LIVE Patriots Beat_ Training Camp Day 4 Review
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00:00All right, everyone, welcome back into another live edition of the Patriots Beat podcast
00:23here on the CLNS media network presented by our wonderful friends over at Game Time and
00:28Factor Meals. It's Brian Hines back as always with Alex Barth to break down day four of
00:35Patriots training camp. We had some football on Sunday back at Gillette Stadium today and
00:40Alex and I were down there as always. But before we get into practice, there was a little
00:46breaking Patriots news shortly after practice ended, and it had to do with Christian Barmore,
00:52who really hasn't participated in training camp since the first day. And even that it
00:56was kind of a limited session. The last time we were there on Friday, again, they were off
01:02Saturday. He came out late and then he didn't participate at all with his jersey. He had his
01:08jersey on, but he didn't participate. And then he wasn't there at all today. So the team
01:13released a statement that he was diagnosed with blood clots over the weekend. He was being
01:19treated at Mass Gen up in Boston and no. Well, the statement says there is no current
01:26timetable for his return. We know Christian is getting tremendous care and we look forward to
01:29his full recovery. So neither Barth or I are doctors or medical experts. Blood clots, it can
01:39be serious and it can mean a lot of different types of things. So the Patriots do have some
01:44experience with something like this. Again, David Andrews suffered how to deal with blood
01:48clots in 2019 and he missed the whole season. But this could be a different case, a
01:55different, you know, a lot of different things here. You don't know the timetable to return
02:00there, but at least for the immediate future, they will be without Christian Barmore and, you
02:05know, obviously hope he is doing well and get better. But the Patriots will be without Barmore
02:10for the immediate future here with blood clots.
02:13Yeah, I mean, it's a serious health scare and like you said, blood clots can mean various
02:19things. David Andrews in 2019, that was in his lungs, like it was a specific thing. So we don't
02:27know how Barmore's relates to that. But, you know, if they're not going to release a statement
02:33like this for him to be out of week, like this is a serious medical issue. And Andrews, like
02:37said, he missed that whole season. Now he has since come back. He played the next year was the
02:41covid year when players could opt out. And that was back when like we didn't really know the deal
02:45with covid. And obviously anything medical was scary and he still played. So he's played four
02:51full seasons since he's back for his fifth. And so it doesn't seem to be a problem for him
02:57anymore. Again, every situation's individual. But this is obviously very unfortunate. I mean,
03:03this is 25th birthday today. I'm just gutted for him. Right. Had a great year last year. Was
03:07finally healthy for the first time in his three year NFL career, had a monster year, was said to
03:12be an impact player this year after signing that contract. And now he's he's on the shelf for the
03:18foreseeable future. And again, you make a statement like that. I figure they're expecting him to
03:22miss at least some time. And I'm talking regular season time here. So he's getting great care. I
03:29want to shout out as his agent pointed out. Actually, I'll read the statement from his agent,
03:34Nicole Lynn, on Twitter. This was just before we came on the air tweeting. I would be remiss if I
03:39did not think the Patriots trainer, Jim Wayland, for his absolute diligence and care over the last
03:44couple of days today could have looked a lot different without Jim's Jim's persistent and
03:49expertise. And absolutely. Obviously, again, the Patriots training staff has been here before. You
03:56have to figure that helps. It certainly doesn't hurt. And they caught this and they were able to
04:00get get him taken care of. And, you know, the Patriots saying he was hospitalized. So, again,
04:04this isn't anything minor. But first and foremost, this is like a life, a medical issue. You hope
04:12that he is OK, that he gets better, that this is taken care of. And then the football side of it
04:19comes second. And, you know, we're a football show and I we don't need to totally get into the X's
04:25and O's of it. Today's not the time they do have. A defensive tackle is one of their deeper
04:30positions, but he is a top three player on the team to say they will miss him. However much time
04:35he misses is an understatement. But we'll get to that down the road when maybe we have some more
04:42clarity on his condition and from a football standpoint, what this looks like for him.
04:48Yep. Yeah, definitely very fresh. There's a lot we don't know. So you don't want to speculate on a
04:53situation like this. You just hope he's all set. But yeah, when we get to what this means from a
04:58football standpoint, it will make a big impact. Like not only is he a top three player on that
05:04defense, like he proved last year, like he could be a pro ball or even all pro talent moving
05:09forward. So unfortunate for him. You hope he is going to be OK and doing all right. But we'll kind
05:17of see what happens there. But they did have two open roster spots and they did add some defensive
05:23line depth this morning. There was a new number seventy five out on the practice field. That was
05:30Josiah Brunson, who last played in the UFL, I believe it was. And he started his career on the
05:37Saints practice squad. I think he spent some time in Cleveland, Dallas, Miami. So he's he's been
05:42around. But yeah, he played last year on the Memphis showboats of the UFL. So add some defensive
05:50extra defensive line depth. They're probably not someone who might make a push, but, you know, you
05:56lose far more. You're going to need some more bodies there just to get through camp, get through, get
06:01through the preseason. As you said, like that's a spot where they have a lot of depth and some of those
06:06veterans might not be in the preseason. So you need some extra bodies there on the defensive line. So
06:12Josiah Brunson was today's addition. Still have an open roster spot, but he's wearing seventy five as
06:19they as they bring in some extra depth there. But should we just roll in the practice on the defense
06:26then if we're talking about them and switch, switch it up a little bit, we can start on the defense
06:32today. They still have the upper hand, as you would expect. And Gerard Mayo's said as so like they
06:42should have the upper hand. They're a good unit. They're a unit that's brought back basically
06:46everyone. They have they have the continuity over the offense. So they're still they still have the
06:51upper hand through through four days. And that didn't change today in that front seven. Again, like
06:57that's it's so hard to judge without pads, which will get on tomorrow. But, you know, the depth move
07:03up front there, it was kind of the big thing. But anything else that caught your eye maybe up front
07:09there or just defense kind of big picture there on day four here?
07:14I mean, this is just kind of a overall evaluation, but it continued today in what was a very past
07:20heavy day. The communication in the secondary is excellent, like the way these guys are working
07:25together and when they get into to sevens and when they get into elevens. I know on Twitter it looks
07:30like it was a rough day and I see this comment like Gonzalez getting cooked. I know it sounded
07:36like a rough day in one on ones. There is such a massive advantage for the offense in one on ones.
07:40It's so I mean, you talk about having a cover one on one for like three or four seconds. There are
07:46almost no situations in a game where a defensive player is going to have to do that. Usually you'll
07:51have somebody to pass the coverage off to. If you don't, that means it's a zero blitz and the
07:56quarterback shouldn't have three to four seconds to get rid of the ball. Right. So but as a whole,
08:02the way the secondary has worked together, not even necessarily individually, but together has
08:06been outstanding. Yeah. Yeah. I saw the Gonzalez comment and someone else said, like, didn't
08:13Javon Baker cook him that video that they went one on one against each other and Gonzalez is
08:19playing like with his back to the boundary, like leverage that way. And Baker just jabs at him and
08:26just runs to the open part of the field where, you know, Gonzalez has no help. It's a whole open
08:30field like that's almost an impossible task for even how good Christian Gonzalez is like that's
08:36an impossible task to try to guard Javon Baker like like that with no help, just one on one.
08:41So and even the other one, he gave up the downfield one to Keisha on booty like that was
08:47just perfect execution with Drake May like perfect pass, great catch by booty like Gonzalez was right
08:52on him. You can even see him. That video is going around Twitter to like you can see him try to
08:56punch the ball out like it was great coverage. You just got by a better player. So I know we say like,
09:03oh, he gave up a catch Christian Gonzalez even the other day like Taekwon Thornton got a catch
09:07on Christian Gonzalez like it was a short curl and then Gonzalez like he's going to give all
09:13the corners are going to give up some short ones like that. So no concern with Christian Gonzalez.
09:18I think he's looked like Christian Gonzalez did to start last year for the most part. But
09:25the other main secondary guy who I think had a really good day today again and someone we've
09:30talked about a lot was Alex Austin, a couple pass breakups in those one on one drills. He even was
09:36playing the slot a little bit in team drills. So as they continue to tinker with that versatility
09:41in the secondary, Alex Austin's been a guy that we've been pretty high on since the end of last
09:46year, really. And he keeps kind of standing out back there. So Alex Austin, Marcus Jones still
09:52looks like the top slot guy, however. But our communication, I thought, yeah, he's been awesome.
09:58But yeah, the communication back there has been really solid. And if there was any concern with
10:05like the young, inexperienced guys at a corner, they've they've really quieted those concerns
10:10early on here. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's it's the group is looking as deep as advertised.
10:17Yep. So are you still calling Stefan Gilmore as of now? Are you?
10:23He can only help like he can only help. I'd still be in on it, but I thought it was maybe
10:27a little more necessary than it ended up being, I guess. Yep. Yeah, definitely. Just like all these
10:32guys are still playing so well, so they might not need a top top veteran there. But yeah,
10:39defensive backs. I mean, Jalen Hawkins, Josh Bledsoe is still getting a good run. Oh, you
10:44talked to we finally talked to Brendan Schooler today. I didn't catch all of it. Did you get
10:48anything good from him about why he's playing a little bit more safety or anything from school
10:53there? It just gave me a the more you can do answer. You know, I asked him if the plan was
10:58for him to play more on defense this year, and he said, you know, question for the coaching staff.
11:01But he seems to be enjoying it. You know, he said it's, you know, taking him back to Texas. So,
11:07you know, it's called when you played in college and he played safety. I'll have more of that
11:12conversation, I think, on Tuesday on 98 for the sports club dot com. I want to talk to a few more
11:16people about it, but he was out there again a ton today. Yep. He's been pretty involved. So
11:24yeah, we'll get again. Pads come on tomorrow. So that's when we can really start evaluating
11:28these guys in the trenches. But the defensive backs, I thought, have been very solid
11:33to start. So we'll get a better look at how this trench work looks when the pads come on.
11:38But anything else you have in your notes there for the defense or we can move on.
11:44Joe Giles Harris had a pick today. Note that credit to him. I think that's pretty much it.
11:50I believe so. All right. So we'll take one very quick break. We'll hear from our friends over at
11:55game time and then we will get back to talk a little of the offense. I got to talk to you guys
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13:22at last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. All right, to the offense. We can talk about the
13:30star in a second of the day, which was one of the rookie wide receivers, but we'll start with the
13:35quarterbacks kind of a erratic day, a shaky day for Drake may, uh, kind of the first time we've
13:43seen that this summer, he had a few passes downfield in the one-on-ones where, you know,
13:48he put a little too much juice on it, overshot a guy. And then that continued in a way in seven
13:53on sevens and 11 on 11s. He had a few misses. I think he overthrew one to, uh, KJ Osborne.
14:00He had like an out route that he threw a little too far from Mitchell Wilcox. He threw one behind
14:04Keishon booty. Who's still caught it. So a little erratic accuracy. Now he's still like made some
14:09good decisions with the football. Like he didn't have any interceptions. Didn't have any turnovers
14:14really didn't put the ball in harm's way. He had a couple of beautiful throws and one-on-ones
14:18downfield, uh, to Keishon booty to Juju Smith Schuster, but just seemed like at times he was a
14:24little too juiced up, put a little too much on, on the ball. Maybe, I don't know if the crowd had
14:30something to do with it. It was the biggest crowd of the day. He was a little amped up, but
14:34that's something we talked a lot with him coming out of college, the footwork, the mechanics,
14:39something just wasn't completely right today. So it'll be interesting. Go in, watch the film,
14:45break it down and see if he can come back tomorrow and kind of correct it just because
14:50again, a few passes, a few too many passes were just, you know, a little too much for
14:54or juice on it today. It seems like, yeah. And that's kind of been his big issue for the first
15:00four days when he's missed, he's missed either long or just like over extending, you know,
15:06two out in front, whatever. I wonder if it's just the adrenaline and being in an NFL camp and,
15:11you know, practicing in front of crowd and all that. And that's obviously got to come down and
15:15he'll learn how to hone that. But yeah, a few bad overthrows in one-on-one, his best start day was
15:20dropped. Like he put one in the basket to Juju Smith Schuster and one-on-ones and that got dropped,
15:24but he had a couple of overthrows there, a couple of overthrows early in team.
15:28He settled in nicely. And this is a positive trend. If you want to take away from Drake may,
15:33when he has misfired, he's bounced back and you've seen that short memory and he hasn't,
15:38you know, the reactions from the mistakes haven't been bad. Um, you know, it was his worst day camp
15:45by default. You have to have a worst day, right? One day has to be the worst.
15:49If this ends up being his worst day of the summer, I would say he had a pretty good summer. So I
15:55don't want this to come across like a five alarm fire. It's not, but yeah, he's just
16:01spraying it a little bit today. And I would say tomorrow he he's in bounce back territory.
16:07Yep. Yeah, definitely was not a, a dumpster fire. We're hitting the panic button again,
16:11no interceptions. There was, I don't know if you've seen, and of course I'm going to bring
16:16up these two guys, but I don't know if you've seen the clips coming out the last two days from
16:20JJ McCarthy and, and, uh, um, Bo Nix, like he didn't have one of those moments.
16:26I saw the, I saw the Bo Nix interception where he threw it like right to the defender.
16:31Stares down triple coverage. Um, so it's, there wasn't one of those moments where it's like,
16:36what the hell is going on? It was just, he was a little bit off on a number on enough
16:42throws where it became notable. Like he w and when I say off, I don't mean,
16:48Oh, it's, you know, a little out in front or whatever. Like he was outside the catch radius.
16:52They weren't these massive misses. He wasn't drilling people on the sideline,
16:56but he was outside the catch radius on enough throws that it was notable.
16:59We'll see how he bounces back tomorrow. Exactly. Yep. But yeah, like the decision making,
17:05it was good. He was going the right place. He would just miss it, uh, here and there. And he
17:10had, I think there were only, again, they were primarily working the short game and teams.
17:15The, the one-on-ones is where they were kind of taking more shots. So there were only
17:19like two downfield completions and he had one of them. It was like a deep crosser to
17:24Jay von Baker, I believe. So, um, not a dumpster fire at all, but you know, just,
17:31it wasn't the cleanest, sharpest day, uh, for Drake may out there, but Jacoby, it was
17:36a little more consistent, especially in the underneath. He had the other deep completion
17:41kind of like, uh, took a kind of like a scramble drill. It wasn't a drill, but he scrambled out
17:46right. And Austin Hooper adjusted to shoot up field and he kind of let one slain. And it was
17:51a very nice catch by Austin Hooper who had a good, good day as well. So, uh, Jacoby still
17:55repping as the starter there looked just a little more, a little more consistent, a little cleaner
18:01in the accuracy department today than may. Yeah. I would say his most consistent day. And this was
18:07a solid day for him and one that he can certainly build on. Now, you know, he's a veteran, he's been
18:12down this road before you like to see that. Um, and yeah, we'll see, you know, the day before pads
18:18come on veteran, just kind of knowing what he needs to do to get himself right. And I think
18:22that's what you saw from Jacoby Brissett today. Yep. And then we still have the quarterback three
18:29competition between Joe Milton and Bailey Zappy. They all, they all rotated today. Like Bailey
18:35Zappy let off sevens and then Joe Milton let off, uh, sevens and then they went back. Yeah,
18:42they each got, yeah, they got the same amount. They each got four, uh, snaps and sevens and five
18:48snaps in 11th and like the order rotated as well. So not much to, you know, look into the rotation
18:56or maybe the pecking order there, but they got the same amount of snaps. And that's something
19:00like you brought up when Milton repped over them the other day, like they got four quarterbacks,
19:05they got to find a way to work all these guys in. They'll probably be rotating a good amount here,
19:09at least early on until maybe one of them separates, uh, from the other Zappy. It was
19:14kind of the Bailey Zappy experience, a lot of, a lot of short stuff. And Milton had the one
19:19interception, uh, to Joe Giles Harris kind of baited them into it. And it was just a short
19:24pass to Baker Giles Harris kind of baited them into it, uh, and stepped in front of it and picked
19:29it off. But these guys are still rotating. They're still like, they're still hammering
19:35it out for QB three duties. It seems like right now. Yeah. And like I said, neither one. Wow.
19:39Today Milton threw his first pick Zappy, you know, nothing spectacular. It wasn't good. He wasn't
19:44bad. He was just kind of there. Um, yeah, you'd like to see maybe Milton built on what he did
19:49yesterday, but just didn't wasn't there today. Not as many opportunities for him as, as there
19:55was yesterday, but had to pick it another bad throw too. That was just a miss in the flat.
20:00Like again, just outside the catch radius. So we'll keep watching that one, but not,
20:06not much to sink your teeth into there today. Yep. Yeah. That miss, I think it was to Petway
20:11like right at, it was the throw right after the interception too. So yeah. Uh, yeah. Well,
20:18we'll keep seeing how, how Joe Milton looks there, but let's talk about the star of the day.
20:23It was Javon Baker, the rookie wide receiver. It's been kind of a quiet camp first three days.
20:30I don't want to say whole camp because it's been three days, but it was a quieter three days. You
20:34know, he missed a lot of the sprain. So he was working his way back and, and, you know, Jalen
20:39Polk was taking a lot of the shine in that, that rookie wide receiver room. But, uh, Baker was
20:44awesome today and one-on-ones he had, you know, the route we talked about earlier against Christian
20:49Gonzalez, which was, you know, tough for Gonzalez, but it was still a nice route by Baker.
20:53And then he had the catch that was, you know, going all around Twitter CLNS. We have it on,
20:58on our Patriots, uh, Twitter. You can go look at it there where it's a deep shot to Jacoby
21:03and you see like that ball tracking ability where he's over the shoulder, he's looking all around
21:07and he hauls it in just an awesome catch. And then he carried that over into the team periods as well.
21:13He was just consistently open throughout, throughout the whole day. You see some of that
21:18athletic, that athletic profile, that twitchiness that he has. He had that crosser, uh, that I
21:23talked about that Drake may hit him on one of the loan, you know, downfield completion. So this was
21:29the best day for, for Baker, probably since we've seen him since he, since he's gotten here and he,
21:35he was just really impressive, kind of stole the show today out there.
21:38Yeah, he, he, he was really good. And I think some of the reason he's been limited early on
21:43Brian, to your point, he missed a lot of the spring. And I think that I'm playing catch up
21:48and he was with, you know, the third and fourth offensive units, and now he's getting more
21:52opportunities. He's making the most of it. And you're seeing the kind of electric playmaker he
21:57can be. And it's, it's that, that deep ball tracking and to go back to the catch he made
22:02on Friday to the ability to climb the ladder and make contested catches. It's exciting. He's a
22:07deep threat, but he's not a burner. The idea is even if the defensive back is on him, he's going
22:13to win those 50, 50 balls. I've said this year, I think the goal with him is for him to be the
22:18player they thought they were getting when they traded for Devante Parker two years ago. So
22:24a tremendous couple of days now when the pads come on and they can be more physical with him,
22:28we'll see, but it's good to see him kind of have this sudden jolt right before the pads get on.
22:34And it's like, all right, he's, it feels like he's caught up after he missed time in the spring.
22:39It, it, it feels like he's now caught up to where he would be if he didn't miss that time.
22:44Yep. I agree with you there. So, uh, good signs from him. He was awesome to Polk was still really
22:49involved as well. I think he was second in receptions during team drills. Um, so he's
22:55still very involved, like out there, a ton repping with the top guys, still no pop Douglas. He's
23:01working back. They're just keeping it kind of cautious. That's how he described it after we
23:05talked to him with that hand injury. So, um, we're still waiting to see pop in those team
23:11drills, I guess, two receivers who have been on the quiet side have been Juju Smith Schuster
23:17and KJ Osborne. I mean, we've seen nothing from Juju. He had the drop in the one-on-ones from
23:24the beautiful pass from Drake May. He let Alex Austin back in and kind of break it up and dropped
23:29it. Just getting no separation and, you know, team, team drills coverage. He's just wearing
23:35coverage right now. Like the juice, there's not much juice in, in, in Juju right now. And that
23:41just, it's tough seeing him on, on this roster right now. And that's probably just a cap hit
23:46that they might have to eat at this point. There's been no football reason for him to be out there
23:52and, or for him to make the team. Like he hasn't given, I'd be out there, like whatever. Yeah.
23:56You have a 90 man camp roster. You might as well see what he has. Um, you might as well run it out
24:01till to roster cuts and see maybe somebody wants to trade for maybe something clicks. But as of
24:07right now, that $9 million, I think is better spent to pay him to be elsewhere and make sure
24:12that Jalen Polk and Jayvon Baker, and even pop Douglas, these young guys have opportunities to
24:17be on the field and be better. He just there, the explosiveness isn't there. He's having issues
24:23with drops. It has not, I mean, it's been as rough of a start, I think, as you could expect
24:30for Juju Smith, Schuster. Yeah. And again, they did, uh, it wasn't like
24:35they did positional drills, but it was like special teams, positional drills.
24:40They had guys field and punts guys like practicing gunner and they're in the middle of the field,
24:46just sitting there with Tyler Hughes was Juju Smith Schuster again, and Jayvon Baker. But
24:51uh, like just a guy who's not, he doesn't give you anything on special teams. And
24:55if you're keeping them for this fifth, sixth receiver spot, we've talked about it so much,
24:58especially when he's competing with a guy like Jalen Rager, who can bring the kick return value,
25:03just again, seeing like seeing that it's just another like strike against them almost in this
25:09battle. But KJ Osborne too thought he's been pretty quiet so far. He had one nice catch and
25:15one-on-ones, but then he came back in teams. He had a drop, uh, and just hasn't been very involved.
25:21It just seems kind of, well, he's been out there. I shouldn't say involved. He's been out there a
25:25lot, but it's just kind of been quiet with him. And I don't know, does that, are you,
25:32I don't know the word. Are you, are you worried about that? Or do you think like he's a veteran?
25:37We'll just kind of wait and see with KJ Osborne. Yeah. And I know this might sound hypocritical
25:41because I just said, Juju shouldn't make the team. And I don't think Osborne has been that bad.
25:45But I think having that veteran presence, they paid them like somebody they have a plan for,
25:50you know, one year deal, 4 million, I think it's like 3.1 guaranteed.
25:55Seems like somebody, the coaching staff is invested in. So I think he's going to be on the
25:58team, but you know, you hope to see a little more, I wonder just as a veteran, as a more physical
26:03receiver, if we see him start to emerge when the pads come on. Yep. Yeah. And that's the big thing
26:08with a lot of these receivers, like you can get over, especially like Jalen Ragers had a good
26:13start, but like, okay, you can get open in a non-padded practice. Let's see when, when,
26:18when the pads come on. So that's going to be a big thing to watch there.
26:23Last thing I had in the receiver room, we got a little more Kendrick Bourne today. He's still
26:28on pup. He was just out there and you know, his, his Jersey didn't have a helmet,
26:33but he was out there for stretch. And then he left departed to the lower field. Then he came
26:38back up later and just played catch with the quarterbacks, but like not partaking in practice
26:42at all. He he's still on the PUP, but maybe he's inching his way back a little bit there. And
26:49if we want to loop tight ends in the past catchers again, like Austin Hooper was
26:54very consistent today, had a few nice catches. The one downfield, he had maybe the best,
26:58just the smoothest play of the day on a, on a like crosser over the middle from Jacobi Brissett.
27:03So he's someone, he, he has the chemistry with Brissett. That's pretty apparent.
27:08And he looks kind of locked into those tight end two duties right now.
27:12Yeah, he was, he was good. Um, he was good today and, and him and Brissett, like you said,
27:16had that chemistry. They didn't play together in Cleveland, but I just think both having been in
27:21the offense, there's a, a level of comfort for both of them that, that can lead to chemistry
27:26quicker. Uh, and you know, I was talking about this with Matt dollop on the, uh, on our recap
27:31show, you could check that out over on the sports of YouTube page, Johnny Smith, uh, uh,
27:39we can go back to Scott Chandler, like just waiting for some sort of production from the
27:43second tight end. And it's just one day of flash from Austin Hooper, but we're so desperate for
27:48those second tight end numbers that, all right, let's see it. I'm in, I'm in, I'm buying in,
27:53I'm invested. I'd call it more than one day. He's had a few good days. He's been pretty involved.
27:59I'd say the sprain was the sprain was quiet, but I'd say he's been pretty involved throughout the
28:04four days of camp here. So, uh, good start for Austin Hooper. I'd say this was probably
28:10Jaheim Bell's best day. I don't know if he did. I don't think I had him for any catches in teams,
28:15but he won two or three reps pretty decisively and one-on-ones including one, like he went over
28:20Josh blood. So, and kind of muscled it away. So, uh, maybe that's kind of starting to turn the page
28:26there for Jaheim Bell. And maybe once he gets the pads on and gets a little more of those run after
28:30catch, uh, opportunities, uh, we'll start to see a little bit more from him there.
28:36But, uh, any last thoughts on any of the past catchers receivers, tight ends? I think we hit
28:42pretty much everyone in that room, but, uh, your guy, Mitchell Wilcox, anything on him or
28:47any of those past catchers? Uh, he had, he had one today that I thought he should have caught in,
28:51like the, like the, I don't remember who the defensive back was. I want to say it was Joe
28:55Jow's Harris, but he was just kind of all over the place today. I might be defaulting to that.
28:59He had one where he let the player in coverage, maybe a little too inside and knocked the ball
29:03out, but he's still out there a ton. So yeah, he's playing a lot. He was on the, uh, starting
29:09pump block team too on special teams. So they have, they have a spot for him. They he's been
29:13out there a lot, but, uh, let's talk. Oh, line. But before we do that, we're going to take one
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30:38All right. Offensive line for the first time this summer of the same combination up front
30:44two days in a row or two practices in a row, I should say, because
30:48Caden Wallace is back at left tackle chooks, a core for stayed at right tackle.
30:53So we have some continuity. It looks like going into the first padded practice, you figure if
30:59they're running this the last two days, they should stick with this on the first padded practice. I'd
31:04say the results were a little bit better too. There weren't too many complete breakdowns or
31:09pressure plays. So maybe that's a sign, uh, you know, you, you stick with the same unit and the
31:14play starts to increase a little bit, but is that the five you think that's going to be out there
31:20tomorrow? And how do you feel about that? That five. And again, the interior three have been
31:24the same with city. So David Andrews, Michael, when you left to right, but, uh, we saw the same
31:29tackle pair, two practices in a row there with Caden Wallace and chooks core for at left and
31:34right tackle. This might be their best group. You know, if they think.
31:39What, uh, Wallace has the athleticism to make the move to left tackle, you know, you nap either way,
31:47even if it's chooks at left and him at right, you're only playing one guy out of position, but
31:52hopefully you have four guys in really solid spots. Like there's no, there's one guy, I guess,
31:58would you rather have, let me phrase this way, because I don't know, push back on this.
32:02Would you rather have two guys, both making one adjustment or one guys make one guy making two
32:07adjustments? Because if it's a core for left and Wallace at right, a core force making the
32:12adjustment, right to left. And Wallace is making the adjustment college to the pros.
32:16Although he's doing it as natural position. Now you have four guys all playing their position,
32:22all playing positions. They play well, three playing positions. They played in the NFL
32:26city. So it's going from right guard to left guard, but that's not nearly as significant
32:29a move. Like I'm good with that. And he's done that in college. He did in college.
32:34And now you have Kane Wallace is the only guy who's really making a major adjustment,
32:38but it's a major adjustment going from right to left college to the NFL.
32:46But there's that like old kind of philosophy that if you protect, if you just have one guy,
32:52you have to kind of protect and help. You can get by with that. You're not going to have,
32:58you know, a five man rush is a blitz. You're not going to have a ton of constant, you know,
33:02five man rush one-on-one blocking situations. Um, so like, it's a big adjustment for Wallace,
33:10but I almost feel like neither of these are great. Let's be clear about that, but this might
33:15be the best way to go about it because you can sort of protect Wallace and ease them along because
33:20you, you feel decent about where the other four guys are at just because they've been there,
33:25done that before. If that makes sense, maybe you disagree. Maybe people disagree and would say
33:29it's too big of a jump to go from college right tackle to NFL left tackle.
33:34And I understand that argument, but just looking at all their situations, I think this is the best
33:39one. Yeah. I think I'm kind of with you. I don't, I go back and forth on, on the tackles a lot as we,
33:47as we all do, but yeah, I think if you have four guys and four veteran guys or, you know, city,
33:53so he's, he's played a lot. He played a good amount of football, good football last year.
33:57So if you have four guys who have, who have done it a lot at their natural spots, and then
34:04like, they seem confident in Caden Wallace at the left side, like since the draft, they got on
34:08our zoom right after and told us he was playing left. So maybe this is the best combination, but
34:15don't you wish then Caden Wallace is playing left at least all throughout the spring.
34:19Like that isn't that kind of weird how they said he was going to play left tackle. And then we get
34:23to the spring and he barely reps left tackle. And now we're back to him at left tackle the day
34:29before the pads come on. You know what, if he sticks there when the pads come on, cause that's
34:33when the real development happens. Fine. Like it's a little bit of a longer road to get there
34:38than maybe it needed to be, but we're here. Right, right. Like, okay, sure. You're going to
34:44develop him as the left tackle when the pads come on. Fine. Like, all right. I get, again,
34:50none of it's great, but I guess, sure. This is, it's not the worst path.
34:56It's just where we're at right now. Uh, I will say we talked to Caden Wallace today and it was,
35:02I guess, encouraging. He said the two things he's been working on, uh, is his kickstep and not
35:08opening his hips too soon. And then his hand placement, which those were like the two big
35:12weaknesses. Most people said about him coming into the draft. And he said, you know, Scott Peters,
35:18we've heard from everyone who's talked about Scott Peters, how technical he is with his hands.
35:21You know, he has that jujitsu, uh, background, uh, Caden Wallace was saying he has like a strike
35:27plan that helps against everyone. He says it's made him in his hand placement better. So, uh,
35:32who knows, maybe he'll just be a really good left tackle and all of our problems will go away all
35:36of a sudden. Uh, that seems to be again, they've ran this, this five, two days in a row now with
35:43Caden Wallace at left and chooks core for at right. So that seems to be at least the plan
35:48here. We said, have your five going into the first day of padded practice. Uh, and that looks like
35:54this might be their plan with those five. And now like the real evaluation kind of starts when the
35:59pads come on and we can get a better sense, sense of these guys up front there. But, um,
36:06the only other offensive line thing I really had is he got to figure out the backup center
36:10and they missed Jake Andrews. Antonio mafia was back, uh, rep in there today.
36:16And he had a couple, your addict snaps one, like Bailey's happy. I had to reach out with his right
36:20hand and snag. So I don't know why they're not playing Charles Turner there. He's playing right
36:25guard while mafia is playing center. I don't know if this is just, they're trying to make mafia work,
36:30but like Charles Turner started 25 games at center for LSU the last two years. So
36:36you figured he could snap the ball, but that that's again, kind of just an underrated thing
36:40that's going on here. And you'd assume it will get better when Jake Andrews comes back, even
36:45though we don't know much about his situation, he's been on the pop. Uh, he wasn't participating
36:49at the end of spring practices, but, uh, that's just something that's been kind of continuing
36:55throughout the summer here so far was that backup center spot. Yeah. And I mean, how many times I
37:00said this, right? As much as we talk about the starters being a question, who's backing these
37:03guys up? Well, so I think the good news, like this all comes together. So now that we hopefully
37:10settled on a five, right? You can also get that second five working together. And it looks like
37:15that's going to be the dairy and low Calvin Anderson. And I still think there's a backup
37:19center battle between mafia and Nick Leverett, but like, you can figure that out now because
37:25you kind of know, all right, Michael, when it was going to be at guard. So you don't need
37:28Leverett repping with the ones and everything can start to fall into place. How good it ultimately
37:34looks. I still think there's a ceiling just because of the talent level, but you can start
37:39putting the pieces together. Now that you set, hopefully set, okay, these are the five we're
37:44going to work with for the time being. I'd give him a week or I'd give him like called through
37:48the first preseason game. And if it's just not good, then you would dress from there.
37:52But even if they have a bad day tomorrow, I'll tell you they had a bad day tomorrow,
37:57but I'll also say, I want to see him again, because you got to give him a chance to build
38:01some chemistry and build some continuity. Yeah. Again, like it wasn't perfect today in
38:06team drills and again, they're not wearing pads, but it seemed better. There were less
38:09negative plays up front and you have to say like, okay, they use the same five, two days in a row.
38:15And it got a little better. Is that a coincidence? Like maybe not, maybe they're starting to see this
38:19thing, uh, better last thing on the depth there. Did it surprise you at all that the dairy and low
38:25was the backup right tackle? Cause the difference with him, the splits last year between left and
38:31right or night and day. Now maybe this is just, they think Calvin Anderson's a better player and
38:35they'd rather be repping him at left tackle in case, you know, he's got to bump up to that top
38:39unit. But, uh, did that, you know, the third tackle is going to be big here with the question
38:44marks at tackle one and tackle two, uh, David area and the dairy and low on the right side
38:50kind of surprise you there. Yeah. But I, I wonder if some of it's cross training too.
38:54Yep. Let's see what that looks like as we go on. Yep. Uh, I think that's it. Offensive line.
39:01Uh, last thing I said, I'll say on the offense, we got Antonio Gibson and Terrell Jennings are
39:07back today. They got activated off the NFI and the pop list respectively. Uh,
39:12Gibson was pretty involved. They just kind of threw him right back in. Uh, didn't make any
39:17like splash plays again. We'll see more of the running backs and pads come on, but just good to
39:21see him out there and they threw him kind of right into the fire. So whatever he was dealing
39:25with probably wasn't, uh, anything major as we were told and just good to see him back out there
39:31today. Yeah. And he, he started getting involved and you know, we both think he could be a big
39:36part of the offense. So good to see him get back out again, like before the pads come on, that's
39:40kind of the, you want to be out there for those real meaningful practices. Yeah. I would say he
39:44made it back by the time he needed to get back. Yep. All right. Anything else on the offense?
39:50Um, I think that pretty much I'll say one thing I had just with May's group, there were two
39:58procedural penalties. One looked like a substitution error. We did have the first
40:03lap at camp. Yeah. Yeah. Layton Robinson had a false start and then they looked,
40:08I don't know if it was a substitution error. No one ran a lap, so I don't think it was a penalty,
40:11but Tyler Hughes like ran on the field and then pulled someone. So it looked like there
40:16was some communication and they had a re huddle. So just, uh, some minor things there with, uh,
40:21with that was in Drake May's group again, but, uh, I believe that was it for the offense.
40:28I was running through, running through my notes here. Uh, yeah, I think that's it. So, uh, special
40:36teams, we saw someone said, save us Connor McDermott. Did he sign anywhere? Uh, I don't
40:42think so. Right. Well, we'll, we'll get the class. If we want to get the band back together,
40:47Nathan Rourke just got cut by the giants. There we go. There we go. Connor McDermott is still a
40:52free agent. Okay. Well, we'll be seeing him in week eight and it'll give us like three solid
40:58weeks of right tackle and then get hurt or something. But can he play defensive tackle?
41:03Maybe he's a big boy. He's a big guy out there. He could, well, maybe he's got something in them,
41:08but, uh, let's wrap this up with some special teams. We saw live field goals again, and both
41:15Chad Ryland and Joey Sly went three of four. They missed their first kicks, uh, from 32 yards out.
41:21Joey Sly banged the left upright and then Chad Ryland pushed his wide, right? So both three of
41:27four, Joey Sly also went first today. I wouldn't read too much into that. I think they were just
41:32rotating, especially because Chad Ryland had the better day on Friday. I'd read into it a little
41:38bit. I'd read into it a little bit. Not that he's the starter, but they're rotating. Ryland's not
41:44first one up. Like this is a 50 competition. This is a competition. Yeah. Yeah. That that's fair.
41:50But, um, yeah, two misses from 32 yards. That's, that's not ideal, but they made,
41:55yeah, they made their last three. They ended at 42 yards. So, um, still a competition. Ryland
42:01seven of eight and Sly six of eight to this point in training camp. So we'll keep an eye on them.
42:06And we got pun times, Bryce Behringer kind of first live, uh, punting session of the summer.
42:13Alex had the stopwatch, anything from Bryce. I know there was one funky rotation. One that stood
42:18out to me caused a muff there, but anything from Bryce today stand out to you and your stopwatch.
42:26Just, I mean, he looked good overall in that one punt. I mean, just a crazy
42:30axis rotation. I mean, the way that ball was spinning and just the overall power he got on it,
42:36Jalen Polk was the returner and he had to kind of run back and catch it over his shoulder.
42:40And then on top of that, dealing with the rotation, he muffed it. So Bryce Behringer,
42:45no rust, no rust. He looks ready to go. Yep. And that was the same in the spring too. I'm not just
42:50facing that off one period. Yep. And the only thing punt thing, uh, Jalen Hawkins was first
42:56up for a personal protector with Marty Mopu. He was still, he's limited or something. He was out
43:02there and his jersey, his jersey again, but he, he hasn't participated. I don't think he had a
43:08helmet today, so he he's limited as well. So, uh, that's a role of personal protector that Hawkins
43:13and mop who have kind of been rotating. And that was, uh, Hawkins today. There's still no kickoffs.
43:17We haven't seen any of the new kickoffs. They're probably working on that behind the scenes. And,
43:22uh, maybe they want to wait for the pads to come on because that could kind of be a run play too,
43:26right? You got to see how, how you block that. So hopefully we get that at some point you imagine
43:31they have to do it at some point out there, but no kickoffs to a report on to date yet through
43:36four practices there. But yeah, I still don't think we're going to see it. I think that's
43:41a behind you don't think at all, like at all, maybe a little bit, but I think teams are just
43:46going to kick touchbacks in the preseason and, you know, really bring it out week one.
43:50So I don't, we'll see one or two periods, but I don't think we're going to, that's going to be
43:56something we have to learn as the season goes. Yep. So that'll be fun to continue to break down,
44:01but, uh, yeah, the access there might be kind of limited throughout the summer because those teams
44:06might get, or they should get pretty creative with, with, with how that goes there. I don't
44:11know when we talk to coaches next, probably soon, but that's something we do. Yeah. Yeah. Cause
44:18we talked to them in once in the spring, we haven't talked to them
44:22since camp started yet. So we'll probably do pretty soon there. That's something we
44:25could ask Jeremy Springer and those special teams coaches, uh, there, but I believe that's all I
44:32have any last notes from you over there on day four here before we wrap it up.
44:37I mean, I'm just excited for tomorrow, man. Yep. Pads are on
44:42that first time you hear pads crack together. That's always a fun day. So,
44:46you know, if you're looking for a day to come out, I know it's a Monday, but tomorrow's definitely
44:49the day to get out to training camp did have fans in the overflow today. So that was good to see,
44:53but, uh, we're going to have a lot to break down tomorrow and I'll say it. I know I was
44:57a little down on Drake may today. I'm feeling Drake may bounce back tomorrow. I'm feeling
45:03I love the call or whatever that's worth. I love the call. It looks like the rain's
45:07going to stop right at 11 too. So it's supposed to rain. Well, it says rainfall pads. That's real
45:14ball right there. But football, it says like 30 to 40% from six to 10 AM. And then it stops at 11.
45:21So, um, we'll see ball security tomorrow, ball security. Hopefully we don't have many laps,
45:28but someone said, Alex, just jinx Drake may, I hope not, or I'm coming here. If he's bad
45:33tomorrow, I'm coming on here and just blaming you, uh, right away, but we'll wrap it up.
45:38Oh, you're too negative. The sports a little boy. Try being positive. Oh, you're jinxing it.
45:44How dare you pick a one, but we'll all yell at you. Everyone tweeted Alex tomorrow. If Drake
45:49may is bad. If you get bad practice reports about Drake may, but, uh, we'll wrap it up there.
45:54Uh, from day four, we'll be back tomorrow. Uh, the show like this will be live from Gillette
46:02on Tuesday for a crossover, but just a regular Pat's beat tomorrow for first day in pads.
46:08Uh, make sure you walk on do Patriots CLNS on Twitter and Patriots press pass on YouTube. So
46:14you get notified when we are going live. You can also follow Alex on Twitter at real Alex Barth
46:20head to 95, the sports hub.com for his training camp coverage. And you can follow me on Twitter
46:25at I am Brian Heinz and head over to Pat's pulpit.com for our written Patriots coverage
46:30over there as well. Thanks everyone for tuning in with us tonight, and we will see you tomorrow
46:36after day five and the first day in pads. Bye.