Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 21, 2017 - Thursday Mailbag

Episode Date: September 21, 2017

Mark Schofield takes your questions including the most important one of all: Can we still make fun of the Houston Texans for the varsity letterman jackets? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

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 morning and welcome to your Thursday edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair as always today, Thursday, September 20th, getting you ready for this weekend's big matchup between the New England Patriots and the Houston Texans. And before we dive in, I just want to say Shana Tova to all of our Jewish friends out there celebrating the new year. Happy, healthy Rosh Hashanah to you all. And for those of our Jewish friends out there, on Rosh Hashanah, it is written.

On Yom Kippur it is sealed. May it be written and may it be sealed that you have a new year that brings fulfillment and happiness, peace and prosperity. All of life's very best things. Have a happy, healthy new year. I wish you all the best in the year 5,778. Let's get into a little bit of a mailbag show here. Again, I view Locked on Patriots as your show. It's not my show.

It's not Mark Schofield's show. It is the listener's show. I want to bring you the stuff you want to hear about. That's why I open up the mailbag every week, bring you the information you want, answer the questions that you want. And so, as always, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook. You can hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield, Facebook. I'm Mark Schofield on there. Stop me on the street if you see me, whatever. I'm here to answer your questions every week, do the best that I can to bring you the information about the team that you love. And so

we'll dive right into that in a second. Also, quick shout-out to our partners, MyBookie.ag and Bust.com. MyBookie, again, having a little bit of a good run here to start the season with the predictions. We'll have some more predictions for you tomorrow, as we always do on the game day show. MyBookie.ag, check them out. 100% deposit match up to $1,000. Use promo code LOCKEDON. Also, again, Patriots.Bus.com. I'm helping you get ready for this game. Let Bus.com get you to the game. Patriots.Bus.com. Check them out as well.

Quickly, news and notes here on the injury front. We had an injury report come out yesterday. A lot of names on it. Rex Burkhead did not participate in practice with his rib injury. Danny Amendola, limited participation with his concussion and knee injury. Philip Dorsett, limited participation. Again, his knee injury. Stephon Gilmore, this was a bit of a surprise. Limited participation with a groin injury. Dante Hightower, limited participation with a knee injury.

Chris Hogan, limited participation with a knee injury. Landon Roberts, limited participation with a knee injury. Chris Hogan, limited participation with a knee injury. Landon Roberts, limited participation with a thumb injury. Eric Rowe, limited participation with a groin injury. And Matthew Slater, limited participation with a hamstring injury. Also two other big names on this report. Rob Gronkowski did not participate with a groin injury, although there's a little bit of a question around that one because some video came out of Gronkowski did not participate with a groin injury, although there's a little bit of a question around that one because some video came out of Gronkowski actually participating. There were some reports as well, seeing him doing some blocking drills with Dwayne Allen.

So I'm not quite sure about that one, but at least according to the official injury report, Gronkowski did not participate. Marcus Cannon, this is a big one to watch for Sunday. Did not participate. Ankle and concussion injuries listed. We're going to have more on how the Houston Texans attacked Tom Brady traditionally.

We're going to have some more of that in tomorrow's show when I go through the film and get you ready for what I'm expecting to see when both teams have the football. So that's a big one to watch for Saturday. Marcus Cannon, will the Patriots have him on the field? Because they're going to need all the help they can get from a protection standpoint going up against J.J. Watt and that Houston Texans defense. But now let's get to your questions.

A lot of good questions came in this week, both on Twitter and Facebook, and some in-person questions as well, which I'll get to. I'm going to start on the defensive side of the ball first. And if you've followed my work, if you know me, whether it's from inside the pylon or the work I do over at Bleacher Report, you know that, look, I'm a defensive mind. I mean, I'm a defensive. I'm an offensive-minded guy.

I'm a former quarterback. I study quarterbacks. I write abouthour quarterback. I study quarterbacks. I write about quarterbacks. I scout quarterbacks. People, for some reason, value my opinion on quarterbacks. I don't know why. I must have fooled them. But that's who I am.

That's where my mindset is. I'm an offensive minded guy. So a lot of times I focus on offense, but I want to start defensively. Get some good questions here. First, from my good friend Sharona. She is at Sports by Sharona on Twitter. I work with her over at Inside the Pylon. She asks, totally fantasy related, but will the Pats defense rebound?

And before I answer her question, just want to plug what she does and the rest of the people over at ITP do. Fantasy Frequency, it's a tremendous new podcast. Covers fantasy stuff. Andrew Jordan, Sharona, Nick Folletto, Jessica Brand, they do great work. Check that out. You can find it. Go to insidethepylon.com. You can find that Fantasy Frequency podcast. Also, they do a show on Facebook Live every Sunday called Sit, Start, Submit, where they take your questions live on Facebook Live. They do great

stuff there, so definitely check them out. But to Sharona's point, look, this is a very slow start for the Patriots defense. I think anybody would sort of admit that. And part of it is, look, you get two tough matchups out of the gate from a defensive point of view. Week one, sure, you're at home on Thursday night in the big opener, but you get Tyreek Hill, you get Travis Kelsey, you get the mind of Andy Reid coming into town. And Chiefs, as we went through, had some great stuff dialed up defensively. Sort of get the Patriots defense into conflict, get defenders out of position. They understood going into the game that Matt Patricia, Bill Belichick, they would have a game plan for Travis Kelsey.

They sort of used that against the Patriots as we talked about. And then you get the New Orleans Saints on the road, a team that has traditionally put up a lot of points. And so, I mean, just looking at the statistics right now, Patriots have given up 700 yards of passing offense alone through two games. They've given up 966 yards of total offense through two games. And those two statistics alone, they are the second worst defense league-wide. Only the New Orleans Saints are worse.

So it's a question mark right now. But I think as we've seen from Bill Belichick teams over the years, they grow as the season goes on. Belichick's always of the mind that you get there down the road. You don't start out where you finish. You get better as the season progresses. And so I think what we're going to see is this defense is going to round into form as they start to figure out exactly who they are and what they can do on the defensive side of the ball. We also might see, look, this might be one of those traditionally bend but don't break defenses where they'll give up yardage.

They'll struggle at times between the 20s, but when you get down in the red zone and when you really need to get off the field, that's when they'll be at their best. And we saw a little bit of that start to develop against the New Orleans Saints, getting some pressure on Breeze when they had to, forcing the Saints to try for field goals rather than putting the ball in the end zone. And some of that was pass rush related with Dietrich Wise. And so I think it's a work in progress, and they'll get there eventually. Next question, and this is a personal one from my mom.

You can follow my mom on Twitter. You can actually follow my mom on Twitter. I would recommend that you do, obviously, because it's my mom. At Carol Sko on Twitter, she asked me when she saw me this week, where did Dietrich Wise come from? And again, as I'm an offensive minded guy, I'm a guy that scouts quarterbacks. Wise was a guy that I didn't really scout at all. So I turned to some guys that I know and some guys that I trust that scout all the positions.

I turned to my friends, Jeff Risden and John Ledger. Jeff, I mentioned him in the mailbag show last week. Look, Jeff, it's probably easier to list the stuff that he doesn't do. He writes for Lions Wire. He writes for Texans Wire. He writes for Real GM, a brilliant football mind. John Ledyard, he hosts two shows on this network, Locked on Draft as well as Locked on Steelers. Both of those guys scouted wise, and John did a lot of work for the Inside the Pylon draft guide, which I would highly recommend, obviously.

Jeff did a lot of work scouting Dietrich Wise as well. And I asked these guys about Dietrich Wise, and both of them really liked him. I mean, John told me that, look, pass rush was raw, but he has awesome tools. And John had him on his big board at the 102 spot. Jeff actually saw him down at the Shrine game. He said that he dominated Shrine Bowl week. He was a leggy guy. He would get cut at times. He struggled against cut blocks. So that's something to watch going forward to see if teams start doing that. Jeff had him as a late third round grade. And Jeff actually had him as a late third round great and Jeff actually had him as the 79th player on his big board overall and you know these are two guys whose opinions I value a lot and that's why I

turned to them and both of them had wise if they're just outside the top 100 or well inside of it Jeff we have them at 79 and that's what Shrine Game's important people people always focus on senior Bowl week. It gets a lot of attention and a lot of coverage. But don't sleep on the Shrine Game, particularly at deeper positions like offensive line, defensive line, because you're going to see some day three value there. And Wise clearly was a good value pick for the Patriots, at least by John's board, by Jeff's board. Because, look, the Pats got him in the fourth round pick 131.

Jeff had him at 79. John had him at 102. So that's good value. Now, New England's going to need him to perform. If they're going to round into that kind of defense we're expecting them to be and hoping they become, Wise is going to need to keep stepping up. Watch for those cut block situations.

See if teams try to do that with him. Something to watch going forward. Before we get to some more questions, another shout out to our friends over at mybookie.ag. And again, I get asked a ton. Who are you betting on this week? Who should I put my money on this week? And we've had some success here in the early going.

Look, 4 for 4 right now. Pat's covered last week against New Orleans Saints. That under hit just barely. We were sweating it out, but that under hit as well. And so we'll have some more predictions again, but let me give you some more advice. Where you're betting at is just as important as who you're betting on. So that's why I always tell people to go to mybookie.ag. Use promo code LOCKEDON for up to a 100% deposit bonus. They will match 100% dollar for dollar, all deposits up to $1,000. There are a lot of online sportsbooks out there. mybookie.ag is the only one that I recommend, and it's not just on this show. I recommend it

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Is Tom Brady in decline? Is it time to panic? Et cetera, et cetera. And they rebounded with a nice performance, albeit against a defense that seems to be struggling. First question for my friend Bill Ricetti. He is at Bill underscore R-I-C-C-E-T-T-E on Twitter. He does a ton of work for Panthers Wire, hosts Locked On Panthers. Listen to that show. If you're a Panthers fan, if you're not a Panthers fan, if you just like football, just listen to Bill's show. Bill does great work.

And he asks, will the running game continue to be a mixed bag or a one back start to take control of the backfield? What's the outlook on Rex? And I think with the offensive backfield for New England, it will continue to be a matchup focused game plan focused decision. This is the way they've sort of handled the backfield throughout the bulk of the Belichick era. I mean, there have been times when they had guys like Corey Dillon and Antoine Smith, where those were sort of bell cow type guys. But recent history, they sort of look at what they're going to look to do offensively from week to week and then plug in guys and spots. And, you know, last week in the run up to the Saints game, we talked a lot about James White,

the outside zone stuff, the success that the Vikings had with that against the Saints. And, you know, White played a lot. Burkhead, they used him in matchup situations against those linebackers, something else we had talked about. And so I think going forward, again, we're going to see a lot of matchup-based game plan specific type stuff. A name to watch this week is, again, James White. More on this tomorrow again, but they're going to trust him in pass protection situations. And that's going to be a big part of this game plan for New England. It're going to trust him in past protection situations. And that's going to be a big part of this game plan for New England is going to be protecting Tom

Brady. Next question is another question that I get a lot formally or informally. It's a question from my friend from law school, John Mock asked me this on Twitter. John's a very good friend, been incredibly supportive of the work that I've been doing. So I really appreciate that, John. John asks, I've seen several stories indicating that Brady has lost arm strength and is floating some of his passes. Is this true? Is it something you will watch this year? Again, it's something we heard a lot this offseason. There were a lot of pieces done about Brady studying him saying he's lost some zip on the fastball. He started to decline. Kian Fahey, who now writes over at ESPN, he also has his website, Presnap Reads, wrote extensively on this.

I would suggest you to seek out Kian's work, read it for yourself, make your own opinions on it. From my perspective, I think this is a question that we've been asking about Tom Brady for years. Does he have upper-tier arm strength? Can he throw the deep ball? Does he have sufficient velocity to challenge narrow throwing windows? It's a question that's kind of been lingering about Brady for a long time,

and I don't think it's really specific to this past season. People might bring it up now because, look, he's 40. And quarterbacks, when the decline hits, it can happen fast. Peyton Manning being a prime example. Obviously, Manning had the neck injury, so near the end there, he didn't have even the feeling in his fingertips to throw the football. So that's why people ask this question now. Is the decline here? Is it happening?

And I'm like six months older than Tom Brady. I don't understand how he does it. I'm sitting here recording a podcast and my back is killing me. Maybe I need to eat the avocado ice cream. I don't know. I don't understand how Tom Brady is playing at such an elite level, but he still is. And for those that sort of question the arm strength and the velocity,

I just point to three throws from the overtime in the Super Bowl. The deep out to Amendola that started that overtime drive, left hash mark to the right sideline, velocity right on the money. The deep comeback to Chris Hogan, right hash mark to the left sideline, again, velocity right on the money. And the one that really sticks in my mind is that dig route that he threw to Julian Edelman over the middle against a cover one look. Another tight throwing window, has to get it around a linebacker in that underneath hole area. Drills that in as well. And so Tom Brady's never had that overpowering arm

that a guy like Aaron Rodgers has or Matthew Stafford or even some of the younger guys that are coming out right now. You could probably make the case that Carson Wentz has better arm strength than Tom Brady. But when he needs to, when you need him to make that throw, Brady's usually been able to do it even now at this stage in his career. And so are we going to be watching it? Sure. John, it's something you always watch when you're studying quarterbacks, but I don't think we're seeing that decline just yet. We'll get to two more questions here, but first, I'm getting you ready as best as I

can for this upcoming game between the Texans and the Patriots. I want to help you get there as well. Our friends at Bust.com, they're back for another offer. Round-trip transportation from Boston down into Gillette for Sunday's game, getting you there nice and early to tailgate. Air-conditioned coach transportation from Huntington Avenue right by the Prudential T-Stop down into Foxborough,

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It puts you in touch with other Pats fans as well as their superb support staff. So as you get ready for Sunday by listening to Locked On Patriots with me, make sure to get in touch with the guys over at patriots.bus.com support staff. So as you get ready for Sunday by listening to Locked On Patriots with me, make sure to get in touch with the guys over at patriots.buzz.com and let them take care of you getting down to the game. Finally, two sort of catch-all questions here. One from my good friend and colleague, Ryan Dukarm. He's at dbryan__dukarm, D-U-K-A-R-M. He's a Bills fan, so he was asking, what have your thoughts been on Tyrod Taylor's first two games? Is he struggling? Receivers not separating?

Scheme of the above? And Ryan asked this because he knows that over at Bleacher Report, as part of the NFL 1000 project with Doug Farrar, I am scouting quarterbacks each and every week, writing about the AFC quarterbacks, ranking them, studying them in depth, charting all of their throws. And so I've seen everything that Tyrod Taylor has done this year. And Ryan, you know, my thought is that it's more of a scheme thing than anything. Ryan probably knows this as well as anybody, but Bill's moving to more of a

sort of West Coast based offense under Rick Dennison their new offensive coordinator a lot of their concepts have been sort of that quick game stuff curl flat combinations to both sides of the field slant flat combinations to both sides of the field when I've watched them the spacing has been off it's been constricted receivers are often very close to each other on the field I, there was one play this past week against the Panthers that was a mirrored smash concept or flat seven concept to both sides of the field. Play ends and the wide receivers were just too bunched on each side of the formation. The defenders didn't have to do a lot because the receivers were right next to each other.

It doesn't really stress the defense to multiple levels. Same thing from week one. They ran a mirrored tarsal concept to both sides of the field. were right next to each other it doesn't really stress the defense to multiple levels same thing from week one they ran a mirrored tarser concept to both sides of the field two slant routes so you'd have four slant routes total two on each side of the field again the routes were so close together that one defender could theoretically cover both receivers and so i think the spacing needs to be sorted out from a schematic standpoint and And I also think they need to get a little bit more vertical in the passing game. That was what Tyrod Taylor did best. I know Denison's more of a West Coast guy,

but I'd like to see them get a little bit more vertical because you might need to at points. And look, look at the end of that Panthers game. They needed to get more vertical because they needed to get the ball in the end zone, and they struggled to do it at times. They looked better, I think. But then they missed the one big throw where Taylor had Zay Jones in that deep corner out and didn't put it on him. Jones had a chance to catch it, but it would have been a tough catch. And so I think it's more of a

scheme thing than anything. I'd like to see them get more vertical. Maybe we'll see that a little bit going forward. Last question from my good friend, Andy Jerome Carlson. He is at Andy Carlson Show. Similar to Jeff Risdon. It would be much easier to list the stuff Andy doesn't do. Andy does, I think, 452 podcasts. He is everywhere, running around Minnesota. I know he does Purple for the Win, does some other stuff up there as well. He works with my good friend Arif Hasan.

And he does great work. Definitely check him out. He asks, even though he's raised a bajillion dollars for charity, is it still fair game to make fun of J.J. Watt in the Letterman Jacket game? That's a great question. And yes, look, J.J. Watt, all hats off to him.

What he has done for the Houston area in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is mind-blowing. I think at last count, it was like $37 million. It's probably $40 million by the time I get done taping this. Just tremendous effort from him. And he's literally changing lives. And when all is said and done and you look back on your own life, have you changed lives? And J.J. Watt can certainly say, yes, yes, I have. So tremendous amount of credit to him. However, Andy's going to make me put my lawyer hat back on for one second. And I'm going to give Andy a little bit of grief for that because this is a hat I don't like wearing anymore, but here we are. And I want to talk quickly about the statute of limitations, which is basically the timeframe in which you can bring a lawsuit or a cause of action

after an incident occurs. That letter jacket incident happened back in December of 2012. And I think we're looking at a five-year statute of limitations on this. We get five years to get it in our shots, and then it's time to sort of let it go. So I think the timeframe on this kind of runs out in December of this year. And so this might be our last real shot to get in those jabs over the Letterman Jacket game, which are fully warranted. And to be frank, you know, again, this happened in 2012. Twitter wasn't what it is today. Can you imagine Twitter right now if this had happened in the moment, in this timeframe? The jokes would be

incredible. And so I think the Texans and J.J. Watt should be pretty happy that it wasn't happening now, that it wasn't happening now that it happened back then you know when you do something like that you're going to be able to back it up and the Texans they didn't in that situation and so you're going to open yourself up to the jokes and I think we get in our final little jabs on that this week with these two teams meeting and then it's time to sort of let it go the statute of limitations will haveabs on it this week with these two teams meeting. And then it's time to sort of let it go. The statute of limitations will have run on it. We can all move on. So get those jokes in because there are some good ones left to be made. Folks, that will do it for today's mailbag show. Thank you so much for getting in your questions.

Again, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can find me on Facebook as well. I am Mark Schofield on there as well. Again, can't recommend these two sites enough. Mybookie.ag, Patriots.buzz.com. Let them take care of you for the ride down there. Let them take care of you anytime you get a hunch and you might have a hunch on this Patriots-Texans game after tomorrow's show. We'll get into some predictions and some of the betting lines as we do each and every game day edition. But until then, folks, thank you again for listening. Shana Tovar again to our Jewish friends. I wish you all the best in the new year.

And until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Whatcha doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. By singing dog. By goal. Bye wedding ceremony. Stop. At MetroPCS you get two free phones with twice as much memory.

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