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Tweets of Note from Thursday’s Patriots OTA Practice

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We’re getting a few glimpses of football as the Patriots take the field this week for OTAs. It’s a refreshing reminder that training camp opens in just a little over two months. Most of that time will be spent in a football void, but for now, there’s actually some tidbits to digest, even if this was a no-pads light session.

Remember, it’s important to never read too much into all the practice reports at this stage. This is a teaching phase, about getting everyone on the same page, and less about competition.

Still, it’s hard not to speculate, especially after reading some of the tweets you’ll find below which might give us some clues about how things will look once things get real.

rob gronkowski gronk spike

Here’s the tweets that stood out.


It’s a little surprising to see Mitchell, Gostkowski and Cardona out, all seemed to end the year healthy. But as we often see, there can be plenty of clean up surgeries that go unreported so let’s hope all three are ready to go in a couple months. Hightower and Branch should always be on the veteran plan at this time of year. Preserving those two for the long season is critical.


One of the big questions this year is how the Pats replace the slot snaps that Logan Ryan took. Jones started to see some snaps on defense toward the end of the regular season and showed up well. While I still think Cyrus Jones and Justin Coleman should be in the mix, along with the option of sliding Malcolm Butler inside, Jones could be a dark horse. But again, this is the time to throw him in there and get him comfortable so he can compete at full speed this summer.


Foster is part of a log jam behind White and Lewis, but he’s certainly popped up making plays each time he’s gotten a chance going back to last year. There’s some speculation that Lewis could be trade bait, something I’m not so sure about, but if Foster continues to make plays it could make more sense to move Lewis, who is in the last year of his deal.


This is going to be fun to watch in camp this summer. The corners and receivers are all really good and competitive. Iron sharpens iron, right?


Okay, I know I said don’t read too much into any of this but Cyrus picking up right where he left off with his punt return struggles is no good.


Great news on Gronk, but let’s just hope they can keep him healthy for the full season. That’s in everyone’s interest now with his incentive-laden new deal.