Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 22, 2017 Sub-episode 1 - Emergency Podcast: Taylor Who?

Episode Date: September 23, 2017

The Patriots just signed a quarterback. Mark Schofield makes the necessary introductions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome on in to the first ever emergency edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield here in the big chair as always recording this on a Friday night and before you really start to panic it's not that big of an emergency. Tom Brady's okay. Bill Belichick he's okay. But anytime the New England Patriots make a roster move at the quarterback position I'm going to rush to a microphone to give you some thoughts. And that's exactly what happened today when the New England Patriots signed Taylor Heineke

to the practice squad. And I know what you're thinking. It's part of the reason I'm here right now. Taylor who? Taylor Heineke. Heineke, most recently with the Minnesota Vikings, was a member of that 2015 quarterback class, which I will touch on in a second.

But Heineke failed to stick with the Vikings this year, was cut when it was time to get down to the 53-man roster after the final preseason game. Heineke performed well in that game, led the Vikings to a come-from-behind victory, but could not survive the final round of cuts. Now the Vikings might be regretting that, given the recent news about the knee and the health of Sam Bradford, but here we are. With Haneke now a member of the New England Patriots on the practice squad. Now Haneke, again, was a member of that 2015 quarterback class.

And perhaps you remember what that group was like. Perhaps you don't. Perhaps you drove it out of your mind with good reason. Because this was a group of quarterbacks that had two great names at the top and then a lot of question marks after that. We know the names at the top, Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, but it was a little bit of a mixed bag after that.

And this was actually the first group of quarterbacks that I professionally evaluated over at Inside the Pylon. And I recently revisited my evaluations on the guys in this group in February of this year for a piece for Inside the Pylon, which you can find. I'll tweet it out. But this was a really tough class. After Winston going one, Mariota going two.

I, by the way, had them flipped. I had Mariota one, Winston two. The next quarterback selected was Garrett Grayson. Grayson selected with the 75th pick overall by the New Orleans Saints. And the next quarterback after that, Sean Manning, selected 89th most recently with the Los Angeles Rams. Next quarterback taken, Bryce Petty at 103. Now a backup with the New York Jets.

Then Brett Hundley, 147. Backup with the Green Bay Packers. And that was it. Those were the only six quarterbacks taken. Usually the average has been about 10 or 11 quarterbacks drafted per draft. We saw six that year. And just to give you sort of a taste of how people viewed this draft class, of how people looked at this group of quarterbacks, in my rankings,

I had Mariota 1,ston two petty three hunley four garrett grayson five don't feel too bad about those right now especially with petty and hunley still kind of sticking around hunley obviously behind aaron rogers so can't feel too bad about ranking him highly and i'm not seeing the field yet. My quarterback six in this group, Chris Bonner. Chris Bonner. I can guarantee none of you remember Chris Bonner. Or maybe you do. Maybe you're as much of a draft fiend and a quarterback fiend as I am.

Chris Bonner was the quarterback for the Colorado State Pueblo Thunderwolves, a Division II team. But because of the thinness of this quarterback group, draft gurus and evaluators searched far and wide to find any other talent they could at this position. And Bonner was a name that people liked. Some people talked him up a lot because he had a big arm. Or at least they thought he did. It looked that way in Division II team. But then there was a quarterback down the list that I liked, that I wrote about on a couple of occasions.

And that was Taylor Heineke from Old Dominion University and Heineke was somebody that undersized measured at his pro day at six feet even 214 pounds didn't really sort of blow the doors off from an athletic measurable standpoint I mean he ran a 4.26 40 went undrafted ended up signing immediately as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings, which I'll touch upon in a second. But Heineken was a four-year starter at Old Dominion University. He started there early on as a freshman, won the job. His freshman year threw 25 touchdowns and one interception. This was back when Old Dominion University, ODU down in Norfolk, Virginia was a FCS school. And you could sort of make the argument

that he more than anything else helped the Monarchs get themselves to the FBS and Conference USA because they started their transition in 2013 they played as an independent in 2013 but he led ODU

to an 8-4 record that year that year threw for 4,022 yards, 33 touchdowns, 8 interceptions 2013, but he led ODU to an 8-4 record that year. Threw for 4,022 yards, 33 touchdowns, 8 interceptions. He also punted for them, punted 13 times for a total of 538 yards, had the longest punt on ODU's season as a junior. His senior year, it was their first in Conference USA, they finished 6-6.

Threw for 3,476 yards, 30 touchdowns, 16 interceptions. Punted 14 times for them again. You know, he was a kid that sort of did it all for that team. I mean, he was Old Dominion football for a period of four years. And when I studied him, I mean, there were some things that sort of stood out to me. I mean, first, mechanically mechanically very clean crisp mechanics and part of that is probably an offset of the fact that look he doesn't have an overpowering arm he's not somebody that's going to drill throws into tight windows or anything like that he's not somebody that's going to like challenge you on that like deep out route from the left hash mark to the right sideline he can

make the throw but if it has to be driven in there, drilled in there on a line between two defenders, that's not his best game. But he has crisp mechanics that start with the feet, continue all the way up. He does a great job of using his lower body and his left lead arm to generate power through each throw. Most of his throws are put right where they need to be. He does a great job at what we call generating torque. You know, torque isn't just for pickup trucks. When you're a quarterback, torque is extremely important. The torque you can generate in the upper body as you rotate and throw is incredibly beneficial to generating power and velocity on the football. You know, it can be more important

than just pure arm strength. I mean, yeah, it's great when a guy can sort of stand flat-footed or off his back foot and pull an Aaron Rodgers and drill something into a receiver that's 25 yards downfield on a line. But it's also as important, and perhaps more so, to involve that front shoulder, that lead arm, rotate the body through, and throw with the chest. I mean, a lot of quarterback coaches want you to sort of throw through the chest. Use that chest. Get that upper body involved.

And, you know, Haneke did a very good job of that while at Old Dominion. Another thing that I liked from him, he was a four-year starter, and it showed on tape. You watch him, he would do things like working through progressions from one side of the field to the other. Showed the ability on tape while at Old Dominion to anticipate a throw, throw a receiver open, get the ball out well before it comes open. There's a difference between quarterbacks. Some quarterbacks are more see-it-throw-it type people where they have to see the route come open before they trust themselves to throw it.

Other quarterbacks, they can feel it. They can anticipate it coming open, and Heineke did a great job of that down at Old Dominion. There are some things that he needed to work on when he was coming out that I wrote about. He seemed to struggle in the face of pressure in the pocket. I wrote, you know, the crowded pocket. When his mechanics allow him to generate power in throws from a clean pocket,

he can do that. But when he has traffic in the pocket or he has defenders at his feet and he can't use his mechanics to generate strength in his throws, his passes then lack zip. The timing of throws and routes get thrown off a bit. He also has some inaccuracy problems when he's throwing from a crowded pocket, when he has pressure at his feet.

And he also struggled with turnovers. He threw a number of interceptions, particularly his senior year. That was a career high of 16 interceptions that year. Again, you're making the transition from the FCS to now you're playing in the FBS level in the Conference USA. Much different level of talent around you. So you'd expect the interceptions to jump, but they jumped by a big number. I mean, he had eight interceptions in 2013.

Again, he had one as a freshman. He did throw 14 picks in 2012, but he also threw 44 touchdown passes. I mean, he was out there slinning it that year. But, you know, to see the interception jump from 8 to 16, I mean, they doubled as they made the move up to Conference USA. So that's a big jump too. So those were some of the things I was concerned about. But then I'm not a big person on player comps. We see them all the time, especially around draft time. Oh,

who's the most comparable player for this quarterback or who does this deal lineman play like? And, you know, I think comps, they can be effective in ways and people like them because it's an easy sort of one-to-one thing. But, you know, the comp for every player is themselves. I mean, it's, you know, Jared Goff is Jared Goff. Carson Wentz is Carson Wentz. Like I wasn't, I didn't like doing comps, but I did them anyway. And the guy that I came up with for Taylor Heineke was Cole McCoy, you know, roughly the same size. And I thought they were similar in play style in traits the things that each of them did well the things that each of them struggled with I thought were very similar and I think that Haneke is a guy that sort of in the right situation can be that long-term backup spot

starters type like look if your quarterback's going to go down for two weeks you can use Taylor Haneke you can get through the next two games with Taylor Haneke. If the guy goes down for the season, maybe you think about making a move, but spot starter type, I think that is what Taylor Haneke can do. And Haneke, look, about his draft process, I was writing about him a lot. I was going to go down to his pro day, but in a strange sort of scheduling circumstance, Trey McBride's pro day at William & Mary was that morning. And so I went to Trey McBride's and I saw Trey McBride because I was also doing receivers that year and I loved Trey McBride.

And I was talking to agents, some other coaches that were there as well, who were all planning to go down to Old Dominion's Pro Day to see Taylor Haneke. And it was a cold day that day down in southeastern Virginia. We were in Williamsburg and then the thought of going down to Norfolk where their stadium was right on the water. I was having some second thoughts and one of the agents I was talking to was like, look man, it's going to be freezing. I'm not going. So I bugged off. My family was down there anyway. We were making a little family trip of it. So I bugged off, but the Vikings put them through their paces during his pro day. And I developed a relationship with a reporter for the Virginia pilot, a sports reporter

who had been covered old dominion. And he kept telling me, he's like, look, the Vikings are all over this kid. If they don't draft him, they will sign him immediately. And that's exactly what happened. He went on draft, but within minutes, the tweet was out. He was wearing a Vikings hat and a Vikings shirt. It seemed like it was just a done deal. He was going to be a Viking no matter what. If they had to draft him, they would have drafted him. They rolled the dice. They signed him immediately after the draft ended. And he was battling with Mike Kafka for that third spot on their roster as a rookie. And Kafka got injured and Heineken ended up staying on the roster and winning the third QB spot, made the roster. And then he had, before his second year,

an unfortunate accident where he was moving. He went to see a movie with his buddy. They had been moving all day. They go to the movies. They come back. They're locked down. And he tried to sort of kick the door open and suffered a cut right above the ankle. And he had to have season engine surgery that basically ended his season.

And that happened in January of last season, about a month before Teddy Bridgewater's injury. And so you can almost imagine how the circumstances might have changed for Taylor Haneke. Had he remembered his keys that night? You know, would we be having this conversation? Would I be recording this podcast? How would things play out in Minnesota? You know, Bridgewater goes down, but Haneke's healthy. Do they do the Sam Bradford deal? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they feel they've got Heineke there. Maybe they go in a different direction. Well, how do the dominoes fall then? Does Carson Wentz be your week one starter? Does he become your week one starter in Philadelphia?

Or is Sam Bradford still there? You know, so it's just one of those little circumstances where you don't know exactly how far the ripples would have gone in the pond, but just something to think about. And maybe it's just the fact that I'm here on a Friday night. Hopefully you're out somewhere having a little bit of fun. And I'm rambling on about Taylor Heineke, a practice squad quarterback who may never even see the field for the New England Patriots and for all we know might get cut within two days. But since they made the move, since they brought in a quarterback, since it was a guy that I studied, I felt it was my duty to come here and at least give you some thoughts on him

to try to tell you, the loyal listener of the Locked On Patriots podcast, exactly who Taylor Heineke is as a quarterback. And I hope I tried to get across as much as I could. I hope I accomplished that task. I hope I didn't scare you too much though at the outset with the emergency

aspect to this podcast. It's just a practice squad quarterback, but since this is your team, since my job is to bring you as much information as I can about your team, I had a job to do. And I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoy the games

this weekend. Obviously, New England hosting the Houston Texans. Probably not expecting Taylor Heineke to see the field, but we will see Tom Brady and company in action on Sunday. And hopefully the Patriots

can get to 2-1, get out of there with a win, Tom Brady and company in action on Sunday. And hopefully the Patriots can get to two and one, get out of there with the wind, stay healthy and get back on track. I'll be back with some instant reaction after that game. Hopefully it's another victory. Hopefully we have another glories victory Monday edition of locked on Patriots until then have a safe weekend, everybody. And keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield And Locked on Patriots

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