Special teams ace Brenden Schooler started the team’s current training camp on the non-football injury list, but his status remains a question mark through 12 days of training camp.
Head coach Mike Vrabel was asked about Schooler on Friday, with many wondering when the New England Patriots special teams standout might see his first action of this preseason.
“I think it’s hard to tell,” said Vrabel during his press conference. “I think it’s that we just want to be very cautious with. He’s got such a specific, unique role, and yes, he wants to be involved in defense and use those reps to improve what his number one role is on our football team, which is to be an elite special teams player, which he did last year.”
Vrabel said the fact that Schooler also doubles as a defensive player complicates things, with the veteran having filled in at various points at safety last season.
In the past at training camp, he’s done the same thing, with Vrabel saying that Schooler enjoys the opportunity to work on his tackling. That’s why, until he’s closer to being healthy, they’ll continue to take a careful approach bringing him back.
“You’d see him out there playing safety because he wanted to practice open-field tackling and all these things, which is great,” explained Vrabel. “And so until he’s back, I don’t think there’s any real reason to push that or force that issue. We want to make sure that he’s healthy. So, still a large part of what we want to do and what we’re planning on doing. I just don’t think there’s any reason to rush him back right now until he’s as close to 100% as he possibly can be.”
For now, the plan will clearly be to continue easing him along, with the team allowing him to focus on being available by the start of the regular season.
Schooler was a spectator again on Friday as the team held what ended up being an entertaining blue-white scrimmage on the practice field behind Gillette Stadium.
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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.
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