Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Strategy: New England Patriots Drafting a Right Tackle at #31 a Bad Idea?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Picking the right tackle at 31 would not come without its risks, but it should absolutely be on the table for the Pats. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening? I am your host, Nick Cattels. On today's episode, another day, another polarizing prospect to look at

Starting point is 00:00:34 as a possible fit picking 31. This time, the prospects an offensive tackle. In the second segment, Christian Gonzalez sends a message, maybe to the Pats, at a Celtics game of all places. But first, let's talk tackle. Everybody agrees. The Patriots need a young tackle, if not two young tackles, but especially a young right tackle in this draft coming up in about a month or so.

Starting point is 00:01:00 And if you asked me right now, end of March, Nick, would picking a right tackle at 31 be a bad idea? I would tell you, no, that would not be a bad idea. For it to be a bad idea, there would have to be no reasoning to it. The Patriots absolutely would have reasoning to draft a right tackle at 31 in late April. Let's start here. When you look at the tackle position in this year's draft, frankly, the depth is just thin. You don't have 10, 12 guys when we talk about.

Starting point is 00:01:33 talk about right tackle or left tackle. You don't have 10 or 12 guys that you feel pretty good about. You don't have seven or eight guys that you're confident in. Let's look at the athletics latest consensus big board at offensive tackle. And I want to start at number 20 because let's be honest, if there is an offensive tackle on this consensus big board above 20, they're not going to fall to 31. I find it very unlikely for one of those guys to fall that far at that position. So let's start at number 20. And the first tackle on the consensus big board from the athletic is actually number 23, Caden Proctor from Alabama. We'll talk about him a little bit later in this podcast. Number 26, Caleb Lomu from Utah, number 35, a guy we've talked about, Maxi Hanna Chor from Arizona State,

Starting point is 00:02:22 number 39 from Clemson, Blake Miller. And that's it. That's it. From 20 to 50, four tackles. Proctor, Lomu, Ahanachor, Miller. That's it for offensive tackle slash right tackle picks with really any confidence in the top 20, rather top 75-ish. Now, if you go beyond the top 50, the next guy, the next guy after Blake Miller at 39, is Jennings Dunker at 65. And as we've talked about, we talked about it right after the combine, Jennings Dunker is more likely than not going to play guard at the NFL level.

Starting point is 00:03:04 So he's not even really a tackle prospect. 77 is Caleb Tiernan. He's another guy who's very likely going to play guard. So when you look at it, 23, 26, 35, 39 is Proctor, Lomo, a hana chur, Miller. And then you've got 65 and 77 two guys who are more likely going to play guard than tackle. So that's what we're talking about. when you look at the lack of depth in this tackle class of guys that you should be somewhat confident in playing a role. If you need somebody to play a role in, let's say, the middle of this upcoming season, middle of 2026 or so, Proctor could fit, Lomu could fit, a hana chor could fit, Miller could certainly fit.

Starting point is 00:03:48 And that's it. That's pretty much it until you get to, you know, guys who are likely going to be day three guys. So this tackle class is not very deep. So if you feel like you've got one of those dudes at 31 staring you in the face and you say to yourself, look, if we wait until late second round, if we wait until round three or round four, we're not going to find a guy who we're confident in contributing if we need him to contribute in 2026, let alone 2027. If we wait until the fourth, fifth round, we're in trouble. So let's just grab the guy who's at 31 because we feel that that guy can help us out if we need him. And then you look at the other positions of need, frankly, out of the top three. I've mentioned edge, wide receiver, and tackle.

Starting point is 00:04:39 You look at edge and wide receiver, those two positions in this draft are much, much deeper than tackle is. There are nine edges between 50 and 100 on the consensus big board from the athletic at edge. Let's look at the edge prospects I'm talking about. Number 51 is Gabe Accus from Illinois. Number 59 is Derek Moore from Michigan. 60 is Malachi Lawrence from UCF. 71 is Keiron Crawford from Auburn. 84 is Jay Sean Barham from Michigan.

Starting point is 00:05:11 86 is the Nye Dennis Sutton from Penn State. 87 is Joshua Josephs from Tennessee. 89 is Romelo Heights from Texas Tech. And 94 is L.T. Overton from Alabama. So if you're in this kind of situation scenario, you're the Patriots, you're looking at this. And number 31, there's a right tackle sitting there that you might love. And you might feel like that guy can help you if you need him to help you in 2026. You might be more apt to draft that guy at 31 because you feel you get late second round.

Starting point is 00:05:43 you still have a shot at an Accus, a Moore, a Lawrence, a Crawford, a Dennis Sutton. It's interesting, right? And then you look at wide receiver, big body X wide receivers. Let's look at those guys between 50 and 100 on the consensus big board. We're talking about Malachi Fields at 54 from Notre Dame. We've talked about him. Chris Bell from Louisville talked about him a little bit at 63. And then you go to Georgia State's Ted Hurst at 70. There are other possible wide receiver options on the board who might not necessarily fit that big body X criteria, but might be of interest for the Patriots.

Starting point is 00:06:19 Number 74, Elijah Surratt from Indiana. Number 83, Skyler Bell from Yukon, who just had a really good pro day this week. Then you have 85 to Zahn-Stribling from Ole Miss. So if you're the Patriots and you're trying to figure out, who do we want to draft at 31? Drafting a right tackle has reason to it because you could get your edge, you could get your wide receiver later on in the draft in the second, fourth round. You got two fourth round picks. And we all know that tackle is critical.

Starting point is 00:06:51 But here's my thing. It has to depend on your board. Like if you have a non-offensive tackle, if you have an edge or a receiver ranked higher, you should pick that guy. You should not be reaching. You should not be reaching for a right tackle prospect at 31 because you're concerned about the depth. You shouldn't feel desperation or urgency to draft a guy at that position. Again, if you love him and it's pretty even when you're looking at that right tackle versus edge slash wide receiver, maybe even free safety, anybody else you're looking at, then this is the conversation.

Starting point is 00:07:31 But you should not be reaching for tackle. No way, no how. And if it's close, but you still feel more confident in the other guys, then you probably lean towards drafting those other guys because wide receiver edge is a more urgent need. Wide receiver one, if you feel, if you feel like there's a true alpha receiver who fell to you at 31, I don't know how you pass that up. If you feel like there's a true pass rushing edge who might end up being a three down guy

Starting point is 00:08:02 at a pretty high level, if he falls to 31, I don't know how you pass that up. But if you're not looking at that possibility and there's a. right tackle you love. Again, it's in the discussion. Something else to think about. I certainly hope the Patriots will win it all in 2026, but I think many of us, right now, it's obviously really, really early, but I think most of us feel like the 2027 first round pick for the Patriots will likely be higher than the 2026. I mean, the only way it's not going to be higher is if the Patriots get back to the Super Bowl or win the Super Bowl. And it's very difficult to do that.

Starting point is 00:08:44 Two straight ears. Get to that game. So if you're thinking forward, I would say that in 2027, if your pick is a higher pick in the first round, you have a better shot of finding that legitimate starting right tackle. Doesn't mean you can't find them at 31, but now we're looking, right?

Starting point is 00:09:04 You've got to compare things. If you are confident that you can land that guy in the 2027 draft, And Morgan Moses is going to be fine in 26 and you can find some veteran depth or, you know, whatever you've got to do. You got to patch it together maybe a little bit in 2026. But you feel like your team overall will be better over the next two years through that two year window. If you spend the pick at edge or receiver and then maybe you got to wait until 2027 to find that tackle. If you feel like that's the better approach, there's also reason to that. So there's so many layers to this, and it is a fascinating, a fascinating draft,

Starting point is 00:09:47 given the fact that Patriots are towards the tail end of the first round. This would be a different conversation. If this was a top 10 pick, top 15 pick, we'd have a much better idea of who would be there and who would slot as the favorite. But we don't really know second to last pick of the first round. Coming up, Christian Gonzalez seemingly sends the Pats a message. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day.

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Starting point is 00:11:31 Add free episodes, access to a group chat. Tap the link in the show notes to find out more. Or you can go to lockdown patriots.com. And of course, don't forget, If you're a friend of the program, maybe you're new to the program. Click that thumbs up as you watch us on YouTube. Don't forget to like. Don't forget to comment.

Starting point is 00:11:47 Don't forget to subscribe as we march towards our next goal of 10,000 subscribers. Hopefully, fingers crossed by Draft Weekend. Let's continue to push. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your fellow Patriots fans. So three news items of varying degrees of importance or significance this week happened. that impacts the Christian Gonzalez negotiation story.

Starting point is 00:12:14 First, we have Jackson Smith and Jigba. Obviously, JASN agrees to a new contract out there in Seattle. It's a four-year, $168.6 million deal. A $69.13 million of that is fully guaranteed. The total guaranteed money is around $120 million. So, JSN, same draft class as Christian Gonzalez. I believe he was picked 20th in that draft. Gonzalez was drafted 17th in 2023.

Starting point is 00:12:46 So same draft class, which means we're starting to get extensions done from that draft class, which obviously holds some weight for Christian Gonzalez in his representation. Every single time, first round pick signs an extension, a big money extension from that 2023 draft class.

Starting point is 00:13:05 The agents for Christian Gonzalez are going to be well, aware of that. Then we had Henry McKenna of Fox report that Gonzalez and the Patriots had preliminary conversations about an extension during the week of the combine. Now, that should not be a shock. The idea of the combine behind closed doors is to have a lot of these types of conversations, extensions, new contracts, whatever you're doing, right? Trades. The NFL does a lot of business, or at least lays a lot of the groundwork during Combine Week. So according to Henry McKenna, the Patriots, Gonzalez, his representation, they had conversations at the

Starting point is 00:13:43 Combine. Then you fast forward to Wednesday night. And Wednesday night, Gonzalez is at the Celtics Thunder game. Fantastic game, by the way. Celtics win by 10. Hank 70 in the second half. You love to see it. But apparently Gonzalez was at the game. He is sitting on the floor, not literally. You know what I'm saying. And the Celtics staff shows Gonzalez on the big video board. And Gonzalez gestures a bunch of different things. And then he finishes with the money symbols with, you know, both of his

Starting point is 00:14:15 hands. The old you know, not Baker Mayfield, the old Johnny Mansell stuff. I guess Baker kind of does it too. But Johnny Manzell did it in college an awful lot. And so is that a message being sent to the Patriots? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:14:32 I don't want to get too crazy. But obviously Gonzalez is well aware of what's going on. Gonzalez knows that he's up for a contract extension. It is one of the bigger stories that will remain a story for the rest of this offseason, or at least until Gonzalez signs an extension, they get something done. And so the question is with the JSN contract, finding out that five or six weeks ago, the preliminary conversation started on this thing, this extension. And then you've got Gonzalez flashing the money signs at a Celtics game, should the Patriots feel more

Starting point is 00:15:11 urgency to get this deal done? Now, I feel like you go back to the end of the season. I said, there's not a huge rush. And I still feel like ultimately you have time. Ultimately, you have time to get this contract extension done. If you look at somebody like Sauce Gardner, Gardner got his contract done in July of last year, in the middle of July. So there is plenty of of time to get a deal done. But I do feel the more stuff we see, the more stuff that we hear, the sooner you get this contract extension done with Gonzalez, the better. You have to look at Devin Witherspoon and his impact on a possible Christian Gonzalez contract.

Starting point is 00:15:55 And you look at the cornerback AAV because Devin Witherspoon can sign an extension with Seattle's offseason. And obviously you would think, well, they got JSN done pretty quickly. Next up would be Witherspoon. And if you didn't know, now you know, Witherspoon and Gonzalez, they share the same agency and they share two of the same agents. So this is intricately tied into each other. So you're keeping one eye on the Witherspoon negotiation and how that plays out. And obviously, Gonzalez knows exactly how the Witherspoon negotiation is playing out.

Starting point is 00:16:30 And Witherspoon knows exactly how the Gonzalez negotiation is playing out. But if you look at the cornerback market, if you're wondering, Trent McDuffie obviously was the first domino to fall this off season after being traded from Kansas City to the LA Rams. And McDuffie, he got his extension done pretty quickly, right? Just like that. Total value, $124 million, $31 million a year. The total guarantee was $100 million.

Starting point is 00:16:52 The fully guaranteed money was $50 million. Now, the average annual value is not really what you're looking at because, you know, it's pretty simple to figure out how much the next contract is going to cost average per year, the APY, because Derek Stingley Jr., who, by the way, Houston really messed up the cornerback market because J.C. Horn was making an average of $25 million a year. And before that, Jalen Ramsey was at 24.1. Before that, Patrick Sartan was at 24. So you went from 24, 24, 24.1 to 25. And then Houston paid Derek Stingley, Jr., 30 million dollars per year. they jumped the market significantly, which I'm sure did not make other NFL teams happy.

Starting point is 00:17:37 And when you look at the guaranteed money, man, oh man, I mean, Jalen Ramsey did not get great guaranteed money from the Steelers when you compare him to these other guys. But, you know, J.C. Horn, for example, 70 million was the total guarantee. The fully guaranteed money was 46.7. Derek Stingley Jr. got a lot more total guaranteed money at $89 million, and it was only about a million and a half more fully guaranteed money. Now, interestingly enough, Sauce Gardner got less fully guaranteed money than J.C. Horn or Derek Stingley,

Starting point is 00:18:11 Jr. got in their contracts. But when you look at average per year, Stingley, $30 million, Soss Gardner, 30.1, Trent McDuffie, $31 million. but the Trent McDuffey contract, when you look at the guarantees, pretty significant leap. Total guaranteed money, $100 million compared to Soss Gardner at 85.6 and Stingley at 89. The fully guaranteed money for Trent McDuffie was half of his total guarantee, which is $50 million. Sauce Gardner's guaranteed money was 40.5. Stingley was 48. So you pretty much know for the most part what these contracts are going to look like,

Starting point is 00:18:50 which is why I feel like if the Patriots haggle, if they play tough to get, this thing could blow up in their face. And I don't want that to happen. We talked about the idea of extending Gonzalez early in the off season. You can check it out in the archives. It's way back going back.

Starting point is 00:19:08 I don't know what. A month ago, a month and a half ago, probably a month and a half ago. And I had said, extending Gonzalez to me is a no-brainer. So if you feel if it's a no-brainer, again, you don't have to get it done

Starting point is 00:19:20 today tomorrow next week. But I don't want the Patriots to haggle for every single dime. I don't want this to be a fight to the death because that's when it could backfire. And I want the Patriots to have the reputation of taking care of their own guys. You know, you draft Gonzalez, you develop Gonzalez. He becomes an elite player at a premier position. You sign Gonzalez to a market contract and you take care of him. I think that helps the reputation of the franchise. So I just hope they're not trying to nickel and dime everything. I don't think they are, but who knows?

Starting point is 00:20:00 Don't drag it out just to drag it out. It's a negotiation. I get it. I get both sides of that negotiation. Just don't painfully drag it out because you want to win the negotiation. I hope the Patriots don't do that. He's arguably the biggest man in this draft who plays a position of, need. But he's also one of the biggest question marks. That's next. This is Lockdown Patriots,

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Starting point is 00:22:41 And don't forget to like this podcast if you're watching us on YouTube. The good old thumbs up. Appreciate every single one of you. Caden Proctor, we mentioned him in the first segment. He is presently the 23rd rank. ranked player on the athletics consensus big board. Now, we talked about Cassius Howell on the podcast, and much like Cassius Howell, Daniel Jeremiah's top five most polarizing prospects in this draft coming up,

Starting point is 00:23:12 much like it had Cassius Howell on there, Daniel Jeremiah also ranked Caden Proctor as one of the top five polarizing prospects. The pros, let's look at the good. with Caden Proctor first. He is a gigantic human being. You won't miss him, folks. He walks into a room. You certainly will not miss him.

Starting point is 00:23:34 Even if there's 5,000 people in that room, it'll be very difficult to miss Caden Proctor. He is 6'7, about 355 pounds. His arm length 33 and 3 eighth inches. So he hits the arm length. Check, right? Now, as far as his athleticism, for a man his size, 6-7-355, his unofficial relative athletic score is a 9.28. If you're wondering where that would slot Proctor, it would slot him 111th out of 1,520 tackles that have been graded via RAS since 1987.

Starting point is 00:24:19 So when you look at just the fact he's just on the outside of the top 100 since 1987 with the relative athletic score. And then you think about how big he is at 355 and 6 foot 7. I mean, this is a freak. He's an absolute freak. He had a vertical jump of 32 and a half inches. That's insane. a 355 pound individual with a vertical over 32 inches. Not many of those humans have ever existed.

Starting point is 00:24:59 It's a different kind of cat. He had a nine foot broad jump. Again, if you look at both of those marks, the 32 and a half inch vert, the nine foot broad jump, both of those marks are considered, quote unquote, great within the relative athletic score, grading system. So this is a dude who's just a giant human being who just has some freakish

Starting point is 00:25:23 athleticism and his movement skills are kind of crazy as well. I mean, Alabama would give him the football on offense a couple times, which is, I mean, think about that. I want you to think about an offense putting the football in the hands of somebody who was 355 pounds. And he was very likely heavier than that during the football season. He's cut a little bit of of weight since the end of the year to get ready for the combine in the draft. So we're talking for his size, pretty elite movement skills and athleticism. His PFF grade this past season at Alabama was an 86.1. That's a good overall grade.

Starting point is 00:26:05 I mean, if you're looking at somebody as a prospect, you want to look at, you know, the measurables, you want to look at the athleticism, you want to look at, you know, how obviously he played, how productive that person. person was and you want to look at the conference. And as we all know, Alabama is in the SEC and the SEC is no joke. Now I think the SEC is overrated by many. And the college football playoff helps that point from this past year. But still, it's the SEC. You're still going against a lot of the best college football players in the country. A lot of four star, a lot of five star cats go to the SEC. Not as many go to the ACC if you were wondering. So Caden Proctor, week after week after week,

Starting point is 00:26:46 is facing some of the best of the best. And obviously with that kind of size, he can move guys in the run game. Evan Lazar pointed out recently, I'm not here to break down the technique of offensive line pass protection. But according to Evan Lazar, who does get deep into the weeds with that stuff,

Starting point is 00:27:07 Proctor has a solid anchor, as they say, which means he's got the bottom half that holds firm against the pass rush. that kind of size he has obviously helps. So he can move guys in the run game, solid anchor, huge individual, crazy athleticism, just a freak. So why is Caden Proctor a polarizing prospect? Well, number one, we heard some of this with Will Campbell last year, some trouble with speed.

Starting point is 00:27:37 When Proctor is facing a pass rusher that has speed, he can struggle with that. And of course, as you get ready for the NFL, we know in the NFL, the guys are much faster, their first steps are much better. It's a whole different challenge. So if you see Proctor getting burnt by speed on film, that could lead you to concerns about how he's going to perform at the next level. Proctor also has problems in space. So, you know, when he's trying to, let's say, get to the second level and maybe in space, get that. linebacker, he has some issues in space, doesn't really get his mitts on the guys at all times. The other problem is weight.

Starting point is 00:28:23 Again, big dude. And Mike Giarty recently wrote about Proctor and said that Proctor was pushing 400 pounds last offseason. And so if you draft him at 31, let's say, is he going to stay in shape? There are questions about his motivation. You know, how much he loves the game, how much he wants to play the game, how much he's willing to invest week in, week out. And when you talk about somebody who, you know, has the weight questions, the motivation questions, you sign that big contract when you get to the NFL, sometimes it's even more difficult to keep the weight off. Sometimes it's more difficult to stay motivated because you just got paid.

Starting point is 00:29:10 To me, Kaden Proctor, it's all about the homework. because with his size and his traits playing in the SEC at a position of need, all about the homework. If I feel like the guy's going to keep the weight off, if I feel like he just needs to be coached up when it comes to the motivation, if I believe in a human being

Starting point is 00:29:34 and I believe that I can get work ethic out of him and I don't know him personally. So I can't tell you yes or no on these. But if Mike Vrable, and John Stretch striker, Ryan Cowden, Elliot Wolf, they do the homework, they listen to their scouts, the scouts go deep into this process and say, well, I feel like this guy will get it.

Starting point is 00:29:55 If that checks out, if the homework checks out about the personality, the motivation, the weight, if that checks out, I'm absolutely going to pick Caden Proctor if he's there at 31. Now, of course, that's just in a vacuum. Let me know who else is there. But just looking at Proctor in a vacuum at 31, Yes, the size, the talent, the potential, the movement skills. Because if you hit on that pick, that dude has the potential to be a stud for you for quite a long period of time.

Starting point is 00:30:26 That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen for being an every day. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Also on Blue Sky, Instagram. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. And if you never miss an episode, the Everydayer Club is built for you. Get Lockdown Patriots ad free plus members-only discord access and more.

Starting point is 00:30:49 Hit the lockdownpatriots.supercast.com or check the link in the show notes to learn more. Have a great weekend. And we will see you next time.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Strategy: New England Patriots Drafting a Right Tackle at #31 a Bad Idea?

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