Patriots notes, quotes, and anecdotes: It’s Training Camp week!

Good morning, happy Sunday, and welcome back into another edition of ‘Patriots notes, quotes, & anecdotes’. We’re back with another column hitting on all of the happenings surrounding the New England Patriots. 

Here we go:

---

— Questions heading into Training Camp.

The Patriots begin training camp this coming Wednesday, July 24, with practice starting at 11:00 a.m. sharp, marking the official start of the 2024 season.

Prior to camp, we’ll hear from head coach Jerod Mayo on Tuesday for a press conference kicking off the summer. He’ll be followed up at the podium by veterans David Andrews, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Jacoby Brissett, and Jonathan Jones.

There are a multitude of questions heading into this all-important Patriots season. In fact, Taylor Kyles and I did an entire video segment on them (that you can check out over at Patriots Press Pass on Youtube).

I also asked my Twitter audience what their biggest questions are. Here are some of the responses:

• @nepatriotstalk1: Is Kayshon Boutte healthy? Is his head right?
• @Cmercs5: How does the offensive line look and play? Does that affect when Drake Maye will play?
• @GonzoSzn0: Will rookie WR Javon Baker play at all this season?
• @xTeamZuleta24x: Are they going to address their cornerback depth?
• @daysbwtweenus: Can Jerod Mayo coach?
• @SportsExtraDG: How has Drake Maye progressed?
• @PatsFanKev: Where does Marcus Jones fit into the defense?

Plenty of questions. No answers yet. We’ll start to get some next week.

— Reporting for duty.

As is tradition, the Patriots’ rookies arrived at training camp early. Drake Maye, Ja’Lynn Polk, and the rest of the bunch reported to Gillette Stadium on Friday to embark on their first NFL season. Here are some photos of their arrival (via Patriots.com):

— New front office, coaching staff made official.

The Patriots made their new-look front office and coaching officially official last Tuesday in a press release, and while there’s nothing groundbreaking to report on, some titles and promotions were made official.

Matt Groh’s title is, in fact, still director of player personnel — and Alonzo Highsmith will serve as a “senior personnel executive.” Highsmith spent 2012-2019 alongside vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf in both Green Bay and Cleveland.

Additionally, Patrick Stewart was promoted to director of pro personnel. Stewart spent 11 seasons in Foxborough from 2007-2017 before stints with the Eagles and Panthers. He returned to New England ahead of last season as a senior personnel advisor.

According to Jerod Mayo, titles are now important in New England — making these at least semi-noteworthy.

— 3 Patriots among ESPN’s Top 100 Athletes since 2000.

This past week was the true definition of “dog days of summer”, with the lone “big four” sporting events being the MLB All-Star game and Home Run Derby.

To get sports fans through it, ESPN put out a list ranking the top 100 professional athletes since the year 2000. Naturally, the list sparked some controversy — like how the **** isn’t Tom Brady ranked No. 1?!

I don’t have time for that argument.

Anyway, the list did include three former Patriots:

No. 5: QB Tom Brady
No. 27: WR Randy Moss
No. 96: CB Darrelle Revis

Oh yeah, Rob Gronkowski got snubbed, too.

— Roster moves:

The Patriots made the following roster moves this week:

• Placed UDFA LB Jontrey Hunter on the non-football illness list
• Placed RB Terrell Jennings on the PUP list

— Edelman shares his rookie dinner story.

As is tradition, NFL teams will generally make some, if not all, of their rookie class take the entire squad out to dinner and cover the tab. On a recent edition of the “Are You Garbage?” podcast, former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman shared a pretty good story about his own rookie dinner back in 2007:

“The first draft pick would automatically pay for half of the bill and then they would scale it,” Edelman explained. “I was a seventh-round pick so I think I paid like $3,000. The bill was probably a couple hundred grand. Brady came for two seconds… orders like a $6,000 bottle of wine, takes a sip and leaves. It was a big bill for [Patrick] Chung.”

---

Thanks for reading! We’ll talk to ya next week.

Follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!