Former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joins Bill Simmons to talk Belichick, Garoppolo, Dolphins

[condon84]

Former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joins Bill Simmons to talk Belichick, Garoppolo, Dolphins

Michael Lombardi talks Belichick, Garoppolo, and laughing at Colts

Some great insight.

On James White

“Well, when we first drafted James White, he had a LaDainian Tomlinson look to him in practice, in the first couple practices without pads. And when the pads came on, he didn’t run with any power or advance the ball. One thing for running backs, space runs are easy, you’re out there in space, you run. But you got to make yards after contact. That’s the key back. And James wasn’t able to do that early in his career [and] why he was inactive so much.

On the Colts

“So when you play bad at home on defense and you’re a dome team, you’ve got problems and you’ve got to fix them. But the Colts didn’t fix them. They extended [head coach Chuck] Pagano’s contract, they extended [general manager Ryan] Grigson’s contract. And they added no new player to their team. [Cornerback] Patrick Robinson?”

Some more goodies in the article and on the podcast with Bill Simmons.

 

[zydecochris]

Former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joins Bill Simmons to talk Belichick, Garoppolo, etc.

Great stuff from former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joining Bill Simmons podcast to discuss Belichick, Garoppolo, the Dolphins, and laughing at the Colts. I just listened to the podcast during my annual trip to the gym, and was going to post some highlights but then I saw that Patspulpit had already posted the highlights at the following link:

Michael Lombardi talks Belichick, Garoppolo, and laughing at Colts

Lombardi is simply a natural on these podcasts, he might be one of those guys who is better in the media than as a GM, he throws out his unvarnished opinions and predictions (which end up often wrong of course, as with all predictions) with an air of authority. The thing that I thought was most interesting was that when he was asked who the best young QB in the game is, he said Mariotta. Then, he talked about Garoppolo, and talked about his natural leadership qualities and how he was the opposite of aloof, and he always ate with his offensive linemen. Then Lombardi threw out in an offhand way that Garoppolo "throws the ball vertically down the field better than [Tom Brady] does".

 

[willard]

Fantastic look behind the curtain of one who knows.

 

[TB_Helmet]

It was really good, highly recommended.

Really noteworthy, he said as the Pats walked off the field after the loss in the AFC title game that they knew their number one priority in the offseason was to improve the running game and not let opposing Ds stay in nickel all game.

I really wish Simmons would have followed up on that because I don't really see how they accomplished that (LGB's decent outing in week 1 notwithstanding). Obviously bringing back Scar helps everything, but they didn't seem to do too much on personnel to improve the running game. So maybe there's more behind the scenes that could have been told.

 

[Tasco]

Surprising to me he said they wanted to improve the running game but didn't draft or acquire one. Sounds like they saw the problems more on the o-line.

Would've been interesting to hear his take on Mingo!

 

[upstater1]

Then Lombardi threw out in an offhand way that Garoppolo "throws the ball vertically down the field better than [Tom Brady] does".

No.

 

[Deus Irae]

Then Lombardi threw out in an offhand way that Garoppolo "throws the ball vertically down the field better than [Tom Brady] does".

No offense to Lombardi, and he might be right, but Hoyer reportedly used to kick Brady's ass in "toss it downfield into the bucket" so often that they stopped playing it for a while. Game v. Practice....

 

[oldrover]

It's harder to throw downfield when you're wearing four rings.

 

[Bill Lee]

Great podcast.

His comments on Jimmy G:

“I’ve been fortunate enough, I’ve watched practice for two years and took a lot of reps, I thought Jimmy Garoppolo is a really good player. He does things really well and in the right scheme, in the right system, he can be really effective. He throws the ball vertically down the field better than [Patriots quarterback Tom Brady] does. And he can make throws all over the field. He can move around.

“And the players like him. You can see the team rallied around him. But that wasn’t surprising because when Jimmy has lunch every single day, he’s eating there with all the offensive linemen. He’s a true quarterback in terms of his leadership skills are there. He’s not aloof and he’s not not around the team. He’s involved and he’s really taken to watching and observing and understanding the program and working on his skill set, even though he knew he was back-up to Tom.”

 

[I.M. Fletcher]

Was a great podcast.

He was always my favourite football guest, since he knew the pats program so well, but has also run his own teams in the league.

A really good listen. And a weekly listen at that.

 

[patfanken]

That really was a great podcast. Please don't forget to put put the link up next week too.

 

[willard]

It was really good, highly recommended.

Really noteworthy, he said as the Pats walked off the field after the loss in the AFC title game that they knew their number one priority in the offseason was to improve the running game and not let opposing Ds stay in nickel all game.

I really wish Simmons would have followed up on that because I don't really see how they accomplished that (LGB's decent outing in week 1 notwithstanding). Obviously bringing back Scar helps everything, but they didn't seem to do too much on personnel to improve the running game. So maybe there's more behind the scenes that could have been told.

Well they did draft two guards who started last week.

 

[woolster22]

Well they did draft two guards who started because of injury last week.

FTFY

 

[Bill Lee]

Wow, two threads with the exact same title started 10 mins apart!

Former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joins Bill Simmons to talk Belichick, Garoppolo, Dolphins is the other one and it's 10 minutes newer...

 

[TBR]

Wow, two threads with the exact same title started 10 mins apart!

Former Patriots staffer Michael Lombardi joins Bill Simmons to talk Belichick, Garoppolo, Dolphins is the other one and it's 10 minutes newer...

There's been a lot of duplicate threads lately (different titles though).

I wonder if some people have each other on 'Ignore' and don't see the other thread.

 

[pctronics0072]

People tend to get butthurt quick and ignore people quickly. Alwys ironic when those same people are the ones that claim others are whiners or weak willed.

 

[BradyFTW!]

FTFY

Karras started because of injury, Thuney would've either way.

 

[PP2]

No offense to Lombardi, and he might be right, but Hoyer reportedly used to kick Brady's ass in "toss it downfield into the bucket" so often that they stopped playing it for a while. Game v. Practice....

Where did you get that? Never saw that happening at TC, and even if it did, no way Brady would have quit "playing it for a while."

 

[DefenseRules]

Yeah

. Then Lombardi threw out in an offhand way that Garoppolo "throws the ball vertically down the field better than [Tom Brady] does".

He does EVERYTHING BETTER THAN BRADY APPARENTLY. Brady should just retire. HE HAS BEEN REPLACED.

 

[Triumph]

Jeez, if Jimmy goes 4 - 0 and just keeps playing better, the Pats will have a QB controversy on their hands. I the AZ he had tight spirals virtually perfect.