Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Mailbag Friday: Caserio, Tight Ends and Summer TV - June 14, 2019

Episode Date: June 14, 2019

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Hey there everybody and welcome on into a Friday edition of Locked on Patriots. That's right, I know. You'll probably be surprised because let's face it, I've whiffed on the past two Fridays. We've been doing 2018 revisited. We've been doing these week-by-week shows, looking at each game from the Patriots season. There are a lot to put together. They're a beast.

You're studying the game again, reviewing notes, pulling clips, things like that. And so for the past two Fridays, even though I had promised shows, sort of recapping the week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, life got in the way. I didn't get to them. I'm sorry. I do apologize. But we are here today. We're going to talk about some stuff. Thankfully, I had put out the clarion call for questions. So we got some questions and a little bit later, we're going to do some June content, folks. Buckle up. Anyway, before we dive into what we're going to talk

about today, the tight end position and some other stuff, your usual reminders, please, pretty please, follow the big guy on the old Twitter machine at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at the cavalcade of places, insidethepylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, Matt Waldman's rookie scouting portfolio, and yes, that triumvirate of SB Nation websites included. Big blue View.

I have my summer series on how to evaluate the quarterback position. So all of you can read that and then take my job. Bleeding Green Nation. Where I co-host the QB's Go Show with the one, the only, Michael J. Kist. And of course, Pat's Pulpit with my summer series over there. How it happened. All the stuff we've talked about, we break down some of those plays. We talked about James White's TD against the Dolphins in Week 4.

Talked about, well, it wasn't James White's TDs against, it was James White's touchdown against the Dolphins in Week 4, but it was a touchdown catch from Tom Brady. Also, Stephon Gilmore's interception in Week 1. I'll be adding another piece to that collection in a couple of days. Now, we had some news on the tight end front. The Patriots acquired a new tight end. Get excited, everybody. I mean, you know, I'm sure that a trade in mid-June is going to be a blockbuster, but the Patriots did acquire a new tight end Michael Roberts from the Detroit Lions for a late round pick the acquisition was announced on Thursday morning and for a lot of

people this was a somewhat exciting pick it was for a seventh round selection a future seventh and Michael Roberts out ofledo a lot of people really liked him coming out including jeff risdon who covers the lions he called him sort of a red zone monster a guy that can really do some things down inside the red zone uses size uses frame but not exactly a twitch athlete not exactly somebody you're to feature as a y isotype player but at the same time they could sort of use him maybe in the red zone here's sort of how jeff risen described him and how tweet he sent to me after i mentioned that you know i retweeted something that jeff put up so he responded to me he was a red zone monster in college,

but it has not translated. Zero twitch as an athlete, and he wasn't much of a blocker for a 275 pound tight end. Now, what are they really getting? Well, I mean, you can study him. He's got the ability to be a red zone target. He's probably more of a Dwayne Allen, Ryan Izzo type piece than a Matt Lacoste move tight end type piece. And that leads us to one of the questions that we got. And this comes to us from a great friend of the show, somebody that always seems to get some questions in, always appreciate when he reaches out.

And that is Isaac Gogol. You can follow him on Twitter at XXx isaac gogel xx who is new england's start and slash main tight end come week one does any tight end on new england produce six or more touchdowns started with the second question no i would be stunned if any of these guys get six or more touchdowns. So that's the first piece. The second piece is, sitting here right now, who do I think is their sort of week one tight end or weeks one through four tight end?

Because remember, we've got a Ben Watson suspension looming, so in all likelihood, if he comes back, he becomes a starter. I think that's kind of the working assumption people have right now. And I think, looking at this roster, I'm going to identify a move tight end and a block in tight end. And I think right now, the two move type tight ends, putting aside Benjamin Watson, are going to be Matt LaCoste and Steven Anderson. Anderson was more of a wide receiver in college. He's bulked up a bit, been more of a tight end, but I think those are the guys that they'll look to to be that

move type tight end. The you know, H if you want to call it that. I think the Y more inline type player, and teams flip these designations, so you might be thinking, what are you talking about? They flip designations. Whatever. That's how I prefer them.

The more inline blocking type guy that's going to come down as we see it right now between ryan anzo and michael roberts maybe andrew beck could push them a bit but i think those are the guys i would look to until benjamin watson returned and so did want to sort of get to that question isaac thank you for sending it and i don't think anybody's getting six touchdowns. Michael Roberts might. He could have some red zone targets to him, but I don't think anybody gets to that number.

Also, I would be remiss if I did not mention some Sonya Michelle news. He got his knee scoped. This offseason, like every offseason, if you want news, if you want to be able to identify trends to keep an eye on, it's a great time to identify fantasy football accounts on Twitter and follow them. Fantasy football Twitter has been a buzz with Damian Harris love. A lot of people are wondering why you would draft Sonny Michelle when you can get Harris who's going off in like the 7th round

of many you know year long non-dynasty type drafts right now. And part of the reason was fantasy Twitter was very attuned to the fact that the Patriots drafted Damian Harris to begin with but also some of the comments about Belichick and now, of course, this knee scope for Sonny Michel.

And so I would highly recommend that people check out a piece that Matt Waldman put on his website about how to use Twitter for fantasy football. It's very useful. The fantasy football community is always sort of in tune to what is happening because, let's face it, a lot of these people are doing this for big money. And so they mine press conference transcripts, Twitter resources, beat writers. They follow all of this stuff.

They are very much at the tip of the spear when it comes to football coverage. And so I've always recommended that people follow along fantasy minds, fantasy writers, the Matt Waldwins, the late round QBs, the fantasy guys like, you know, Sigmund Blum, footballguys.com, where I have done some work and will hopefully continue to do

some work. It's worth following that stuff. Next question comes to us from our great friend and a personal friend, the one and only Richard Schrager. Schrager is a longtime friend of mine, and he always asks a question that I love to sort of wrap up a segment with, and his question is this. And you can follow Richard. I qualify for this with, look, he's a Giants and a Yankees fan. So just throw that out there. But Richard is a close, dear, personal friend of mine. At R-S-S-C-H-R-A-G-E-R.

Now that Gronk has retired, will he become commissioner of the lingerie football league? Which is a funny question, and Schrager is known for that on this show. But it does give me a chance to talk for a few moments about these Gronkowski rumors. And there have been reports in Bleacher Report with Michael Freeman and elsewhere

that the Patriots are somewhat convinced that Gronk's coming back. And I did want to touch on this for a couple of reasons. One, it's a factor. It's a story. Will Gronk come back? Two, let's look at it this way. How did the New England Patriots address this offseason at the tight end position? This was an offseason where everybody talked about how great a tight end class this was. In the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, we dove into the tight end position,

spent a lot of time talking about the tight ends. We believed in our hearts that Bill Belichick was going to double dip at the tight end position. Draft two guys and say, look, it's a good class. We're worried about Gronk. And so maybe we double dip and address this tight end position twice. Instead, what do they do? They sign some scrap heap guys. Matt Lacoste. Brennan Andrew Beck is an undrafted free agent.

Benjamin Watson. Now this trade for Michael Roberts. In such a deep tight end group, we're thinking, oh, maybe they'll get Irv Smith at the end of the first round and double dip with Jay Sternberger in the third. They don't even draft a tight end. And part of me, when that happens, is thinking, even with the Gronk news and his retiring, even the fact that they still don't, it's just Belichick being Belichick, right? But their approach to the tight end position

is at least making me wonder if maybe they do believe that Gronk's going to come back. I'm just saying the approach was weird. And this idea that maybe Gronk's going to come back. I'm just saying, the approach was weird. And this idea that maybe Gronk's going to come back after all, their approach lends that some credence. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Next, we're going to talk some Nick Cassaro stuff. I know people are worried about that. And then an interesting question that was brought up and debated

in the Locked On Patriot Slash on. I want to weigh in for all of you. But before we do that, we have some fantastic partners at the show. Himalaya, fantastic podcasting app. I hope you all get on Himalaya. You can follow the show and other shows elsewhere on Himalaya. They can curate some playlists

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because the Houston Texans are in need of a general manager. They have requested permission to speak with Nick Cassaro, currently with the Patriots, but they have not been given permission. They'd like to speak with Cacero, currently the director of player personnel for New England, but they have been denied permission to talk to him. Part of the reason might be the fact that the Patriots have also filed tampering charges against the Texans, accusing Houston of contacting him for the GM job prior to seeking permission to interview him. And what this stems from

is a strange set of circumstances. New England believes that Texans Executive Vice President of Team Development, Nick Easterby, a former chaplain for, you guessed it, the New England Patriots, attended the team's championship ceremony, the rain ceremony, at Robert Kraft's home. The next day, the Texans fired General Manager Brian Gane. The timing is, as we say, suspect. The time frame, the tick-tock, to use a political term, sends one down the path of, hmm, interesting. The timing is quite convenient. And our great friend, John Lamarakis, reached out via the Twitter machine and he asked my opinions on this. Basically wanted to know how worried am i am i about it on a scale of sort of one to ten about cassero potentially leaving and is this situation strange and awkward and yes the situation is strange and awkward as far as me being worried about him leaving and also our great friend erica

pearl at erica's homes for you on twitter She also reached out. Should we be worried about the Casero situation? And I think in a sense, yes, he has been a big part of their college scouting process. You often see him at pro days working out players. Got a QB background of his own. So there might be, from my standpoint, something to think about here. But let's not forget,

Bill Belichick certainly serves as the general manager. Cacero's title is director of player personnel. So it's not like they're losing their general manager. And I think if you look at the Patriots front office, in a sense, there are people that can step into such a role with the New England Patriots shouldn't Nick Casero leave and it's always been sort of assumed that he was going to go on to get a general manager job like given how the Patriots have structured things with Bill Belichick that Casero where he is would be replaced at some point because he would get a better offer. And so there will be people in-house.

There will be certainly people outside that could be brought in. I mean, Mike Lombardi's name comes to mind. That's a wild guess off the top of my head. But there would be people that would be chomping at the bit to fill that role for the New England Patriots under Belichick. And so this is an organization that, from a roster standpoint, has always viewed it as next man up. And I think they would approach it the same way. And so it doesn't truly concern me.

The situation is odd, but it doesn't freak me out too much. Now, I mentioned earlier that I wanted to weigh in on a discussion that we were having in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, which, again, I haven't brought this up in a while. We're still talking about stuff all day long in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. So if you like this show and you want to be part of the broader discussion, hit me up for an invite via Twitter at Mark Schofield or mark.schofield, that's insidethepylon.com. We'd love to have you at any time.

You could lurk there. Lurkers are welcome. We have some, some who are related to me, but lurkers are always welcome as well. If you'd like to be part of the broader conversation to chime in as much as you want, as little as you want. We talk other stuff. We were talking Chernobyl. We talk video games. You talk all sorts of stuff over there, food, barbecuing. We, you all heard John LaMarocca. You know what he's going to talk about in the off season. So we'd love to have you there but an interesting discussion

came up spurred in part by of course Dave Archibald who I can't thank enough for everything he does over at Inside the Pylon and elsewhere especially when they're locked on Patriot Slack channel he's always chiming in over there and sort of the discussion

was kicked off by i'm trying to find a poll that was put up on twitter by the guys over the draft network who's more valuable quentin nelson or saquon barkley and so people were debating that and then john the maracas asked a fabulous question who would you you rather have as a member of the Patriots? If you could wave a magic wand and suddenly either Saquon Barkley, the running back for the New York Giants, or Quinton Nelson, the guard for the Indianapolis Colts, becomes a member of New England's roster, who would you rather have? And there's an argument to be made for both. You know, let's start with Saquon Barkley. Game-sending,

transcendent-type runner back. Now, he's a player that I scouted in person, a game against Indiana at Happy Valley, at Beaver Stadium. And he housed the opening kickoff, and I've never seen a moment like it. And watching him was, I've talked about this before, but for those of you that maybe haven't heard those shows or heard me talk about it, watching him at a Penn State game, even from the press box when you're supposed to be quiet, it's like watching, I'd say, an Ovechkin play hockey or a Jordan play basketball. Every time Barkley got near the football football you could hear a stadium collectively hold its breath because you expected something you've never seen before to happen and it's rare to see an athlete

with that kind of power over a stadium or an arena and Barkley had that at Penn State and he still kind of has it now anytime he gets the football, you expect something you haven't seen before to happen. He has that kind of athleticism and ability as a game-changing type player. And he does it as a receiver. He does it as a ball carrier. He can do it on special teams. He's a tremendous player. Quinton Nelson under Dante Skarniecki.

That kid is a mauler. He is a huge reason that that Colts offense was good last year. It's because of what he could do on the inside. He's a dominant force at the left guard spot. And he can do incredible things on the interior of an offensive line. And you can only imagine what he would be like under Dante next to, you could put him in at left guard and replace him Joe Thune, and whoever is going to be at left tackle is going to get some help

because he's that good. That being said, if I'm forced to pick between one or two, I'm taking Barkley. One, you have Joe Thune, and yes, Quinton Nelson is very good, and he's going to be good for a while, and he's locked up for a period of time. Joe Thune entering a contract year. Barkley is transcendent. You could imagine the myriad ways that Josh McDaniels could use him in the Patriots offense. You could put him out as a receiver. I covered the Giants last year so many times I was banging my head against the desk because they were just using him on

swing routes where he's catching the ball four yards behind the line of scrimmage. Get him involved downfield. I think Barkley in this Patriots offense would be a sight to behold, and so that's where I'd go with it. Up next, we're going to close out the show talking about three things. Deadwood, Chernobyl, and Letterkenny. I know our friends up north are going to want to hear at least part of this that's coming your way next

on this Friday installment of Locked On Patriots June content everybody Mark Schofield back with you now I'm going to quickly close out this Friday installment of Locked On Patriots and we're going to go a little bit off script let's face it it is pre-father's day

it's mid-June. There's not a lot really going on. So I figured why not take a moment and plug some stuff that's not my work. And what I mean by that is I want to talk about three things. I want to talk some Deadwood. I want to talk some Chernobyl. And I want to talk some Letterkenny in that order. First, let's talk Deadwood. I was a Deadwood neophyte. I didn't watch Deadwood. I didn't watch the HBO series when it aired originally. I think it was in sort of that post-Sopranos, mid-Sopranos, or maybe it was something else was going on.

For whatever reason, didn't appeal to me, didn't watch it, didn't touch it. But when I saw while watching, of course, Game of Thrones, the apps, the, you know, commercials, the plugs, the promos, the trailers for the Deadwood movie, I thought, you know, maybe I'll give it a shot because I'd like to see if I could get through it. I realized, look, only three seasons, 36 episodes. You know, maybe I'll give it a shot. And if I like it, I'll roll through it just in time to watch the movie. And boy, am I glad I did. I thought it was was fantastic television I loved the entire story I loved the characters I think the biggest character of all was just the town of Deadwood and I think it's important to understand that this town of Deadwood a real live place that yes I am now interested in visiting

myself I think it was perhaps the biggest character in the show and seeing that town evolve over the period of the show and then into the movie and beyond was fascinating and they did air their trailer i mean the movie and loved it absolutely loved it i thought it was a fitting sort of coda and end to some of these characters and their storylines and a fitting sort of tribute to the work that had been done and a fitting bit of closure to this series and to again the growth and development of this town I loved the way it was put together and so if you're a Deadwood fan and you enjoyed the movie or haven't watched it I think you'll definitely enjoy it if you haven't watched Deadwood I would strongly recommend that you take some time you watch the series I do think you need to watch the episodes and then the movies, but Deadwood, loved it. Speaking of HBO,

Chernobyl, absolutely loved it. Absolutely gripping television. And I think a lot of people sort of that scene in one of the episodes, and if you've watched it, you know what I'm going to talk about. They have to go with these three workers to close some valves and it's the end of the episode and they're in this water that they know is radioactive. They've got their meters and they're basically pinned and you just hear that meter noise like da-da-da-da-da-da-da just non-stop and their lights, their flashlights, their lamps

start going out and it just becomes darkness and you just hear them breathing. Some of the most gripping television i've ever seen and there were other moments in this series that i thought were fantastically well done i know that now there's a bit of debate um forbes and elsewhere have talked about some of the historical inaccuracies in a sense still even if they missed on some of the stuff, even if a little bit was sort of creative license, I thought it was must-watch television.

And obviously there's like deeper thematic elements of huge bureaucracies and people trying to cover themselves and things like that. It was phenomenal, phenomenal work from the write-in to the act and Jared Harris, Emily Watson, Scott Skarsgård, they just all crushed it. The score, the sound editing, work from the writing to the act and Jared Harris I'm really Watson's going

Skarsgard they just all crushed it the score the sound edited all of the production elements where I thought were so well done and I would also strongly recommend that if you haven't watched it that you do watch it and you listen to after each episode HBO released a podcast with the showrunner the show's creator to break down some of the decisions and for example one of the things you'll notice is they're not speaking with Russian accents. They're just using whatever accents they have. And in the accompanying podcast of the debut, the premiere episode, the show's creator talks about how we thought it would just be hokey and would sort of take away from the story we're telling. And so I think if you watch the show,

you won't be disappointed. Definitely listen to the podcast. Finally, Letterkenny. And if you haven't heard about Letterkenny, it is a small Canadian comedy that is now sort of, it's available on Hulu. The eighth season is about to be released on Hulu now. It was originally on something called Crave Television,

Crave TV. This is something that Bryce Rossler and Owen Reese at BT Rossler on Twitter, at Reese Draft on Twitter, were talking to me about, telling me about, and I finally broke down and started watching it, and I'm addicted to it. It is downright hilarious at times. And I'm talking like, look, this is pretty funny. I'm talking like, I cannot breathe, I'm laughing too hard, kind of funny. Yes, it's a bit juvenile bit juvenile yes there are some moments that you might think where are we going with this for the most part this show is absolutely hilarious the episodes

are like 20 minutes long you can just get in and out of them pretty quickly it's been a joy to watch this show the acting is i think at times brilliant because a lot of these characters are like stoic canadians and it's just funny and long stretches. And it's also introduced me to all dressed chips, which I had never heard of, honestly, until this show. They're originally Canadian. And what they are is basically ruffles in all of the seasons. So barbecue, ketchup, salt, vinegar, sour cream, onion,

and some special seasonsings mixed together. And they eat them on the show. I was skeptical. Owen Reese at Reese Draft told me, look, man, they're really good. And he told me this the other day as I was literally in the car and I stopped in the nearest grocery store, a safeway I'd been to hundreds of times before. I had never seen these chips and I'm sure enough they were right there. And he's like, trust me, you won't be disappointed. I had them on Wednesday night and I pretty much crushed an entire bag of them in one sitting. They are that delicious. And I know I have some Canadian listeners. Add Erica Holmes for you. I know you're excited I've been eating these. These are phenomenal.

And now I have been told by some other people on Twitter that the chips in Canada are just that much better than the chips here in the States. And I'm literally considering a move to north of the border just for the chips. I mean, forget other reasons people want to move to Canada. The beauty, the culture, the history, the people. I'm going to move for the chips. And I'm not ashamed to admit that. Yes, I've been working out a ton, trying to lose some weight, trying to get rid of the dad bod.

It's a struggle. But I'm going to throw it all away for the chips, especially if there are chips up there that are apparently better. And I've also been told that the ruffles that you get here in the States, the all-dressed ones, they're just not even as good as the actual ones you get up there. So people are telling me that there are actually better versions of this north of the border, as well as like the ketchup chips are even better north of the border. So I might be moving north of the border for the chips. Is that something I would have to declare like at the border? Why are you here? Business pleasure. Chips. Excuse me. I'm here for the chips. That might be awkward. That might get me turned away, but I hope not. Anyway, that will do it for this week again it's

july i gotta talk about something i'm gonna talk about chips i will be back next week we're gonna close out next week 2018 revisit we got the jets in the season finale we've got division around against the chargers we've got afc championship game and, yes, Super Bowl 53. And then, once 2018 revisited is put to bed, we're on to Patriots A to Z. We're going to talk about players, plays, formation schemes from A to Z, giving you a full-on encyclopedic look at your New England Patriots. So that's what's ahead. Until next time, have a wonderful weekend, everybody, and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patriots.