blocked off. You've got to worry about the pool. You know, all of your energy is focused to keep the toddler from hurting himself. And it's very emotionally draining. It's tiring. And then he said, you know, that's sort of what it was like with Gordon you know

we loved him like everybody loves a toddler but it was just so much always it was like eggshells is the way that I interpreted it and there's a sense of relief in Cleveland that that is done and it's not that they didn't like Josh Gordon they liked him quite a bit and they

knew what he was capable of doing but it just wasn't it wasn't there anymore for him and it's unfortunate the Browns spent so much resource and time and energy and effort in staying with him being dedicated and getting him back to where he finally did get back on the field that's a wonderful testament to the Browns organization which is a franchise that quite, doesn't do much of anything right. And they did right by Josh Gordon. And it's sad to me that he couldn't live up on his end of the bargain. Now, for the practical purpose of what does he offer the Patriots on the field, if you watched his game one, week one, game one against the Pittsburgh Steelsburgh steelers this year he had one

amazing catch and it's a catch that he can replicate because he he got his feet down in the end in the front corner of the end zone made a great catch over or defensive back got the touchdown in great play he can still do that the rest of the game he did not get open very well and i i think that that's getting lost on a lot of folks around the nation. You see Josh Gordon and you think it's 2012, 2013 again. He's not that guy anymore. He has bulked up considerably. And one of the analogies that I used is, do you remember David Boston back in the day?

Gordon looks like him physically now, like the David Boston at the end of his career. Now, obviously, Boston was juicing, and that played a big part into it, and I would never accuse Josh Gordon of that. Certainly not with how careful he has been about what he's put into his body. But he has definitely inflated his body so much that he has lost some flexibility, he's lost some quickness. One of the things that made him so special, aside from the fact that he has lost some flexibility. He's lost some quickness. One of the things that made him so special, aside from the fact that he was freaking fast, is that he was so quick in his movements. He doesn't have that twitchiness anymore. It showed

last year when he came back in the final five games, where by the way, he was good in the first half of the first game and the rest of the time he wasn't in shape. So I sort of gave him a pass on that, but he wasn't all that good then either and I think had he still been a a dominant factor I think the Browns probably would have tried harder to hold on to him and maybe let it slide one more time but the fact that he didn't do a lot when he was on the on the field and in practice I think that's part of the reason why they they said sayonara Jeff do you think that's part of the reason why they said sayonara. Jeff, do you think that, and I think that's a great point that you bring up. This isn't the 2013 Josh Gordon we're talking about. It's the current version that might not be what Patriots fans are hoping to see arrive in Foxborough.

But do you think that the current version, the 2018 Josh Gordon, if he fixes all the other stuff and can stay on the field, can help this Patriots team? Because I'm sure you've seen some of what they've done. I'm sure you've seen this wide receiver room right now. I'm sure you and I could probably get reps for this team at wide receiver right now. So can the 2018 Josh Gordon help this New England Patriots team at all, do you think? Yeah, I do.

It's going to take him a little bit to learn the playbook. As much as there are similarities between what they run in Cleveland and what they run in New England. There are some fairly big differences as well. He's got to pick up the terminology. He's got to get used to Tom Brady throwing him the ball. It's a very different ball than what he's used to from Tyrod Taylor and all the crap that he had in Cleveland before it,

going back to, well, Brian Hoyer was probably the best quarterback that he played with, so that's the quality of quarterback play. He's never played with anybody like Brady before, and Brady is demanding, and I think that's going to be interesting to see how Brady reacts to Gordon when Gordon doesn't do the right thing on a route. And that's not saying that Gordon can't, it's just that happens. That happens to everybody, you know, and I'm curious how that will impact. But yes, he can definitely help the Patriots. He can be a good red zone target. He can be a good, I don't want to say a downfield weapon, because I don't think that's the role they're going to use him in.

I think they're going to use him a lot across the middle as a clear-out guy, as a guy who can create space in the middle of the field for Gronk. I don't think he's going to be a primary target I think he's capable of a game or two where he gets you like six catches for 77 yards and a touchdown but most weeks he's going to get you three for 40 or you know five for 38 I think I think that's where he's at right now physically Mark Schofield welcoming it on in Jeff Risden from the Brownswire and the Lionswire. And I want to turn to the Lions right now. Obviously, the Patriots traveling to Detroit for Sunday night

football. And Jeff, I think it's important to start. And I know a lot of locked on Patriots listeners. They told me in the Slack channel yesterday when I told them I was going to be talking to you. They want to know how bad of a start is this to the Matt Patricia era? And is there a chance that there's going to be a shorter leash than people might anticipate you know that's that's a great question I think everybody in Detroit wants to know that too one of the one of the deals is is that they made the change to get Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn who comes from the Patriots as well they they decided that Jim Caldwell going nine-7 every year wasn't good enough anymore,

and that Patricia would be the guy who could take them over the hump with the core base talent that they have that's gone 9-7 the last two years. Right now they're 0-2. They got completely curb stomped by the New York Jets on national television. That was a terrible debut, especially since they got a pick six on their very first play. And after that, they were completely lifeless. They played better against San Francisco, especially since they got a pick six on their very first play. And after that, they were completely lifeless. They played better against San Francisco, but unfortunately one of the things that I took away from that game

is that San Francisco isn't very good either. Jimmy Garoppolo needs to learn how to throw the ball instead of sitting on it. The Lions, who have no pass rush, sacked him six times. So that's a bit of an aberration for the sack total for Detroit. You've got to keep that in mind. You know, Patricia, he got off on the wrong foot with the media, with the story that came out about his spring break in South Padre Island. Most people largely don't care about that,

but it adds to the overall picture of negativity, and nobody can turn on a coach the way that Detroit does, not even New York, that media market. If they don't like you, they're going to let you know. The fans absolutely ran Eric Ebron out of town because they didn't like him. And now he's catching touchdowns every week from Andrew Luck. So there is definite pressure that if he doesn't get it going quickly, that yes, there's going to be a lot of people that are angry about it. One of the things that I don't think gets played up enough is the owner of the team is Martha Ford.

She's 93 years old. They desperately want to win for Martha. She is beloved throughout the organization. And even though there's a lot of people that want the Fords to sell it, she's well-liked in the city and in the NFL ownership group. There's a lot of people that are really pulling for that. If they don't really have time to scrap everything, and think that actually buys patricia a little bit of time he keeps stressing you know september is going to be better than august uh and it was because the preseason was dismal uh october will be better than september well it had better be because uh september has not looked very good

either you know jeff when you sort of look at patricia there's obviously the running an organization being the face of a franchise head, and the stuff that goes with that. But there's also sort of like in-game decisions that he never had to make before that now he's entrusted with. And I know a situation that got a lot of play both during the game and afterwards at the end of the first half. San Francisco has the ball. They're buried. Clock's running. He doesn't take a timeout.

And I know the guys in the booth were going insane, and Patricia took a little bit of heat for that, but as you pointed out, wasn't that the right decision, and aren't we seeing that at least Patricia's handling some of the at least in-game stuff better? Yeah, it is, and it's funny because that actually got some skeptical Lions fans sort of in his corner. The fact that Tom Brenneman in the booth was going absolutely berserk, you know, that, oh, why aren't you calling a timeout? Well, it wound up working out great. And what Patricia explained was that if, you know, if the Lions get the ball back there and they fail and they've called the timeout, then San Francisco has time to score again. You know, the Lions wound

up getting a field goal out of it, which is good for the offense at that point in the game. I thought he played it perfectly, and I think a lot of people have come around to that, and the Detroit versus everybody mentality has sort of enveloped him a little bit from that, and that's a good thing for him. Hopefully there's a little bit more of that, where, you know, we can have his back against the national media because Detroit does thrive on that. It's weird. It's probably not a very healthy emotion, but it's very real. Look, as somebody that covers the Patriots, whenever somebody says the least positive thing imaginable of Tom Brady,

like he might be in decline, which we can all see. He's 41. I mean, come on. People get their backs riled up. So I get the whole us versus the world mentality. It is a strange way to live. Jeff, I want to turn to a piece you wrote over at Lions Wire titled, Four Things the Lions Must Fix to Break Into the Wind Calm and kind of run through these.

You start off, and look, that run defense is bad right now. I mean, Matt Breida, you had the 66-yard touchdown run. The run defense seems to be struggling. Ricky Jean-Francois might be one of your better run defenders and I think that speaks for itself you mentioned run defense discipline how big of an issue is that and can Detroit fix that quickly or is that a long-term fix do you think it's going to be a long-term fix the the front seven is under talented I think it's probably the diplomatic way to say it when Ricky Jean-Francois is a celebrated starter on your front seven, I think you know what that means. Now, he was very good in training camp, to his credit, and throughout

the preseason, and he's fantastic in the locker room, and also fantastic with the media, so maybe that stilts my opinion a little bit, but they have a lot of problems. Jared Davis at the inside linebacker position, he is slow to diagnose, but he's so fast that in college at Florida, he was able to get away with it. Well, in the NFL, he doesn't have that body control. Once he's going full speed, he can't stop. So you see him run by a lot of points. He's missed six tackles in two games. That's by my charting. I think the pro football focus and everything has him for five. But one of the issues is that they don't control their gaps with the front three or four, depending on the situation, very well.

And then the linebackers are not all that disciplined. There was one run that Breida made, it wasn't the touchdown run either, where they had all three linebackers going to the same gap. That can't happen in the NFL. And that's, you know, there's only so much coaching you can do with that. At some point, it's incumbent upon the players to figure out what they're doing out on the field. And they're struggling with that. You know, Devon Kennard has played very well at linebacker, and he's probably the best tackler. And they do have decent secondary, especially in terms of

tackling. Quandre Diggs is probably the best tackler on the team, pound for pound. And Nevin Lawson can make plays in the run game. Darius Slay isn't afraid when he's healthy. He may or may not play this week. We'll see about that. If he doesn't play, that's a huge hit. And that opens up everything for the Patriots offense because he is a legit shutdown corner. And if he's not in there, that really gums up the thing where it's not just the run defense that we're worried about anymore. You know, Jeff, another thing you mentioned were special teams woes. Mine's struggling right now in the special teams phase of the game. Is that a short-term fix or a long-term fix?

That is probably a short-term fix. One of the things that they actually did a move just before we started recording here, they brought back Deshaun Shedd, who was with the team in the preseason and surprisingly got cut. He has the ability to help on special teams. One of the problems is that they just don't have a lot of great athletes that are on their bench. You know, the fifth wide receiver, the fourth corner, the fourth safety, the linebackers, they're not a particularly speedy group. And I think that impacts a little bit, but there's's been some discipline breakdowns Sam Martin is a very good punter but he does tend to outkick his coverage a little bit so there's some things that they can do they can do a little bit more directional kicking they can you know possibly one of the things that they have tried to do quite a

bit is not have Martin kick the ball out of the end zone for touchbacks they want the chance to get a turnover or a penalty or something to bury teams deep, and it hasn't worked out well yet. So maybe they can have him go bombs away on the kickoff too. They are experimenting with that, and I do think that will get better because they were really good on special teams the last couple of years. Jeff, one of the reasons why I love you, man, is because you're such a great writer. And in the piece I'm talking about, you talk about how the Lions have to dump the useless

plays. And I want to read what you wrote because it's fantastic. The first down play was obvious to the Jets, the broadcast crew, everyone in Ford Field, and even folks in rural Papua New Guinea who have never seen American football before, knew from the alignment that LeGarrette Blount was getting the ball in a straight handoff. Jeff, that is just, forget the question I'm about to ask. That's just fantastic writing, my friend. I got to give you a shout out for that. Well, thank you so much. You know, it's, I watch way too much Travel Channel on TV and Papua New Guinea was on, so there you go.

But your point is that the Lions seem to run some, what you call useless plays, and that they don't even seem to have a point to them, whether it's to get a first down or to set up something else. They just run a play for the sake of running the play. Is that something that they can fix, or is it something you think we're going to keep seeing from them? Until Jim Bob Cooter is removed as the offensive coordinator, that is going to be a problem for the Detroit Lions. That is something that is endemic in his culture.

It's something that I have complained about for years and years, and most of the Lions fan base is now in my corner on this. He has done a lot of very positive things in Matthew Stafford, although it's not showing this year, and he has some good play designs. The problem is that they are very predictable. You can tell if LeGarrette Blount is eight yards deep in the backfield, he's getting a handoff. If he's seven yards deep, he's going out on a route or pass protecting. It really is that obvious when you watch them on tape. And you better believe that

the Jets talked about it in the opener, about how they knew from just who was on the field and where they were lined up coming out of the huddle, exactly what play was coming. That's unfortunately not a quick fix. And it's awful. And in a way, it makes what Matthew Stafford has done with Marvin Jones and Golden Tate and Kenny Galladay even more impressive because, by and large, the defense does know what's coming at them, and those guys are still really good. You know, and the final thing you mentioned, Jeff, is speaking of Stafford, you know, stopping his sort of slow starts. And I'll give you an answer, and then I'll let you answer it. But I think that is a short-term fix and that they get to go against this New England defense, which we've seen struggle in the past couple of games they've had to play, though it was last week in Jacksonville, go back to the Super Bowl, the AFC Championship game. So

I think Stafford could have a big night Sunday night. But what do you think? The Stafford slow start, short-term, long-term, where are you on it? That has been a long-term issue for him, but there are ways to fix it. He is at his best in the up-tempo no huddle, and they never, never run it early in a game. I would love to see them come out and shock the world and go no huddle, go the old Buffalo Bills K-gun for the first couple of drives. I don't think the Patriots would know what hit them. i don't think the patriots would know what hit him i don't think the lions fans would know what hit him i think that would be a great way because he is he is seems to be more relaxed when he's in

the total control like that he tends to have a better feel for the defense than what his offensive coordinator does and i'd like to see that i'm not sure that jim bob cooter sees that although to be fair to cooter there was a lot of improvement in play unpredictability and little subtle fakes. If you saw the touchdown pass to Kenny Galladay, that was a brilliant wrinkle that they had not run before, and Cooter gets credit for that. So maybe the innovation gene will kick in. I hope so.

Otherwise, it's going to be a very long night for the Lions. Jeff, fantastic stuff as always, my friend. Please let the people know where to find you, where to find your work, and what you're cooking up next over at either Browns Wire or Lions Wire. Yeah, sure. I am on Twitter at Jeff Risdon, R-I-S-D-O-N. I wear a lot of hats. I wear the Browns Wire and Lions Wire hats. I am a Cleveland native and a long-suffering Detroit fan, so that gives you a little idea of why I drink. That's just the way it is. I'm also the senior NFL and NFL draft analyst at Real GM. This is my 15th year covering the league

for them, which has got to be some sort of record for online publications, but I'm very proud and very happy to do that. And you can find my work there every Sunday or Monday morning. I do a 10 cents every week, which covers the net, the entire league. And I usually wind up writing about the Patriots because, well, they're interesting and they get clicks. So I like that. I'm glad you brought up the Jeff Draft, Jeff, because I did want to ask you this. I know you are a huge draft guy. You love the Shrine game. You love going down there each year.

You're wearing the tank tops. You're showing the guns on the sidelines down in the Florida sun. Give Pats fans one draft guy, whether it's a quarterback or anywhere else, that they should probably be paying attention to as we get into, say, October and we start thinking more and more about the draft. You know, there's a guy, and I live in Michigan. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I'm married to a Michigan fan, into a Michigan family. So I will bring up Chase Winovich, the outside linebacker for the Michigan Wolverines.

That is a guy who fits exactly what Bill Belichick wants in his left outside linebacker. He's perfect for it. And judging from what I've seen and what I've, I was at their Notre Dame game, there were a couple of scouts there, and from the general idea of where they evaluate him now, he's going to be in that 20 to 30 range, which is probably where the Patriots are going to pick. They could pick a little later than that. I don't know. I don't think it'll be any earlier than that.

That's a guy to definitely keep an eye on, and he's a fun one. Aside from the hair, which gets some extra points from me, he's a really, really good player. He is a much better football player than Rashawn Gary, who is just a freak cyborg athlete, but not necessarily a great football player yet. Belichick, as you know, likes the guys who are the football players more than the stellar athletes.

So I think he fits that bill very well. There you go, Pats fans. When the Patriots trade up in the first round, it is not going to be to go get a Drew Locke. It is not going to be to go get a Justin Herbert. It's going to be to go get this guy, Chase Winovich, and you heard it here first from Jeff Risden. And that's why you should be following him, at Jeff Risden,

on Twitter. And if you'd like, you can still follow me as well, at Mark Schofield. That will do it for today's Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. I will be back tomorrow for your Friday morning game day edition. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. All right, buddy.