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Tweets of Note

Tweets of Note: Patriots Training Camp Practice #7

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The dog days of training camp are here. Guys are in and out of practices, making it difficult to know just who’s actually injured and who’s just being managed. But the good news is that one week from today we’ll get our first preseason game and things will really start to take shape.

Here are the tweets that stood out today:

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Tweets of Note: Patriots Training Camp Practice #6

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After an off day yesterday, the Patriots were back at it in full pads today. One significant injury addition is Donald Brown, who was seen talking with trainers on Monday night and was absent today. With Dion Lewis still out on PUP, and LeGarrette Blount being eased back from a hip injury this leaves the two RBs we limped to the finish with last year (White & Bolden), Tyler Gaffney, who’s missed his first two seasons with injuries and undrafted rookie (who’s primarily a pass-catcher) DJ Foster.

My worries about the running back position are well-documented and I hoped that maybe Donald Brown could revive his career, though I wasn’t expecting it. Now that Brown is out the lack of healthy depth is pretty glaring. I sincerely expect at least one more addition at the position and probably more over the course of the season.

Anyway, here are the tweets that stood out from today’s practice:

 

Happy Bday, Tom. I guess. 39. One away from 40. Can we give him Benjamin Button disease now please?

Mitchell continues to show up. My biggest hope is that he can stay healthy, because missing any practice time at this point could really set him back. With Chris Hogan now nursing an injury, Mitchell’s reps should only increase. Really excited to see him play next week.

Kuhn’s been showing up a lot in the early days, getting plenty of reps with the top unit next to Brown. He was under the radar this offseason, but is an experienced pro and could carve out a role for himself.

Don’t think anyone will be complaining about Cannon taking a back seat.

Generally most of us saw it as Jones vs. Roberts for the fifth spot and so far that’s played out. Long way to go still.

Good to have the big man back.

Another real surprise is just how solid Thuney has been. Those are two really good defensive tackles, both with different styles. Thuney stopping both of them is really noteworthy. I’m excited about the rookie.

Rep report!

Tweets of Note: Patriots Training Camp Practice #4

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The Patriots were back on the field in full pads and under pouring rain for their fourth training camp practice on Sunday. The injuries continue to add up, though it would appear they’ve avoided any season-enders so far.

As always, injuries are the great equalizer that no one can ever see coming. We spend all offseason wondering how certain new additions will contribute and then boom, a few days into camp and down they go. We’ll continue to monitor those situations as guys return and/or disappear.

Here are the tweets that stood out today:

 

Minor buzzkill here. Hopefully it’s nothing more than a stinger and not something like a low grade separated shoulder that’s going to linger all season.

Starting to believe Nink to LB is more than rounding our emergency depth. He played some outside linebacker in his first couple years with the Pats, so it wouldn’t be that much of a departure. Still wondering how they use him with Hightower and Collins since all seem to be more OLBs and I’m praying that Jonathan Freeny isn’t still set to play a significant role at MLB.


  Keshawn Martin better get back quick, he’s at the bottom of the 53-man as it is and Dobson and Carter are both standing out early. Stork’s inability to make it through a training camp without getting dinged is growing worrisome.

This is going to be fun this year. If the Pats get full seasons out of both Gronk and Bennett I don’t see how they’re not in the Super Bowl come February.

Excited to see Carter in preseason games. He’s going to get a ton of playing time. Dobson stood out today as well and he’s another one to see how he looks in a game. I don’t need to harp on him every day with “he looked good, but he’s looked good before and then drops the ball or falls down or gets hurt.” You get it by this point. We’ll see.

Recurring theme of the coverage from camp is how Thuney has stepped right into things and looked like he fits. Would be nice to get some consistency out of the guard spot. Since Mankins left there really hasn’t been a consistent anchor on the inside.

Mitchell was out of practice yesterday but back today, so that’s a good sign for him. He, Thuney and Cyrus Jones have all garnered positive attention from the rookie class. 

Looking forward to hearing Faulk’s speech tomorrow night and we’ll have Rick Starke there to cover it for the blog.

And lastly, late-breaking tweet…

Tweets of Note: Patriots Training Camp Practice #2

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The Pats were back at it today, still in shells and helmets. Tomorrow the pads come on and that’s what we’re all really looking forward to.

Here are the tweets that stood out most from Friday’s practice:

My money’s on Ben Volin who asked this question of Garoppolo could take Brady’s starting job. Classic Belichick response. And I still just don’t get idiots who purposely ask questions that they know will draw BB’s ire. I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of these kind of questions either. Just imagine if Jimmy does look really good in the four games.

And yes, Belichick is once again rocking the 2013 hoodie that he had on yesterday. The sleeves are incredibly short. Considering he didn’t wear a cutoff hoodie at all last year this is quite the development. I have a feeling this is the same mock 2013 sweatshirt he busted out late last season. Then he had only cut out the collar of it. Now it looks like he really let his sleeve-cutting freak flag fly.

Garoppolo has quite the quick release and anyone who thinks he can’t get the job done in the first four games of the season is kidding themselves. He should know the offense at this point and has two of the best tight ends in the game at his disposal. I’m really looking forward how he does. And not really in the preseason. I want to see him in the regular season with a full gameplan designed around his skillset.

Lewis is the one to watch but they should of course be smart with him. I think we’ll see him mid-camp and they’ll ease him back in slowly.

That’s a good sign. The season-long health of those two is critical.

Harper ready to put his muff in Denver behind him? Very curious to see how Hogan looks compared to what we saw from LaFell in 2014.

One of the under-the-radar guys that we need to keep any eye. I continue to believe developing a “get-open-quick” guy behind Edelman and Amendola is vital, even if someone like Carter or Harper are on the Edelman-esque four-year development plan.
 

Back and forth and back and forth, all summer long we go.

This one will be going back and forth all summer. Gotta admit I’m rooting for Stork just because he’s such a Belichick weirdo type. Short shorts. Great beard. Zero to say to the media. He’s as close to Logan Mankins as we’ve got right now.

Tweets of Note: Patriots Training Camp Day #1

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And we’re off! The long, cold offseason is over and the Patriots are back on the field. Truth be told, I have a love/hate relationship with training camp. I can’t see anything for myself because I’m not there. Thus we have to rely on the reporters who are there and take their collective opinions and observations to get a sense of how things are shaking out.

But football is back and it’s hard to really complain about anything at the moment. Here are the tweets that stood out most from practice number one.

This was to be expected and I still think that Ninkovich will skew more DE while McClellin will skew more toward LB. The hard thing for offenses will be identifying who’s who before the snap, especially if the Pats throw some changeups at them. Know how a quarterback always picks out the “mike” before the snap? Yeah, we still have no idea who the Patriots mike will be at this point.
 

 Strange subplot but likely nothing. Tom E. Curran mentioned it was not contract related so Collins must be working through some minor issue they don’t want to exacerbate at this point in training camp.


  Gotta love the support from Belichick and the Patriots for Ebner’s Olympic pursuits.

 Kline, Mason and Jackson are all working their way back from offseason injury issues so this is far from written in stone. Still, it wouldn’t be a bad combination to enter the regular season with. Logan Mankins stepped right in at left guard as a rookie, maybe Thuney can do the same. 

Yeah, Dobson making impressive catches in the red zone is nothing new. He’s got good size and uses it to his advantage. Where his game has traditionally fallen apart (aside from when he’s hurt) is in the other 80 yards of field where he has demonstrated little after-the-catch playmaking ability. Even last season, his third year as a pro, he continued to catch the ball with arms, often double-catching it, and rarely making anything happen in the open field. So no matter how many nice catches in the end zone he makes, he still has a lot to prove if he wants to make the roster.

 Everyone seems so concerned with how the quarterback reps will play out. Seems kinda pointless to me. Obviously both guys need work with the 1s and I’m sure Belichick and McDaniels will know how to divide up the reps so they both are comfortable with all the receivers. Tracking who plays with who when seems like an exercise in futility, but so does a good chunk of football coverage these days.

This is going to be one heck of a position battle to watch. Never have the Pats had so much interesting depth at cornerback. They’re well prepared to deal with injuries. And with Logan Ryan in a red no-contact jersey, we’ll see a lot of rotation both outside and inside, with the probably exception of Malcolm Butler.

Tweets of Note from Monday Patriots OTA

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Today was the final OTA practice open to the media, so it’s the last time we’ll see the Patriots on the field until training camp, just over a month away. Two big headlines from today was the return of three players — Rob Gronkowski, Dion Lewis and Shaq Mason.

Not sure what was going on with Gronkowski and why he was missing from mandatory minicamp last week, but it doesn’t seem like anything too serious. The horrible media pundits can go back to trying fabricate the “Gronk’s unhappy with his contract” hot take they all seem so obsessed with.

Lewis’ return is excellent news, and brings back memories of Wes Welker returning to OTAs during the 2010 offseason, just five months removed from tearing his ACL. Welker was ready to go in Week 1 of the 2010 season but the Patriots still managed his snaps early in the year and I’d expect the same of Lewis. But the fact that he was on the field, running and cutting, is a good one no matter how you spin it.

Here are some more tweets of note:

Jones is a popular pick for this year’s UDFA to make the roster. I’ll be very curious to see how he compares to Darryl Roberts. Those two could be fighting for the last CB roster spot.

 

 

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