Scott Zolak Explains Newfound Epiphany on Patriots Draft Strategy
On Monday’s edition of Zolak & Bertrand, Scott Zolak explains his newfound epiphany for the Patriots draft after watching yesterday’s conference championship games in the NFL.
Playmakers Advance Teams…
Zolak: Just that the playmakers in both games, and more so in the San Francisco game because of the receivers and the receivers on the other end for Detroit, I know they had their drops in the second half of that game and I thought they got tight. You need a playmaker. You need playmakers. Playmakers advance teams. That’s the bottom line here. Kelce’s a playmaker. I’d classify him as a receiver, but you’re not getting that type of guy at three. I’m taking Harrison at three. I’m taking Harrison at three, and you figure out quarterback at some point. And I know,” who’s going to get ready for the who’s going to throw to him.” Yeah no kidding. I get it. I watch quarterback play here for the last 24 years. I’ve seen good and I’ve seen bad. Yeah you are right, and that is a point. But if you don’t have playmakers, I don’t know good quarterback you are. Like those throws Mahomes made to Kelce were unreal. His ability to get open all the time, I don’t know what the hell teams are looking at. He gets free releases. They play zone. If you play zone against him you’re going to get crushed. 49ers got to go man in this game. You can’t let him sit there and pick you apart in zone. He’ll find spots and Mahomes will wait on him and make some sort of out of world play in the backfield to get the bottom one. But you look at the pressure and the speed that Detroit came out with and what they did this year, you know when they drafted the Williams kid with the knee injury from Alabama, they sat there and they waited on him. And now it’s all coming through for him.
I know not everybody wants to take him at three. I understand that. But you have the opportunity to get the best wide receiver in the draft, maybe the best wide receiver in the last 3 to 4 years. It’s plug and play, and instantaneously he’s going to make your offense a little bit better. You know the quarterback won’t labor as much. You know these quarterbacks these last 2 or 3 years had to labor. Every hole was smaller. You look at some of these big play capabilities of these other teams. These guys are catching it and running with it. Our guys would catch and go down. Catch and go down. Where are your game breakers? Game breakers elevate these teams that are playing divisional round. You look at Buffalo, they got game breakers. I know Gabe Davis was out a week ago. But you put him with Diggs and the other guys like there two tight ends. They all can play. We need playmakers on the outside on the perimeter. I think it’s a crapshoot second round. We’ve seen it here. They have a difficult time drafting receivers or evaluating them. And I know they like Debo when he came out . I know they liked AJ Brown, and Bill (Belichick) ultimately took the massive miss. But man you got that guy sitting there at three. I’m not so sure the other two guys that play quarterback are sure things. I don’t know if Caleb Williams is a sure thing. It’s only going to get worse up to draft time when the workouts start, when the private meetings start, the the trips and the visits. Then we’re going to sit there and dissect it all the way up until the end of March.
Listen to the full segment here!