Letters from Patriots Camp, Vol. II: Padded Practices Lead to the First Scary Moment of the 2025 Season
Let's not bury the lede, ignore the elephant in the room, kick the can down the road, wait to rip off the Band-Aid, or skip any procrastination metaphors, and get right to it:
No one knows the extent of Christian Gonzalez's injury. No one's going to know, since no one's betting on the second week of training camp and therefore the information is strictly need-to-know. But by the way Gonzo is walking in that video, you don't have to be a board-certified physician to figure out it's not a sunburn or a popsicle headache. All we can no for sure is that cornerback, the strongest starting position group on the roster, is currently without Gonzalez or Carlton Davis III. Davis started on the NFI list, cleared his medicals, but then has been missing time, including today. With 41 days until Week 1, it's not time to panic. But today panic's water broke. And every practice that goes by with neither guy on the field, the contractions will get closer together.
--Now that we've had the "Have a seat. I'm sure you're wondering why I sent for you," part of the conversation over, let's quickly pivot to some good news:
Maye broke containment. As Mike Vrabel instructed him to in the very first scene of Forged in Foxborough Ep. 2, while he was extending the play, he remained a passer, as opposed to just tucking and running. Pop Douglas demonstrated he's been studying Josh McDaniels Scramble Drill rule book and turned up field over the top of Kyle Dugger and hauled it in for a 60 yard score. Which is already a vast improvement from last year, when it seemed like every time Maye left the pocket, all his receivers forgot about spacing, and looked for the nearest defender to start slow dancing with, as Maye either carried it out of bounds or chucked it to the turf. So this is more than encouraging. It's the difference between a scheme that's being run by a guy who's been doing it for 20 years and one run by Alex Van Pelt, who last called plays in 2009.
As I've mentioned, Drake Maye has, for the most part, been lighting it up. Whereas traditionally the first week or so of Patriots camp generates "The Defense is Ahead of the Offense in Practice" headlines and sports radio segments like "Is it time to switch from Brady to Garoppolo? I think it is. After the break we'll get your thoughts at 617-779 …" this one has been anything but that. For the first couple of workout, the mostly worked on 1st down situations. Not necessarily checking down all the time:
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… but definitely putting and emphasis on the old adage, "You'll never go broke taking a profit." Then after a walk through practice that was heavy on installation on Friday, Saturday was all about the 3rd down packages. As my brother Jack (Requiescat in Pace) was fond of putting it, Maye is a puppy with big paws. They crate trained him for a while. But now they're putting him through Hunting Dog school. And he's taking to it, like the good boy that he is.
--Douglas, for his part, has begun solidifying his spot as the starting slot receiver. For the most part, the 1s have been pretty much him, Stefon Diggs, and Kyle Williams and some Kayshon Boutte. With Williams as the field stretching boundary X. Kendrick Bourne, who is the only member of the WR room who's actually been in this system under McDaniels (with 800 yards and 5 TDs) gets some reps with the first team but has mostly been on the second unit. And as far as the crushingly disappointing Class of 2024, Ja'Lynn Polk had been attempting to pull off the difficult trick of making the roster without being on the field. But made the best of his opportunities today:
And Javon Baker - whom I thought was a Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson-level underdog to survive the cuts, had his best day in a Patriots uniform Saturday. Which is a low bar to clear, but still. One wideout who has been translucent, if not entirely invisible, has been OTAs media darling Efton Chism III. It's a crowded room. And it's hard to imagine more than six WRs making it. So those last three names I just mentioned are all candiates for The Joker's broken pool cue "Aggressive Expansion" trick. May the most reliable receiver win.
--The reason padded practices really matter though, are the big fellas. This is time for the kids who's moms shopped for them in the Husky section at Sears:
--Bear with me, because this is going somewhere, I promise. In the toney, upscale, seaside town of Hingham, where they made us Weymouth people go through customs if we wanted to pass through on the way to Nantasket beach, they have a bizarre zoning rule. Essentially every dwelling in the town is considered "historic." Like the Consitution was signed in your split level, or Lincoln learned how to split logs behind that garrison colonial on Main St. So if a buyer wants to tear down a piece of property and rebuild it, they have to "preserve" it by leaving up one wall. Literally, everything else ends up in the jaws of the excavator and gets hauled away. But one wall has to remain for future generations to admire, or else history will be erased. Or something. Because just leaving the doorknob wouldn't be enough.
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Anyway, I bring this up because that's what Vrabel and Eliot Wolf have done with the worst offensive line in the NFL. Michael Onwenu is the wall that's remaining standing from last year. The rest is all in a landfill. Remember how the front office basically ignored this most important of units all last offseason? To the point where the choice they landed on to be the Week 1 left tackle was Chuks Okorafor? Who lasted all of 12 snaps before he was blinked into the cornfield and never to be seen again? Yeah, that level of neglect was not repeated.
The other 80% of the O-line has been Will Campbell, who has taken all the LT reps with the 1s. And looked great once the pads came on:
Morgan Moses has had some protection problems at the other tackle spot, giving up a "sack" or two. But the most interesting case has been Jared Wilson, the 3rd rounder out of Georgia. He's been the ping pong ball under the three red Solo cups, shuffled around among the three interior line spots on the first offense. Which cup he'll end up under remains to be seen. But they're clearly high the idea of making him a starter. There's no way he'll take Onwenu's job, obviously. If he wins the center job, that's bad news for Garrett Bradbury, whom they signed to two years and $9.5 million after he played 100% of the snaps in Minnesota last year. And if he wins the left guard job, that will be the end of the line for Cole Strange, one of the truly … strange? I guess? … picks of the Belichick era. It will also mean two rookies on the left side of the line. Which means Vrabel and OL coach Doug Marrone are going to have to trust Wilson like they're putting their daughter's hand in his in front the altar. Only more so.
--As far as the other trench, the defensive line is much like a 4-man front of Milton Williams and Christian Barmore inside, with Harold Landry outside left and Keion White, who battled Campbell pretty fiercely:
… on the right. And today, with a lot of 1st down red zone snaps, Khyris Tonga was 335lbs of immovable object on the nose. On several reps, Tonga two-gapped the the center from 0-technique and freed up Robert Spillane and Jabrill Peppers to stuff the hole.
--So all in all, things are progressing, save for the potential crisis at the corners. Which is mission critical if this team is going to have any legitimate shot at playoff contention. So stay tuned on that. But if nothing else, after only five practices, it's clear this team, this coaching staff, this franchise, is in the most capable hands once again. And playing for keeps. No nonsense. No drama. No one holding out, hinting that they're disgruntled about their contract or having "sources" leak in the media that they feel like they're being disrespected. And I can't even remember the last time we had a camp free from that high school nonsense. Right now I'll just be happy to have a nice quiet, boring Pats camp for once.