On Friday, the Patriots held their eighth day of training camp on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium, and our Gresh & Fauria were once again broadcasting live from Foxborough for a first-hand account of all the action. WEEI’s Andy Hart was filling in for Christian Fauria.
It’s been well-reported that this training camp season has been a rocky one for the Patriots, as first-year head coach Jerod Mayo is inheriting a four-win team with a brand new quarterback room, a new offensive coordinator installing an entirely new offensive system, an offensive line filled with more questions than answers, a wide receiver group that has consistently been ranked among the worst in the NFL, and a defensive line who has both lost its best player indefinitely and had a duo of key veterans who have mainly generated conversation around their contract disputes instead of play on the field.
This isn’t your older brother’s Patriots, boys and girls.
Gresh and Hart took to the airwaves on Friday to break it all down in a segment of “Training Camp: the good, the bad and the ugly.”
THE GOOD
The Secondary
Andy Gresh: “I was a little worried about the secondary, but I think they’re going to be OK because of the way they end up using their safeties. I think Marcus Jones is a slot corner, and if they don’t whiz around with him, ‘Yeah we got him on offense, we got him returning,’ or whatever, and just let the guy be a corner, you got three pretty good guys that you could put out there as a base. Then your safety group, then your mix and match people with guys like [Marte] Mapu. They’re not great - I thought they were going to worry me coming out of camp, but I think they’re competitive. They’re relatively veteran. They sort of know what they’re doing. I thought it might be a bigger issue for me.”
Andy Hart: “I still think it could be a very big issue. I think first and foremost, we need to remember every rep you’ve seen those guys take has been against the 32nd ranked receiver unit. The worst group of receivers you could come up with. And, you know, my assessment that Tyquan Thornton’s done a good job - like, when I see him Chistian Gonzalez in one-on-ones, that doesn’t make me feel great. Jonathan Jones, I think, is a very good cornerback. I still think he’s best-suited in the slot - ”
AG: “I wish he was the slot guy because your slot corner is now a starter in the league.”
AH: “Right, and I wish - I think Marcus Jones has plenty to prove as a cornerback. I also wish he - I agree with you, I think at his best, he’s probably a slot corner. I wish he wasn’t. I wish he was a developmental number two outside corner.”
AG: “Like if he had four more inches of height, then you could start to think about being able to play him on the outside.”
AH: “And then I’d be like, ‘He’s not great, but he’s your number two. You’re counting on Gonzalez.’ Can he be good enough to be your number two with a veteran slot next to him, all of that?”
AG: “Marcus Jones is quick, and that’s the in-between the field stuff, it’s gonna be quick. You need that guy.”
AH: “I think he needs to learn some of the tricks of the trade, and like the Ty Law when-to-grab-the-jersey-when-to-not - ”
AG: “Call Malcolm Butler, the master of the trail.”
AH: “Yes, so I think there’s some of that. And then beyond that, there’s a lot of questions. You know it’s funny - there’s been a lot of times where the front seven has been with like a backup cornerback grouping, like the second, third-tier corners. I think they’re still really trying to figure out the depth of the depth chart. Like who the next three are. We know the top three. Some order, some position - it’s Gonzalez, it is Jones, and it is Jones.”
Wide Receiver
AH: “So I don’t know how to phrase this, having just taken a shot at them. I thought coming in, wide receiver would be the most competitive position. And it’s been competitive! I’ve seen a lot of guys flash and make plays, and I’ve seen Thornton look pretty good from start to finish. And I’ve seen Reagor - you know, when you say, ‘You have the worst wide receivers in the NFL,’ it’s almost like you’re going to say, ‘Everything sucks.’ Not everything has sucked at wide receiver. Various plays, various days, guys have stepped up.
“Now am I going to pretend they have a one, a two, a three? Nope, I am not gonna pretend that at all. They do not have a one. I hope they have a two. I hope they get [Kendrick] Bourne back out there sooner rather than later. But I think I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the consistent competition at the position, even if the individual players have been inconsistent at times.”
THE BAD
Drake Maye
AG: “As expected, though. That’s the thing.”
AH: “But how can it be ‘as expected’ and ‘bad?’"
AG: “Look, I knew Drake Maye was going to be bad. OK? But, when I hear the people, like, drop trou and be like, ‘Oh, throw him in there!’ He can’t consistently take a snap under center yet. OK? And I don’t care, because I can feel [the Twitch chat] typing it now, ‘That’s the new college football!’ Well, guess what? You still gotta be able to execute the fundamentals here. It’s the pro level, son. We wear caps and sleeves at this level.
“I thought Drake Maye, fundamentally, wouldn’t be at times the train wreck that he is. You can coach footwork. Yes, the arm will bail him out of stuff. But he was as bad as I expected him to be. And I come away like you and Christian [Fauria] and being like, ‘You can’t start him week one.’ You cannot put him out there week one.”
AH: “Yeah I would absolutely not start him week one.”
Jacoby Brissett
AH: “Jacoby Brissett has been good in the role that Jacoby Brissett is in.”
AG: “He’s skated his lane, let’s say?”
AH: “Yeah - and I mean that both in terms of running the offense, taking the number one reps, looking competitive. And when he’s out, he’s doing his best to create energy, like he’s patting offensive linemen - ”
AG: “He feels they need the juice.”
AH: “Absolutely. He’s trying.”
AG: “It took us a couple days. Like a couple days we were like, ‘Oh, Brissett’s running around.’ Now that we’re here a little more, it’s like, that’s a veteran saying, ‘Holy hell, we need something here.’”
AH: “And that’s a part of his job right now. You didn’t come in here as, like, Tom Brady in Tampa, where I’m just gonna lead you to victory, and that’s my role. No, your role is to do everything this team needs, and right now some of it is energy from a veteran who, you know, can see guys that are maybe scuffling, or, like, ‘You did a good job,’ pat you on the back. Like, that whole thing.
“You know, I said it the other day. You know, the day that drew a lot of attention, and the Jerry Thorntons of the world, ‘Oh panic! Everybody panic!’ Nobody’s panicking about Drake Maye. But you can acknowledge that he hasn’t been great. He hasn’t lit the world on fire. For me personally, not as good as I would have expected coming off the spring. [He] hasn’t continued the progression I saw in the spring. Doesn’t mean I’m writing him off. Doesn’t mean anything long term-bad other than, I was looking for a little bit more through six, seven, eight days of training camp.”
AG: “Doesn’t it kind of feel like Maye has kind of accepted his fate that Jacoby is going to start the beginning of the year? Versus the, ‘I’m gonna be the guy who’s gonna come out get people juiced. I’m gonna grab this job by the goose.’ I haven’t seen that kind of moment where he’s like - it’s like he’s waiting to be told it’s his team, versus going out and grabbing it and making it his team.”
AH: “I actually like the way he’s done that, because I think it’s appropriate. Because I think if you - players know if you’re not doing well. Players see other players. They assessing sooner than anybody else. They’re a part of the immediate huddle. They’re a part of the play. And they would know he hasn’t been great. He hasn’t been horrific. He’s been fine. But if he is, like, over-the-top, they’re like, ‘Well, you know Jacoby’s better than you right now.’ Like, they know that. So you can’t fake it.”
AG: “But I’m now starting to wonder, is it there?”
AH: “Oh, it’s there. I’m not worried about that. I really like the way he’s handled himself. He’s not - the famous stories of Julian Edelman when he got to Kent State and he’s like, ‘I came here to take your job.’ That’s fine if that’s who you are. You better be able to back it up and take the damn job.”
AG: “I just feel like it’s been too accepted, you know? Like even out of Drake Maye, we’ve never even heard, ‘Hey listen, I’m going in as if this is a competition and a battle,’ not, ‘Well, you know, it’s camp. And I’ll get in there at some point.’”
AH: “I actually like it. And I think there will be opportunities for it to organically develop when he plays well. I said it the other day, the drill where I thought [Ja’Lynn] Polk and [Javon] Baker let him down, didn’t catch the balls. I think there’s going to be a play, a moment, a drive, a two-minute segment, a something, where it’s like, ‘Sprinkler offense, sprinkler offense, boom I hit Baker back of the endzone.’ And my guess is, you will see Drake Maye get excited, maybe run up, do the hip-bump thing. You’ll be like, ‘Oh, that just changed.’ Because if you fake it - I know everybody says, ‘Fake it till you make it’ - don’t. Don’t fake it.”
AG: “I just wish I felt like the guy was trying to win the job from the jump.”
AH: “I think he’s trying to win the job, but he’s a guy who’s not winning the job, and he knows it. Like, he’s in that world of, ‘I’m trying to win a job. I’m competing. I’m not better right now. I shouldn’t be hyping anybody up. I need to worry about my own damn crap.’ Which is snap, footwork, eyes, read, complete, accurate, throw.”
AG: “Getting that all down is gonna take another month, at least.”
AH: “And that’s fine! And that’s why he’s not acting like the starter because he’s like, ‘I’m a little ways away.’"
THE UGLY
Line of Scrimmage
AG: “We know the O-line is hurtin’, but the D-line’s swirling. And not only a little bit of controversy, a tiny bit of turmoil, but also the biggest loss of the season is already Christian Barmore. So, for me, the ‘ugly’ has been a little more of the off-field with the D-line, but kind of on-field with the O-line. And you and I both grown when I said Vederian Lowe was taking reps at left tackle.”
AH: “The moving pieces on the offensive line for a team that is dead-set on putting the best five out there - they’re still searching for it. You know, even yesterday when Drake Maye took some early reps in a team drill and he was with Caedan Wallace, and I was like ‘Oh, is he with the ones?’ Because Caedan Wallace had been running left tackle with the ones. I was like, ‘Oh no, Caedan Wallace is now the second left tackle.’ So there is a three-to-four-to-five person fight going on. They’re adding bodies, still, on both the offensive and defensive line.
“And maybe that’s an answer why we haven’t gotten as much banging. Maybe they’re like, ‘We’re not ready to bang. We’re not up to speed. We got guys that barely know what they’re doing, nevermind can, you know, really compete in a true physical rep, or a lot of true physical reps.’ And, you know, that just kind of came to me now. Maybe that’s a realization from them. ‘We’re not ready to bang on either side of the front.’”
AG: “I mean, if that is [their thinking], then they’re behind.”
AH: “Well we know they’re behind.”
AG: “No, but I mean, that’s, like, woefully behind. Forget figuring out which five to try to trust. You can’t even trust them enough to be able to go out there and bang and be physical?”
AH: “Well, they can’t line up. They’ve had plenty of pre-snap penalities. They’ve done plenty of laps. They’ve had substitution penalties. And I don’t think it’s ridiculous. I mean, for example, remember when they didn’t take their extra week of spring [practices]? Because Jerod’s like, ‘We’re not ready to practice. So I don’t need an extra week of practice. We need the meeting time with assistant coaches.’ I think, maybe there’s a, ‘We’re not ready to bang goal line because, guess what? Our right tackle and our left tackle - I’m not getting [Rhamondre] Stevenson killed. I’m not getting Jacoby Brissett killed.’
AG: “Man, this feels like this is gonna be the theme of the season. We’re playing catch-up all season long.”
AH: “They’re trying to clean up the mess that Bill Belichick left behind.”
