Locked On’s NFL Top-100 REVEALED: New England Patriot Disrespected?

Locked On’s NFL Top-100 REVEALED: New England Patriot Disrespected?

Lockdown releases its top 100 list in my fellow lockdown hosts disrespect a patriot. That’s where we start on this episode of Lockdown 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 am your host Nick Cattles, born and raised in New England. Also host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Baddard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles and a sports talk show host veteran. On today’s episode, the lessons the Pats need to learn from lockdown’s top 100 and we’ll tell you why future lists should bring better results. But first, we have to discuss this year’s list and a couple of silver linings. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen and for being an everyday of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. As a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And this week, first week, back to five shows. That’s right. Every single day, we deliver a Patriots podcast for you Monday through Friday as we inch closer and closer to camp, less than one week away. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, Locked On decided this year to release its own top 100 list. And each of us, the hosts, had to go through the list of names and pick our top 100. It It was not an easy process. Even though it sounds like it was easy, it took time. And there’s no doubt that I believe my fellow hosts took their time and thought about each and every pick. But with that, they also decided to disrespect a Patriot. You see, there’s only one single Patriot on the list, and that is Christian Gonzalez. Not a shock, right? I mean, if I was to ask you who was going to be on this list from the Patriots, Gonzalez would be the first guy. And there he is, right there. 65th overall. 65 out of the top 100 is your very own Christian Gonzalez. If you’re watching on YouTube, you’re enjoying the beautiful graphic. There is Gonzo at 65 representing your Patriots. But why was this disrespectful? Why was it disrespectful to have Gonzalez sitting there at 65? I’ll get to that in a minute. But let me first talk about the overall big picture of this top 100 list and the fact that the Patriots are only one of four teams that had one single solitary player on this list. The other three teams, breaking news, they’re not good. Chicago was on the list with one player. Jacksonville had one player. Tennessee had one player. If you combine all three of those teams and their wins, it’s a total of 12 wins on the season. Not a mathematician, but that is four wins per team. So, is it shocking that the fourth team was indeed the Patriots and they had four wins in 2024? Not surprising to me. It is simply the harsh reality of 2023 and 2024. It’s as simple as it gets. the reason why you have, you know, one guy on this list and and we’ll dig into specifics a little bit later as to why, but you look back at the last two years and this has been a mess of a football operation. Absolute mess of an operation. And because of that, the back-to-back four- win seasons, here you are with one dude representing your team on a list of 100. There are 32 teams in the league. There’s enough room for three guys from each team if you evenly spread that out and still have a couple extra spots left over. But there sits Gonzalez and he’s an easy choice. Second team allp pro. How in the world can you not have a second team allpro in the top 100? It just makes all the sense in the world that he would be on this list. He is a locked down outside cornerback. He has a stud skill set. best cornerback on the Patriots easily since Stfane Gilmore. Might be might end up being the best Patriot cornerback since Derell Rivas spent the year in New England. He is that good. He’s young. He’s exciting. So, why do I think, even though he made the list at 65, why do I think my fellow hosts here at Lockdown disrespected this young man? Well, I’m going to tell you the quarterbacks that were ranked ahead of Christian Gonzalez. Patrick Certain, no issue with that. Certain was ranked as the 10th best corner. No, the 10th best player on this list. So, I have no issue with that. He’s a fantastic corner. Derek Stingley Jr., he was ranked 23rd overall. I remind you that Gonzalez was ranked 65th. So, you had Certain at 10. You had Stingley Jr. at 23. No issue with that. I don’t even have an issue with Trent McDuffy from Kansas City as you drop down further on this list at number 51. But there are three quarterbacks that I think that were ahead of Gonzalez and should not have been ahead of him. Let’s start with Devin Witherspoon from the Seattle Seahawks. He was the 24th ranked quarterback overall by Pro Football Focus. You know how many interceptions he had? That would be a zero. 0.0 picks last year. His coverage grade, remember the overall grade for Witherspoon was 24, but his coverage grade was 58th. The only reason he was 24th in overall grade was because his run game grade was fantastic. So, I would put Gonzalez ahead of Witherspoon. I would also after 2024, this is not about the the composite years, but after last season, Sauce Gardner should be behind Christian Gonzalez. And Gardner was actually the third highest ranked corner in the top 100 from lockdown. The third highest ranked corner at 28 overall. Sauce wasn’t good last year. And I know not a lot of people watch the Jets because they weren’t great unless you were infatuated with the Aaron Rogers story, but S Garner was not good last season. Let’s go back to Pro Football Focus. Last year, S finished 46th overall at cornerback for PFF. He had the 33rd ranked coverage grade at quarterback. He wasn’t better than Gonzalez last season. And one last name I’ll give you, Chvarius Ward. Now, Ward was going through a personal situation, a tragic situation that likely impacted his play on the field. He said as much when the season was over. That’s the that’s one of the reasons why he left San Francisco during the off season. But Ward wasn’t good. Personal, professional, he wasn’t good. Pro Football Focus had Ward ranked as the 149th best corner in football. Absolutely brutal. Absolutely embarrassing. He played less than 700 snaps, which was the 63rd most snaps played by a quarterback in the NFL last year. So, you tell me how Witherspoon, Gardner, and Ward finished ahead of Push Gonzalez. I got to have a talk with these other lockdown hosts. I gotta get on the phone. I gotta send some texts. I got to jump into the team’s chat because I I don’t get it. I don’t get it. But here’s the good news. Here’s the silver lining. If you have one person in the top 100 list, make it a premier position. It could have been worse. The only player in the top 100 for the Patriots could have been a kicker. Could have been a long snapper. And by the way, there was a kicker in the top 100. You can go check that out if you’d like. But if you’re going to have one guy on this list, make it a premier position. And that’s precisely what happened here. Gonzalez plays a premier position. Outside cornerback number one. If you have somebody who can lock down the best receiver on the opposition week in and week out, that is a fantastic luxury to have as a defense. So, if you’re going to tell me you get one guy on the list, let it be a quarterback, a wide receiver, a defensive end, maybe a pass rushing interior defensive lineman, and yes, a cornerback. So, that’s the good news. Premier position. He’s ranked in the top 70. And he’s 23 years old, just turned 23 3 weeks ago or so in late June. He’s only played 20 games in his NFL career. There is plenty of room for growth for Christian Gonzalez. So, those are the silver linings. I think he’s only going to get better as long as he stays healthy. And he is already considered a lockown corner at 23 years old. So, if it’s going to be one dude, let it be one dude playing a top position. And that’s what we got. All right. We now know the ugly results of the top 100. Up next, we tell you why and how the Pats ended up here. As we continue with today’s episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you’re all about baseball, under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. We know that. So, why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned right down there at the beach. I know. I’ve been using FanDuel for a number of years, tracking my favorite matchups. The app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions, fun ways to bet. It’s just an excellent app. So much fun to use. Whether I’m placing a same game parlay or watching a bet ride into the ninth inning, FanDuel makes it feel like I am part of the action. And a new if you’re new to FanDuel, uh, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app right now. Or if you don’t want to do that, visit fanuel.com/lockdon to get started. So when we look at this locked on top 100 list, we realize that heading into 2025, this roster really if you’re an opposing team, Serero Mier. That’s right. Zero fear, as my guy Pent in the WWE would say. That’s what you’re looking at. I mean, who do you actually fear right now? Now, you might end up fearing some people down the road, which we’ll get to in a few minutes, but right now on paper, if you’re looking at this team up and down, there just aren’t too many guys that strike fear in the hearts of the competition. So, you’re dealing with that. The talent level, free agency, the draft hopefully bumped it up. I don’t know if it bumped it significantly, but I feel like this team has upgraded its talent, but it still doesn’t strike the fear. And the reputation, the reputation of this football team has been damaged. I don’t think anybody looks at the Patriots and and looks at them as as a scary, formidable football team just yet. So, the the rep has been damaged. The talent level is not there just yet. But we have to look back as we look on paper right now. We’ve got to look back before we look forward and try to figure out how in the world did the Patriots get here. How did they get here to the point where you have one player on this locked down top 100 list? A der of top tier talent. How did you get here? Well, you first got here with terrible drafting. And this is not something that should shock any of you, but the the drafting by Bellich and then by Elliot Wolf really put this team behind the eightball. When you have inept drafting, you’re going to have an issue. Greg Baddard recently wrote about this. When you look at the drafts, you know, 21, 22, 23, 24, when you look at the drafts ahead of this last draft and 25, right, where we feel really good about it, when you look at the prior few drafts, the prior 38 picks before this year’s draft, the prior 38 picks, by Greg Bard’s estimation at Boston Sports Journal, there are eight players from those 38 8 that were chosen in the draft that should feel pretty confident if not very confident in their spot on the 53man roster. Of course, Drake May doesn’t, you know, when you look at him, it’s not a shock that he’s on there. Christian Gonzalez, the aforementioned Christian Barour, but eight out of 38. So before you got to this past draft, you drafted 38 dudes and only eight of them have a good shot of making the roster this year. That is deplorable. It’s embarrassing. It’s horrific. It’s downright tragic and it should never happen to any team. Eight out of 38. That is absurd. And when you look at it, you know, I talked about the idea of Gonzalez being in this top 100 list and the fact that he plays a premier position. That’s another problem. You know, the Patriots through those drafts, they ignored offensive tackle for all intents and purposes. Now, they finally used the top five pick on a tackle this year with Will Campbell, but leading up to this year’s draft, it it’s like they gave the Heisman Trophy. Boom. Right. That little Heisman pose gave the Heisman pose to offensive tackles through the last three or four drafts. And you can go even further back than that. I mean, Isaiah Win was the last guy drafted in the first round that was a tackle for the Pats and and he ended up being a guard when all was said and done. So, they neglected the offensive tackle position. They swung at quarterback once and missed with M. Jones. They swung again with Drake May. He showed flashes. I feel like he’s going to be a hit. Hopefully, he’s going to be a home run, but they were one for two at best at quarterback. And I don’t even have to go through the litany of wide receiver names how many guys they have picked and missed on including it looks like so far there’s no doubt and maybe this will be written in stone by the end of training camp but Jaylen Poke and Jayvon Baker just miss after miss after miss at the wide receiver position. So that’s a big part of this story. You have one guy in the top 100 because you keep swinging and missing in the draft. Now, I feel differently about 2025. I think you feel differently about 2025, but those 2025 draft picks won’t be showing up on this list. Hopefully, they’ll be showing up on future lists. The other part of the problem, and this is out of the control of the Patriots, and I don’t believe injuries and illness are excuses, okay? If a guy gets hurt, he gets hurt. I don’t anticipate somebody being in a top 100 list when they hurt, you know, they were hurting most of last year. Like Christian Barmore to me, if he has a full season in 2024 following up the 23 that he had, I have to believe that Barmore is on this list, but he had the blood clot issue, a very serious issue. So that takes Barour out of the mix. He’s out, right? I think he would have would have been likely on, but he’s off because of the illnesses. You get to Stfan Diggs. Now, maybe Diggs would have been on this list. Maybe he would not have been on this list. You could argue he’s a top 100 player in the league. Uh there’s no doubt now after the ACL and you know, I think he’s what 31 years old. Those days are very likely behind him. But he was on a pretty good pace in Houston last year. if he doesn’t get injured, he has an outside shot of possibly being on this list, but the ACL finished that thought process. Kyle Duggars is another guy that could have possibly been on this list. He got hurt early in the season. The injury was misdiagnosed, ended up being a serious high ankle sprain, needed tightroppe surgery after the year was over. So when you look at Duggar, he’s eliminated due to injury, playing on like one leg last season. And then Jabro Peppers, not injured, not an illness, but the off-field stuff that ruined his season. I think Peppers would have had an outside shot of making this top 100 list if he played the full season. So, some of it is bad drafting, some of it is injury, illness, and off the- field issues. And then the other part of it is you’ve stunk. You have stunk out loud. And when you are losing in two consecutive seasons like the Patriots have lost, when you are finding ways to lose, nobody, including my fellow lockdown hosts, are going to go out of their way to put a Patriot on this list. I’m going to be honest. I believe Gonzalez was my only guy in my top 100. Now, it was a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I threw somebody else in there, but I think that was it. I think Gonzalez was the only guy from the Pats that I put on. So, it’s a tough cell. It’s a very tough cell to say, “Hey, there’s a four- win team, man. You got to find a place for two or three guys on the top 100.” No, it stands to reason. You you you won four games, you got one dude on the list. Again, the teams that had one person on the list, you’re looking at an average of four wins. So, the math checks out. And you know, even if you had somebody who was deserving to be on this list that didn’t make it, you could look at the lack of prime time games, the lack of big games. How many people were making it appointment television that didn’t live in New England and aren’t Patriots fans? How many of those football fans were thinking the Pats were appointment TV? I’d say probably none of them. You’re not in prime time often. Now, this year it changes with Rael, but you weren’t in prime time a lot last year. What was it? One or two games in prime time. I think there was one prime time game. And you didn’t play any big games. You only won four games. So, how can you say you played in any big games? So, that also impacts trying to put more than one player on this list. So, that’s how we got here. Bad drafting, injuries, illness, and just losing football. frankly losing football. But we’re gonna end this episode on a high note. We just ate the crap sandwich. We’re gonna end this on a high note as I tell you why we should look forward to this list starting next year. That’s coming up next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. your team every day. Guaranteeing things in this business is tough. When you guarantee something, it could easily and more often than not does come back and bite you. But I am going to make a guarantee to all of you, all of the people listening to this Lockdown Patriots episode, everybody watching this Lockdown Patriots episode, I’m going to make you a guarantee. And the guarantee is this. The Patriots will have more than one player on next year’s locked on top 100. They will have at least two, if not three, maybe even All right, let’s let’s just stop there. I don’t want to get too bananas here and start talking about four or five guys, but I do believe I do believe with every fiber of my being that this Patriots team will have more than one player on next year’s top 100 list. Who could that player be? Who am I looking at? Well, I start with Keon White. Keon White, if he has more consistency, if he adds more consistency to his game, I think he gets on next year’s list. He was a force at the beginning of the season. And when you look at some of his analytics, he is one of the best pass rushing uh defensive lineman, interior defensive lineman in football. He is somebody that has just incredible versatility and I think that this coaching staff, Frabel, Williams, they’re going to utilize that versatility and they’re going to make sure that they put Keon White in advantageous positions. So, if he can work on that consistency level, I if he can be banked on week in and week out for this defense to to make some impact plays, then he is already in the conversation. This is somebody with tremendous tools, great athleticism, fantastic size, impeccable agility. He is a different kind of cat. I mean, he looks like he is just chiseled out of granite. He’s a freak. He’s an absolute freak. So, he is the type of player with that highend ceiling that could end up on this list in 2026. The versatility will help Terrell Williams. the resume that he has, the guys that he has worked with, Vrabel, his resume, the guys that he has worked with, that combination, the coaching staff, Mike Smith, I think that’s all going to lend towards Kon White’s best season as a Patriot, and he is somebody that I think can absolutely be on this list next year. Here’s another guy that I think could be on next year’s list, and this might be a little bit polarizing. Some of you, many of you might disagree with this, but I’m actually going to go with Mike Wenu. I believe Awenu can have a bounceback season. The number one reason as to why I believe Aenu could be on next year’s list is the fact that he’s going to actually be playing his natural position of right guard. He’s not going to have to mess around and play right tackle. I believe he started five of the first seven games last year at right tackle. That’s not what he is. At his core, he’s a guard. I think he could be an okay tackle if he focused on that, but that’s not the point anymore. You brought in Morgan Moses, you don’t need a right tackle. You stick a wenu at right guard. You leave him there and you let him do work and he will justify the contract he signed last off season. He will show the world that he is one of the better guards in football. Just leave him there. Enough of the back and forth. It hasn’t worked out. It’s been a detriment to him. It’s been a detriment at times to the team. Let him stick at one position, the one position that he was born to play and see what the results are because what I think is that the results are going to show a bounce back here in 2025, but not only because he’s playing right guard. Awenu is also a great fit for this offensive scheme. You know, Josh McDaniels, I think he’s going to run a decent amount of downhill duo. I know people said and reported that during OTAAS and mandatory mini camp there was some wide zone that McDaniels was calling. That’s part of I think early phase of camp. See what works, see what doesn’t. But when you know you’re trying to figure out how to win a football game, you’re going to go back to your bread and butter. And Josh McDaniels, his bread and butter has been the downhill run game. And Aenu fits with that perfectly. He is a big human being that can move other big human beings and he will get downhill. He will get to the second level. He is a better fit scheme-wise this season than he was last season. And I believe the Patriots have their best offensive line coaching staff in quite some time. You’ve got Doug Marone at the top. You’ve got Jason Hotailing. You’ve got Robert Cougler. three different levels of coaches on this offensive line coaching staff and I think they will push Aenu and they will get the best out of Mike Wenu and if that isn’t enough if it’s not enough with the coaching staff and the fact that he’s playing the position he should be playing and the the scheme fit how about the motivation that Aweno will have contractually because after this season is over the Patriots can get out of a wenu’s contract. He knows it, they know it. If he doesn’t play good football, he gone. If he wants to continue to play in New England, I if he wants to even maybe work towards reworking that contract, getting another extension, he’s going to have to ball out in 2025. And I’m sure his agents, if he’s not aware of that, I’m sure his agents are letting him know that he’s got to play some really good football if he wants to stick to this contract, keep those terms, and maybe work on his next big deal. So, Michael Wenu wouldn’t be surprised if he’s on this list next year. I’ll wrap it up with two or three other possibilities. And again, I’m not saying all these guys will make the list. Just telling you the names that I think could absolutely be on the list. I mentioned him a few moments ago. Christian Barour Bar was tremendous in 2023. Worked himself into a big contract extension. Unfortunately, had the blood clots not once but twice last year which just upended his entire season. Uh thankfully he looks healthy. He looks like he’s in the best shape of his football life. He took part day one otaas. If Baltimore plays 16, 17 healthy games, I’m pretty confident he will be on that list next year. He will be a top 100 guy. And I think that the guy next to him also has a chance to get into the top 100, and that is Milton Williams. Both guys have the talent. Both guys are going to be used properly. Both guys are going to get plenty of snaps. Milton Williams will get more snaps than he got in Philadelphia. Bar will get a bunch of snaps as long as he stays healthy. You go back to the idea of Mike Vrabel and Terrell Williams and what they have been able to get production-wise from their defensive lineman down in Tennessee. I anticipate the same kind of production. So, Williams, Bar, one or both of those guys could absolutely be on next year’s list. And with the defense playing better, which is what I expect, much better than 2024, with the defense playing better, the defensive reputation will be there. And with the defensive reputation, more prime time games, they’re going to get pub. They’re going to get some good PR. And I think that will help other hosts that might not be watching the Patriots week in and week out appreciate some of those players, especially on that side of the football. And don’t forget, you still have the 2025 draft that was universally praised. Maybe Trayvon Henderson pops right away and finds himself on this list. But that’s my guarantee. The Patriots will have more than one player on the top 100 list next year when us here at Lockdown release said list. Confident in that. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nickc Radio. Don’t forget to uh throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. That helps us with the algorithm. And uh don’t forget to hit the like button. Don’t forget to subscribe. Lockdown NFL Top 100 is available on Lockdown Sports Today if you want to listen to all 100 selections. The NFL top 100 was voted uh on by myself and and other Lockdown hosts and there are some stunners. There are some stunners. Don’t miss where your favorite players were ranked. Subscribe to Locked On Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.

Patriots’ lone Top 100 player sparks debate. Is Christian Gonzalez underrated?

Nick Cattles dissects the New England Patriots’ representation on the Locked On NFL Top 100 list, exploring why only one Patriot made the cut. He analyzes the team’s recent struggles, including poor drafting and injuries, while predicting future improvements. Cattles highlights potential breakout candidates like Keion White, Mike Onwenu, and Christian Barmore, who could boost the Patriots’ presence on next year’s list.

Discover why Cattles guarantees more Patriots will crack the Top 100 in 2025 and how the team’s new coaching staff might reshape their fortunes.

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