Patriots Training Camp 1: Christian Gonzalez a Full Participant

The Patriots kicked off training camp with an abbreviated short-and-t-shirt practice that featured just two competitive periods. The team focused on 1st- and 2nd-down plays, tempo after big plays, and the zone run game.

Here’s a look at New England’s attendance, top quotes from head coach Mike Vrabel, and my top takeaways from the day.

Attendance

Absent: ED Gabe Jacas

Physically Unable to Perform: ED Harold Landry III, TE CJ Dippre

Non-Football Injury: RB Terrell Jennings, ST Brenden Schooler

Tweet of the Day

Mike Vrabel’s Top Quotes

On whether he did any research into dealing with a Super Bowl loss the following season: Yeah, I think it kind of speaks for itself. I think that, things—the expectations—always get higher, and we have tried to lay out the expectations when we got here and what we wanted to do. I think just the nature of the NFL and, based on success, the rules, the draft, the schedule, all those things that come into it. And it’s our job to recreate the things that we did really well last year: the culture, the ability to win different ways, find ways to win, understand how to win, understand how to prepare. We’re going to have a more difficult journey. That’s just how it goes each and every year. That’s what we’re expecting. We want it that way, and we’ll prepare accordingly.

On what goes into the chemistry between a center and a quarterback: The unspoken communication—to be able to see it quickly and see it the same, whether that’s pressure or a defensive front. To be able to set the defense or get us into the right play. Communication. The center is the conduit to the rest of the offensive line. When the quarterback needs to get something to the line, the center is the easiest way to get it, and his communication to everybody else has to be great. We’re looking forward to seeing Jared in that transition and working with Drake.

On how Drake Maye handled what was thrown at him during spring practices: The defense added some things, and that’ll come naturally from the looks he’s getting there. Just continue to try to operate, be more urgent, get everybody functioning just a little bit quicker. We don’t want to go fast – whether we huddle or we go on the ball. Whatever that looks like, we want to be able to try to dictate the defense a little bit. The Urgency in which we operate is something we’ve all talked about. The communication, always taking care of the ball. We talked about the games we lost last year. Whether that was the quarterback rating – Josh Allen had a better rating than Drake, and that’s just not on the quarterback. That’s defensively, our ability to affect their quarterback, our ability to help our quarterback. Whether it was the Pittsburgh game, where the turnover margin wasn’t where we needed it to be. That’s the reason we lost that game. And obviously the Super Bowl. Turnover margin, and their ability to run the football (Seattle), and our ability not to be able to run the football. And then we can get into all the different critical situations – two-minute, five-minute. Buffalo being able to set the table a little better on special teams. Their kickoff return was much better than ours was. So, those are all things we look at and that we’re going to focus on. That’s how we want to practice and play.

On whether Harold Landry III starting on PUP could threaten his availability to start the season: I’m not going to predict that. I’m not going to pretend to predict that. We’re going to talk about injuries that could happen, they’re 100% in football. At some point and time everybody’s going to get hurt. The expectation is they all work extremely hard to get back. That they’re where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. They focus on what they can do as opposed to what they can’t do. I’m very confident with our return‑to‑play. Where Harold is at the start of the season—I wouldn’t be able to tell you right now. He won’t be practicing, but he’ll be working, and hopefully we’ll get him back.

On Drake Maye’s growth as a leader and whether he still needs to be pushed: I’m going to try and coach everything I possibly can. That’s what they pay me to do, is to coach the team where I see. If we don’t celebrate, I’ll tell him to run down there and celebrate, even though we scored a few touchdowns last year. Don’t take touchdowns for granted. And again, it’s really hard. I can try to put myself in his position or any player’s position that I’m coaching. There’s a lot on his plate—he’s focusing on doing the right thing and being perfect as he can be, puts a lot on himself. Then it’s like, “oh yeah, I just threw a touchdown.” Then it’s like no, we’re going to go celebrate. I think you can define yourself as a leader by how you handle yourself and your teammates when things aren’t great. It’s easy to go celebrate, but it’s harder to stand up and say, “You know what I screwed up.” I might have made a mistake in a huddle which caused another player not to do his job. I was able to adjust for my mistake in the huddle or miscommunication but the other player had something else in his mind and that led him to go the wrong way. When you stand up and say “you know what, that’s on me,” it takes a lot of pressure off somebody else. I’m excited about where Drake’s going to be. Just his growth, and Josh (McDaniels), Ashton (Grant), the offensive coaches. Everybody’s in just a better position just because we’re more comfortable. We still have to go and we still have to push each other. The challenge is to compete and take care of each other when we are out there on the practice field.

Notebook

• While speaking to reporters about this year’s Pawtriots dog adoption event, owner Robert Kraft said New England has offered Christian Gonzalez an extension that would make him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history and the highest-paid player in team history. Gonzalez participated fully today and was targeted on the first rep of team drills, providing tight coverage on an incomplete back shoulder fade from Drake Maye to A.J. Brown, who tried one-handing the pass. Neither Gonzalez nor Brown was targeted during the rest of practice.
• After an unusually long delay in contract negotiations, the Patriots and second-round pick Gabe Jacas agreed to terms on a four-year, $8.6 million deal, per insider Jordan Schultz. Vrabel said before practice that Jacas is not currently in New England and wouldn’t disclose how healthy the rookie is following cleanup knee surgery, but the expectation is that Jacas will be present for tomorrow’s practice. Contract details and Jacas’ early place on the depth chart will be storylines to monitor.
• Vrabel mentioned operating with more urgency and quickness as an area of emphasis for Maye. When asked about using tempo, which has been a common theme for the offense, Maye said the most important thing is that everyone is on the same page.
• Maye took multiple downfield shots in the open field today, going 2-4 on such attempts and targeting Hunter Henry twice. Henry likely would’ve drawn defensive pass interference on the first, as he had to work back through Kevin Byard III following an underthrown shot from Maye on a bootleg. The two connected on the next attempt, with Maye looking off coverage before hitting Henry down the seam with Christian Elliss trailing. The play of the day came on a moon ball to Kayshon Boutte, who stacked Kindle Vildor and did an impressive job tracking and securing the pass.
• Caleb Lomu was the top backup at right tackle behind Morgan Moses, though James Hudson III saw at least one rep on the right side with the starters. Free agent signing Alijah Vera-Tucker was a full participant after being limited in the spring.
• Both Romeo Doubs and DeMario Douglas had impressive sideline grabs on lasers from Tommy DeVito, with Doubs adjusting to a ball thrown slightly behind him and Douglas appearing to create plenty of space against Dell Pettus. Douglas also turned a shallow crosser into an explosive gain after running away from Mike Brown (bad matchup there).
• Eli Raridon was the second tight end behind Henry after repping behind veterans Jack Westover and CJ Dippre this spring. DeVito sailed the rookie’s first target, but Raridon later boxed out a defender for an intermediate completion over the middle.
• The Patriots used a heavy dose of “big” or three-safety nickel, with Brown appearing to lead the starting safeties in snaps. Carlton Davis III called Brown a physical and versatile player who can play deep or near the line of scrimmage.
• Dre’Mont Jones and Bradyn Swinson both batted passes, with Jones tipping a checkdown attempt from Maye and Swinson shutting down a DeVito scramble drill.
• There was a botched snap exchange between Maye and Jared Wilson late in practice. Maye took responsibility for the error.
• Rookie Behren Morton was solid while rotating in with the backup offense, looking more accurate and poised than DeVito at times. Morton completed a shallow crosser to Efton Chism, climbed the pocket off a run fake before calmly hitting his outlet, and targeted Jeremiah Webb on a deep back shoulder fade that the receiver failed to haul in.