Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Will The New England Patriots ATTACK The O-Line At The NFL Draft?

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

The New England Patriots have two holes on their offensive line. Will the Patriots get super aggressive and attack those holes early in the NFL Draft?Meanwhile, Patriots fans seem to be warming to the idea of Will Campbell, and how should the team learn from the recent history of offensive line building?Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

The Patriots have an opportunity to correct years of mismanagement at this year's draft. That's where we start on this episode of 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 up, Patriots fans? I'm your host, Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England, your New England Patriots expert, host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Medard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and also a sports talk show host veteran. We'll dig into why Patriots fans seem more open to Will Campbell with the draft getting closer. And we look at a super aggressive draft strategy the Pats could deploy. But first,

it's critical the Patriots learn from their prior draft mistakes. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen. And for being an everydayer, the Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by Fandool. Right now, new customers can get $250 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Years, years of offensive line mismanagement helped lead the Patriots to two bad seasons

in back-to-back years. Back-to-back four-win seasons in 23 and 24, a total of eight wins in the regular season, and you can go back. You can go back to the years of mismanagement on the offensive line as to one of the major reasons why we have seen such bad football the past couple of years. Whether it was Bill Belichick as the head coach or Gerard Mayo was the head coach, it didn't matter. Because that offensive line just was not good enough.

You can go through the Joe Tooney decision, the Shaq Mason decision, and the draft mismanagement, which we will get into a little bit deeper in just a minute. But all of those decisions or lack of decisions made about the offensive line led the Patriots to being one of the worst football teams in the entire NFL. And Mike Rabel, during his introductory press conference, in pretty much everywhere that you could read, thanks to some leaks, leading up to free agency, going past free agency. Now as we get closer to the draft, pretty much everything was being said as far as we have to win in the trenches, building the football team from the inside out.

And now the draft is pivotal. Free agency for all intents and purposes is over and we focus on the draft and what the Patriots can do during this draft to help settle that offensive line to help correct so many years of that mismanagement up front. Pro football focus, Ryan Smith wrote about the offensive lines and building offensive lines right in the NFL and here's what in part Smith wrote, the the offensive lines and building offensive lines right in the NFL. And here's what, in part, Smith wrote. The top offensive lines are built through the draft. When looking at Philadelphia, Detroit, and Tampa Bay's

offensive lines, there is a clear trend among the three teams. They prioritize building through the draft. And he notes, each team, each one of those three teams drafted four of their starters in 2024. Using premium draft capital to do so. Eight first round picks, four second round picks among the 15 starters. While filling one missing piece through free agency, each team had one free agent guard.

We always talk about the NFL being a copycat league and really any professional sports league is a copycat league. You look at what teams are contending and what they do right, what they do wrong. Is there a common theme between multiple contending teams? And the offensive line is a common theme in the NFL. To those contending teams, not only the offensive line talent, but how they got that talent. And I hope, and I'm sure many of you hope that the Patriots, they've been taking notes and they understand it's a copycat league. And if you're going

to be better at football, you need to do more on the offensive line and you need to build through the draft. Look at this Patriots offensive line. Did the Patriots draft Morgan Moses? Nope. Did they draft Garrett Bradbury? Nope. Did they draft Viderian Lowe? Nope. Now of course they drafted Micah Wenu. The only known starter right now, and even Viderian Lowe is not a known starter, but the only known starter that the Patriots drafted for that offensive line is Michael Wenu. And we're talking about a lottery ticket pick for big Mike. So there's a problem there. When you look at these contending teams, when you look at a team like Philadelphia and how

they built that offensive line, the Patriots are antithetical when comparing them to Philadelphia. And here's one note I would also make when we talk about drafting for the offensive line and building it the right way. Don't just draft. Don't just draft late rounds. Don't just throw darts in the sixth round,

seventh round, fifth round, even fourth round, 5th round, even 4th round. If you want to look at contending teams and you want to see what works in the NFL, drafting offensive linemen works and drafting those offensive linemen specifically at premium slots in the draft. Let's get back to Ryan Smith from Pro Football Focus. It's crucial to invest premium picks because the success rate in the later rounds is considerably lower than at other positions, especially early in their careers. Consider this, in the last five years,

68.7% of rookies drafted in rounds one through three played 500 snaps, 68.7%. And when you look at players that were drafted from round four through seven, that number drops from almost 69% to 15.5%. 37.5% of rookies drafted in rounds one through three played 1,000 plus snaps. 37.5%, when you drop it down to the fourth through seventh

rounds, that number is 5.7%. 43.9% of the 66 rookies who played 500 plus snaps graded higher than 65 if they were drafted in rounds one through three. Rounds four through seven, 31 and a half percent. So drafting offensive linemen in premium slots means that they're going to play more snaps and they're going to be more effective during those snaps is the gist of those numbers I just gave you. And you look at the Patriots,

Is the gist of those numbers I just gave you and you look at the Patriots The Patriots have drafted two offensive tackles in rounds one through three Since they drafted Isaiah win in 2018 in the first round Yadmi could just in Caden Wallace those are the only two tackles the Patriots have invested in rounds one through three since 2018. Pro Football Focus writes, there have been 32 tackles drafted in rounds one through three since 2020 that played 500 plus snaps,

18 graded higher than 65, which is 56.2%. When you look at rounds four through seven, there have been eight tackles that have been taken in those rounds or undrafted that played 500 plus snaps, 50% of them graded higher than a 65. Most guys simply can't get on the field early. If you're drafting somebody in the fourth through the seventh round, only eight of those guys since 2020 that have been drafted in those rounds that played 500 plus snaps

graded higher than 65. You got 32 tackles drafted in rounds one through three that played 500 plus snaps. The numbers add up. If you keep drafting offensive linemen in rounds four through seven, expecting them to be starters, expecting them to be foundational pieces, you're fishing in the wrong pond. You've got to go somewhere else. You've got to go to rounds one through three, if you want your best chance of drafting somebody who is going to bring stability.

And there is no more critical time to get this done than right now. Drake May walking into year two, you don't want another year of shoddy protection in front of Drake may You want him to take a step in the right direction in year two you want him to improve show that development? What's going to help him is an offensive line that is worth something Build it right Follow through with all the trench talk from Mike Rable

Build it right invest premium picks in offensive linemen. Something you haven't done in seven years. Time to change. If it ain't working, you got to change it. Back to back four win seasons tells me it ain't working. All right. The past we just discussed is starting to impact fans as psyche as this year's draft draws closer. That's coming up next as we continue on with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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code LOCKDOWNNFL for half off your first year. This is completely unscientific, I warn you. Completely unscientific. I tweeted this out the other day. If you want to follow me at Nick C radio But it seems to me it feels this is a this is a feels thing survive thing It feels to me that more Patriots fans are accepting of Will Campbell being drafted at four Now more than ever Certainly now more than two three weeks ago if I brought up drafting Will Campbell at number four two or three weeks ago I think a lot of Patriots fans would have been disappointed. They would have been some disgusted. But as we get closer to the draft, Will Campbell doesn't seem like the turd in the punch bowl

anymore, so to speak. Now why is that? And when I tweeted that out, I had a lot of people confirm that. Yeah, as the draft gets closer, Nick, I do feel like Will Campbell is a better option than for that I might have realized or wanted him to be going back to three weeks ago, a month ago. But why is that happening? First, I think it's the cold reality that one of hunter or Carter falling to you at number four

Seems less and less likely by the day those dreams of absolute Carter the dreams of Travis hunter falling in your lap They're fading. They're fading away. We talked about it on yesterday's podcast with Carter very unlikely He falls to you the ESPN draft simulator has it at 31% fading away. We talked about it on yesterday's podcast with Carter. Very unlikely he falls to you. The ESPN draft simulator has it at 31%. I think it's even less likely than 31%. The hope of the Carter-Hunter draft pick is fading. A new reality has set in. And that new reality is Will Campbell is going to be sitting there at number four. And really he has as many questions, if not less questions about who he is and what he does, then the other guys who are going to be left there at four.

I think that's sinking in. I think people are realizing that every single one of these players in the top 10, top 12 top, every single one of them has questions, even Hunter and Carter. Now, I think Travis Hunter is the safest pick when you look at ceiling and whether or not he can hit that ceiling, his leadership, his character, his on-field acumen, what he did at Colorado,

playing both sides of the football. But that's the question. How much did that take from him. He's got excellent conditioning and work ethic but eventually. A lot of snaps a lot of football at a high level. We've gone through the car red flags already and you look at these other guys cam ward. Cam Ward, he's ranked on many of these top 100 lists, somewhere between 10 and 15. He's not ranked as the number one guy in this draft, just looking at it from a talent standpoint. There's always questions about quarterbacks getting drafted coming into the league.

Always. Will Campbell, we've gone through it. The arm-length, Mason Graham is the size thing. Tyler Warren, some might say Tyler Warren is a safe guy. He's a clean prospect. He's a clean prospect. He's going to be 23. Has he already hit his ceiling? Now, it could be fine. I'm not saying these guys are all going to fail. And I'm not saying these guys can't work out. There are plenty. There are plenty of players that have questions. There's questions every year about players.

But there's plenty of players that grind through those questions. And we find out that they're legitimate NFL players and that they have that kind of talent. So I'm not saying this draft is a waste. It's not a waste, but when we're talking about top tier talent at the number four pick, the guys that you're looking at, at number four have more questions this year than in prior years, I'll keep it simple. Think about Joe Alt. Joe Alt, no question, no question he was going to be

a top notch tackle in the NFL. There was absolutely zero question about that. That's the type of guy that you could have gotten that for last year if you were looking for offensive line help instead of having to draft your franchise quarterback. There's just so many questions. Jalen Walker, is he a tweener? Tett McMillan, speed, separation, lack thereof.

We can go through everybody. Nick Ashton Genti is a clean prospect. He had over 800 touches last year at Boise State. He's 5'8". You look at positional value. Everybody has questions and I think the more we realize that players in the top 10 of this year's draft have more significant questions than players in the top 10 in prior drafts, the more we realize that, the more people get settled on Will Campbell because, yeah, you know what? He's got the measurement questions. He's got the higher drafts. The more we realize that the more people get settled on Will Campbell because yeah, you know what? He's got the measurement questions. He's got the length

questions, but everything else, he checks all those boxes and a trade is unlikely. The trade I think is the last hope for many Patriots fans. And I would love a trade down a few slots and then draft somebody. I would love that, pick up extra draft capital. But that seems less likely by the day as well. And we'll see how that can change. We talked about it yesterday's podcast. Maybe Derek Carr's injury has changed the math a little bit.

But even as I said yesterday, it's unlikely. We can talk about these possibilities because there are chances they can happen. But it's not like it's a probable scenario to play out. So as we get closer to the draft and we start to realize what the most likely reality is, start looking at Will Campbell and you say to yourself, his questions aren't as bad as the other guy's questions.

There's also just frustration. We talked about it in the first segment just a few moments ago. There's frustration. I'm frustrated. You're frustrated. Everybody's frustrated that the Patriots just have not been able to address the left tackle problem they've had. And it's been a mess. Trent Brown had a good year or two mixed in at some point, but he was up and down towards the end. Isaiah Nguyen was supposed to be the future. He ended up being a guard years down the road. We see what they've been trying to put together over the past couple of off seasons. Drafting Cato Wallace last year, believing he might be able to swing

to the left side, never even really got an opportunity to do that much last year and then got injured. And people are just frustrated. Like, hey, can we just solve this one problem? Can you get a left tackle that matters? Can you get a guy that can play that position, please, for the love that is all holy on earth, can you do that? And really, an above average left tackle is better than a mid to late round dart throw.

So you might not believe that Will Campbell is going to be an elite left tackle. But if you believe that Will Campbell has the ability to be an above average left tackle, and you compare that to the scenario of throwing a dart at somebody like Caden Wallace in this year's draft, you're going to lean towards the above average left tackle. You'd rather take above average play at that spot, then take another swing and another risk. I also believe people just trust Mike Vrabel that he's going to understand what needs to get done. They're going to trust Mike Vrabel that he's going to draft the right guy and that he's

going to draft the left tackle of the future. That's mostly just trust in Vrabel with not much evidence. He did not draft Taylor Luan. He drafted Peter Skowronski and Tennessee quickly moved him to guard. But there is this inherent trust of Mike Vrabel that he's going to do right by this team. He's going to draft the right guy. And even if somebody's not super thrilled with the pick, they're going to put their trust in variable There's another part of this is that if you pass on will Campbell at number four This is very similar to the conversation about Drake May last year in the closer that you get to the draft and the more you Realize that if you don't draft at that position when you have a chance when you have the quote-unquote

Don't draft at that position when you have a chance, when you have the quote unquote bird in hand. If you don't take advantage of that opportunity, even if you think Campbell's going to be just above average, not very good, not great, above average, you have the opportunity to draft him. You have the opportunity to address that problem at four and then move on with your life. Because if you don't get Campbell at four, or even if you draft Armand Membu, but for this conversation, it's Campbell. If you draft Campbell at four, that's what you're rolling with, baby. That's going to be your left tackle for 2025. But at least

you got them. Because if you pass up the tackle at number four, there is no guarantee that your left tackle in 2025 is not going to be a Vendarian loan. Because we could talk about all the other scenarios, but you got to trade back in, you need certain guys to fall to you. And then if you've got guys falling to you, does that mean you should be drafting them and banking on them? Are they less of a sure thing because they fell to 38? And there's just more pundits and analysts and sources talking. And the closer you get to the draft, the more

information that you gather. That's why I don't do mock drafts and tell you who I would pick until the week of the draft, because I'm gathering Intel, I'm gathering info, I'm watching videos, I'm doing all of these things. And the more positive that you read about Will Campbell from personnel, executives, and front office people, and coaches, the majority of the people that I'm reading, that I'm listening to, that I'm watching, they're telling me that Will Campbell can play left tackle. So there's this renewed embrace of Will Campbell being the pick at four. But the Patriots might not stop drafting for the O-line at number four.

We'll look at an aggressive draft scenario next as we continue on with today's episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The NBA playoffs are here. They start this week. Celtics play on Sunday. That's right. And FanDuel is giving new customers an incredible way to get in on the action. Right now, when you join FanDuel and place your first $5 bet, you'll get $250 in bonus

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in this podcast during this draft. It's called the old double dip. Ah, yeah. See, you don't double dip chips. You shouldn't double dip chips. But maybe a double dip in this draft on the offensive line. And not only do you double dip, but you double dip early. Maybe a double dip in the first and second round.

Let's talk about that scenario. Mike Reese at ESPN.com wrote, it would hardly be a surprise if the Patriots double or triple dip. Oh, the old triple dip or triple dip in the draft. Along the offensive line, draft analysts caution that the top starting caliber tackle options will be long gone by 38. It all sets up one of the more compelling draft-based questions for the Patriots. In their quest to support May, how do they best strategize to bolster the offensive line? Rule number one, don't go offensive line crazy due to desperation Just don't as badly as you want to draft two three offensive linemen in the first three or four

Don't draft out of desperation Because if you go offensive line bananas because you're desperate you're gonna mess up Because when you have desperation, you start reaching. And when you reach, you make mistakes. And what this team cannot allow to happen is to make mistakes in this draft. Now maybe one you can write off, but you can't make a mistake in the first two rounds. You have to hit and hit. I don't care if there are two doubles. I'll take two doubles.

Of course, at number four, I would love a triple or a home run. But if you told me that you hit a couple of doubles to start this draft, this particular draft with all the question marks we mentioned last segment, if you tell me you hit a double the first couple picks, I take that. But when you start reaching and you start making those mistakes, that's when regret comes in. And you just don't want to chase the bad money. You don't want to be out of desperation drafting offensive linemen that should not be drafted where you drafted them. And then you get to camp and you realize, well, that's why they should not have been drafted where we drafted them. We had that guy graded as a third round pick but we picked him in the second round

Because we felt the urgency to do something because we had to quote unquote do something If you spend a pick in the second round on an offensive lineman and you reach to do so you're allowing other quality football players to go by the board. And that's not ideal. This draft is deep. This draft is deep in certain positions. This draft is deep at defensive end. You can find a very good edge prospect at 38.

You could find a top three tight end prospect at 38. If you love running back, if you think they need a running back, we know we've talked about it and we know that Mike Raible said it at the owners meetings that they're looking to draft the running back. We know Robert Kraft came out and said they need a speed running back. Certainly seems like they're going to address running back at some point during this draft at 38. You could get the third or fourth best running back on the board in a very deep class. You could do that. You could find different positions. That'll help you. Wide receiver. You could find a wide receiver at 38. Jaylen Knoll is maybe going to be there, likely going to be there. Jayden Higgins is another name that people have brought up. I think Abouka is gone by then. I think Golden is gone by then. Travis Hunter is obviously gone by then. Tett McMillan I think is gone by then. But you look at these other players, maybe you're a big fan of Luther Burden, the

third. So don't reach at 38 because you feel this urgency out of desperation that you've got to draft an offensive lineman. there are going to be quality football players that could fill holes for you and help you for the next five to eight years sitting there at number 38 don't stiff arm those dudes to go to some other cat that you're not totally sold on so don't go the desperation route however if your board tells you left tackle at four and left guard at 38 makes sense, then you absolutely entertain the double dip. I've got no issue with the double dip. If you're drafting two guys that deserve to be drafted where they're being drafted, if

you're not reaching. So let's look at Dane Bruegler from the Athletic. He released his beast last week. And here are his offensive guard rankings. Now we have no idea where these guys are going to be picked, obviously. These are just Dane Bruegler's rankings. But you've got guard number one, Tyler Booker at 24. Then you've got Kelvin Banks at 26 overall.

Now it's interesting, some people think that Banks can be a tackle. Bruegler has him ranked as a guard. If you're wondering, Bruegler has Campbell as a tackle. So you've got Booker at 24, Banks at 26, then you've got everybody's favorite interior offensive lineman since the senior bowl, which is gray's able at number 32. And then you've got Donovan Jackson, interesting prospect from the Ohio state because he played guarded Ohio state at a high level, and then he got switched to left tackle when Josh Simmons had the torn Patel attendant.

So he's interesting because he's played both positions. Jackson is ranked 48th overall. He is the fourth ranked guard, according to Dane Bruegler. The Donovan Jackson versatility is very interesting. It's compelling. It's intriguing. Because if you could draft somebody like that, then you have some versatility. You drafted, say you draft, just hypothetically speaking, don't lose your mind. Say if you draft Will Campbell, and then you draft Donovan Jackson. You got Will Campbell at left tackle,

you've got Jackson at left guard. Now if Campbell in the next two or three years shows himself more as a guard, well, you've got Jackson. And Jackson can take snaps at left tackle during camp. He can take snaps at left tackle through his first year or two, because he played that at college when Simmons went down. And so now you have that versatility between both Campbell and Jackson. So you just got to hope that one of those guys ends up being an above average left tackle and the other guy ends up being a really good guard.

Then the left side of your offensive line is settled for the next decade. Not too shabby. So if your board tells you that it's reasonable to draft tackle guard at four and 38 respectively, then by all means go online, go online and get rid of the problems that this football team has had up front for the number of years it's had them. Enough is enough. Now I don't think the Patriots would deal significant capital to move up into the first round or draft the guard.

I don't see that happening because you could argue if you set a left tackle, I've said this multiple times, whether it's on the everything paths podcast I do on YouTube Monday Wednesday and Fridays or it's on this podcast Monday through Friday. I've said this plenty of times You might be okay, I Don't think it's Crazy to believe that you could be okay walking into camp if you set a left tackle. I don't think it's nuts to believe you could be okay with one of the three guys that are on the roster right now that have a shot at left guard. I don't think it's crazy to believe that one of those three guys

could be good enough to allow you to play good football in 2025 without over indulging on the online because you went nuts and moved up to draft a guard when you've got city so laden Robinson and Cole strange. I do think those guys give you some insurance questions about pretty much all of them. But I don't think it's a desperate situation. Alright, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots tomorrow on the show. More draft talk for sure. Let me know your thoughts on today's topics. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio and don't forget to throw a comment in on the

YouTube channel. Thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the Lockdown NFL Draft with Damian Parson and Keith Sanchez. Get the latest draft rankings, rumors, and news every single day. Find Locked On NFL Draft on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.