From Blogservations:
Mini-camp Blogservations: Edelman turns it up
- Speaking of tight ends, it was hard not to notice
Troy Niklas. The former Cardinals tight end moves fluidly and cuts in and out of his breaks smoothly. He has not been much of a factor as a receiver during the early part of his career but he was on Tuesday, catching several passes down the seam and running away from defenders consistently throughout the afternoon. The Notre Dame product could be a surprise addition to the receiving corps based on Tuesday’s work.
-Phillip
Dorsett may have had his best day of practice on Tuesday as he broke free several times on crossing routes. He caught a bunch of passes from all the quarterbacks, including Brady, and was consistently open, particularly in some hurry-up/no huddle work toward the end of practice.
-The offensive line also got some players back that had been limited in earlier sessions. The group that opened some drills included
Trent Brown at left tackle next to rookie Isaiah
Wynn at left guard, David Andrews at center, Shaq Mason at right guard and LaAdrian Waddle at right tackle. Brown and Wynn took several reps against a defense, marking the first time they’d done so in front of the media this spring. Waddle moved to the left side to replace Brown while Luke
Bowanko took Wynn’s spot and Cole
Croston took over at right tackle with Mason and Andrews remaining in place.
-The 11-on-11 work involved down and distance with the defense including Adrian Clayborn, Lawrence Guy, Danny Shelton and Trey Flowers up front, Dont’a Hightower and Elandon Roberts at linebacker and Stephon Gilmore, J.C Jackson, Duke
Dawson, Devin McCourty and Chung in the secondary.
J.C.Jackson continues to garner attention, not only by his inclusion with the presumed starters but for his play. He ran stride for stride with Kenny Britt down the left sideline on a deep ball and prevented Brady from making the connection.
Jason McCourty hasn’t really taken any reps in the three practices open to the media but has been dressed and standing on the sideline at all times. Perhaps Jason McCourty is dealing with an unknown injury but thus far it seems he hasn’t been involved. Even though he is a veteran it would seem to make sense for a newcomer to get more work during these practices but so far that hasn’t been the case.
-The first play of full team work in each practice has featured a strong showing by
Clayborn. The defensive end has flashed coming off the edge in all three practices and on Tuesday he forced Waddle to grab hold of his jersey to prevent a sack. Clayborn followed that by blowing up an end around to Hogan on the next snap, drawing some praise from the coaches.
-The Patriots did a fair amount of work in the kicking game with kickoffs in focus. It was interesting to watch the coverage team starting from a standstill as part of the new rules recently instituted. The return team also has some adjustments to make with eight players now required to be within 15 yards on the restraining line. Matthew Slater talked about it after practice and explained how the changes are going to take some time to get used to, particularly dealing with just three players back deep for returns. Cordarrelle Patterson, Riley McCarron and Patrick Chung took some reps as returners with Slater, Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel working as blockers in one group and Chris Hogan, Develin and James White with another. Michel and White served as the up men in the drills. It was interesting to watch the Patriots having some of the coverage players start well downfield in an effort to simulate where blockers would start to pick up their men. New looks all around in the kicking game.
