And we’re off! The long, cold offseason is over and the Patriots are back on the field. Truth be told, I have a love/hate relationship with training camp. I can’t see anything for myself because I’m not there. Thus we have to rely on the reporters who are there and take their collective opinions and observations to get a sense of how things are shaking out.
But football is back and it’s hard to really complain about anything at the moment. Here are the tweets that stood out most from practice number one.
Rob Ninkovich and Shea McClellin bounced from LB to DE throughout practice. Clearly, team is planning on utilizing versatility of both.
— Kevin Duffy (@KevinRDuffy) July 28, 2016
This was to be expected and I still think that Ninkovich will skew more DE while McClellin will skew more toward LB. The hard thing for offenses will be identifying who’s who before the snap, especially if the Pats throw some changeups at them. Know how a quarterback always picks out the “mike” before the snap? Yeah, we still have no idea who the Patriots mike will be at this point.
No Collins at today’s practice. He and Dion Lewis (PUP) were the only players not spotted. Other PUP guys here but not participating.
— Phil Perry (@PhilAPerry) July 28, 2016
Strange subplot but likely nothing. Tom E. Curran mentioned it was not contract related so Collins must be working through some minor issue they don’t want to exacerbate at this point in training camp.
Photo: Special teams captain Matthew Slater dons No. 43 in honor of Nate Ebner, who is with US Olympic rugby team. pic.twitter.com/5XAXTKBJk2
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) July 28, 2016
Gotta love the support from Belichick and the Patriots for Ebner’s Olympic pursuits.
There’s still a long way to go, but if the season started today, it looks like Joe Thuney and Jonathan Cooper would be your starting guards
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) July 28, 2016
Kline, Mason and Jackson are all working their way back from offseason injury issues so this is far from written in stone. Still, it wouldn’t be a bad combination to enter the regular season with. Logan Mankins stepped right in at left guard as a rookie, maybe Thuney can do the same.
Aaron Dobson made a nice grab over Devin McCourty and then had a one-handed catch in the end zone
— Mark Daniels (@MarkDanielsPJ) July 28, 2016
Yeah, Dobson making impressive catches in the red zone is nothing new. He’s got good size and uses it to his advantage. Where his game has traditionally fallen apart (aside from when he’s hurt) is in the other 80 yards of field where he has demonstrated little after-the-catch playmaking ability. Even last season, his third year as a pro, he continued to catch the ball with arms, often double-catching it, and rarely making anything happen in the open field. So no matter how many nice catches in the end zone he makes, he still has a lot to prove if he wants to make the roster.
Pats ran first team drills 90 minutes into practice. Brady opened 1s vs. 1s then Garoppolo with 2s. Second set, TB & JG mixed 1s & 2s.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) July 28, 2016
Everyone seems so concerned with how the quarterback reps will play out. Seems kinda pointless to me. Obviously both guys need work with the 1s and I’m sure Belichick and McDaniels will know how to divide up the reps so they both are comfortable with all the receivers. Tracking who plays with who when seems like an exercise in futility, but so does a good chunk of football coverage these days.
Justin Coleman and Cyrus Jones each had solid days. Coleman had at least one PBU. Jones didn’t allow much separation overall.
— Adam Kurkjian (@AdamKurkjian) July 28, 2016
This is going to be one heck of a position battle to watch. Never have the Pats had so much interesting depth at cornerback. They’re well prepared to deal with injuries. And with Logan Ryan in a red no-contact jersey, we’ll see a lot of rotation both outside and inside, with the probably exception of Malcolm Butler.