New England Patriots Rookie Mini-Camp Begins Today
 Patriots Rookie mini-camp begins today including 1st Round draft pick Malcom Brown. (USA TODAY Images) |
Draftees and UDFAs try to acclimate to the NE system and land a slot
Friday morning begins the three-day rookie mini-camp for the Patriots. They arrived yesterday and will begin their acclimatization to the Patriots system starting now. The veterans have been doing off-season conditioning and rehabilitation for the past few weeks.
For some of the Patriots draftees it will be a crash course in getting to know the system. For others, it will be to a chance to show what they can do, so that once training camp starts, they can compete for reps and a roster slot. And others will be in town for a tryout visit, just to get a slot for training camp.
For all of them however, it will be a visit into the unknown, this will be their first foray into the professional ranks and the Patriots and Bill Belichick will throw things at them fast and furiously.
It’s funny how things tend to change over time, Belichick used to favor players from Fresno State when Pat Hill was the coach. Then the schools with “favored nation status” were Florida with Urban Meyer followed by Rutgers with Greg Schiano. Now the two schools that seem to be on the Patriots radar are Alabama under good Belichick buddy Nick Saban and Florida State where former OL coach Dante Scarnecchia has forged some ties that brought the Pats C Bryan Stork last year and his former teammate, guard Tre’ Jackson in this season’s draft.
With the influx of edge players, the Patriots released former 7th Round draft pick, DE Michael Buchanan and WR Kevin Dorsey yesterday.
This season’s draft class includes:
Malcom Brown, DT Texas
Jordan Richards, S Stanford
Geneo Grissom, DE/OLB Oklahoma
Trey Flowers, DE Arkansas
Tre’ Jackson, G Florida State
Shaq Mason, G Georgia Tech
Matthew Wells, LB/S Miss State
Joe Cardona, LS Navy
A.J. Derby, TE Arkansas
Darryl Roberts, CB Marshall
Xzavier Dickson, OLB/DE Alabama
Some of the known UDFAs that have either been signed or will be in for on a tryout basis include but are not limited to:
Devin Gardner, WR Michigan
David Andrews, C Georgia
Jimmy Jean, CB Alabama-Birmingham
Brandon King, S Auburn
Chris Harper, WR Cal
Vince Taylor, DL Vanderbilt
Eric Patterson, CB Ball State
D.J. Wagner, LB Bowling Green
Shane Young, TE Sam Houston State
Chris Smith, WR Yale
Ed Williams WR, Fort Hays State
The official list will be released later on this afternoon, but as of today….it’s on for the Patriots rookies and they’ll begin to be evaluated on a daily basis. Rookie mini-camp runs from Friday, May 8 – Sunday, May 10.
The next OTA will commence May 26 and then May 28-29, when the entire team will get together. Further OTAs and mini-camp will take place June 1, June 3-4, June 8-9, June 11-12, Mandatory Minicamp: June 16-18
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