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Training Camp

Patriots 53-Man Roster Projection v 3.0

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Another stab at a 53-man roster here and I feel like there’s almost too kept Patriots in this one. I could easily see a couple of these guys ending up cut to make room for the random external free agent (or trade) that none of us can see coming right now.

QB (3) T.Brady, J.Garoppolo, J.Brissett — I toyed with cutting Brissett but I refused to do a below-53 projection. Just haven’t seen the progress out of him this season that makes me think he’s anything special. Still would like to continue developing him, but with no Brady suspension this year, going with two would be fine.

RB (6) J.White, D.Lewis, R.Burkhead, M.Gillislee, J.Develin, B.Bolden — I really consider Bolden a special teamer. He’s another one who I could easily see cut and replaced by Burkhead. You can just never rule out the special teams love from BB.

WR (5) B.Cooks, C.Hogan, D.Amendola, M.Mitchell, M.Slater — Slater’s a special teamer too obviously. The other four are all capable but it’s strange to see three outside guys and just one inside guy (Amendola). Will be interesting to see how they adjust schematically.

TE (2) R.Gronkowski, D.Allen — Just don’t see anything special from O’Shaughnessy or Hollister or Lengel. All could be cut and brought back if necessary I believe.

C (1) D.Andrews
G (3) S.Mason, J.Thuney, T.Karras
T (5) N.Solder, M.Cannon, C.Fleming, L.Waddle, T.Garcia – Toyed with putting Garcia on IR to open another spot. He’s been out most of camp and even when he was in he didn’t look ready for the NFL yet. Might be best to let him work behind the scenes to get bigger and healthy. Can’t see him cut of course. Kept Fleming and Waddle both because I had the space, but again, one of them is likely gone.

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Pats Posits: Who Limped Off, Shined and Stunk vs. Jags?

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The Patriots completed their first game of the 2017 preseason, “losing” to the Jaguars 31-24.

Yes, no one cares about who wins or loses preseason games but there was still plenty to unpack from the contest, including some great performances by some young weapons and some dreadful performances from some young veterans who are supposed to be taking a positive step forward this season.

Let’s start with the only thing that truly matters after a preseason game — injuries. Yeah, guys can play good or bad, but ultimately there’s a long way to go and no roster spots were won or lost after one preseason game. But injuries can kill a season in an instant.

  • Dietrich Wise — Oh that rookie that everyone was abuzz about this preseason? He was kneed in the head and left the game in the first half. I feel weird saying “luckily it’s just a concussion” given what we know now. In the olden days this would be written off with a “he just got his bell rung.” Now it’s a “shit, I hope this doesn’t mean he’s donating his brain to a study someday but… he’ll probably be back soon.” Of course if you’re choosing between getting his leg broken in half and getting kneed in the head, the choice is obvious, but I still don’t feel good about it.
  • Elandon Roberts — Limped off, but one of those tough as nails guys. I think he’ll be okay. Looked like an ankle thing.

Okay, injuries are out of the way, let’s talk the good, the bad and the whatever.

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Tuesday Patriots-Jags Tweets of Note

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Made a brief stop by practice in a fan capacity today and found it to be absolutely packed despite some light rain. So I didn’t get much time to watch any of the action. Luckily the dedicated beat staff provided plenty of interesting tweets to keep us in the loop.

Here are the ones that stood out to me from Tuesday’s practice with the Jags, likely the last time we’ll see anything meaningful at a practice until the weekend.

 


Edelman’s quickness is just so unstoppable. I’m falling for his fake and I’m sitting in front of my computer. Imagine being on the field and having to try and keep up with him.

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Patriots-Jaguars Monday Practice Report

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Just got back from my second credentialed practice of the summer and it was by far the most interesting and entertaining. It was a long workout, going over two hours and featured plenty of 11-on-11 work in the last half hour.

If there was a headline of this practice it would have to be that the Brady-Cooks connection is hitting a new level. I wasn’t around to see what practices with Randy Moss looked like, but Brady is throwing deep to Cooks early and often. Cooks came down with multiple deep catches that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd.

And it wasn’t just Cooks, Chris Hogan got into the action on the deep balls, while Edelman and Gronk had a handful of their usual big plays.

All in all, you look at the offense and it’s easy to imagine what a nightmare they’re going to be for defenses all season long.

More on everything from a fun day of practice after the jump…

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Patriots to Watch vs. Jags in Practice

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Excited to be headed back to training camp practice with a press credential this morning. Well, the excitement now is really more to see some actual competition on the football field and to finally see the Patriots players take their camp frustrations out on another team.

There’s been plenty to be excited about through the first week-and-a-half of practices. Young players like Deatrich Wise, Adam Butler and Harvey Langi have gotten thrown right into the fire. New veterans like Stephon Gilmore and Brandin Cooks have brought new excitement on both sides of the ball.

But getting worked up over the first week of training camp can be foolish. The list of training camp players we thought would be lifelong legendary Patriots — like Zack Sudfeld, Kenbrell Thompkins and Anthony Johnson. Those guys all ended up doing nothing for the do nothing Jets. So yeah, let’s keep our heads on straight about a few good training camp practices.

Today things get a little more interesting though. We’ll see the rookies go against some new competition and try to apply what they’ve learned over the past couple months.

Here are the five Patriots I’ll be focusing my attention on this morning.

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Patriots Sunday Practice Report

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It was a surreal day to say the least. It was my first time as a credentialed member of the media so I got an up close look at practice, but it also just happened to be the day Rob Ninkovich, a longtime favorite of the blog, announced his retirement.

My head was spinning, between meeting some of the Patriots writers I’ve followed and tweeted with for so long to then suddenly sitting in the press conference room surrounded by the team as Ninkovich hung them up, it was an awesome day and one I won’t soon forget.

But ultimately I was there to finally get an up close look at some football and that’s what this was all about. I even bought some binoculars as I learned are a must-have for these kind of practices where the team can often be all the way across the field working behind a wall of players. Hard to see it all, but I still saw plenty.

Let’s start with some officially credentialed observations from practice.

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Patriots Training Camp Practice #3 Tweets of Note

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Sounds like it was a quiet practice after expectations were high for the first day of pads. Hopefully that means tomorrow, when your faithful blogger will be credentialed, will be a really up tempo and physical practice. That’s the kind of practice I’d love to get a close look at.

In the meantime here are some tweets that stood out to me from today.

 

Again, hopefully just setting the stage for things to go down tomorrow.

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