Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Tape Wednesday: Ryan Davis and Nick Brossette - Locked On Patriots May 15, 2019

Episode Date: May 15, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a Wednesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast, your favorite daily Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Wednesday, May 15th, 2019. Almost halfway through the month, we are getting close to Memorial Day, the unofficial official start of summer. I know most of you are probably excited about that. Some of you that might be listening from elsewhere outside the United States may be not as excited for Memorial Day here in the States, but I get it. But of course, the shows will roll on. As I indicated a couple of days ago, I'm going to be doing a revisit walkthrough of

the Patriots 2018-2019 season. And then a little bit later this summer, we'll be doing sort of a Patriots glossary A to Z on the New England Patriots. Going to be toying with the format on both of those series that we're going to be running throughout the summer. So excited about those. Also excited about today's show. We are getting back to the film looks at the new acquisitions by the New England Patriots. Today we're going to talk Ryan Davis, the wide receiver, the slot wide receiver from Auburn, and Nick Brossette, the running back from LSU. And I've got to say, having watched both of these guys, I'm pretty excited about today's show. Because I think there are some things that these guys bring to the table that I think could work for the New England Patriots in the year ahead.

Obviously, with Brossette at least, it's a crowded running back room that he's going to be walking into. You look at the fact that right now the New England Patriots obviously have Sonny Michel. They draft Damian Harris, Rex Burkett, Brandon Bolden, James Devlin, James White. Now that's a crowded running back room. And so you do sort of wonder about how he could fit in, but I think there is a role for him. And I've got an incredible comp for him from the great Matt Waldman. I'll mention that a little bit later. But before we do anything, your usual reminder to please follow me

on the Twitter machine at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and yes, that trio of SB Nation websites included Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. Now, before we dive in, throwing it out there, I have yet to take any questions on the Patriots draft or anything else since the draft went down. So tomorrow's show, Thursday, is going to be a Timeline Takes episode where I would love to get questions from you. So tomorrow's show, Thursday, is going to be a Timeline Takes episode where I would love to get questions from you. So please do hit me up with questions at Mark Schofield on the Twitter

machine, mark.schofield, that insidethepylon.com via the email machine, Lockdown Patriots Slack channel. You crazy, crazy kids out there that are members of that, please send us some questions via the Slack channel as well. Let's start with Ryan Davis. Undersized, smaller wide receiver. You look at him and you're probably thinking, it doesn't really have sort of the NFL frame, right? You look at Ryan Davis, you know, comes in a guy that's, like I said, undersized, 5'10", 189, 30 and 7 eighths inch arms, nine and a quarter inch hands. Probably not the ideal outside boundary type frame. But what's interesting is you can see the traits that might translate to the National Football League. At least initially, perhaps as a return guy, and then a little bit

later as a guy that could be a slot receiver. I watched a couple of his games, Georgia, Mississippi State, and what was the other game I watched? LSU. When you think about acquisitions that the Patriots have made, and we've kind of touched on this throughout this postseason, throughout this post-draft process, you think of what guys can do and how they might sort of fit in with the Patriots and perhaps how they might sort of replace players that were lost. And I think Davis might be looked at as a potential Patterson replacement. Here are the ways that Auburn used him. In the slot,

on the boundary, a lot of jet sweep type stuff, a lot of bubble routes, bubble screens, a lot of tunnel screens. They used him on sweeps, like I said. They tried to get him the ball in space. He was a space-type player for them. And I think if he's going to contribute offensively for New England anytime, whether it's next year, the year after, down the road, that might be his quickest path to becoming a member of this offense, to get it into the huddle, is as sort of a space gadget weapon type player. His route tree at Auburn, not that diverse. A lot of hitch routes. I mean, he was hitches and comebacks and curls. That was his primary focus. Some slants, some out routes, and that's pretty much it. He did have one fantastic route. I'm trying to find that right now. It was a wheel route against Mississippi State. This was fantastic. He flashed

the ability to sort of go up, get the ball, stack a defensive back because he's running an out and up a wheel from the slot. And he does a great job of sort of getting that defensive back on his back, stacking him is the phrase we use to describe that. And making a catch over the shoulder. Tracking the ball over the shoulder. So he gave you a glimpse of what he could be as a vertical receiver on that play. But they didn't use him a ton on it. Didn't see a ton of him operating against the press.

Again, he was in the slot a ton. They used him in motion a ton. They used him in stack slots a ton. So I didn't get a chance to really sort of evaluate him in the games that I watched against press. A lot of reps versus off coverage. Secondary releases were big for him because he's sort of getting that, you know, what are you going to do against a guy six, seven, eight yards downfield? Now, in terms of separation, does get some separation on a variety of his routes. He shows quickness that pressures defenders when he gets on their toes. He can sell them on verticals and then sort of break back down the stem. So he has that that he brings to the table, which I was a fan of seeing. He showed you the ability to get some separation on cuts,

on out routes, using a bit of a dead leg. Brad Kelly in his write-up over at the Draft Network described it as a dead leg move where you sort of drag that back foot to get a quick cut. Had some separation on routes like that, on out routes, which I was pleased to see. He's a willing blocker. Will put in the effort. He's happy to block on screens. He's happy to block downfield on the run game. A bit of a body catcher. Didn't see a ton with his hands extended, partly because maybe it was a function of the routes that he was running. Quicker routes, routes near the line of scrimmage, the ball gets on you faster. You don't always get a chance to extend the hands. There was one route, it was a slant route against Georgia. High throw. He goes

to extend the hands. Can't make the catch. So that was something I did note there. As a ball carrier, decent change of direction can make that transition from receiver to runner in the blink of an eye. Does a very good job there. One thing I did note, looked a little bit off in scramble drill situations. When he runs his initial route and it's covered, he needs to do a better job at finding space. That's also an issue with him against zone coverage. He needs to have a better feel, develop a better feel for those holes, times to sit down versus zone, or whether to run away from man coverage. So I'd like to see him do a bit of a better job

in those moments to help his quarterback out. But I love his sort of ability in that transition from receiver to runner moment. Tunnel screens, bubble screens, things like that. He can become a runner quickly and get you some yardage upfield. And with that change of direction ability, he's got some yak potential to him which is always good to see now another area i'd like to see him clean up working back to the football you know they opened against lsu with that switch carl concept stidham threw a pick on a throw to him and stidham's ball placement was off but he could do a better job working back towards his quarterback back down the stem to help his quarterback out and prevent the chance of the interception. In this case, he doesn't do that and the ball gets picked.

So we'll need to do a better job sort of getting back down the stem, attacking the football and preventing the defensive back from being in a position to make an interception. But in all, for an undrafted free agent, I think there's some nice things that he does. I view him, like I said, as a Patterson-type guy, a Patterson-type replacement, gadget-type guy that can contribute in that way early as he sort of develops the rest of the route tree. I'd love to see that from him. And if he does do that and contribute on special teams as a return-type guy with some of his vertical speed that we saw at least on that wheel route against Mississippi State there might be a role for him

and we don't know what we're going to get from the rest of this wide receiver group it's an interesting bunch to say the least I mean we don't know what we're going to get from Braxton Berrios as much as I liked him last year, a Jacoby Myers, a Maurice Harris. What are we going to get from Demarius Thomas, Dondrell Inman? So there's a potential here, if he can sort of contribute on special teams, that he might make some noise come training camp time. So fascinating player to watch. Enjoyed breaking down his film. Up next though, Nick Brissett. I am really excited about him. Again, crowded room. Don't know what they're doing with all these players. But from talking to some people, I'm going to have some thoughts on him

from a couple of other people as well as an incredible comp from the one and only Matt Waldman. You might be excited about him too. That's next on this Wednesday installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Wednesday installment of the Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Wednesday installment

of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And as I mentioned earlier in the show, tomorrow's going to be a Timeline Takes Thursday episode of the Locked on Patriots podcast. And I'd love to hear from you. It's been a while since I've taken questions on this show. We haven't talked about draft stuff. We haven't talked about draft stuff for New England,

let alone the rest of the teams. So if you've got some questions you'd like answered, if you've got some stuff on your mind, please do reach out. Again, at Mark Schofield on the old Twitter machine, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. If you want to do it email style, or for those of you that are members

of the one and only Locked On Patriots Slack channel, again, you can hit me up there. If you'd like an one and only Locked on Patriots Slack channel, again, you can hit me up there. If you'd like an invite to the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, at Mark Schofield on Twitter or mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com for the invite. Also, I did want to mention, I saw a story that according to a survey, a Boston accent was voted the second sexiest accent in the United States. Now, listeners to the show can probably pick up the old Boston accent in me still. Despite having moved away from the Boston area itself in 1995, I still have it. And I've joked at times that this podcast is just one of the many ways That I flaunt my flagrant Boston accent

From time to time I gotta say I don't exactly agree with that one But I mean I mean it's science right It's a survey Scientific polling

So you can't argue with that So For the Boston people that were surveyed in that poll i i thank you makes me feel a little bit better about what i do here every day on this show and for those of you that have trouble understanding me again i do apologize i've told the story before about seeing goodwill hunting down in el paso texas that was a fascinating night being the only person in the theater that could understand that was going on. Nick Brossette, though. Interesting segue there, but Nick Brossette. I giggled multiple times watching this kid's team, like full-on chortling. And again, go to my Twitter timeline, at Mark Schofield,

you'll see two of the plays that made me giggle. And when I tweeted those out, Jeff Risden, who writes for a bunch of different places, he covers the Lions for LionsWire. He covers the Browns for BrownsWire. He writes over at RealGM.com. He's one of my good friends in the business. Just a fantastic, fantastic guy. He and I are like the dads of football Twitter. I think he's a couple of months older than me, maybe a little bit older than me,

but just a genuinely good guy. And he told me that, look, seeing him down at the Shrine Game, he's a fun, fun guy to watch. Fantastic week down at the Shrine Game. And then Matt Waldman chimed in. And he had a comp for me for Nick Brissett. And I'm not a comp guy. I'm not good at it. Partly because I focus so much on quarterbacks and quarterbacks are odd to comp anyway. But he had a comp for me that blew my mind. And I'm going to share that with you in a moment. But first, what stood out to me watching Nick Brissett? I watched his game, his game against Georgia, his game against Florida, and his game against Miami. Now, as a runner of the football, I love the way he finds creases. I love the way he runs through smoke.

I love the way he gets skinny through holes. Whether it's gap and power stuff, whether it's zone stuff, he will find creases and exploit them. Not a huge home run hitter type guy, doesn't have a ton of speed or explosiveness to him. He's going to get what's there. I didn't see him create a ton, but he's going to create in terms of finding creases, finding holes, and using his vision to identify opportunities for him. If he gets pressured, if he's forced to cut or bounce or move or change direction in the back field, that might stop some plays before they can get going. But he's going to get what's blocked. And if he's got an opportunity to run behind a good offensive line, that's not a bad thing. As a receiver, again, didn't use him a ton as a receiver.

He had, I think, maybe 14 catches for 78 yards. He can do stuff on swings. You can see stuff on outs and things like that. But that wasn't his primary role. But he was on the field for third downs. He was on the field on passing downs. You know why? His ability to block in pass protection is some of the best I've seen from a college draft prospect

in a while. The two clips that I put out of him were of him executing cut blocks. One was getting the defensive end to the ground. One was getting a blitz and linebacker to the ground. On the second one, the blitz and linebacker, he loops around to the right side, scan in the field, sees him come and gets him to the ground, gives his quarterback the edge who scrambles for a first down on that play. He is an absolutely incredible blocker in pass protection. Willing cut blocks, quick concepts. He will attack defensive ends. He's not passive. You hear that phrase from offensive line Twitter a lot. Pass blocking is not passive. You have to go attack your man. And if he has an assignment, it's a quick game, and he's going to get that defensive end to the ground, he will go, he will attack,

he will get that player to the ground. They used him in a lot of divide concepts. One of the things that LSU seems to like to do on third downs, they would put him and Forster Moreau, their tight end, in a divide concept. Borrow the quarterback between them and the shotgun. And they would task him with handling blitzers, picking up guys in pass protection. He does a tremendous job of that. He will find work. If he doesn't have somebody to handle, he's going to go find somebody to hit. He's going to get him to the ground. Very willing blocker in pass protection.

They trusted him as the primary protector, the personal protector on designed rollouts. They would put him in the gun next to Burrow. Burrow would roll right. He'd be the lead guy to sort of get him to the gun next to Burrow. Burrow would roll right. He'd be the lead guy to sort of get him to the edge, get him space, take on anybody in the open field. They're more than willing to do it. His ability to cut block is just tremendous. There are some other things I noticed as a runner. You know, he has, again, the vision to find cutback lanes as well.

Second level cutback behind blockers. Does a really good job to identify and utilize blockers down in the open field. Showed you some strength. He had a run down near the goal line against Miami where he showed you some leg drive. Similar against Georgia. Got some push and leg drive when he took on a guy one-on-one in the hole. Some leg drive to get down near the goal line. I did notice he has a bit of an angled stance.

His left foot is staggered behind his right foot every time he aligns, whether it's a single back deep behind the quarterback who's under center or either in the shotgun. But he never changes it. It's always left foot staggered behind right. So he doesn't give anything away. He doesn't telegraph or give any tells or anything like that. And so in that sense, it's fine. You can live with it. Like I said, he's got to get north himself. If he's sort of strung out, he might struggle. If he has to cut in the backfield, he might struggle. But again, my favorite thing about him was blocking. His ability to block, his willingness to block,

his ability as a cut blocker to get guys to the ground. Now, I told you that I had a comp from the one and only Matt Waldman, who, you know, if Wisden and I are sort of the dads of football Twitter, Waldman might be the grandfather. You know, he's been doing this for a long time. He's seen everybody. He knows everything. Just a brilliant, brilliant guy.

His comp for Nick Brissett, Brandon Bolden. Called him Brandon Bolden 2.0. And I thought that was just perfect. That's him. That's Brandon Bolden, right? Because where does Brandon Bolden do? Tremendous blocker. And you might get some extra bonus stuff from him as a receiver, as a running back, but they trust him to block for Tom Brady. So in terms of looking at players to replace other guys, if Brandon Bolden's return to New England does not pan out, you've got Brandon Bolden 2.0 right behind him, Nick Brissett. So I thought that was a fantastic comp for Matt. And once he said it, I completely see it. I think it's brilliant. So that's Nick Brissett.

That's Ryan Davis. That's it for today. I will be back tomorrow. Again, timeline takes Thursday. Please get some questions in. You know, help me help you. Help me help you. I'd love to hear from you again.

Mark Schofield on the Twitter machine. Mark Dart Schofield at InsideThePylon.com I will be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patreons.