Two days of practice down and I caught glimpses of both of them, but today training camp gets real in full pads. I’m looking forward to getting an uninterrupted look at team on Sunday, but will likely roll through Saturday to at least hear the crack of some pads.
Belichick had a classic presser today. Just look at some of his savagery:
You know, you guys are asking a lot of questions about what have we seen from ‘this’ guy, what are we seeing from ‘that’ guy. We’ve yet to put on pads, alright? I understand that this is a pretty talented group of evaluators in this room, but in all honesty our evaluations come more in training camp when we actually practice… So I know everybody’s all excited when a guy catches a pass, but when the defense doesn’t jam him or their not allowed to really, because we don’t want heavy contact out there, aren’t competing for contact at the end of the play then it’s not quite the same as when all of that’s going on… The competitive level out there is not what it’s going to be starting tomorrow, so to evaluate players competitively when they’re not on a competitive level, I have a hard time with. But I know a lot of the people are real good at that and they can make a lot more out of it than I can, but due to my personal limitations and my personal inability to make those evaluations, I don’t make them.
Fire.
What I find most interesting at this point is who’s out there when and getting a better sense of how the depth chart has settled after an offseason of work.
Some notes on that:
— If Hightower is out we’re going to see a lot of Jonathan Freeny. He seems firmly atop the depth chart without Hightower practicing, even seeing time with the top sub defense alongside Van Noy. Factor in he plays all the special teams and it’s hard not to think how glowingly Belichick spoke of Freeny after giving him an extension last year.
“One of our, I’d say, overall top workers in terms of the offseason program, preparation, training. Always does things right. Works hard. Doesn’t say a lot but is very dependable and consistent. I think everybody in the organization looks up to him.”
— Shea McClellin also seems like the kind of unspectacular guy who never gets hurt so he always ends up playing more than you think he should. I worry about the Patriots defense without Hightower.
— Eric Rowe made some plays on the ball in the first two practices, he’s studying the slot position after being only an outside corner last season. Cyrus Jones looked good at corner on Friday, while Jonathan Jones still looks like the top slot off the bench.
— The flexibility the Patriots have with their safeties is remarkable. Their three safety look with Chung-McCourty-Harmon is so in sync. It’s really devalued the slot position somewhat anyway. But again, like with Hightower, an injury to Chung would quickly limit the defense.
— Jordan Richards has gotten his hands on some balls and it’s a good thing he’s showing up out of the gate. I think he’s firmly on then bubble, but strangely, if something were to happen to Chung he might see time on defense.
— Dion Lewis heard his name being tossed around the trade block in the media, telling Greg Bedard:
“I know I’m capable of being a way different player than I was last year,” Lewis said after Friday’s practice. “Hopefully I’m just able to build every day here in camp.
“And then I’ll show some people some stuff,” he added with a big smile.
Thinking back on the Super Bowl, if you swapped Lewis into what James White did I think it would’ve fit my narrative far better. Nothing against White, who proved wrong every doubt I had, but if you told me before the game a Patriots running back would put on a show I wouldn’t have hesitated to say it would be Lewis. And I still wouldn’t be surprised to see him have the better season than White. But some think he could get cut? Madness.
This weekend I’m excited to see the rookies and how they handle themselves with pads. This is where we start to get a sense of how these guys stack up at the NFL level.
Much more to come as we can start to evaluate now. I think?
