Daily Notebook: Monday Patriots News and Notes 4/3
Kevin Hoffman - USA TODAY Sports
Here’s a look at this morning’s top stories:
Gronkowski Crashed Wrestlemania Sunday Night – Any fans wondering how Rob Gronkowski is recovering from his offseason back surgery might have had a chance to see first-hand Sunday night if they tuned in to Wrestlemania, with the veteran tight end making a surprise appearance.
Gronkowski entered the ring in support of his friend, Mojo Rawly and leveled wrestler Jinder Mahal in the ring.
Take a look:
Gronk just went HAM at WrestleMania!!! pic.twitter.com/CEk111smgY
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) April 2, 2017
Here’s another video from Sports Illustrated:
https://twitter.com/SInow/status/848662067368402946
It seems he’s feeling better and already hitting people, which should be a relatively positive sign heading into 2017.
 The Patriots backfield will look different in 2017 without LeGarrette Blount. |
Peterson Set to Visit Patriots Monday – With LeGarrette Blount still out there in free agency and his time seemingly done in New England, it appears the Patriots are still exploring their options and have a visit scheduled with a notable name on Monday.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the team is set to look at Adrian Peterson, with the former Vikings running back set to visit Foxboro today.
Peterson is a free agent after Minnesota elected not to pick up his $18 million option last month. He finished his career with the Vikings with an impressive 11,747 rushing yards but has never enjoyed a trip to the Super Bowl and obviously playing in New England would potentially give him that opportunity.
Running back is certainly a question mark heading into 2017, with Blount having carried the majority of the ground game in 2016, finishing with 299 carries for 1161 yards and 18 touchdowns, including 35 carries for 109 yards and a touchdown in the postseason.
As it currently stands, it will be newcomer Rex Burkhead, Dion Lewis, James White and D.J. Foster each battling it out for the lead role next season. Adding Peterson to the mix would definitely be interesting, although if signed, Peterson would still have to prove during training camp that he’d be able to handle the rigors of that role for Bill Belichick’s football team.
Peterson had previously visited the Seahawks back on March 9th and Tweeted back on March 25th that his goal is “finding the best fit” and that helping a team win a championship is his “main objective”. We’ll have to wait and see if he’ll get that chance here in New England.
Patriots Will Play Their Preseason “Dress Rehearsal” in Detroit – If Patriots fans were hoping to get a long look at Tom Brady in the preseason in 2017, it looks like that won’t be the case thanks to a report from ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
Reiss reported in his weekly Sunday football notes column that the Week 3 preseason match-up for the Patriots will take place in Detroit next season, which will be great for any fans from New England who are on hand for the contest but not for those attending those games in Foxboro.
The third game tends to be the one where the starters tend to see the most time on the field, and unfortunately this year’s team won’t be playing that game in front of the home crowd at Gillette Stadium.
This marks back-to-back seasons the Patriots have played on the road in their third exhibition game, with New England having played on the road last season and in 2015 against the Panthers. The last time they played at home was back in 2014, which was also against Carolina.
They last played in Week 3 in the preseason against the Lions back on August 22, 2013, which was also in Detroit.
Mitchell Visits High School Kids on Friday – Fans might think that the players are off vacationing but rookie Malcolm Mitchell is still pretty busy and spent some time speaking to students Friday.
According to the Tifton Gazette, the rookie receiver visited Northside Primary in Georgia and expressed the importance of reading to the kids.
“In order to win the Super Bowl,” Mitchell told them, “I had to read.”
The now-second-year receiver is apparently a Harry Potter fan, explaining to the students that he was reading one of the books during his lunch at the University of Georgia and realized how caught up he was in the characters, telling them he understood “Reading is magic.”
Mitchell also later told them toward the end of his visit, “I believe in you, and I want you to believe in yourself.”
Yet another reason to root for a player who enjoyed success in his first season, finishing with 32 receptions for 401 yards in the regular season, as well as 7 receptions for 75 yards during New England’s championship run in the playoffs.
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