Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots September 3, 2017 - Roster Cuts, Phillip Dorsett and Nomenclature

Episode Date: September 4, 2017

On this special Labor Day edition of Locked On Patriots, Mark Schofield breaks down the Jacoby Brissett trade, goes through roster moves, talks offensive philosophy and nomenclature, and discusses new WR Phillip Dorsett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. This is Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. This episode is brought to you by our great friends at bus.com. You're Locked On Patriots, your daily podcast on the New England Patriots, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome, everybody, to a special Labor Day edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield with you in the big chair and we're winding down the summer here, finishing up Labor Day weekend. Wherever you're listening to me from, I hope you're having a wonderful, safe and happy

Labor Day weekend. I hope you're maybe catching those last few hours of summertime before we truly get into the fall here as the calendar flips into September. Perhaps you're doing some last minute school shopping. My family growing up, we'd always take our last little vacation. We'd head up to the main outlets in that kiddery area for a couple of days, do some back to school shopping. That's kind of what we did as a family. I hope wherever you are, you're enjoying some last peaceful, enjoyable hours of summertime before we truly get into fall and back to school and back to NFL football. We had a ton of news over the weekend, which is why I wanted to make sure I recorded an

episode for everybody and go through some of the player movement that we saw over the weekend as teams had to get down to 53 players. From that 90 man roster. That they had throughout the preseason. So we had a ton of player movement. We had some trades. A lot of crazy stuff went down over the weekend. So I wanted to make sure I took some time. To break as much as I could down for all of you.

Also again we're getting close to opening night everybody. That's Thursday. We're going to have some cool stuff. We're going to be doing for you this week. As we get ready for that game. Also some cool stuff. Our friends at bus.com. I'll have a little bit more on them in a bit, but again, $5 round trip, introductory rate from downtown Boston right into Gillette. Let them take care of their transportation for you on opening night so you don't have to worry about that and you can just have a great time with what should

be a fantastic atmosphere down in Gillette, down in Foxborough. But let's get into some of the news from the weekend. Obviously, Pats had to get down to 53 players. They did that, and part of the way they did that was a big trade. Something that not a lot of people probably saw coming, but a trade between New England and the Indianapolis Colts. Patriots send in second-year quarterback Jacoby Brissett to Indianapolis for third-year wide receiver Philip Dorsett.

Now, from New England's perspective, this is a little bit of an interesting move because Brissett's place on the roster was a little bit of a question mark. This is something I talked about a little bit with Matt Waldman on the show last week, wondering about whether he truly had a place on this roster givenman on the show last week, wondering about whether he truly had a place on this roster given some of the numbers, issues at other positions, the injury to Edelman.

And so Jacoby, his roster spot wasn't sort of locked down. He had a great preseason finale against the Giants, played very well in that game. But because I think of the injury to Edelman, the need to sort of try and replace a little bit of his production, and the fact that, look, you've got Tom Brady, you've got Jimmy Garoppolo, you've got two solid quarterbacks on the roster already. Maybe the Patriots just simply found that this was a time to sort of make that move. If Jacoby wasn't going to be part of their plans going forward, if that numbers game had truly sort of come down against him, then they

got what they could for him. But I think, honestly, this trade tells us a little bit more about Indianapolis more than anything. It tells us a little bit about Andrew Luck's health, the fact that he might not be ready for week one. He's coming off that shoulder injury, that shoulder surgery. He hasn't fully participated yet. Maybe he's going to be a scratch for week one. And you look at the rest of that Indianapolis Colts quarterback room, you've got Scott Tolson, Phillip Walker, and Stephen Morris. Morris and Tolson, two journeyman type players. Tolson, more of a veteran. Morris has been in the league for four years or so. And then Phillip Walker, an undrafted free agent

in this year's draft class, who did some nice things in camp so far, but are you going to really roll into week one without Andrew Luck and rolling with one of those guys, especially when you can get in a guy like Jacoby Brissett, who, look, won a game as a starter last year against Houston, a team that ended up being the number one defense in the NFL. Now, obviously, New England did some things with Jacoby Brissett in that offense from a schematic standpoint

that simplified things for him a bit. But still, a win's a win. And so if you're Indianapolis and you're looking at potentially being without Andrew Luck week one, maybe you go out and get a guy that can come in and give you something more than what you currently have on the roster. And so I think this move tells us more about the Indianapolis Colts and their quarterback room and their quarterback situation than anything else. I want to roll through some of the other cuts that we saw.

Let's start at the running back position. And this was somewhat of a surprise to me with both Brandon Bolden and DJ Foster getting released. Bolden, obviously a veteran running back, special teams contributor. That was a bit of a surprise to me. The coaching staff trusted Bolden as a blocker in the backfield. Sometimes if you watch New England where they're in some situations where they knew they had to throw the ball, Bolden would sometimes be the running back in the backfield to protect

Brady. And when you're talking about protecting Tom Brady, you want to have somebody there you can trust. And they trusted Bolden doing that. Go look a couple years ago. I think it was the 2014 season maybe. Bolden had a chip lock against Buffalo on the road that was out of this world. Go back and look that up on tape. I'll try to find that and tweet that out if I can but that's the type of stuff that Bolden did so it was interesting to see him cut obviously again a special teams contributor to according to a tweet from the great Christopher price now with Boston Sports Journal part of that great group that a great bit art has working together he's to be surprised if New England finds a way

to bring Bolton back into the mix. And so I'd look out for that as a potential piece of news in the next couple of days. The other name, DJ Foster, a player I talked about a bit with Matt Walden last week, sort of your running back slash receiver type. There was a potential thought that he could do some receiver type stuff in the wake of the Edelman injury.

But again, when you bring in Philip Dorsett now, maybe you don't need Foster on the active roster. Patriots were able to bring Foster back into the mix. He cleared waivers. Patriots resigned him to the practice squad. So he's still in the organization. So we'll see what kind of role he can carve out going forward. Wide receiver.

Three sort of interesting cuts. Devin Newsvin newson Austin Carr and Cody Hollister obviously Carr was a camp favorite in New England a lot of people really liked what he did during preseason a lot of people kind of liked him coming out of Northwestern pro football focus and their chart and data they loved what Carr did at Northwestern last year we've had him as one of the top slot receivers, if not the top slot receiver in the country. But again, numbers game, the trade for Dossett. Carr just couldn't quite find a home here. Patriots can't get him back.

Saints scooped him up rather quickly. Lucian, he goes unclaimed on waivers. He's placed on season and an injury reserve Patriots were able to get Cody Hollister the other receiver cut there back on to the practice squad where he shockingly to me joins his twin brother this was a surprising move to me keeping Hollister the tight end I was a little bit surprised because James O'Shaughnessy was a player that I got the chance to study a lot last year and doing the work

that I did for the Bleacher Report NFL 1000 project where I started the tight ends and wide receivers and O'Shaughnessy I thought did some nice things I thought that the Patriots could carve out a nice role for him as a third tight end in some packages you know obviously you knew Gronkowski and Dwayne Allen were safe but I thought that the New England could carve out a sort of niche type role for him but I think there are two potential reasons for why they're keeping Hollister the undrafted free agent from Wyoming first he sort of fits the mold cleaner I think of the move tight end type that we think of Gronkowski and some other guys in this league, one of whom I'm going to mention in a second. But the guy that's not purely just an inline block and tight end, Gronkowski can obviously

do that. But a guy that you can put on the wing, a guy that you can put in the slot, a guy that you can even split out wide at times. And I think Hollister fits that mold better. He saw significant action in this preseason, Saw some special team snaps on the kickoff team at times. Caught a touchdown on the fourth preseason game. Did some nice things late on that drive. One of the things that stood out to me watching him going back through the tape

was his ability to chip and release, which in this New England offense, you've got to be able to do as a tight end because they're going to put you on that wing, and there's going to be times when you're going to have maybe a wide nine or a nine technique defensive end, and you're going to need to help that tackle on that guy to just chip him and then get into the flat. Stun that guy enough so that he can't get a free,

momentous pass rush on the tackle. Just get him knocked off his path for a second. That makes the tackle's job a little bit easier. Hollister was really good at that. Watch that final drive in that fourth preseason game against the Giants. You'll see a great example of that. He's on the left wing. Nice chip on the defensive end before releasing to the flat.

Brissette doesn't look his direction, doesn't throw his direction. He throws to the other side of the field. But Hollister's on his blind side and keeps the quarterback clean, gets a nice little shot on that defensive end before releasing an induced pattern. So the Patriots value that, and Hollister did a good job in that area. So that's one aspect to this. Another aspect to just consider is we heard from Bill Belichick this weekend talking about how he doesn't truly congratulate guys on just making the roster because he's viewing this as a week-to-week league, a week-to-week scenario for each player.

You will be on the roster as long as you contribute. And when you stop contributing, you won't be on the roster anymore. It's as simple as that. It's a do-your-job business from his perspective. And so when you think about what New England's going up against this week, with Travis Kelsey coming to town, who is a mismatch at almost all levels, given what he can do at the tight end spot, you need somebody to try and duplicate that in practice.

I'm not going to waste Gronkowski or Allen running the scout team stuff. They need somebody to give them a good look at that spot. And so maybe the thinking here was we need this guy to at least give us some good scout team looks. We've got to make sure he's on the roster. We can't risk cutting him because he'll get picked up by somebody else. So we've got to make sure he's here for week one. So let's keep him on the roster, make sure he's here to run scout team, give us those Kelsey looks week one, and then see what we got going forward is that the only reason i think

hollister made this roster i don't think so but i think it probably played a part because when you get ready to play kansas city you gotta have an answer for travis kelsey so again hollister makes the roster i think it makes sense from what the patriots like their tight ends to do but i also think it makes sense for what he's going to need to do and what he's going to need to show this Patriots defense a little bit in practice as we get ready for that Kansas City game. Quick look at the other side of the ball. Not a lot of surprises defensively.

Two names that sort of stand out were Grissom, the veteran on the defensive line, as well as Josh Augusta, the undrafted free agent on the defensive line for Missouri. He's a kid I liked a little bit coming out, studied the SEC, and covered the SEC last year for inside the pylon, got a chance to watch him. Kind of liked some of the things he did. So I was a little bit surprised, but again, a lot of bodies up front right now. And so Augusta doesn't get his spot on the active roster. They get Grissom back on the practice squad,

so we'll see sort of how his role shakes out going forward we're going to get more in depth on the acquisition of Philip Dorsett in a second but I want to remind everybody that look folks NFL season is now here we are officially into Kansas City we are on to Kansas City

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And tell them that Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots sent you. As we talk about this Dorsett move, I'm going to do some nerdy football stuff for a minute. Hope you'll bear with me. But I want to get into the issue of the Patriots offense and scheme and coaching trees. And we've heard for years about the difficulty of picking up and learning the Patriots offense and learning the playbook. Look, Chad Ochocinco, Chad Johnson,

we heard that time and time again, how he just couldn't quite pick up the playbook. We've heard it from other players as well, other examples, a wide receiver particularly, that they couldn't get on the same page with Brady, they couldn't get on the same page with the coaching staff. So what is it about this Patriots playbook? Is it that much more difficult

to learn? And, you know, traditionally for the past decade or so, even longer actually, New England has been what we call an Arndt-Perkins offense. You know, there are traditionally three sort of base offensive schemes in the NFL. Although as years roll on and coaches moves and, you know, there's changes to the game, spread stuff that we see in college starts to leak into the NFL, there's blending from team to team. It's hard to find that team out there that's purely a West Coast offense or an Art Perkins offense. There's some blending. But the three are basically Eric Correal, named after Don Correal, the old Chargers head coach.

That's your more vertical downfield passing game. Think of Bruce Arians out in Arizona and what he likes to do. Then there's the West Coast offense, which most of you probably know. That's Bill Walsh, his short, quick passing game, getting the ball out, on time, quicker routes, relying on yardage after the catch. And Walsh's sort of mantra was throw to set up the run. Like they used the passing game as an extension of the running game. And then there's that third system, Arndt-Perkins.

And that's what the Patriots run. You know, West Coast, you know, Andy Reid, Kansas City, we'll see that this week, although they're trying to get a little bit more vertical. Doug Peterson, what they're doing in Philly. But then, you know, looking at New England and Art Perkins, like that's named after Ron Arnott and Ray Perkins, like two Patriots offensive assistants back in the 70s, like Chuck Fairbanks, who was an offensive mind in his own right.

And these type of offenses are predicated on timing routes, on play action stuff, using the run to sort of set up the pass, establishing the run, and attacking sort up the pass, establishing the run, and attacking sort of the intermediate area of the field. Like those are your three basic sort of offensive schemes. Now, in addition to sort of how they look to attack defenses from short and West Coast to deep and Eric Correal and EP and everything in between, there's also a knowing clature difference in how plays are called west coast offensive

play calls they typically would identify the primary receiver so you hear something called zn or excellent and receivers players had to know like if that was the route concept that was called you know say for example the formation was you know the play call was in the huddle was base 98 jet X slant. Now, base was the formation. 98 jets, that's the pass protection scheme up front, which is a sort of quick pass and protection. You know, X slant is just the route concept. And so you have to know if you're the tight end, what am I doing on X slant in base formation?

You know, if you're Z, what are you doing on X slant? It's not a slant route. So you had to memorize and learn all that stuff. But it's different in other systems. It's different in Coriel systems. It's different in Ernt Perkins systems. They all have sort of different ways of calling plays. Now Dorsett's coming over from the Colts, and offensive coordinator Rod Chudzinski Has been their offensive coordinator

For the past couple of years He's from that Coriel sort of coaching tree He cut his teeth under guys like Bruce Arians Again, a big Coriel type guy Nomenclature there can be different And it can be a little bit more simplified At times Now, I'm bootstrapping this a little bit

It's not a direct one-to-one But I think I'll make the point here. I went through some old playbooks. I read playbooks. I know. I'm a football nerd. That's what I do. And I pulled out an old Brian Billick playbook from his days when he was the offensive coordinator with the Ravens.

Billick, another Correal guy. Again, I'm bootstrapping this a bit, but you'll see the point. I'm going to talk about a bit but you'll see the point I'm going to talk about a three receiver route combination one receiver split to the left a tight end and another receiver to the right in Billick's playbook the portion of the play the receivers need to listen to the route combination is a numbered system there'll be usually three numbers each number is a different pass pattern you memorize what the numbers mean.

You listen for what number you are. You run that play. This is a system that I actually ran in college as well, both as a wide receiver and three years as a quarterback. So this is the nomenclature that I'm most familiar with. So we're going to talk about a play called 5-8-5. That's a comeback route, a a post route and another comeback route and the way those work up from left to right so that left receiver the guy by

himself he runs that five route a comeback route and go up push vertically to about 15 yards break back towards the sideline on a diagonal coming back to about 11 to 12 yards that eight route that middle route that's gonna be the tight end he's running a post route. The other receiver on the right, another five route, another comeback route. Okay, so that's 5-8-5. It's a pretty straightforward way to call the play. Know where you line up. Memorize your 10 pass patterns in the playbook,

whether they're slants, which is usually a two. Go routes, nines, post routes, eights, corner routes, sevens. Memorize those. Listen to where you are on the field, 5-8-5. I'm the middle guy. I'm the tight end. I'm running that eight route. There we go.

Same play, same exact play in New England's 2014 playbook. Come back. That's it. Come back. So it could be, you know, base to flood left, come back. Base being the starting formation to flood left, that's a shift. We'd have to get a protection in there. I missed that call.

Good thing I'm not playing anymore. Come back, and that's it. So you have to know what you do on comeback. It's not specifically told to you, although comeback kind of gives it away, but other sort of route concepts like Exxon. Exxon is another route concept in New England's playbook, which has a dig route, a crossing route from the tight end, and a post route, which could potentially convert to a go route dependent on the coverage look from the other receiver. So that's just, it's the nomenclature that's a little bit different. And so,

you know, another example, okay? The first play of Super Bowl XXXVI, and this was the play call. Zero, flood, slot hat, 78, shout, tosser. Zero is the formation, base package, base formation, whatever they had that was. Flood, slot hat, that was a pre-snap shift, how they got into sort of a five-receiver look out of their base formation. 78, pass protection scheme that means what's left to describe five pass routes with the two words shout tosser patriots have a lot of two or three man route combinations in their playbooks

shout and tosser told five guys what to do. Shout, that's a three-receiver combination with two out routes and a go route. Tosser, two slant routes. Two words, five pass patterns. Now in an air choreo system like Billick's, or the one Dorsett's coming from, that play's likely called some, like, 93-22 F out. Telling each guy specifically what to do. Remember what the numbers are, and know your assignment.

So that's sort of the nomenclature stuff. It's just different, but it's tough to pick up right away, especially if you spent the last two or three years in a system like Dorset has. So that's going to be part of the transition. And then we're not even getting into sort of the route adjustments

that sometimes vary from team to team. And we talked about it a little bit, that Exxon play I talked about. You have a post route that can convert to a goal route depending on the coverage look. And so that's part of the nerdy football stuff there, the nomenclature that Dorsett's going to have to get used to. I spent a couple of minutes here, not too long, just on Dorsett on the field.

And I looked through some of his table from this preseason and last year and i don't want to spend too much time going through it but one thing that i did sort of notice was very effective facing off coverage whether it's off man looks or even zone cover three type stuff where the defender's not in his face also very effective when he gets sort of a free release off the line of scrimmage when he doesn't get jammed when he gets jammed there's almost a tendency sometimes for him to really sort of fight off that gym and fight to get back into his passing route but he's if he's given a free release he can do some very good things one route when he runs extremely well sort of that kitty

route it's sort of a corner route, but you bend inside and get an inside release against the defender before then bending it back to the outside. That's a route that he runs extremely well. An example of that comes against Jacksonville in Week 17. He gets an inside release from the slot, then bends it back to the outside. And what's good about that is by getting that inside release,

you really start to sell the defender on a route towards the middle of the field. And so when you break that back to the outside on that sort of kiddie corner route, you can really get separation on that. And that's, you know, a route concept, a pass pattern that Dorsett runs really well. And, you know, again, with him, he saw that again for a long touchdown

against Minnesota in Week 15. Sort of that kiddie route where, again, he's in the slot to the left, has off coverage, gets inside leverage against that defender to sell him on that route towards the middle of the field and then breaks it back to the outside. And if you go back and watch this play again, it's Week 15 at Minnesota. It's a 50-yard touchdown that comes, I think, very early in the fourth quarter, sort of kind of the dagger play because Indianapolis had a lead.

You'll see the route, and you'll also see the job that Andrew Luck does because this is a free safety situation free safety in the middle of the field and luck opens to the other side of the field so door sets in the slot to the left luck opens to the right there's not even a pass route over there but the free safety sees luck moves to that side of the field and luck moves that free safety away from door setett. So Dorsett runs a great route. Luck does a great job as well. Good throw, great catch, touchdown. So that's kind of where I see Dorsett being used initially.

Routes like that, routes from the slot where he can provide sort of that, you know, a vertical threat, perhaps draw the attention of the safeties away from the middle of the field. And what does that do? That opens up the middle of the field for a guy named Rob Gronkowski, who last I checked is a pretty good football player himself. So that's kind of just a quick and dirty on Philip Dorsett. We'll see again from the nomenclature stuff and everything else, you know, how quickly he gets into the fold, but it's something to watch going forward. And going forward, I want to kind of just quickly tell you about what we got lined up this week

because we're going to be doing some good stuff this week. This is coming out on Monday. On Tuesday, we're going to have an episode with the guys over at Locked on Chiefs getting you ready, hearing from the Kansas City point of view what you should be ready for on Thursday night. Wednesday's show, start sending me in some questions. What you were looking for from New England this year? What are you for on Thursday night. Wednesday's show, start sending me in some questions. What you were looking for from New England this year?

What are you expecting on Thursday night? What are you worried about? What are you looking forward to? Hit me with some questions on Twitter, at Mark Schofield, at M-A-R-K-S-C-H-O-F-I-E-L-D. This is going to be something I'm going to be doing every Wednesday where I'm going to be answering some questions from all of you, what your thoughts are, what your takes are, respond to that,

whether you're happy with the way somebody's playing, whether you're disappointed with the play call, and I want to hear from you. So we're doing that each Wednesday. Thursday we're going to have Henry McKenna on from Patriots Wire, part of the USA Today group. He covers the Patriots, does a great job talking to him about the season opener.

And then on Friday we will have instant reaction for you. As soon as that game ends, I'm going to hop on the mic and get down some thoughts for everybody that will come out Friday morning as Patriots start their season and their Super Bowl title defense against the Kansas City Chiefs. So that's sort of the lay of the land for the week going forward. Also going forward again, can't recommend it enough. Bust.com. Check out what those guys do.

They got that $5 introductory rate for Thursday night. Let them know I sent you. Let them know Mark Schofield of Locked On Patriots sent you. That's a great opportunity that you should definitely take advantage of. That's our week ahead. It should be a fun one. Thank you so much for listening.

Keep it locked right here on Locked on Peacemates. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Others contend America has faced far more challenging periods and emerged strong. Leading policymakers, Bush Institute experts, and respected journalists take on this debate. Read about it at bushcenter.org slash catalyst.