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.
Speaker 2: 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 did I miss yesterday? Now here
Speaker 1: to review today's practice the writers of Patriots dot com.
Speaker 2: We have an extra writer of Patriots dot com today,
Speaker 2: not just Mike Dusseau and Paul Pearl, but Evan Lazarre
Speaker 2: making his debut on the Training Campcast today on a Sunday,
Speaker 2: A beautiful Sunday, probably our best weather day of camp
Speaker 2: thus far. Gorgeous. I agree with you, like missus h
Speaker 2: from heart to heart. Some some slight changes to the attendants.
Speaker 2: A couple of guys missing today in addition to Thi Montgomery,
Speaker 2: who's out for his second day second practice. Also didn't
Speaker 2: see kaishon booty today, and I did not see Jake Andrews.
Speaker 2: That's correct, Okay, so we're all in agreement on the
Speaker 2: on the attendance, yes, but so we get the book
Speaker 2: keeping out of the way. I thought, Dare I say,
Speaker 2: boys that it was a little bit better today offensively? Sure? Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, I'm gonna go I'll go I'll go with me.
Speaker 2: It's deuced. Yeah, I was.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, I guess we can
Speaker 3: talk about the last period, which wasn't so great. But
Speaker 3: I thought overall, some of the eleven on eleven stuffy.
Speaker 3: They moved the ball a little bit, I thought, Mac
Speaker 3: a couple of checkdowns. But you know, had I would say,
Speaker 3: that's the most functional of the offense has looked thus far,
Speaker 3: So you know why you're not overreacting to certain things.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I had them basically going for at the end, so
Speaker 3: you know, they're not quite there yet. But but but
Speaker 3: you know, some some baby steps. I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: Taekwon Thornton with the twos. The twos moved the ball
Speaker 3: pretty well too in the red zone. So nice to
Speaker 3: see Taekwon Thornton get a couple of catches from Bailey
Speaker 3: z Appy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I got a little extra pep in my step
Speaker 4: today after practice. I don't know if it was the
Speaker 4: weather being so great or Sunday, I don't know, but
Speaker 4: I think what really the reason is that the offense
Speaker 4: showed me something a little bit today. I think there's
Speaker 4: a little bit of pushback, which is what you want
Speaker 4: to see. Mac Jones talking about last week how you
Speaker 4: want to go back and forth with the defense in
Speaker 4: training camp. You don't want it to be all one
Speaker 4: sided in either direction. I thought today the offense punched
Speaker 4: back a little bit for Mac. The highlight to me
Speaker 4: was the dump off to Kevin Harris against the safety
Speaker 4: blitz by Jalen Mills.
Speaker 2: Terrific play.
Speaker 4: Just finally seeing a blitz come, get a little hot
Speaker 4: route behind it, just dump it right off and there
Speaker 4: was nobody on that side of the field and Kevin
Speaker 4: Harris waltzed into the end zone. That's the type of
Speaker 4: play that we've been clamoring for for Mac Jones. We
Speaker 4: know he's not going to be this josh Allen bazooka
Speaker 4: armed quarterback, but can you make the cerebral plays. Can
Speaker 4: you make the football IQ plays? And that we talked
Speaker 4: last week about the little heave in the back of
Speaker 4: the end zone to Devonte Parker where you just saw
Speaker 4: the blitz coming and just kind of tried to jail
Speaker 4: break it and get it out of there. This play
Speaker 4: looked cool. Calm collected against pressure, knew exactly where he
Speaker 4: was supposed to go with the football and hit Kevin
Speaker 4: Harris in the flat for a touchdown. There wasn't a
Speaker 4: ton of downfield stuff from Mac, but I thought he
Speaker 4: was on time. I thought he was seeing it well.
Speaker 4: And I think that's a good starting point. But as
Speaker 4: Deuce mentioned, there at the end red zone and it
Speaker 4: particularly inside the ten yard line is still a slog
Speaker 4: for this group and they're gonna have to figure that out.
Speaker 2: No nobody uncovering down there in that last series, and
Speaker 2: it caused some sacks, some scrambles and things, and it
Speaker 2: got a little bit unraveled. But I thought both Mac
Speaker 2: and I totally agree with you on that play. And
Speaker 2: I thought I think it was two plays later. You
Speaker 2: know that little jet sweep motion kind of thing. He
Speaker 2: starts off in the backfield, so it wasn't exactly what
Speaker 2: you've been describing a lot. He started off, you know, red,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if you guys saw Mac motion
Speaker 2: on the call, so he just he just sees it, right,
Speaker 2: you know, clearly Max saw something. And that's why, like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to get too carried away with the throws,
Speaker 2: because Evan's right, they're just like little checkdowns. But that's
Speaker 2: the kind of stuff that if this offense, I don't
Speaker 2: think this offense is gonna win a lot just on
Speaker 2: cheer ability. That's how they're gonna have to win. And
Speaker 2: you know, he just bubbles out as Evan called the
Speaker 2: tear motion, and it is an easy pitching catch for
Speaker 2: a play, And I thought that started the juice offensively.
Speaker 2: And then Zappi went in and I thought, really made
Speaker 2: some impressive throws. He was able to get the ball
Speaker 2: on the end zone a little bit from the high
Speaker 2: red zone up by the eighteen two in a span
Speaker 2: of three plays, two absolutely perfect throws to the back
Speaker 2: left hand corner of the end zone where he finds
Speaker 2: first Jalen Heard, nice high point then the back of
Speaker 2: the end zone. Absolutely got his feet in bounds too.
Speaker 2: I had a good look at that, and then Trey
Speaker 2: Nixon and then later on I thought the little fade
Speaker 2: to Taekwon Thornton was just gorgeous. Yeah, a little bit
Speaker 2: of butter on that one. So I thought there was
Speaker 2: some signs offensively. The crowd got into it a little
Speaker 2: bit at that point. The offensive players were excited about it.
Speaker 2: Zappi talked a little bit afterwards, just sort of talking
Speaker 2: about how this is what you're doing. You know, you're
Speaker 2: working those first three days to put things in place
Speaker 2: so you can have this be the result. So it
Speaker 2: was good to see them have some success today. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I said, I like seeing Thornton one o their plays.
Speaker 2: Just want that to highlight was I thought, a really
Speaker 2: nice play on that. You know, we talked about the
Speaker 2: ones inside the nine. With Christian Gonzalez just making a
Speaker 2: great play on the ball Juju Smith Schuster. It looked
Speaker 2: to me like here comes.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a bang bang play and I was
Speaker 3: excited because it seemed like Max saw it, but so
Speaker 3: did Christian Gonzalez almost came up with the pick. But
Speaker 3: I just it's, you know, another little feather in Christian
Speaker 3: Gonzalez's cap, who I think continues to kind of rise.
Speaker 3: You're seeing key on White get a little bit more
Speaker 3: work with some of the pass rushing fronts, and even
Speaker 3: Martein Map who.
Speaker 2: Who had been real quiet the first few days, starting
Speaker 2: to scratch.
Speaker 3: We got more reps today than the first started to
Speaker 3: get a little bit of reps on defense at linebacker. Looked,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe like a two minute drill situation, so
Speaker 3: they're trying to get You saw three other safeties on
Speaker 3: the field and him. He's kind of blurring the lines
Speaker 3: right now. But I thought a good day for those
Speaker 3: three rookies. And then finally just I would say Ryland too.
Speaker 3: It looked like he was He hit all his field goals.
Speaker 3: He looked strong and missed one, took one on from above, but.
Speaker 2: He did miss one, and he I thought, I thought
Speaker 2: everything was better today for the most part. And you
Speaker 2: guys are right, I mean there was you know, we
Speaker 2: don't want to just ignore the play. So Jalen Mills,
Speaker 2: you know, stepped in front of an out on Zappi. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: that came in the last play of Zappi's set, which
Speaker 2: I thought was the best set of offensive plays in
Speaker 2: four days for any quarterback, and then he ended it
Speaker 2: with a bad pick on an out. I think it
Speaker 2: was intended for Thornton, a little bit telegraph. Uh yeah,
Speaker 2: And that's a throw that he has trouble with. I
Speaker 2: think I think both quarterbacks have trouble with that, but
Speaker 2: I think Zappi in particular struggles with his accuracy on
Speaker 2: some of those out routes. Jalen Mills, you know, stepped
Speaker 2: in and picked it off, and you talked about the one. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that Gonzale. Gonzales just he's my I mean, I know
Speaker 2: he's the first round pick. It's not like, oh, what
Speaker 2: a great eye for talent, Paul, but he's my little
Speaker 2: He just looks he's my little camp crush. So far.
Speaker 3: Two other things just to bring up to Christian Barmore
Speaker 3: had a baby back fine, and it looked like DeMarcus Mitchell.
Speaker 3: He was finally starting to participate off of n FI,
Speaker 3: so he'd been warming up the last few days. Today
Speaker 3: he was participating, so they got a little bit more
Speaker 3: healthy in that front. Disappointing for Booty. We haven't seen
Speaker 3: much out of him anyway though, so it's hard to
Speaker 3: really But the other rookie part, I'll I'll.
Speaker 4: Let you I'm excited about it, but I'm trying not
Speaker 4: to be too excited. It's four days into trading camp.
Speaker 4: You don't want to get carried away because we've seen
Speaker 4: this before where guy comes out and has a great
Speaker 4: first four days and the pads come on and then
Speaker 4: you never hear from him again. So I'm trying not
Speaker 4: to get too ahead of myself. With the Mario Douglas,
Speaker 4: but I think the big thing with him is that
Speaker 4: he just plays the receiver position differently than the other
Speaker 4: guys that they have on the team. That quickness, that
Speaker 4: little jitterbug like ability to get in and out of
Speaker 4: the break. There's really just nobody else on the roster
Speaker 4: that plays the receiver position like that. And I think
Speaker 4: when you see him be able to just shake Marcus
Speaker 4: Jones coming over the middle of the field that little
Speaker 4: hesitation move, or lose Miles Brian at the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 4: and just with pure quickness, just absolute jitterbug quickness. That's
Speaker 4: something that we know succeeds here, we know can succeed
Speaker 4: in the slot in particular, And if he can continue
Speaker 4: this once the pads come on and he's just as effective,
Speaker 4: then I think they really might have found something here.
Speaker 4: And it's so Patriots to just stumble into a wide
Speaker 4: receiver in the sixth round. I think that that's just
Speaker 4: a coincidence, not but I feel like that's gonna be
Speaker 4: a big thing.
Speaker 2: Oh I do it happened one other time.
Speaker 4: Once the pads come on, we can really get excited
Speaker 4: about tomorrow Douglas. But watching him out here in these
Speaker 4: types of sessions, it's clear that there's something there. And
Speaker 4: now he's starting to catch on with some more frontline
Speaker 4: players and do it against some better corners like Marcus
Speaker 4: Jones and Miles Bryant, guys that have started for the
Speaker 4: Patriots last couple of years. So I'm excited, but I'm
Speaker 4: trying not to be too excited.
Speaker 2: So one last thing I will just add. Since the
Speaker 2: last time we've done Mike and I talked to you,
Speaker 2: the Patriots did reportedly have a meeting with Ezekiel Elliott,
Speaker 2: so they're still in that sort of backup running back market.
Speaker 2: No word on you know how productive that meeting was.
Speaker 2: I know Ian Rappaport from NFL Network reported that he
Speaker 2: left without a contract. So we'll continue to keep an
Speaker 2: eye on the backup running back market that looks like
Speaker 2: Lennon Ford and now Zeke, so we'll see if they
Speaker 2: go back and you get tied to Dalvin Cook. But
Speaker 2: my guess is I think Monday, when the pads come on,
Speaker 2: will be a big day for Kevin Harris to see
Speaker 2: if he can. And I know they don't tackle, but
Speaker 2: you get a better idea when you're going through the
Speaker 2: holes that are created by guys actually hitting each other.
Speaker 2: And how Kevin Harris looks when he gets some of
Speaker 2: those carries. Yeah, I like the thought of Zeke.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know when that popped up, I mean
Speaker 3: I knew it was possible, but especially when you just
Speaker 3: see them kind of struggle in the red zone, you know,
Speaker 3: can can you get another big body back?
Speaker 2: Who can?
Speaker 3: I know he's not the receiver, maybe that he might
Speaker 3: have been at one time, but I think just that
Speaker 3: those are the kind of guys they need to give
Speaker 3: him a little bit more of a presence and a
Speaker 3: backup at least to Remandre.
Speaker 4: It just looks like we were talking about this on
Speaker 4: the live stream the other day. There's one point where
Speaker 4: I looked up because Pierre Strong was working with the
Speaker 4: special teamers and it's three guys, right, It's just Remandre,
Speaker 4: Kevin Harris, and JJ Taylor and then obviously Pierre Strong
Speaker 4: in there as well. But at the at the very least,
Speaker 4: it feels like they just need another body to get
Speaker 4: through the summer. But if it's a guy like Zeke
Speaker 4: that maybe can contribute as the RB two or backup
Speaker 4: top backup to Ramandre Stevenson, that's not a terrible one
Speaker 4: two punch. And although he doesn't have the juice that
Speaker 4: he had early on in his career. I think short yardage,
Speaker 4: goal line, those types of situations, I think Zeke can
Speaker 4: still be really effective. I'm not gonna expect him to
Speaker 4: be who he was the first couple of years of
Speaker 4: his career. I would expect him to be somebody that
Speaker 4: can carry the ball though one hundred hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: times and maybe take some of that workload off.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're expecting pads. You know. Bill Belichick
Speaker 2: spoke before the practice. He was asked flat out and
Speaker 2: he said, yeah, yeah, probably it wouldn't give you a definitive,
Speaker 2: but I'm expecting it to be in full pads on Monday,
Speaker 2: and we will have you a live Patriots Unfiltered will
Speaker 2: do our fourth and final live show, so the gang
Speaker 2: will be back together one more time. So we will
Speaker 2: be back tomorrow in full pads, guys,