Patriots News 6-9, What To Look For At Minicamp
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Good morning. Here are your Patriots news and notes for June 2. The team’s mandatory minicamp starts tomorrow, June 11, and runs for three days until the 13th. Then, the team will break for about a month until the start of training camp.
There are many things to look for in the team’s minicamp sessions this year, and we’ll get to those below.
But after the team and Bill Belichick parted ways this past winter, an entirely new regime has been placed at the helm of the Patriots for the first time in nearly a quarter century. Eliot Wolf, the Vice President of Player Personnel and de facto GM, worked for Belichick for a couple of years but now controls the team.
Wolf’s mantra is “Draft, Develop, and Retain.” In free agency, the Patriots did exactly the retention part, resigning most of their free agents who they identified as core players. Before the draft, the three biggest needs were identified as quarterback, wide receiver, and tackle.
With the third overall pick, the team selected Drake Maye after signing FA QB Jakoby Brissett in free agency. Right now, Brissett is the #1 QB as they give Maye time to learn the offense and develop. Maye has looked good thus far and is picking up the offense.
To boost the moribund passing attack, the team signed free agent K.J. Osborn after trying but failing to land Calvin Ridley. They then added Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker in the draft.
At tackle, they resigned Michael Onwenu and signed former Steeler Chuks Okafor. They then drafted Caedan Wallace. Is it enough? Teaser alert! The offensive line is not one of the things to watch in minicamp. And the handwringing about the OL already is far too premature.
In non-contact OTAs and minicamps, the defense has a distinct advantage as the OL can’t use their bodies to slow the pass rushers. It is a double whammy for the Patriots, as the defense remains nearly entirely intact, along with the defensive philosophy. The offense has a lot of new parts and is learning a new system.
Matt Light: The former left tackle for the Patriots appeared on Julian Edelman’s “Games With Names” podcast and a host of great memories during his 11-year career, where he won three Super Bowl rings.
Light has always been a funny guy, and as Bill Belichick said during the Tom Brady roast, no one busted Bill’s chops more than Light. But during the podcast, Light mentioned “his most treasured thing” from his playing days—an email exchange with Belichick even more than his Super Bowl rings.
Light was in Hawaii as a union rep and made a statement to the media about the value of offseason workouts. It just so happened that the week in Hawaii was at the same time as the first OTAs were happening in Foxboro. What followed was a hilarious back-and-forth between Light and Belichick.
Watch the entire clip here:
Damien Harris: The Patriots’ former running back who was forced to retire because of a serious neck injury in 2023, was teammates with Mac Jones at both Alabama and the Patriots. And he had much to say about the way Jones was handled by New England.
“What happened to Mac Jones in New England, was not because of Mac Jones,” Harris said.
“What happened in New England to Mac Jones was because of the fact you took away an offensive coordinator who coached him to be a Pro-Bowler and almost coached us to winning our division with a rookie quarterback.
“Then you take Matt Patricia, who’s coached defense his entire life. Joe Judge, who’s been a special teams coach… and then you just throw them in there and say, ‘Hey, coach this kid up. He’s a first-round pick, but as long as you teach him what I say, everything gonna be fine.’”
“The only reason that it did was because Bill Belichick, being stuck in his ways, was very much so.
“We drafted Mac. We had a hell of a year… went on to win seven straight. At that time, we were looking at ourselves like we might have a Super Bowl run here,” Harris said.
“Then the next year after that you replace… Josh McDaniels with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and then look at the year we had that year… now Mac Jones is all of a sudden gone. I think that everybody can look at what I just said. And ultimately, just watch it for what it was and kinda say that maybe Bill Belichick did not do right by Mac Jones.” Ouch. But it is true.
JaQuae Jackson: We thought that once Bill Belichick was gone the Rutgers connection was gone as well. Not so fast. The Patriots signed the former Scarlet Knight WR on Thursday. He has a lot of ground to make up in a short amount of time.
But the 6’2, 190-pound receiver caught the eye of the team, and after he was released by the Atlanta Falcons this week to make room for former Patriot OL Andrew Steuber, the Patriots quickly swooped in and signed Jackson. He ran a 4.4 in the 40 and ran a 6.83 3-Cone Drill at his Pro Day. He’s intriguing.
In an interview with The Draft Network, Jackson said, I’ve beaten adversity my entire life. I’ve never taken no for an answer. Every team should want a guy like that.
The Patriots also added free agent WR David Wallis from Randolph-Macon, who was invited to the Patriots’ rookie minicamp after the draft. He totaled 146 catches for 3,144 yards and 34 touchdowns in 42 career games.
In a corresponding move, the Patriots released WR T.J. Luther.
Dont’a Hightower: The former Patriot LBer, who was nicknamed “Mr. February” by Bill Belichick, was hired by Jerod Mayo as the inside linebackers coach. Hightower, who retired in 2021, made it clear that he would only coach with Nick Saban or Mayo, as the two have been friends since Hightower was a rookie.
According the Athletic’s Jeff Howe, Hightower’s wife told him to either coach or work on his golf game.
Patriots 4th & 2 Podcast: This past week, we discussed the latest news from Foxboro in our PatsFans.com podcast.
Derek Havens and I continued our profiles for the newest Patriots players. Tune in this week as we’ll try to continue our interview series during the spring.
Russ Francis/Chuck Fairbanks: The former Patriot tight end and head coach should be in the Patriots team Hall of Fame, and the fact that Francis isn’t in is an absolute travesty. Francis and the Raiders’ Dave Casper changed the game with how teams used the tight end position. This will be discussed in our Sunday posts until it happens. Casper is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Francis’ numbers stand up well against Casper’s, yet he isn’t even in the team’s HOF.
The Patriots begin their mandatory minicamp tomorrow. And this is what I am hoping to see this week. This will be Jerod Mayo’s first minicamp and he’ll want everything to go smoothly. So, expect him to lean on his other coaches quite a bit this week.
The defense gets Matthew Judon, Christian Gonzalez, and Marcus Jones back from injury and resigned Josh Uche, Kyle Dugger, and Anfernee Jennings to keep them in the fold.
We all know what Judon and Uche can do together on the field, but I want to see more of Keion White, Marte Mapu, and Oshane Ximines this coming week. Having depth at the edge is imperative to keeping the pass rush fresh in the fourth quarter of games and preparing for the inevitable injuries.
At cornerback, the depth is a bit questionable, although the team managed last year despite losing Marcus Jones and then Gonzalez. Gonzalez is the #1 corner entering this season, and in a perfect world, the team could use Jonathan Jones back to the slot. That would mean one of the other corners would have to step up.
I’d like to see a lot of Alex Austin, Isaiah Bolden, and Marco Wilson this week during the minicamp get reps against the top offense that the team trots out there. A team can never have enough talented corners and if these young guys can step up and shine, then it will go a long way in getting ready for training camp and the preseason.
All the fans want to see Polk and Baker step up and shine. And for that matter so do I, but the two rookies are locks for the roster, and they have all summer to carve out a role for themselves. And they will.
But for a couple of veterans, this is a make-or-break time. Tyquan Thornton had a very good spring. He beefed up a bit and got stronger. What looks promising for him is that the team is using him as a gunner on STs. It is always a case of “the more you can do,” the more valuable you are. He also got some good kudos from the coaching staff for his improved route running thus far. But he has to stay healthy this season. The new offense of Alex Van Pelt is a better fit for Thornton.
JuJu Smith-Schuster says he’s fully healthy this year after struggling with a knee injury and being a shadow of himself in 2023. If he is truly healthy, then the WR room of him, Thornton, Demario Douglas, K.J. Osborn, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Javon Baker could surprise some people this year.
Much will depend on the protection that Brissett/Maye get. As we mentioned, the true test of OL comes in training camp. But seeing the positional groupings along the line will be interesting this week.
As I stated earlier, the Patriots’ defense is already a very solid unit that returns nearly all of its players, many of the same coaches, and much of the same philosophy that they’ve played under.
The offense starts from scratch under new coaches and a new system. They have a long way to go. But if they can put together a few long drives against the defense, it will put a lot of confidence in the unit moving forward.
Another thing to remember is that AVP’s offense is predicated on running the football and then using rollouts and play action to take shots down the field. The running game and pass blocking will be tough to replicate in a no-pads setting, but I look forward to seeing Brissett and Maye testing the defense. Iron sharpens iron.
It appears that the Detroit Lions got a little carried away with the physicality during OTAs and it is going to cost them. The Lions announced on Friday that they were notified they had violated player work rules regarding on-field physical contact and would need to forfeit Monday’s OTA practice.
“On Friday evening the organization was made aware by the NFL and NFLPA that Organized Team Activities (OTA) practices held the week of May 27 violated player work rules pertaining to on-field physical contact pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. As a result, the team’s OTA practice scheduled for Monday, June 10 has been forfeited. We take very seriously the rules set forth within the NFL’s Offseason Program and have worked to conduct our practices accordingly. We will continue to be vigilant with our practices moving forward,” the team said in an official statement.
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Everything. Everything. Like, seriously, he’s a catch-all. Remember, we came in together. We’re like brothers. He played much longer than me, and I’ve said this before: who knew Slate [Matthew Slater] should be a gold jacket guy? Who knew at that time? We think very much alike. What I will say is at this level, it’s hard to find people that tell you the truth, and he’s one of those guys that, he’ll let me know what it really is.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, on what Matthew Slater’s role is with the team.
“I mean, honestly, with High [Dont’a Hightower], it’s been the same. When he came in as a player, he was a sponge. He wanted to learn as much [as he could] before he really took that step. He’s doing the same now. Whether he’s learning from me or learning from D-Cov [DeMarcus Covington] or any of those coaches, he’s kind of absorbing it. At the same time, I think he has a high ceiling as well, as a coach. And he already has the credibility as a player. Now, it’s time to really dive into the X’s and O’s.”
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo on having Dont’a Hightower back with the team as a linebacker coach.
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“Talent sets the floor; Character sets the ceiling.” Bill Belichick
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