Speaker 1: The sun was out, the temperatures were high, and so
Speaker 1: was the connection from Drake May to AJ Brown. We'll
Speaker 1: break it all down right now. Welcome into the Patriots
Speaker 1: Camp cast presented by New Balance. Paul Perolo and Evan
Speaker 1: Lazarre with you today. And I thought, Evan, this was
Speaker 1: the most impressive day we've seen yet for the offense.
Speaker 1: Just the second day in pads, but they absolutely controlled.
Speaker 1: I thought all of the action, especially in the passing game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Drake May was on fire today. I didn't see
Speaker 2: the ball touch the ground. We were just talking about
Speaker 2: that and I walk into the studio. Did we see
Speaker 2: an incomplete pass from Drake May. I believe you're into
Speaker 2: the stats eleven of eleven for Drake May today in
Speaker 2: eleven on eleven, that's swelling a lot of elevens. But
Speaker 2: Drake made finding Aj Brown down the field. Hunter Henry
Speaker 2: pop Douglas caught a great one little backpedal corner route
Speaker 2: to end practice. This looked like the guy during the
Speaker 2: regular season last year that was putting up insane numbers
Speaker 2: from Drake May. So all that talk Paul about maybe
Speaker 2: a slower start, especially for AJ Brown early on in camp,
Speaker 2: I feel like the last two days, we've seen that connection.
Speaker 3: Find it's footing a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to a lesser extent with Dobbs as well.
Speaker 1: You know, he's starting to become a little bit more
Speaker 1: involved every day. But I can't help Evan, but notice
Speaker 1: just how comfortable Drake may looks, you know, the teammateer
Speaker 1: talking about it. He's more vocal, he seems more confident,
Speaker 1: and it shows. I mean, I think that he's coming
Speaker 1: out and he's telling you after practice that he's not
Speaker 1: going to shy away from taking these shots. He's especially
Speaker 1: not going to shy away from taking shots to aj Brown, right,
Speaker 1: So he's not one of these young quarterbacks that's sort
Speaker 1: of I don't want to say intimidated, but deferring to
Speaker 1: the veteran star receiver, I don't think that he looks
Speaker 1: at it that way. I think that's a great sign
Speaker 1: for the offense.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think he's really throwing the ball a lot more
Speaker 2: consistently too, now that he's getting a little bit of
Speaker 2: a rhythm. I think early on in camp probably be
Speaker 2: thrown live bullets in a while, And so now we're
Speaker 2: getting to the point where you see that rhythm and
Speaker 2: like I said, the ball hasn't hit the ground very
Speaker 2: much over the last couple of days. I think we
Speaker 2: got to talk a little bit about AJ Brown though,
Speaker 2: and just the I think every day he's just kind
Speaker 2: of getting better and better and a better connection. And
Speaker 2: one of the things that I thought early on you
Speaker 2: kind of have to figure out as a quarterback, is
Speaker 2: this a time to give him a chance? You know,
Speaker 2: I think he has that rapport with Kaishan Boudi already
Speaker 2: where he knows if it's a fifty to fifty ball,
Speaker 2: it's kind of my guy's eighty twenty ball, right and
Speaker 2: getting that field throwing the ball down the field for
Speaker 2: AJ Brown today, Gonzo with a little stutter and go
Speaker 2: and got right behind him on a double move against
Speaker 2: the blitz that I think Gonzales thought the ball was
Speaker 2: going to come out quickly because of the blitz and
Speaker 2: Brown got behind him and that was to me, I
Speaker 2: don't know about you, but probably the best downfield connection
Speaker 2: we've seen from the two of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because as much as and I totally agree, we
Speaker 1: talked Mike and I talked, you know, after the Thursday
Speaker 1: practice about how it was baby steps for AJ Brown,
Speaker 1: but I the one caveat that I would have is
Speaker 1: a lot of the catches that he had on Thursday
Speaker 1: were really dialed up specifically for aj Brown. Quick slants,
Speaker 1: you know, three step drop balls out bang, that's the
Speaker 1: intended receiver. That wasn't the case today. Some of the
Speaker 1: stuff was later developing much better, much more impressive. The
Speaker 1: double move that you talk about would be exhibit A. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you also provide some some good context with Gonzales
Speaker 1: and his mindset probably on that play. I think Kevin
Speaker 1: Byard might have been providing some pressure on that play,
Speaker 1: So it's certainly Gonzo. It's probably expecting the ball to
Speaker 1: come out a little quicker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, third down, you're playing the sticks on third down,
Speaker 2: especially with the blitz, you think the ball is going
Speaker 2: to come out quickly. And these are always those bang
Speaker 2: bang plays a training camp. Kevin Byard's obviously not going
Speaker 2: to lay out the quarterback in a training camp practice.
Speaker 2: So would he have gotten there? Would he not have
Speaker 2: gotten there? I'm going to give this one to the offense.
Speaker 2: But it was close. You know, Byard was in his
Speaker 2: face in the backfield. You know, the crossing route in
Speaker 2: the red zone that he hit on on was a
Speaker 2: really nice throw. Kind of reminded me of the Kyle
Speaker 2: Williams throw in Tampa last year. We bent the bullet
Speaker 2: around the offensive line and led AJ Brown into the
Speaker 2: end zone for another touchdown.
Speaker 3: So you're starting to see that connection really catch some fire.
Speaker 1: So I mean offensively, you know, the layman like me
Speaker 1: of you know, we're watching all these passes getting completed,
Speaker 1: you know, to Mario Douglas and AJ Brown and Romeo Dobbs,
Speaker 1: and I'm excited about that. The ball knowers like you
Speaker 1: spent some time before they got into the team periods.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of one on one action down
Speaker 1: at the far end with the offensive lineman and the
Speaker 1: defensive lineman going one on one. What did you see?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so one caveat off the top. No Christian Barmore today, right,
Speaker 2: No gay back is still no Harold Landry. So those
Speaker 2: are three players for the defense and these drills that
Speaker 2: you expect to be able to win some one on
Speaker 2: ones and beat some blocks. So the defense a little
Speaker 2: bit shorthanded. But I thought offensively, starting with the offensive line,
Speaker 2: I had Campbell three to zero and one on ones.
Speaker 2: I think he's looked really, really good in those A
Speaker 2: little bit more aggressive, which I think is what we
Speaker 2: all wanted to see. His technique looks really sharp. He's
Speaker 2: kind of had Draymont Jones' number and one on ones
Speaker 2: to start camp. Not as good for Caleb Blomo in
Speaker 2: this one. I thought he was better yesterday today. Had
Speaker 2: some struggles with Ponder and a lot in Swinson. Braiden
Speaker 2: Swinson on a few reps. So Brandon Swinson though, I
Speaker 2: thought that was the first time that I saw some
Speaker 2: flash from him, good spin move. He also had a
Speaker 2: good rush over the guard. They had him run rush
Speaker 2: inside a little bit and we won over the guard too.
Speaker 3: So you know, a couple of those.
Speaker 2: Depth guys Jeremiah Farms and one guy that I keeps
Speaker 2: popping up in these one on one drolls, Paula Isaiah,
Speaker 2: who was a guy that was on this team last year.
Speaker 1: He had maybe the most dominant rep of that whole
Speaker 1: period down there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's looked really impressive throughout the first couple of
Speaker 2: days in pads. I thought he had a decent camp
Speaker 2: last year, and he got hurt towards the end of
Speaker 2: training camp, if I'm remembering correctly, and had to spend
Speaker 2: the season on injured reserve. So if you're looking for
Speaker 2: you know, they're gonna have bar More and Williams and Dirden,
Speaker 2: But who are the guys that are going to be
Speaker 2: the fourth, fifth, sixth defensive tackles.
Speaker 3: Maybe a little bit of a push there for MIAI.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, Elijah Ponder has gotten a lot
Speaker 1: of you know talk early on in camp, and that
Speaker 1: was one of the ones that Lomu had, I think
Speaker 1: the very first rep for Lomu. Yeah, he looked like
Speaker 1: he just wasn't ready. I mean, he got around him,
Speaker 1: barely got a hand on him. So in Loman's defense,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, as the drill progressed, I thought
Speaker 1: his play progressed as well. He was better on Thursday
Speaker 1: than today, certainly. But found one thing interesting Evan in
Speaker 1: talking you know, after practice, Rominder Stevenson talking about how
Speaker 1: much he likes the way the offensive line is moving
Speaker 1: people around. Yeah, and he threw the tight ends into
Speaker 1: that too. And our guy Tanner Arkin, yes, drawing some
Speaker 1: praise from Stevenson.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I thought Tanner Arkin kind of liked Lomu maybe better,
Speaker 2: a little bit better yesterday than didn't notice him as
Speaker 2: much today. But I thought that he's been throwing his
Speaker 2: weight around and I kind of liked what I saw.
Speaker 2: I rared him too as a blocker. Today line he
Speaker 2: kicked out Brandon Swinson. They were doing a little five
Speaker 2: on five like inside six run drill early on in practice,
Speaker 2: and he opened a hole for the running back. My
Speaker 2: guy jam Miller keeps making me write his name down
Speaker 2: to running the football. But Brandon Swinson was on the
Speaker 2: edge and Reardon got him, kicked him out, opened the hole.
Speaker 2: So some good blocking from those two rookies, which I
Speaker 2: think that's the big question, especially for Raredan, excuse me,
Speaker 2: is can he block in line especially and maybe you know,
Speaker 2: get on the field a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Right, those two guys ark and rear it In. You
Speaker 1: don't want to get into a position where you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: Arkan's out there, so it's going to be a running play.
Speaker 1: Raredin's out there, so it's going to be a pass.
Speaker 1: You want to make sure that they can do a
Speaker 1: little bit of both. And you know you talked about
Speaker 1: rared In today showing at least some capacity to be
Speaker 1: able to block. They continue to try to throw some
Speaker 1: of those you know, those little play action boots into
Speaker 1: the flat to the tight end. I think those are
Speaker 1: great first down plays. Take the seven yards. Arkin caught
Speaker 1: one of those today, sideline, be interesting to see if
Speaker 1: Drake May continues to throw it to him. Take the
Speaker 1: check down. Yeah, you know on a first and ten
Speaker 1: Arkins out there, they're going to be loaded up for
Speaker 1: the run, right, So take the seven yard completion, take
Speaker 1: the easy, easy cash, and stay ahead of the chains
Speaker 1: that I think that would be a really big key
Speaker 1: for those two tight ends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you nailed it.
Speaker 2: With the predictability, that's my biggest fear is I don't
Speaker 2: want them to be super run pass predictable, where if
Speaker 2: it's a formation all of a sudden, you're putting Arkin
Speaker 2: and Gilliam and Hollins in the game, it's going to
Speaker 2: tell the defense seventy percent of the time this is
Speaker 2: a run, right, And so one of those tight ends
Speaker 2: either needs to flash Arkin as a receiver or Rearden
Speaker 2: as a blocker to be a little bit less predictable.
Speaker 3: As my allergies just kick my butt over here.
Speaker 1: All right. So with your allergies kicking your butt, we'll
Speaker 1: wrap this up. Just a couple of really quick bookkeeping notes.
Speaker 1: Carlton Davis also missed his second straight practice dealing with
Speaker 1: an apparent leg injury. Christian Barmore, as Evan mentioned early on,
Speaker 1: was not seen today. Don't know if that's a maintenance thing.
Speaker 1: We'll keep an eye on that. None of the players
Speaker 1: on lists have returned, so same five guys there. Brandon Crosley,
Speaker 1: who was not at practice on Thursday, was back. Some
Speaker 1: reports indicated that he may have welcomed his first child
Speaker 1: into the world. So in one final thing, Otis Reese,
Speaker 1: third year linebacker, was released by the Patriots before practice
Speaker 1: started this morning, so they will be back at it,
Speaker 1: presumably in pads again tomorrow, although I will say this
Speaker 1: was a pretty intense practice today, a lot of reps,
Speaker 1: lot of eleven on eleven works, so we'll see. But
Speaker 1: Saturday's practice ten fifteen am. Here in Foxbow has always
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