OT Conor McDermott - 6th rd pick

guess we should do justice to 4th Pats pick as well. They obviously liked him quite a bit:

“We’re looking up at the board and saying how many of those players would we actually pick?,” Caserio said after the draft. “Well, if we’re not going to pick them or we think we can get them after the draft, well let’s just make sure we get a player that we actually like.”

Didn't do much research on him so hopefully somebody will jump in.

Here's a short intro from Patspropaganda:
Patriots Draft OT Conor McDermott

An article on Patspulpit:
Introducing Patriots OT Conor McDermott: A ball of clay built like Nate Solder

And a nugget from Reiss:
A reminder of the longevity of Belichick’s coaching tenure in New England: His first draft pick as Patriots coach, 2000 second-round offensive tackle Adrian Klemm, was 2017 sixth-round draft choice Conor McDermott's offensive line coach the past four seasons at UCLA.

Some more ties to connect the dots on this years draft:
“We were on the same team and practiced together every day, watched film together in meetings,” McDermott said about Garcia. “He's just a great guy. I'm happy for him and excited to work together.”

“I have watched Nate Solder,” McDermott said. “I've studied a lot of tackles and I’ve been a fan of his for a while, even when I was a skinny tight end being told I’d be a tackle one day. When I was first in high school I didn’t believe it, but he’s a great player and I look forward to meeting him.”

Note that some are projecting him as better fit at RT. As former TE he can assume similar role to Fleming as situational #3OT/TE (not suggesting any moves w Fleming).


Bottom line:
Legendary Patriots' offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia is the type of coach that develops late-round guys with McDermott's natural mobility and turns them into contributors, if not starters down the line. --Mark Dulgerian

Quite a few draft reports projecting him to RT .. like this one from PFW:

Has to be on the right side, as he lacks the quicks and agility to play on the left side.

Conor McDermott, OT, UCLA | 2017 NFL Draft | Pro Football Weekly

Good stuff as always, long distance. How does he compare to Rich, in your opinion?

FoxboroFlyer said:

Good stuff as always, long distance. How does he compare to Rich, in your opinion?

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Unfortunately fell in love with safeties and lost time to look at tackles. But there were some fans of both on our Draft board so I do hope they jump in..

Seems like nobody likes to scout these guys (hard to find good breakdowns). Or even pick this year. Hard to understand with so many seasons wasted on account of suspect/injury bugged O-lines.

Pats (with painful 2015 season to remind them if necessary) brought in 4 OTs. It may be about Solder or Fleming (2018 UFAs) or it may be about maximising on Dante's work while he is still around. If he can produce 2-3 NFL tackles out of this class - Pats will get even richer the way tackle FA is standing..

You can't spell Super Bowl without Connor McDonald

TennisBallHead said:

You can't spell Super Bowl without Connor McDonald

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Um, okay....that's like saying you can't spell Super Bowl without this....

Last year, I thought that McDermott would be a top ten pick. He has a really smooth kick step, and he just glides around the edge. The movement skills are obvious. He had a rough start to the year against Myles Garrett, but it wasn't as bad as experts made it out to be. Sure, Garrett had several clear wins, but so did McDermott. He generally played well for the rest of the year, but that single game left a big negative mark on his otherwise solid resume. He's an absolute steal in the 6th.

Interesting to read that some scout didn't think he had the quicks to be a LT. I've heard the opposite. He DOES have the quicks and athleticism to be an excellent LT. What he DOESN'T have is the functional strength to play the position. Clearly the Pats have time to see if he can improve that strength and power. He has the frame and athletic ability for it to happen, BUT it isn't going to happen for at least a year. He will play NO factor this season.....if he even makes the team.

I still wonder why the rush to grab 2 OT's. Solder won't even be 3o until NEXT season. Cannon is just coming into his own and has been extended. Do the Pats think Solder's going to want to rush into FA after this season? Is his son's illness making him think about retirement? Resigning him to a reseaonable contract for a player ofhis stature shouldn't be that difficult. They've already had one successful negotiation. Drafting 2 guys makes me curious

Very athletic like solder being 6'8. Interesting to see if he makes the team. Need the depth though.

patfanken said:

Interesting to read that some scout didn't think he had the quicks to be a LT. I've heard the opposite. He DOES have the quicks and athleticism to be an excellent LT. What he DOESN'T have is the functional strength to play the position. Clearly the Pats have time to see if he can improve that strength and power. He has the frame and athletic ability for it to happen, BUT it isn't going to happen for at least a year. He will play NO factor this season.....if he even makes the team.

I still wonder why the rush to grab 2 OT's. Solder won't even be 3o until NEXT season. Cannon is just coming into his own and has been extended. Do the Pats think Solder's going to want to rush into FA after this season? Is his son's illness making him think about retirement? Resigning him to a reseaonable contract for a player ofhis stature shouldn't be that difficult. They've already had one successful negotiation. Drafting 2 guys makes me curious

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I would like to keep solder but it does make you wonder.

long distance said:

Quite a few draft reports projecting him to RT .. like this one from PFW:

Has to be on the right side, as he lacks the quicks and agility to play on the left side.

Conor McDermott, OT, UCLA | 2017 NFL Draft | Pro Football Weekly

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Huh, that's a different take from most of what I've seen. FWIW, my impression from reading and bits of video...McDermott has good feet and is tremendously athletic, a basketball player (Tennessee's "Mr. Basketball" in high school) turned tight end turned tackle:



His challenge is that he's long and lean with no "bubble," can't anchor and struggles against a bull rush. I suspect teams that run a pure power blocking scheme took him off their boards.

This isn't really fair to McDermott or Garcia but when we talk about guys being raw or not ready, some of you probably remember that Solder was considered raw and not ready too. It's not fair as Solder was a #1 pick (and I'm not saying McDermott and Garcia are similar quality prospects) so I shouldn't really compare them but Solder was supposed to get a "redshirt" year. It just so happened that Vollmer got hurt so he started all year but with Light at LT and Vollmer at RT, Solder wasn't expected to play.

patfanken said:

Interesting to read that some scout didn't think he had the quicks to be a LT. I've heard the opposite. He DOES have the quicks and athleticism to be an excellent LT. What he DOESN'T have is the functional strength to play the position. Clearly the Pats have time to see if he can improve that strength and power. He has the frame and athletic ability for it to happen, BUT it isn't going to happen for at least a year. He will play NO factor this season.....if he even makes the team.

I still wonder why the rush to grab 2 OT's. Solder won't even be 3o until NEXT season. Cannon is just coming into his own and has been extended. Do the Pats think Solder's going to want to rush into FA after this season? Is his son's illness making him think about retirement? Resigning him to a reseaonable contract for a player ofhis stature shouldn't be that difficult. They've already had one successful negotiation. Drafting 2 guys makes me curious

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Its actually 4 OTs and the “rush“ seems quite obvious: all Solder, Fleming and Waddle are set to become FAs next year (while Vollmer is gone) . and the OT market as you could see is crazy. Waddle might be gone before September (850.00 savings / 275.000 dead cap) with Garcia a lock. Fleming's 1.8M contract is not guaranteed until week 1 although Id be surprised if he's gone (even on a trade).

Solder will be asking for 10M+ money (11M cap hit this year) and its in the contract that they cannot use FT). There are even hints he might retire.. I like him, but he never came back to the pre-injury form and certainly not to 10M+ player. I think Fleming was better graded against Arizona than Solder in most games. He had a solid season but I wonder how they see it going forward. He suffered in SBLI . look no further then almost costing Pats a game in this last 2- point conversion (that could be an accident of course but it was not the only time it happened):



As mentioned before it might be Dante's last year being fully engaged so they'd probably like to maximise the opportunity..

PatriotsPimp136 said:

I would like to keep solder but it does make you wonder.

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Depth at tackle is certainly nice to have. Especially how they like to throw in an extra tackle like they do with Flemming and did with Solder his rookie year.

patfanken said:

Interesting to read that some scout didn't think he had the quicks to be a LT. I've heard the opposite. He DOES have the quicks and athleticism to be an excellent LT. What he DOESN'T have is the functional strength to play the position. Clearly the Pats have time to see if he can improve that strength and power. He has the frame and athletic ability for it to happen, BUT it isn't going to happen for at least a year. He will play NO factor this season.....if he even makes the team.

I still wonder why the rush to grab 2 OT's. Solder won't even be 3o until NEXT season. Cannon is just coming into his own and has been extended. Do the Pats think Solder's going to want to rush into FA after this season? Is his son's illness making him think about retirement? Resigning him to a reseaonable contract for a player ofhis stature shouldn't be that difficult. They've already had one successful negotiation. Drafting 2 guys makes me curious

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It could be as much about the guys behind them.

@long distance: you can't use a clear false start to make that point.

patchick said:

Huh, that's a different take from most of what I've seen. FWIW, my impression from reading and bits of video...McDermott has good feet and is tremendously athletic, a basketball player (Tennessee's "Mr. Basketball" in high school) turned tight end turned tackle:

His challenge is that he's long and lean with no "bubble," can't anchor and struggles against a bull rush. I suspect teams that run a pure power blocking scheme took him off their boards.

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I know. But i saw it today on three or so reports. There are not many and not really breakdowns. Plus its also academic esp. at this point. Dante can make them what they need and there's plenty of time (hopefully) for them to develop. When they decide who they keep then they'll decide on position Id guess like they did this year. Whatever happens with Dante after 2017 I believe they will follow his guidelines - and one key was deciding on positions before TC and then coach and glue the same 5 guys without changing positions during the season.

Lombardi claims that there is no significant difference between LT and RT anymore the way the game is developing and he sees Cannon possibly moving at LT.


Here a nice article Conor:
Conor McDermott Following His Brother’s Footsteps to the NFL 

quote:
Conor worked at left tackle and right tackle in the first practice of the week but played left tackle for most of the week and the game.

“I’ve played left tackle the past three years, so right tackle was a little rusty, especially in the 1-on-1s,” Conor offered in a personal assessment after his first Senior Bowl practice, “but I know I can play right tackle, just need a little extra work on it, and I also want to show my versatility and not be set on one position.”

Any thoughts on max rich from harvard? Very impressive combine numbers. I know the pats picked him up as an undrafted FA

ctpatsfan77 said:

@long distance: you can't use a clear false start to make that point.

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agreed. but it was a pattern. (sorry, i have only Dola's successful clips in stock..)


thankfully TB is still faster than lightning


EDIT: its more and more about speed on DL so no wonder they went for Garcia.

BTW - look at the reaction time of Cannon and Solder here..

patfanken said:

Interesting to read that some scout didn't think he had the quicks to be a LT. I've heard the opposite. He DOES have the quicks and athleticism to be an excellent LT. What he DOESN'T have is the functional strength to play the position. Clearly the Pats have time to see if he can improve that strength and power. He has the frame and athletic ability for it to happen, BUT it isn't going to happen for at least a year. He will play NO factor this season.....if he even makes the team.

I still wonder why the rush to grab 2 OT's. Solder won't even be 3o until NEXT season. Cannon is just coming into his own and has been extended. Do the Pats think Solder's going to want to rush into FA after this season? Is his son's illness making him think about retirement? Resigning him to a reseaonable contract for a player ofhis stature shouldn't be that difficult. They've already had one successful negotiation. Drafting 2 guys makes me curious

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Well there doesn't seem to be much out there in the reserve OT market.

We didn't need to call on Waddle, so who knows how he could perform, but picking two OTs out of only four picks is hardly a vote of confidence.

Luckily for the Pats, Solder and Cannon stayed healthy last year so we didn't need to find out.