Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Wisdom Wednesday: Fromm, Hurts or Morgan as Patriots QB? - 4/8/2020

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

As the New England Patriots continue to evaluate their options at quarterback for the upcoming 2020 NFL season, there are several draft prospects that seem to be potential fits in Foxboro. Joining host Mike D’Abate today is fan-favorite Thomas Murphy to discuss the Patriots prospectus for drafting James Morgan, Jalen Hurts and Jake Fromm. Mike also offers his opinion on Tom Brady’s appearance and “The Howard Stern Show.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Patriots fans, you are now locked in to the Locked On Patriots Podcast. I'm going to show you how to make a beautiful and beautiful flower. I'm going to use a small flower pot. I'm going to use a small pot Hello to all of you Foxborough faithful. It is Wisdom Wednesday here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast, your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions,

the New England Patriots. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which, of course, is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And, folks, you know that because it's your team every day, that means your questions, your comments, and your feedback always welcomed and appreciated. And you can always share that feedback by reaching out to me

and following me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC. And while you're out there traveling through that Twitterverse, please be sure to give the Lockdown Patriots account a follow as well at LO underscore Patriots. Patriots fans, you heard correctly. Today is Wisdom Wednesday here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast. And here in Patriots Nation, we can definitely use some wisdom, especially when it comes to the quarterback position. As much as I'd like to say we're not, we're all still reeling from the departure of Tom Brady, who incidentally took to the airwaves this morning with the king of all media, and I will get to that in just a moment. But Tom's departure definitely leaves a

void at the quarterback position. Now who's going to fill that? We've discussed this more than a few times here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Jarrett Stidham, Jordan Love, Tua Tungvaloa, or do the Patriots have their eye on a veteran we haven't even considered yet? Well, at present, folks, that Belichickian crystal ball that we love to gaze into seems to indicate that all signs still point to Jarrett Stidham. But recently, there have been rumors about the Patriots trading up to possibly get Tua or maybe waiting until the number 23 pick to snag Jordan Love. But those are not the only options in the draft. There are some pretty good prospects out there that the Patriots might be able to snag in

the middle rounds of the 2020 NFL Draft. And here on the Locked On Patriots podcast, I always do my best to give you all the information you need on some of those prospects. But when it comes to a high profile and important position like quarterback of your New England Patriots, sometimes you need to call in a little bit extra wisdom. Some green wisdom. And folks, you got it. That could mean only one thing.

My good friend Thomas Murphy of DieHardBostonSportsFans.com joins me right here on the hot seat today on Locked On Patriots. And we will discuss the pros and cons of three potential quarterback options for the Patriots in the NFL Draft. James Morgan of Florida International, Jalen Hurts of the University of Oklahoma, and we will bring it home with Jake Fromm of the University of Georgia. And these are all intriguing options, particularly Fromm, whose draft stock has begun to rise when it comes to options for your New England Patriots. But don't let that fool you.

Murph has been on the Jake Fromm bandwagon for quite some time and has made me a believer in the kid. And he's also done a good amount of homework on Morgan as well as Jalen Hurts. And shortly, Murph will help me turn today's episode into Wisdom Wednesday here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. But first, as I alluded to earlier, some of you may have had another listening option for your entertainment today, other than Locked On Patriots, of course, and that was keeping a sharp ear tuned to Sirius XM Satellite Radio at 8am this morning.

Tom Brady took to the airwaves today to be interviewed by none other than the king of all media himself, Howard Stern. And whether your opinion on Stern is good, bad, or indifferent, one thing I think everybody has to give him is he's a tremendous interviewer. He has a way of being able to extract information from people you never thought would open up. And Tom definitely did open up from a personal standpoint. He shared a lot about his youth, his formative days in becoming a young athlete, his marriage, his children. Howard definitely didn't hold back in asking, and I gotta give Tom credit.

He didn't hold back in answering. And while personal details like family and politics were a big part of the show, what I took away from it was what Brady had to say when it came to his relationship with the New England Patriots and head coach Bill Belichick. You knew this was going to be a subject that Howard asked him about, and Brady hit the situation head on. To me, one of the more eye-opening moments of the interview was when Brady said that he went into 2019 thinking it would be his final season with the New England Patriots, which did raise some eyebrows, particularly among the media that tried to make it, I think, a little bit more sinister than it truly was, but Tom insisted that even though for most of the year he believed he

was moving on, his relationship with and respect for Bill Belichick has never changed. When Howard asked Tom point-blank as to whether or not he believed he would have the same success without Belichick, Brady answered him very matter-of-factly, and I'll quote, Tom said, I think it's a pretty blank argument, actually, that people would say that, because again, I can't do his job, he can't do mine. So the fact that you could say, would I be successful without him, the same level of success, I don't believe I would have been,

but I feel the same vice versa as well. To have him allowed me to be the best I can be, so I'm grateful for that. I very much believe that he feels the same way about me because we've expressed that to each other. As a follow-up, Howard again probed Tom, asking him if he had any resentment toward Belichick that he did not make Tom a patriot for life. Again, Tom was very much prepared for that question. He said, quote, No, absolutely not. Because this is a part for me in my life to experience something very different. There are ways for me to grow and evolve in a different way that I haven't had the opportunity to do that aren't right or wrong, but just right for me.

I have never cared about legacy. I could give a blank about that. I never once, when I was in high school, said, Man, I can't wait for what my football legacy looks like. That's just not me. That's not my personality. And Tom went on to conclude the statement by saying it was, quote, just his time to move on to another team. And for those out there, fans and media alike, and believe me, folks,

there are plenty of them that are rubbing their fingertips together, laughing sinisterly, and waiting to find that rift between Brady and Belichick, this type of quote from Tom pours a big proverbial bucket of ice all over that fire. The two sides actually made a decision to move on from each other with the utmost respect for each other. Bottom line, simple as that. No hidden crib text-like messages. Straightforward and to the point.

Tom also went on to praise the New England Patriots by saying that he accomplished everything he could in two decades with an incredible organization, an incredible group of people, and that will never change. No one can ever take that away from him, and no one can ever take those experiences or Super Bowl championships away from anybody that was associated with them. He went on to praise Belichick again by saying that he thinks he has a lot of loyalty. He and I, meaning Belichick and Tom, have had a lot of conversations that nobody has ever been privy to, nor should they be, that so many wrong assumptions were made about our relationship,

about how he felt about me. I know genuinely how he feels about me. And folks, before you think I'm trying to paint the picture that everything was all sunshine and rainbows between these two, far from it. Brady alluded to it as well. He did say, quote, now I'm not going to respond to every rumor or assumption that's made other than what his

responsibility as coach is to get the best player for the team, not only in the short term, but in the long term as well. Ultimately, Tom acknowledged that what he could control is trying to be the best he could be in both of those situations also. He acknowledged that he got into uncharted territory as an athlete because he started to break the mold of what so many other athletes had experienced. He got to the point where he was an older athlete and he was starting to plan for the future. And now he started to also see that Bill Belichick was planning to the future as well. And that's his responsibility as head coach. Brady did not fault him for that and agreed that that's what he should be doing. And folks, when you encapsulate all of what Tom had to say, it's not a huge surprise that Tom ended up making the decision that he made.

And I caution you, there are a lot of misinterpretations, deliberate misinterpretations by the way, that try to convince you that Tom saying that he knew he was going to leave the New England Patriots last year was disingenuous and hypocritical. It was neither. Tom was very clear when he said that he didn't make his final decision until he told Patriots owner Robert Kraft on March 16th. Tom described that face-to-face meeting, which ended with a conference call with Bill Belichick, to be very emotional, going as far as to say the two of them were in tears most of the time. But ultimately, and I think this is the most important takeaway here, folks,

both sides made this decision with the best interest for each of their futures in mind. Tom Brady and the Patriots may have agreed to part ways, but there is still a ton of respect and affection between these two sides, and I truly heard that in Tom's words this morning. I heard no resentment, I heard no snark, and I heard no scorn. Again, folks, I caution you, don't let the snark machine convince you any different. Tom will play in 2020 as he always has, with a chip on his shoulder and to prove something, to himself.

It's not about sticking it to Belichick, it's not about sticking it to the Patriots organization, and it's certainly not about proving to media members, most of which don't have the athletic prowess to clean the aglet on Tom's cleat, that he doesn't have a noodle for an arm or fallen off a cliff. No, as I said yesterday here on Locked On Patriots, it's about Tom proving to himself that he can achieve the goals that he sets for himself. Tom's interview today did nothing to change my opinion on that, but I leave it to you to decide.

If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. I'm sure the replays will be made available. Tom does share some heartwarming information with regard to his family, some funny moments that comes to his high school days, his college days, and his pro days with his teammates. And all in all, if you're a Tom Brady fan, you really get a chance to see a side of Tom that we haven't seen a whole lot of in the last 20 years.

And with that, folks, we move into the present and toward the future as Locked On Patriots now becomes Wisdom Wednesday. And in just a moment, Thomas Murphy will join me here to discuss the future of the Patriots at the quarterback position. Patriots fans, just when I guess today thinks he's out, I pull him back in. And that's because it is Wednesday and his wisdom and counsel is always needed to keep the Lockdown Patriots podcast just a little bit more of a respectable establishment.

He is also pretty knowledgeable on the subject of drafting signal callers, and today we will seek his sage-like insight. He is your favorite and mine, my benefactor in this business. The legendary Thomas Murphy is back here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Thank you for joining me today, Don Murph. Oh, it's a pleasure to be here, Michael. It's a pleasure to be here, man. Thank you so much for asking me back.

One of my favorite subjects. Let's talk a little draft. Let's talk some quarterbacks that the Pats are going to get into. If the Pats are going to get in. Absolutely. I think that's a good point. And I'm glad that you mentioned that as well, my friend,

because it's not a slam dunk that the Patriots are going to dip their toe into the quarterback pool. Maybe not as early as people think they are. But then again, you never know. So, you know, we will discuss a couple of signal callers today and a couple of people that you've had your eye on for a little while. And I don't want to go too far ahead or steal your thunder here, but I'll let you have the floor on that in a minute. Because as again, Murph, today, the topic of the day is quarterbacks. And I don't think we would be doing our job though, quite as accurately as maybe we should, unless we touched upon Tom Brady's interview this morning with Howard Stern on Sirius XM satellite radio. And, you know,

regardless of anybody's opinion on Stern, he is a great interviewer, and no subject was off limits. And I know there were a lot of bits and pieces here and there. I, for one, didn't take away that bombshell shocking moment that I think a lot of people were hoping to take away from this. Yeah, there were some tidbits, some interesting things that I learned, some things that I didn't know, sure, but nothing that I came away saying, wow, that shocked me. I guess the one thing, Murph, that is the hallmark of what Stern's interview was,

was the quote that Brady gave, essentially saying that he saw the handwriting on the wall last year when the Patriots did not pick up his option going into training camp that this could be the final year. And his quote was, I don't think there was a final, final decision until it happened. But I think I knew before last season that this would be my last season in New England. And a lot of people are running with that. Some people are calling Brady hypocritical, which I think is really asinine. But some people are really surprised by that. What is your reaction to that comment specifically? Because it seems to be the big key buzzword that everyone was talking about after Tom's interview concluded. Well, it seemed to me that, you know,

Tom, as you said, didn't see the writing on the wall. There was discussions last year. There were contracts offered. But it just, the length of the deals kind of painted a picture for Tom and let him know that, you know, we're doing this year to year. No matter what you want to do, no matter what you want to accomplish, we aren't going to tie ourselves to a long-term contract with a 43-year-old quarterback. And Tom, it kind of hit home that it was just like, okay, if I want some stability, if I want to be somewhere where I know I'm going to be for the next two, three years, it might not be here.

We'll see what happens during the season. But, you know, at the end, it just seems to me Tom had a lot of time to understand and figure out that the end game wasn't going to be here. Yeah, and that's very similar to the reaction that I had hearing that. And I think that in a lot of ways it may, I don't like the hypocrite comment at all. Yeah. That really,

yeah. I think that really is ridiculous. I really do. And I, that was something that angered me seeing a lot of that on social media. I didn't see that from a lot of our, or I really, I didn't see that from any of our colleagues in the media.

I mean, these are fan reactions. And again, I've said several times here on Locked On Patriots, you're a fan, you have a right to cheer, boo, have your opinions no matter what. That's part of being a fan. You're able to express your opinions. But I think for anyone to really believe that, that it was hypocritical, I think is a disservice to Tom

and the 20 years that he gave you here in New England. Also, I think it's very well or very important to point out that Tom did say that it wasn't a final, final decision until the end of the year, meaning that he hadn't completely made up his mind. And I do believe him when he said that. I think he was looking at the offseason and saying, look, this is one last gasp. He saw a lot of the same. And I think that at that point, he realized this is my opportunity to walk. This is my chance to walk away. This is really my destiny at this point, I think is the best way to put it, to walk away and start a new chapter.

So again, Murph, Ian Glendon joined me here yesterday on Locked On Patriots, and we had a very that is then this is now type of transition. And that's exactly what we're going to do here today, because although we had 20 great years with the greatest quarterback to ever put on shoulder pads, a new quarterback is going to take the reins in Foxborough this year. And Murph, we've spoken about Jared Stidham several times, and there is a ground swelling that he will be the guy. But you and I know better than anyone that we should always expect the unexpected in Foxborough.

And some of the names that are making the rounds around Patriots draft boards lately are three names that I wanted to put to you today. Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma, James Morgan of FIU and Jake Fromm of Georgia. And I consider these quarterbacks to be mid-round options for the Pats. And you've been pretty vocal on your opinions of these signal callers, particularly Fromm. And I want to give this man credit and I'm going to give him the floor to talk about Fromm in just a moment because I want my good buddy to go out on a high note today. But if you don't mind, we'll start with James Morganames morgan and he's been garnering his share of attention lately as a potential target for the new england patriots

now morgan to me is interesting i think he's one of the more appealing developmental quarterbacks in the 2020 nfl draft he has some impressive flashes of spot throws and a willingness to stand in survey under pressure to me that pairs with his prototypical build and a willingness to stand in survey under pressure. To me, that pairs with his prototypical build and a preference to push the ball down the field. Sound familiar? Yeah, I think it does.

It sounds a lot like Tom Brady. And when you take a look at a scouting report, but where this differs and where Morgan kind of comes off the rails for me a little bit, I've noticed that he really has a tendency to eat the ball, take some bad sacks, and he's got a tendency to eat the ball, take some bad sacks, and he's got to quicken his process if he's going to deliver some of the throws that Tom was capable of throwing.

Does that mean that he's going to morph into what Tom Brady was? Probably not. I don't think any of the quarterbacks that we're talking about will morph into what Tom Brady was here in New England, but when you look at Morgan, what is your assessment of his potential fit? And do you see Josh McDaniels being able to develop Morgan into the type of quarterback that the Patriots are going to need? I could I could see it happening. Josh developing this kid into into something. I say kid. He's a he's a redshirt senior. So he's a little bit older than most of the guys that are coming out. There's a lot of juniors coming out. There's a couple of seniors that are in this class that are being talked about, but his maturity is there. His belief in himself is there. He has fantastic pocket

awareness. His arm strength is really good. If he could fix the lower half of his body, which I've gotten into a bunch with a lot of people over the years, quarterbacking starts from the ground up. It's not all about your arm. And he tends to, the longer he holds the ball, the less accurate he is, the less dynamic his throws are because he ends up getting really small on the bottom end of it. But the arm strength is there. His processing of the game, of course, it needs to speed up. We're talking about somebody that's moving from Florida International to the NFL, and it's going to take time to do those things. I like his decision-making. I like how smart he is under center and what he's looking at across the line a lot. He's a project, though. He's somebody that

by no means, no matter, you could pick your time in the NFL, that he would come in and be able to excel as a starter right away. He's definitely a project, but he has the smarts. He knows what he's doing out there. His decision-making is fantastic. He's poised under pressure. I like that. I've seen a lot of good stuff from him in from him in, in picking up, uh, where the blitzes are

coming from his mechanics. When, if you're out there folks and you're like me, um, and you, and you're just trying to soak up everything you can about people, his mechanics are a little unorthodox. Um, he, he, I wouldn't call him an over-the-top pitcher by any way, shape, or form. But no, he's somebody that could come in here with the right quarterback coach to fix a few small things in a year or two. He's somebody that could end up being a good starter in the NFL. Yeah, and I think that's a very good assessment and a pretty good scouting report on Morgan,

and I happen to agree with the vast majority of what you said. Again, I know our listeners are shocked, but really, I think you lend a lot of insight when it comes to that, especially when it comes to his acumen, his football IQ. We hear that term an awful lot when it comes to the New England Patriots and what they love about certain quarterbacks. It may not be the physicality. It may not be some of the limitations that they have and the project style that you described that really draws a quarterback sometimes to a Bill Belichick or a Josh McDaniels. It's their ability to pick things up, decision-making, the ability to process. These are intangibles that are so tough to teach. Can they be taught? Yes. Should they be taught? Well, they have to be,

I think, in a lot of ways. But if they are not taught or they can't be learned, then you're not going to have a success that you need, especially in this type of a system that they run in New England. So, yeah, I think Morgan is intriguing. One of the names that I also think is pretty intriguing and a name that a lot of people have been discussing lately is Jalen Hurts out of Oklahoma, obviously formerly of Alabama. So there is the Nick Saban connection there. And I think a lot of people are gravitating toward that.

I think Hurts is a very accomplished college quarterback. He's a dual threat. And I think that dual threat skill very accomplished college quarterback. He's a dual threat. And I think that dual threat skill set bringing to the table in New England could change the complexity of the offense here in New England that we've seen in quite some time. I think he's pretty advanced as a runner, more so than a passer. And I think considerable growth is going to be needed for him to be a trigger man on an NFL offense. But the one thing that you hear about Hurts a lot is his willingness to absorb that quote unquote wisdom and counsel and learning from guys like Bill Belichick, obviously from Josh

McDaniels, who has worked with the greatest of all time. He's going to need to develop his ability to execute in rhythm at the next level. And I think that a McDaniels-type-led offensive structure is going to help him do that. Do you look at Hurts as a physically gifted quarterback that is more of a project than a quarterback or a prototypical type of pocket passer? Or do you look at him and say,

if he's there in the third round, the Patriots have to draft this kid because the upside is simply too great to turn your back on. Not right now. I would turn my back in the third round. I'm not a huge fan. I'm really not. I think his ball security is suspect. I think he tries to do too much with his feet. I think he looks to run too soon. This is just me, people. This is just what I look for in a quarterback. He puts the ball on the turf way too much, and we all know how Bill feels about that. And I'm not sure at this state if that can really be corrected or not. I just think it's a mindset with him. He's a great mobile quarterback. He can kill you with his legs, so I

understand what people are talking about here. His footwork is decent. I'll give him that. He has some of the best pocket awareness in this draft. The man just feels something coming. It's like spidey sense or something, and he knows to take off. But that could also be going back to what I was saying about he looks to run too soon because sometimes that happens.

I don't like the way he goes through his progressions. He has difficulty on extended plays. He forces too much. He considers himself a gunslinger, and even though he does have the arm strength to be that, I don't think he can be a gunslinger and be successful at the NFL level. I really don't. I'm sorry, folks.

I know a lot of you people are high on him out there. I'm not. No, and I think a lot of people are looking at Hurts and they're seeing the eye-catching type of plays that he's able to make, that ooh-ah factor. And he's got it. There's no question about it. There's a tremendous amount of athleticism.

And I think in the right system, honing in with what he needs he can be a very productive pro i'm glad that you mentioned his progressions i do think those need work there's no question about it i think uh throwing into an nfl route tree is going to require some time for him to develop another thing that really caught my eye about jaylen was his lower body throwing mechanics i think those need to be fixed. That's something that Josh would definitely have to spend a lot of time with him in order to be able to do it. I think that would make him more consistent and more accurate.

And I think those are two things right now that are a knock on Jalen Hurts. I look at the comments made by a good mutual friend of ours, someone who I call the quarterback whisperer, my predecessor here on Locked On Patriots, Mark Schofield. We talked about Jalen a little bit shortly after the senior bowl and going into the combine, and he expressed a lot of the same concerns. So those are definitely out there, and I think that there are some positives and negatives to being able to bring him in. The one thing that leads me to believe that the Patriots might take an extra look at him is the synergy and the connection that they have with Nick Saban and Alabama. It's not a slam dunk, folks, but it is something that I think if he were to, meaning Saban, were to give Belichick his dispensation, so to speak. We're in Holy Week, Murph, so we can use the word dispensation.

If he were to give that to Bill Belichick, I think that might warrant maybe an extra look. So we shall see. But we haven't even scratched the surface yet on a man that Murph identified months and months ago. Dare I say he was one of the first, if not the first, to be beating the drum for a certain quarterback from Georgia. Who am I talking about? We will ask my big green friend that same question when Lockdown Patriots continues in just a moment. Patriots fans, once again, I am back with the legendary Thomas Murphy,

and we've talked about quarterbacks then and now. Dabbled a little bit into what Tom had to say this morning on Stern. Talked a little bit about James Morgan of FIU. We talked a little bit about Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma. But now we're going to get into Jake Fromm. And no, I don't mean Jake from State Farm. I mean Jake Fromm, quarterback of the Georgia Bulldogs and Murph you were one of the first to identify this guy as a potential fit for the Patriots

and because of that I kept a sharp eye on Jake pretty much all season long you look at his college resume three consecutive SEC championship games as the facilitator of that offense. Not an easy task. Jake did it. There was notable growth from 2017 to 2018. You saw a great progression at that point. Jake was progressing as probably one of the lead quarterbacks or maybe the top quarterback when he was going to come out and be drafted. The knock on him, I guess, is that you can say he plateaued a little bit in 2019. The overarching concern, I guess, with Jake is that he has too many limitations physically to warrant a high selection as an NFL starter in this draft. But that being said, his throwing power, limiting plays, throws that he can execute, those might need a little bit of time to develop. But we talked about football IQ a little bit earlier with James Morgan. And that's one thing

that Fromm absolutely scores off the charts on. From your perspective, what caught your eye about Jake early on? And what still leads you to believe that he might be the best fit for the Patriots to draft a quarterback this year in 2020? It's his decision making, his ability to throw somebody open. I really like this trait in this kid. I think it's underrated in him because a lot of people haven't seen all of the film on him. Everybody goes and they look at the LSU film and, and you, you know, it's, it's LSU people. Give me a break. This kid has fantastic decision-making, his progressions. He can work the entire field. He, he just, he has what, what I like to call it. And I've seen it and I've seen it before. And I hope to see it again. This kid has it. And I've seen it, and I've seen it before, and I hope to see it again. This kid has it, and I don't know a better way to describe it.

He sits there, and he looks across the field, across the line of scrimmage, and he recognizes what he's seeing. And that is a very important trait at the next level. I think it's more important and it kind of outweighs the arm strength questions that people have about him. Let's get this out of the way right now, people. This man would not work in the 1970s or the early 1980s as a quarterback in the NFL, just throwing bombs down the field. This is not somebody that would fit into the Eric Correale system of footballing. That's not what he does.

What he does is he identifies what's going to happen across the line of scrimmage before it happens, and he hits the guy that he knows is going to be open. And that's what I like the best about this kid, what he does pre-snap. I think he's poised in the pocket to a certain extent. He's not somebody that handles the blitz as well as somebody that we've seen over the past 20 years. But who the hell does? Nobody. This kid has it, people.

If he is there in three, then yeah, I'm going to take him. Yeah, and I think that a lot of people are coming on to the Jake Fromm train because of that. And again, I want to give you the credit because you've been the conductor and the engineer of that train for a good long while. And you deserve a lot of credit for that. Joe Marino, who's my colleague here at locked on bills.

And also one of the, the draft experts for the draft network.com talked a little bit to me about proms from his progression and his fit potential fit in new England. And you mentioned the arm strength. And I think a lot of people are concerned about that or don't see his ability to progress through there you know there may not be you know he may not he may have a low release point and i think a lot of people are looking at that but he has a quick compact and efficient throwing motion and that's one thing that joe pointed out to me and the more footage and the more film that i'm seeing on that i really really throws like a catcher. Exactly what he's talking about. And that to me is

his way of trying to progress through and trying to maybe overcompensate or I don't want to say negate because you really can't negate that. But that's his way of playing through his arm strength issues. To me, that shows the mark of a smart quarterback knowing your limitations and being able to play through that and still be effective i think that's one of the best things about from and one of the things that's really made me believe that he might be the uh a very good fit in new england um you know it reminds me of i always you know i go back to my movies you know me murph uh tin Cup, the movie with Kevin Costner. And why is his name escaping me from someone?

Don Johnson, Cheech Marin. You know, Ron Shelton was the director of that. He's directed a lot of great sports movies. And one of the knocks on Costner's character, Roy McAvoy, was his inability to play through the winds of West Texas. So what did he do? He shortened his swing a little bit. He didn't follow through on his swing. And that was one of the best and most effective ways to play in the conditions that he plays.

To me, I think that's a good analogy here with Fromm. I think that he's able to, he's a pure pocket passer. But I think in a lot of ways that to me shows that he's aware of what maybe he doesn't do so well and he's trying to compensate for that and what better consigliere than josh mcdaniel's to help him through that there you go this kid believes in himself and he also he doesn't lie to himself he knows who he is and and that is something that's really important uh he doesn't put the ball in jeopardy a lot. He doesn't make stupid mistakes, which is what we here in New England sit back and when I write my keys for games,

there's a lot of quarterbacks out there that you just sit there and you say, well, wait for them to do something stupid. Make them drive the entire length of the field and sooner or later, the guy under center on the other side is going to do something stupid. make them drive the entire length of the field. And sooner or later, this, the guy under center on the other side is going to do something stupid. We all know who those people are. This is not that kid. Okay. He's not going to do something stupid. He's not going to piss you off. He's not going to have you throwing something at your $2,000 flat screen and having the wife run out to get you a new one before the second half starts.

Always, always good. And you definitely want that level head when the keys to the kingdom of a six-time Super Bowl championship franchise is at stake. You want someone that's going to be able to accept that, steer the ship in the right direction, and not make dumb decisions. At the end of the day, Murph, it might be stidham time in Foxborough, but who knows if the Patriots do take a flyer on a quarterback in the mid rounds from could be the guy. And I think you've made a compelling case. I'm becoming a believer as well. So it'll be interesting to see what happens.

And, you know, we're going to have you back at some point before the draft to probably pontificate on this a little bit more as we delve deeper into our draft dive here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Murph, what can I say? You lend your wisdom, your counsel on this Wednesday here like no other. That's why you are familiar here with the Locked On Patriots podcast. I thank you so much for joining me today. Folks, you should already be following him.

I know that you are. But if you're not, please be sure to follow the man on Twitter, at TeamMurph207. The columns, including the monster keys during the season, his draft insight, his preference of mob movies, it's all good. I endorse all of it. You can probably find all of the written great work

that he does on DieHardBostonSportsFans.com, must-reads, and of course, never miss an episode of One Patriot's Place with Murph and our great mutual friend Steve Balistrieri. Thank you so much again, my good man. Honored and humbled, as always, by your presence. Always a pleasure. I just want to throw out one more name, if you don't mind. Please do.

Keep an eye on Cole McDonald, real late. We're talking like six, seven. Cole McDonald. And we have talked about absolutely the Hawaii kid. We have talked about McDonald here. Mark Schofield has sung his praises, as has Alex Barth of NBA Sports Boston. So a lot of good people. Excuse me.

Ninety eight point five. The Sports Hub. I apologize, folks. But a lot of good people, excuse me, 98.5, the sports hub. I apologize folks. But a lot of good people are on the McDonald train and not a lot of people have come off of that intriguing option. And you know, we'll be talking about him a little bit more as we move toward the NFL draft. Thanks so much, Murph. Have a great day. Stay safe and stay well, my good man.

No, thank you for having me. Always, always a pleasure, but I appreciate it. You're too kind. Folks that wraps up our wisdom Wednesday episode here of the Locked On Patriots podcast. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my good friend Thomas Murphy's wisdom and counsel. Murph is always candid and honest in his analysis, and he has such a great eye when evaluating potential quarterback talent. Having him on today to discuss guys like James Morgan, Jalen Hurts, and Jake Fromm was an offer I could not refuse.

And yes, folks, the pun was intended. As for me, I will be back tomorrow to continue to bring you the latest news, notes, and analysis from Foxborough. As always, be sure to join me each and every day here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Subscribe and download to never miss an episode via your preferred podcast providers, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and so many more.

And don't forget that you can always listen to Locked On Patriots on your smart device. How do you do that? Very simple. Simply ask it to play the latest episode of Locked On Patriots. And if you've enjoyed today's podcast, now tell your smart device to play the most recent episode of Draft Dudes. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank Thomas Murphy for his time, his insight, and his appearance today.

But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Stay safe, stay well, and have a great day, everyone.