Patriots Gameplan: 5 To Watch vs. Redskins

For as much as I love it when training camp opens, it really doesn’t feel like football is back until we see the team in uniform in a game, albeit a meaningless one with mostly backups likely to play the majority of the game. Still, there’s a sigh of relief knowing that important players like Tom Brady and Dont’a Hightower won’t take the field and won’t potentially get injured because all that truly matters in these four games is not getting anyone injured.

Last year was a catastrophic situation with Julian Edelman tearing his ACL. There’s just nothing worse than losing a player for the season in a game that doesn’t even matter. Hopefully, the Pats can survive Thursday night and we can start to get a real sense of how good the new guys are in an actual game with hitting and tackling, something we still have not seen. But the most important guys should not be risked here in week one.

It’s hard to judge much of anything without real football, despite our best efforts. So now, we can really start to figure out how the bottom half of the roster looks and who might rise to the occasion under the bright lights with people trying to really hit them.

Here are five areas of emphasis that I’ll be focusing on. I’m not making any offensive or defensive gameplan sections because we can expect to see a vanilla bean scheme on both sides of the ball. It’s not about the Redskins, it’s just about the Patriots and seeing how players handle themselves without having to overthink about disguise and adjustments.

Punt Return

Without Edelman or Amendola, the Patriots will have a new look at punt returner this season, especially in the first four games without Jules. But who that will be is far from clear and it’s been a revolving door of tryouts on the back end behind Riley McCarron and Braxton Berrios. Rex Burkhead has given it a shot, and perhaps Cyrus Jones could step into the competition now that he’s off PUP though he probably won’t dress Thursday. Few things are harder to judge than a punt returner in modern NFL practices. Remember Edelman returning a punt for a TD for a touchdown as a rookie and announcing his presence? Well, I’m not expecting that again, but McCarron and Berrios are sure to get some reps and needs to make the most of them. Assuming the defense forces a punt, amirite??????

Christian Sam

Sam blossomed in the first two weeks of training camp, looking confident, lining guys up on defense and not overthinking things. The Patriots really could use some young linebacker depth and Sam, along with Ja’whaun Bentley should play a ton of snaps. Bentley has fallen down the depth chart a bit, with Nicholas Grigsby, who would appear as a near-lock for his special teams skills, taking snaps in sub packages over him. If Sam makes some key tackles and looks comfortable in space and in coverage it will be a huge reassuring boost.

Receivers

I don’t think we’ll see much of (if any) of Edelman, Hogan and Dorsett. But after that everyone should get a look, including Patterson though I’m sure they’ll be careful not to tip all the gadgetry they’ve got planned with him. That leaves McCarron, Berrios, and newcomer Eric Decker (maybe) as the most interesting trio of receivers who should play a bunch. The other three remaining — Devin Lucien, Darren Andrews and Paul Turner —  seem like total long shots so they interest me far less. I remain convinced everyone falls in love with Berrios.

Derek Rivers

With Trey Flowers, Adrian Clayborn and Dietrich Wise atop the depth chart, Rivers is on the playing time bubble. I still think he’s mostly a roster lock, but how much he actually plays is still very much uncertain. I’d expect he gets a long look against the Redskins, along with Eric Lee. Lack of defensive end depth really hurt last season after it was such a strength in 2016. Rebuilding that depth starts with Rivers living up to his draft potential.

Jacob Hollister

Is Hollister the real deal? He’s had an outstanding summer so far, catching everything thrown his way and having a knack for getting open. But I really want to wait and see him in a live game before I get too excited. Can he make dynamic plays in a game? It’s the last missing piece of the puzzle. If he does he could be headed for a significant role on offense this season.