Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Training Camp Cast. The Patriots Training
Speaker 1: Camp Cast is your source for all the news from
Speaker 1: Patriots Training Camp. Well, I do still watch the news.
Speaker 1: Practice is over, but the writers of Patriots dot com
Speaker 1: have you covered what I miss yesterday? Now here to
Speaker 1: review today's practice the writers of Patriots dot com. All right,
Speaker 1: welcome into another edition of the Patriots Training Camp Cast.
Speaker 1: This is Mike Dousseau joined by Evan Lazar from Patriots
Speaker 1: dot Com, and we are fresh off the field of
Speaker 1: the first joint practice between the Patriots and the Raiders. Evan,
Speaker 1: right off the top, let's just start with the good
Speaker 1: vibes of the reunion. There were so many Patriots players.
Speaker 1: There's all of a sudden, you know, Julian Edelman pops up.
Speaker 1: Mike Lombardi. You're just seeing all these kind of reunions
Speaker 1: happening between former players. So at the beginning of practice,
Speaker 1: it was a nice happy vibe. Everyone catching up. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And he saw Julian Edelman was several Patriots players is
Speaker 1: greeting them big hugs all around. I tweeted out before
Speaker 1: a practice started at Edelman, was there a little celeb
Speaker 1: shout out for Julian Edelman and got a lot of
Speaker 1: questions about whether or not he was in pads for
Speaker 1: the practice. Is absolutely not. He did not participate in
Speaker 1: the practice, but I saw that he was did something
Speaker 1: with our Patriots dot com social team that's up on
Speaker 1: our channel, so you can check out maybe Edelman's take
Speaker 1: of practice today or something like that, or maybe just
Speaker 1: a quick load of Patriots fans. Yeah. Yeah, he had
Speaker 1: a little bit of fun with it, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, like I said, I think the Patriots might
Speaker 1: might have been able to use him today Before we
Speaker 1: get into the practice, those same attendance as yesterday. Uh not,
Speaker 1: no real surprises really, Ronnie Perkins, Harvey Longy, Taekwon Thornton,
Speaker 1: as well as Christian Wilkerson. We're not present and not participating. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: it seemed like Isaiah Wind didn't put the red jersey
Speaker 1: back on, so he is progressing as well. Uh. We
Speaker 1: got into practice, and we should have a quick disclaimer
Speaker 1: that the media tent here in Vegas. As much as
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick praise this, you know, I think he called
Speaker 1: the Tataj Mahal today, for the media, it was a
Speaker 1: little bit more difficult. We were stationed on one sideline
Speaker 1: of three fields. So we did get an up close
Speaker 1: look at a lot of Raiders stuff, especially early on,
Speaker 1: which was which was kind of cool. But for the Patriots,
Speaker 1: a lot of things happening on that middle and far
Speaker 1: field that that we weren't quite able to get. So,
Speaker 1: you know, no one on ones in terms of the
Speaker 1: defensive line and blockers and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: So you know, these are our thoughts of the practice,
Speaker 1: but we were with the media other media, so I
Speaker 1: think everybody kind of had a similar consensus, and and
Speaker 1: that was I mean, really kind of more of the same.
Speaker 1: For the Patriots offense, it was really you know, a
Speaker 1: struggle in team periods, and you know, they did bounce
Speaker 1: back at the end. However, I just it matches what
Speaker 1: we've seen. It's it's in each kind of team drill
Speaker 1: period they make a player two, but then there's a
Speaker 1: lot of incompletes, there's a lot of running plays into traffic,
Speaker 1: and it just again, it just doesn't seem like they've
Speaker 1: established a rhythm and practice this summer at any point
Speaker 1: where they've you know, really strung some play together. But
Speaker 1: I will with one caveat maybe maybe the last series
Speaker 1: that maybe offiction, hope, But you know, otherwise though, kind
Speaker 1: of what we've seen all summer. Yeah, we can get
Speaker 1: to that last two minute joke because that's sort of
Speaker 1: the saving grace of this entire practice for the Patriots,
Speaker 1: because we shouldn't have sugarcoated. This was not a good
Speaker 1: Patriots practice. The Raiders dominated almost in every phase until
Speaker 1: the very final sequence of practice. Besides maybe the Patriots
Speaker 1: defront against the Raiders O line, it seemed like the
Speaker 1: Patriots defensive front held its own for most of the practice,
Speaker 1: but other than that, it was all Raiders. And I
Speaker 1: think with the Patriots offense you were alluding to it
Speaker 1: just now, what is their identity? What is it that
Speaker 1: they're good at right now that they can say, if
Speaker 1: all else fails, we can hang our hat on this
Speaker 1: one thing, and we can do this one thing. And
Speaker 1: at the moment, I don't know what that is. I
Speaker 1: think over the last couple of years, for example, eighteen nineteen,
Speaker 1: the last couple years with Brady, it was one personnel
Speaker 1: fullback in the backfield, we're gonna run the ball, We're
Speaker 1: gonna incorporate play action, and they had that as something
Speaker 1: that was consistent offense for them in a consistent way
Speaker 1: to move the football. I think even last year at
Speaker 1: times that was their core identity. Now it doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like they have anything that they're consistently good enough at
Speaker 1: that they can say this is what we do. This
Speaker 1: is Patriot offense. And I would love to ask. We
Speaker 1: talked to Mac Jones tomorrow, so maybe I'll try to
Speaker 1: phrase this question properly and see if we can get
Speaker 1: an answer from Mac. What is the identity of this offense?
Speaker 1: Right now? What is Patriots offense in twenty twenty two?
Speaker 1: Because they've dipped their toes in the Shanahan stuff, they
Speaker 1: dipped their toes a little bit in some of more
Speaker 1: spread style elements, or they have Mac and the gun,
Speaker 1: and none of it has really consistently stuck. And that's
Speaker 1: what I'm waiting for, is just one of these practices,
Speaker 1: and we're there student to close the doors on us
Speaker 1: even after this week, right so, I don't know if
Speaker 1: we'll ever actually see it in until it happens in
Speaker 1: a game, But what is the Patriots offense in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two? I still think that that's a mystery right now. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll leave the last period for after this because I
Speaker 1: want to finish on a high note. Um, But I
Speaker 1: now at this point, and you tweeted about it, just
Speaker 1: a chance to see Davante Adams and Hunter Renfro up front,
Speaker 1: up close. They are phenomenal. The number of downfield passes.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd have to go through and chart all
Speaker 1: my notes exactly, but I mean I have, like looking
Speaker 1: right now, three catches us right off the top. Four
Speaker 1: even Um. You know, for for Adams, he was all
Speaker 1: over the place. Started in one on one drills where
Speaker 1: you know, I he was running up the sideline with
Speaker 1: Jayala Mills. Look like Jayala Mills had him pinned and
Speaker 1: pretty good coverage right hit to hip and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Davanta Adams just turned it on, burned
Speaker 1: by him. Easy completion downfield. Hunter Renfro is just money
Speaker 1: in the bank. You think about. We see a lot
Speaker 1: of Patriots practices where they're checked out, you know, they
Speaker 1: just right down to the middle, the little guy that
Speaker 1: just scorts out the running back, scorts out of backfield
Speaker 1: turn That's what Hunter Renfro was for them. Went when
Speaker 1: in doubt, he just threw it a Hunter Renfro. He
Speaker 1: catches it every time in the middle. So you know,
Speaker 1: those two players certainly gave the Patriots. It's I think
Speaker 1: the biggest challenge they've had this summer as far as
Speaker 1: receiving talent. Absolutely has vibes of Welker and Moss right
Speaker 1: where it's like Adams over the top and Welker underneath
Speaker 1: their Renfro underneath in this case. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: they're going to be as good as the O seven
Speaker 1: Patriots by any means, but that's sort of the look
Speaker 1: of what I think Josh McDaniels is building. And the
Speaker 1: Raiders didn't even have Darren Waller out there today. He's
Speaker 1: injured and wasn't at practice, so they still have another
Speaker 1: weapon that they didn't have out there on Tuesday. So
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing that you see. You got
Speaker 1: to tip your cap to the Raiders that they have
Speaker 1: a good team. They have a lot of talent, especially
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball. Derek Carr is
Speaker 1: not the best quarterback in the league, but he's more
Speaker 1: than capable of distributing the football to guys that are open,
Speaker 1: like Davante Adams was for pretty much the entire practice.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to get into this with you two, Mike,
Speaker 1: because we've been talking about this idea for I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe a week now, about game planning and the fact
Speaker 1: that the Patriots are not game planning the Las Vegas
Speaker 1: Raiders like they're going to game plan them come December.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying this to make excuses or to
Speaker 1: sugarcoat things about what we saw out there today, but
Speaker 1: I do think that context is really really important, especially
Speaker 1: with the Patriots defense. I still go back to the
Speaker 1: identity thing with the Patriots offense, and I'm not entirely
Speaker 1: sure that a game plan is going to fix all
Speaker 1: of those problems that ail the offense at the moment.
Speaker 1: But defensively, I think they have enough talent and we
Speaker 1: saw it at the two minute drill at the end
Speaker 1: that we keep on teasing, they have enough talent on
Speaker 1: that side of the ball that I think Bill Belichick, Rodmeo,
Speaker 1: and Steve can put together a game plan to hold
Speaker 1: some of these high powered offenses at least somewhat in check.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, and we talked to Devin mccordy about this,
Speaker 1: Adrian Phillips about it after practice, and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: this is just play, this is roll the ball out.
Speaker 1: It's our ten basic concepts, whereas their ten basic concepts.
Speaker 1: It's fundamentals, it's basics. It's essentially a collection of eleven
Speaker 1: individual one on ones, right, it's not actually game plan football.
Speaker 1: So when the Patriots play the Raiders in December and
Speaker 1: we're back out here in Las Vegas, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: a game plan for Davante Adams, and they're not gonna
Speaker 1: say to Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones, you got seventeen,
Speaker 1: like go get him, right, like good luck? Right. They're
Speaker 1: gonna have safeties over the top, they're gonna have bracket calls,
Speaker 1: they're gonna have different looks thrown at Davante Adams off press,
Speaker 1: you know, all those types of things. And today it's
Speaker 1: basically just one on one mano Imano, like, good luck
Speaker 1: to you out there against seventeen. And he's just an
Speaker 1: all world player and that's not gonna go well for
Speaker 1: pretty much any cornerback. I think maybe like Prime Stefani
Speaker 1: Gilmour could take him on an island in a joint practice,
Speaker 1: but other than that, it's it's really not easy matchup
Speaker 1: for anybody at any level. No, and that's I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, even with the game plan though, you still
Speaker 1: got problems. If you're gonna double him down the field,
Speaker 1: you're gonna still have to deal with Renfrom and you're
Speaker 1: still gonna have to deal with Waller and talk about
Speaker 1: their their running games. So you know, that's what they're
Speaker 1: telling us right now that you know, this is where
Speaker 1: we're just working on fundamentals. So that's all fine. But
Speaker 1: I've watched enough of these training camps now to know
Speaker 1: that what I've seen this summer just hasn't quite clicked yet.
Speaker 1: We'll see if it does. So let's you know, but
Speaker 1: let's get into the final period. Because they you know,
Speaker 1: at the end, did some eleven on eleven work, They
Speaker 1: did some red zone stuff, they did some then they
Speaker 1: did some full field stuff where they put up on
Speaker 1: the clock twenty to twenty four for the for the offense,
Speaker 1: they've got to go down with about like a minute
Speaker 1: twenty left, they've got to go down and score. To
Speaker 1: that point, it had been pretty rough. But then the
Speaker 1: defense I think started started it off with you know,
Speaker 1: came down towards the end, they had it, you know,
Speaker 1: a near pick and incomplete. I I wasn't sure. I
Speaker 1: think you said it was Jude on then with back
Speaker 1: to back kind of sacks at the end to close
Speaker 1: it out. I thought one of them was ouch, but
Speaker 1: again it was hard to tell. But all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end they clicked in on defense
Speaker 1: and the offense would soon fall a sweep, but they
Speaker 1: were able to get some plays and get off the
Speaker 1: field there. So definitely, at least, you know, start with
Speaker 1: the defense. They then ended with a high none and
Speaker 1: just one more point to make. I think the run
Speaker 1: defense was okay today. You know, some of the some
Speaker 1: of the runs look similar to what the Patriots were
Speaker 1: look and where it's you're just running into a crowd,
Speaker 1: and you know, would he scored it out. Probably not,
Speaker 1: but you know it's hard to tell for sure without
Speaker 1: without any tackling at all. But but that was a
Speaker 1: good sequence for the defense. Jonathan Jones, I know popped
Speaker 1: up earlier. You know, I did have a pass defense
Speaker 1: on Davante Adams, which was a nice play for him.
Speaker 1: So to start with the defense a nice little end
Speaker 1: for them. Yeah, And I think what we've seen consistently
Speaker 1: all summer is at the defensive front, especially that third
Speaker 1: down or two minute pass rush package with Judeon and
Speaker 1: bar Moore, josh Ucha on the other edge opposite of
Speaker 1: jude On, maybe a Dietrich Wise as the other interior guy.
Speaker 1: That group has been able to get after quarterbacks. Whether
Speaker 1: it's the Patriots quarterbacks, or it's these joint practices against
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield or today against Derek Carr, they've been able
Speaker 1: to pressure quarterbacks with that front and control the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage at times. And I think that that's really
Speaker 1: where this defense's strength is going to have to be,
Speaker 1: and they'll be able to be multiple and mix and
Speaker 1: match some of their blitz package in there as well,
Speaker 1: and be able to get after some quarterbacks. Judeon he
Speaker 1: drew a hold. I think ja was the one that
Speaker 1: maybe got to Car eventually, but I think it was
Speaker 1: jude On that drew a hold on that play on
Speaker 1: the tight end. Then he comes back on the next
Speaker 1: play they ran a kind of like a zero look
Speaker 1: and bluffed it and then Judon got another sack of
Speaker 1: Derek Carr to end that drive. So a really good
Speaker 1: sign that Judeon back to back play is basically wrecked
Speaker 1: to drive single handedly for against the Raiders. And then
Speaker 1: you mentioned the pass break up to Jonathan Jones. We
Speaker 1: talked to Phillips, like I mentioned earlier, after practice, he
Speaker 1: said he actually dropped an interception, that he jumped a
Speaker 1: route and dropped the pick. It was pretty hard on
Speaker 1: himself for dropping the interception, but the point is as
Speaker 1: he was in position to make a big play for
Speaker 1: the defense and potentially turned the tide there on the Raiders.
Speaker 1: Even more so, that drive was the best sequence of
Speaker 1: the practice for the Patriots, and that pass rush package
Speaker 1: and that kind of third down look that the Patriots
Speaker 1: can give you defensively has been really, really good, I
Speaker 1: would say throughout both joint practice sessions and obviously against
Speaker 1: the Panthers in the preseason game when we did see
Speaker 1: it a little bit there last Friday night. That's been
Speaker 1: the most consistent thing the Patriots have going right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you mentioned that, you know one thing that's kind of
Speaker 1: starting a pop for me, But it seems like Christian
Speaker 1: Bamber were getting a little bit of look with the
Speaker 1: base defense up top at the right defensive end position
Speaker 1: that we saw a lot of teacher Kwise Henry Anderson.
Speaker 1: So I think that's you know, good sign certainly for
Speaker 1: both of us who want to see him become a
Speaker 1: three down player. Let's set the stage though for the
Speaker 1: last offensive possession. Um, you know, but the previous two
Speaker 1: I've got you know, they had six reps in the
Speaker 1: previous two eleven on elevens. I had the first one,
Speaker 1: nice nice touchdown passed to Davante Parker. Um. But that
Speaker 1: was the only completion they had in the initial red
Speaker 1: zone series. The second one I had, you know, one
Speaker 1: one to Agalore. That was it. Other that three more incompletions,
Speaker 1: uh and it looked like maybe two kind of runs.
Speaker 1: So set in the stage you're going into this final
Speaker 1: that you're on the clock. It's you know, Pressuron not
Speaker 1: really expecting much. I'm gonna I'm gonna do my rudimentary
Speaker 1: just kind of run down of how it went because
Speaker 1: it was it was pretty surprising. First one, nothing crazy,
Speaker 1: just seemed like a little five yard checked down and
Speaker 1: believed to Harris. Second one I didn't get a good
Speaker 1: look at, but I know it was incomplete. Then they
Speaker 1: then they started hitting Myers, uh tie Montgomery. They got
Speaker 1: a real nice throw I thought to Davante Parker again
Speaker 1: which was right along the sidelines, a little toe tap
Speaker 1: and out for a first down. Um. The next completion
Speaker 1: was to John H. Smith. I thought it was a touchdown.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I don't know. They marked it down
Speaker 1: on the one yard line, but it didn't matter. They
Speaker 1: came back in the next one and Mac found Kendrick
Speaker 1: Bourne in the back of the end zone. Big spike
Speaker 1: from him. We know he's been going through some some
Speaker 1: you know things right now, trying to improve his playing time,
Speaker 1: and you know, with sitting out the game last week,
Speaker 1: so you know, just like that, it was a real
Speaker 1: nice finish. It was, I mean, really one of maybe
Speaker 1: the best possessions I've seen all summer in terms of
Speaker 1: just sheer volume of completions and nice plays and you know,
Speaker 1: nice throws by Mac and good catches. So I guess
Speaker 1: we're the point we're at right now after kind of
Speaker 1: being depressed for most of the practice, was Hey, they
Speaker 1: finished off strong. Maybe this is something that they can
Speaker 1: build off of. I still think, and look, you can't
Speaker 1: play in the two minute hurry up for for six minutes, right,
Speaker 1: you can't do it all the time. But when they
Speaker 1: spread the field and they put their best skill players
Speaker 1: out there and they just kind of let Max sling
Speaker 1: it Yeah, it really feels like that's the best that
Speaker 1: they've looked all summer when they give him those opportunities.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the throw to Myers, which was a third
Speaker 1: down play they had to move the chains, and then
Speaker 1: the one to Parker. Those two really stood out to
Speaker 1: me the most because they were timing routes right. It's
Speaker 1: a speed out to Myers and it was like a
Speaker 1: deep out to Parker and he hit the back foot,
Speaker 1: the ball was out on time, the receiver was where
Speaker 1: he's supposed to be, and it was a complete and
Speaker 1: we moved the chains. Those are the types of plays
Speaker 1: that I feel like we haven't seen quite enough of,
Speaker 1: where the timing, the rhythm, the execution, everybody's on the
Speaker 1: same page, the blocking holds up and it all looks
Speaker 1: the way it should. I think a lot of the
Speaker 1: offense that we've seen it's kind of like that Nelson
Speaker 1: Agloor play we keep on going back to on Friday
Speaker 1: Night against Carolina, where it's one big play down the
Speaker 1: field of races a bunch of other things, or DeVante
Speaker 1: Parker goes up and wins a jump ball on one
Speaker 1: against a defender. I'm not necessarily sure that is the
Speaker 1: most consistent or efficient way to move to football when
Speaker 1: you get into these plays or these sequences where they're
Speaker 1: hitting Myers on time and rhythm, they're hitting Parker on
Speaker 1: time and rhythm, and even the touchdown to Bourne that
Speaker 1: was on time and in rhythm as well. So I
Speaker 1: think that those are the types of plays that you're
Speaker 1: hoping you see more of from the Patriots offense. Well,
Speaker 1: it's hard to believe, but we're only gonna get to
Speaker 1: watch one more practice this summer, so I don't want
Speaker 1: to make it up to be the climax of the summer,
Speaker 1: but you know, certainly the stage has been set based
Speaker 1: on what happened today. I'm sure there are going to
Speaker 1: be plenty of rite ups today focusing heavily on the
Speaker 1: struggles of the Patriots offense. So we'll see how they
Speaker 1: react tomorrow. But it's it's again, it's hard to believe.
Speaker 1: Summer is almost over. We're not going to get to
Speaker 1: watch another practice after tomorrow until next summer, and then
Speaker 1: the climax, of course of the preseason will be on
Speaker 1: Friday night here against these Raiders. So we will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with the final camp cast to wrap everything
Speaker 1: up for you. This was a thorough one. We really
Speaker 1: dove into it, so hopefully we can provide some light
Speaker 1: on it out here in Vegas of what's been going on.
Speaker 1: We'll see how things develop, and we'll catch you next
Speaker 1: time on the campcast. Thank you for downloading this podcast,
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