Patriots Wednesday Afternoon Notes 9/7: 2022 Patriots Captains Announced

Some Patriots News and notes on this Wednesday afternoon:

The New England Patriots are down in Palm Beach Florida ahead of Sunday’s season opener down in Miami, with the hopes that the early arrival will help the club get acclimated to the South Florida weather. Temperatures in Miami are expected to be in the 90s on Sunday, with the potential for afternoon rain sitting close to 80%, which could add a bit of an interesting wrinkle to this one. An area of emphasis has always been on ball security and should the skies open up at game time, hopefully that will be an edge for a Patriots team that will certainly have its hands full against a talented Dolphins offense.
Belichick said during his weekly appearance on WEEI on Tuesday that he believes that the trip to Florida should help the players get comfortable ahead of Sunday’s contest. “I think it will give us a good chance just to focus on getting ready for the opening game and to get acclimated to the conditions, whatever they end up being down there,” said Belichick. He also said that it wasn’t a last-second call, it’s a decision they made well ahead of this week. “We made the decision to go down there a long time ago,” he said. “There’s a lot of travel plans that are involved there, so that wasn’t the kind of thing that we’d do normally, like a day or two ahead of time. That’s something we’ve had in place for a while.”
The team got to work on Wednesday afternoon at Palm Beach Atlantic University, about an hour north from Miami. Everyone was reportedly present, including Isaiah Wynn and Ty Montgomery, which was certainly a positive sign. Belichick was asked about the status of Wynn on Tuesday and while he didn’t comment on Wynn specifically, he sounded optimistic that potentially everyone would be available ahead of the opener. “Well, I expect everybody that can be ready to go will be ready to go next week,” said Belichick. “I know everybody’s working very hard to be 100% healthy and to be ready for the game, players, coaches, staff, everybody, so we’ll see how that develops, what kind of condition they’re in, in being able to play. I know they’re working hard to be there but we’ll just have to take it day by day on everybody and see where they’re at. But hopefully, they’ll all make it. I think they have a shot. If they didn’t, like Tyquan [Thornton] didn’t, we put him on IR, but everybody else should have a shot. So we’ll probably just see where they get to.”
Conditions at the Division II school looked pretty interesting, based on photos posted on Twitter. According to The Athletic’s Chad Griff, the team needed to have makeshift goal posts brought in, which were held up with sandbags and rope when the club hit the practice fields on Wednesday. Belichick has said in the past that they need to be ready for any situation while practicing anywhere, and that certainly seemed to be a nice little way to “rough it’ ahead of what should be a tough game. The team must also be located very close to an airport, as multiple airplanes could be heard flying overhead during Belichick’s press conference with the media on Wednesday. However, Belichick said he was pleased with the decision to take up residence at that location. “We looked at several options,” said Belichick. “This was the best one.”
Belichick also talked about the fact that being away for an extended period isn’t something that’s necessarily a new thing. While he mentioned the decision to head to Florida wasn’t as obvious as the extended west coast trips they’ve taken in recent years, he believes it was a good decision. “We’ve been away for a week during the season multiple times in the last few years. If it works out, it can be a good experience,” said Belichick. “I think this will.”
The team also announced the 2022 Patriots captains, with Mac Jones, Matthew Slater, Devin McCourty, Ja’Whaun Bentley, David Andrews and Deatrich Wise Jr. rounding out the list. The coach had some nice praise for Wise, who he said has seen his hard work pay off. “Wise has always been a pretty mature kid. Very hard-working, one of the most diligent workers we have. Great attitude, always puts the team first. Always looking to do extra. Whatever you tell him to do, he works really hard to do it. It’s kind of always been that way. Like any player, he’s physically developed, improved his techniques, just become a more experienced player. But all the traits were there, I don’t think they’ve really changed.”
Belichick also had praise for Christian Barmore, who he feels has also come quite far since last season. “I think he’s improved like all of our second-year players have,” said Belichick. “Better fundamentals, better techniques, better understanding of blocking schemes. He’s played a lot of different positions, from 3 to 2 to 1 to zero, a little bit of five techinique but just the volume of that’s not the easiest thing, especially for a young player. He’s gotten more comfortable with that, guys that are playing with him, DG [Davon Godchaux], [Lawrence] Guy, Carl [Davis], Dan [Ekuale] when he was here, those guys are all pretty good. I think they’ve all worked well with him, he’s worked well with them, so it’s good to have that continuity, have those same guys back.”
Jones told reporters on Wednesday that being named a captain was something he was happy about, although he said he’d like to become a better leader. “I think it’s really cool,” said Jones. “I think I have a lot of work to do. I want to become an even better leader. I think we have great guys around us that make everything better. Great coaches, great organization and we’ve just got to build. I’m going to learn from the older guys like I did when I first got here and continue to do that. Hopefully some of the younger guys can come to me, whether that be issues and things they want to get fixed, or things that they’re struggling with. I’ll be happy to help anybody on our team.”
The second-year quarterback knows that getting off to a good start is important, and he also said that trying to control his emotions and focusing on the details is a big key heading into Sunday. “I think sometimes Game One, there’s a lot of emotional stuff. You want to focus more on the details of the plays and everything like that and let the emotions come and go,” said Jones. “That’s how emotions are, they come and go. Energy and all that will be there. At the end of the day, it’s just the start of something. You have to learn from it and grow regardless of the results. So we’re going to go out there and compete and see how it goes. That’s all that you can ask for.”

About Ian Logue

Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.

View all posts by Ian Logue

Tags: 2022 Patriots Captains Bill Belichick David Andrews Deatrich Wise Jr. Devin McCourty Isaiah Wynn Ja'Whaun Bentley Mac Jones Matthew Slater Ty Montgomery