Late this rainy Monday morning on the practice fields of Gillette Stadium Jerod Mayo’s first training camp of his first season running the show in Foxborough will take a massive step forward.
After four days of underwhelming if not necessarily meaningless practice in shorts and helmets, New England will finally don shoulder pads for actual tried-and-true contact that is oh-so-necessary in the building of a football team that’s building toward a critical 2024 season.
Business is about to pick up, as they say in the pro wrestling world.
And it might just be a reality check for all those on and around the practice fields, maybe even a harsh reality check if we’re being honest.
Even just in normal camp practice, well before the work of joint practices, preseason play and eventually regular season revelations, padded practice action will bring us closer to answers regarding so many of the questions facing Mayo’s questionable Patriots.
And if we’re being honest, many throughout Patriot Nation may not really like the answers we begin to get this week.
Nowhere are the pads and contact practice action more telling than on the offensive line. That five-man group is the biggest question facing New England this July and August. Yes, even bigger than Drake Maye’s development. Bigger even than Alex Van Pelt’s new-look offense.
The offensive line has two players that are proven commodities in leader and captain David Andrews and best overall player Mike Onwenu, regardless of whether he’s at right tackle or bumps inside to his natural guard position.
After that 40-percent foundation there is and should be 100-percent concern.
Can Penn State rookie right tackle Caedan Wallace jump over to the left side as the organization seems to think? Did the Nittany Lions really have two NFL left tackles on one college offense line? We’re gonna get closer to finding out now that pads are on and the pass rush is real.
In fact, both tackle spots will be in the spotlight now that the pass pro and run blocking are worth watching. Wallace, veteran newcomer Chukwuma Okorafor, returning vet Calvin Anderson, Vederian Lowe and others will all get shots in one-on-one drills and team action to prove they are worthy of the early reps in a group that feels like it might just be a work in progress for months more than just weeks. Scott Peters’ offensive line feels like an old episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show – “You get a shot at tackle! And you get a shot at tackle!”
If big-man line battles aren’t your thing, do not fret.
There are plenty of other aspects of this rebuilding football squad in the critical crosshairs now that the preordained “competition” that Mayo has highlighted reaches a full-contact level where all involved can actually compete.
Rookie QB Drake Maye is obviously going to see the speed and physicality of the game grow, his reads becoming more difficult in the back end while the defensive front players look to make his life more difficult by the snap. Jacoby Brissett has been here and done this all before. Maye, well, he may be in store for a rude practice field awakening.
Maybe the most competitive position on the field early this summer, the wide receiver battle could and should begin to crystalize as guys prove they can transfer early success into actual production against defensive backs who now have more physicality in their tool box at and after the snap. Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Reagor and rookies Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker have flashed when it’s easy to flash in glorified two-hand-touch practice action. Is the group really the worst in the NFL? Or maybe ready to open some eyes with its youthful potential?
In terms of the running game, finally we’ll see a sampling of what Van Pelt has in mind for his Cleveland-to-New England offense that will have Rhamondre Stevenson in the Nick Chubb starring role in the backfield. Will Stevenson’s skills mesh with the scheme behinds the makeshift (the F in that word is key) line to make beautiful running game music? Or at least a good enough rushing attack to keep things close for a team built around its defense?
Oh, and about that defense? Is budding star Christian Gonzalez ready to shoulder the load in the back end with should pads on? Is Keion White really ready for some massive Year 2 Jump? Are Matthew Judon and Davon Godchaux invested in the work pads without a greater investment in their contracts from the team?
We’re about to find out.
For better (fingers crossed!) or worse, Patriots training camp practice is about to take things up a notch this week.
The physicality-free fun first few days of practice are over.
The pads are now one.
Real football is here.
The Patriots and their training camp fans are about to take another big step toward figuring out exactly what New England might have in store for 2024.
Strap ‘em on and strap in in, folks!
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