I believe it is imperative that the starters play more, especially along the Offensive Line to gain cohesion as a unit.\u00a0 We have already witnessed some concern about the starting Tackles (Okorafor and Anderson) missing the last few practices.\u00a0 The Patriots must be able to establish a running game in order for the Alex Van Pelt offense to work.\u00a0 AVP relies on high percentage play action passes, and if the opponents don\u2019t respect the run, then they will tee off on the pass game.<\/p>\n
How Much Will Drake Maye Play?<\/strong><\/p>\n There is no QB competition, Maye is the 2nd<\/sup> string QB and usually in the 1st<\/sup> Pre-season game they play a lot.\u00a0 If they are going with backup linemen, then I see him being pressured a lot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think he will handle pressure well.\u00a0 I am also hearing that Maye is having trouble with adjustments at the line of scrimmage.\u00a0 Remember that he has only had two seasons as a starting QB in the ACC.\u00a0 He missed his Senior year in High School when it was wiped out by COVID, then was red-shirted as a true freshman at North Carolina.\u00a0 All the more reason to have him sit and learn.\u00a0\u00a0 Maye is just 21 years old and was the 2nd<\/sup> youngest player in the NFL draft. \u00a0Compare that to Joe Milton who is 24 and had 6 seasons of college ball.\u00a0 Three at Michigan (Big Ten) and three Tennessee (SEC).<\/p>\n Is the Patriots Defense as Good as We Think It Is?<\/strong><\/p>\n For the most part the Defense has been ahead of the Offense in Training Camp so far.\u00a0 How will that translate against another team?\u00a0 The loss of Christian Barmore is a big blow to the defense as he was a every down player.\u00a0 Not only was he dominant against the run but he supplied pressure in the pass rush that no other D-lineman can supply.\u00a0 Is the secondary (top 10) as good as has been predicted?<\/p>\n Jaylinn Hawkins has Impressed at Safety<\/strong><\/p>\n He has impressed during camp at Free Safety.\u00a0 Marte Mapu has been banged up and missed most of the Training camp.\u00a0 This gave Hawkins an opportunity and he has run with it.\u00a0 The 2020 4th<\/sup> round pick of the Atlanta Falcons has three years\u2019 experience.\u00a0 He started all 16 games for Atlanta in 2022 and had 84 total tackles.\u00a0 Last season he started 4 games for the Los Angelas Chargers.\u00a0 I like having a veteran that can play either Safety or Cornerback.<\/p>\n Has Christian Gonzalez Come Back from His Injury?<\/strong><\/p>\n There has been some concern lately that Gonzalez hasn\u2019t impressed like he did in camp last season.\u00a0 Tyquan Thornton beat him cleanly for a couple of TDs in Practice 8.\u00a0 Was this just the dog days of practice or is there some legitimate concern here.<\/p>\n Who will replace Christian Barmore and Lawrence Guy?<\/strong><\/p>\n Trysten Hill\u2019s name has been mentioned recently as a player to watch.\u00a0\u00a0 Hill was a 2nd<\/sup> round pick (#56) in the 2019 Draft.\u00a0 He started as a true freshman at UCF and started in 27 straight games until he fell out of favor with the coaching staff.\u00a0 At 6\u20192 \u00be \u201c <\/sup>, 308 lbs he ran an impressive 5.04 40-yard dash.\u00a0 Hill has a history of purposely injuring opponents and has been fined and suspended by the league.<\/p>\n Another DT I am interested in seeing is Armon Watts.\u00a0 He was a Free Agent signing that was supposed to take the place of Lawrence Guy.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t heard his name mentioned by any reporters so far at this Training Camp.\u00a0 He is not a pass rusher, but more of a player that will occupy blockers so that others can make the tackle.<\/p>\n How has Keion White Progressed? <\/strong><\/p>\n Many of the reports from camp state that White has been unstoppable as a pass rusher from the DT position.\u00a0 In his second season I expect that the second-round pick will take a big jump in his play.\u00a0 White has worked on his pass rush moves this pre-season and has not used his bull rush at all.\u00a0 He also picks out Michael Onwenu to go up against in one-on-one battles.\u00a0 White hasn’t won any of those against Onwenu but he is going up against the best and learning every time.<\/p>\n Wide Receivers<\/strong><\/p>\n How will the rookies Polk and Baker look?\u00a0 Will Pop Douglas play?\u00a0 I doubt it, he has been in a red no-contact jersey and why expose him to a pre-season injury.\u00a0 Does Juju Smith -Schuster have anything left in the tank.\u00a0 From reports so far, he is lagging far behind the other receivers.\u00a0 What does KJ Osborn look like?\u00a0 Can Tyquan Thornton and Kayshon Boutte translate what they have been doing in camp to the field against another NFL team<\/p>\n Tyrone Wheatley Reverts To Injured Reserve<\/strong><\/p>\n When the Patriots signed Safety AJ Thomas they waived OT Tyrone Wheatley.\u00a0 However, he was waived with an Injury Designation.\u00a0 Wheatley passed through waivers unclaimed and therefore he reverts to the Patriots Injured Reserve and will be lost for the season.\u00a0 The Patriots could reach an injury settlement with Wheatley and then release him.<\/p>\n \u00a0Jake Andrews Moved to IR<\/strong><\/p>\n Andrews season is over as the Patriots have placed him on IR.\u00a0 In turn, they signed Tucker Addington (LS) to replace him on the roster.\u00a0 Are they unhappy with Joe Cardona?\u00a0 Cardona is 32 and getting up there in age.\u00a0 That\u2019s not old for a Longsnapper.\u00a0 Cardona was a bit inconsistent last season.\u00a0 Addington has bounced around the league (Dallas, Hoston and Washington), and this is his second stint with the Patriots (2022).\u00a0 He was an UDFA in 2020 after playing at Sam Houston State.<\/p>\n Practice 10 Featured Live Tackling to the Ground \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In a rare Training Camp practice, Jerod Mayo had the Defense tackling the Offensive players to the ground.\u00a0 Of note were two hits that Hunter Henry took during the practice.<\/p>\n Dell Petus Making Waves<\/strong><\/p>\n A player getting noticed is UDFA Dell Petus.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see him on Thursday as he should get plenty of playing time with Bledsoe and Mapu out. \u00a0\u00a0Petus has stacked three consecutive practices together with a pass breakup on Tuesday.\u00a0 He even got some reps with the 1st<\/sup> team Defense.<\/p>\n It appears the Patriots have broken off negotiations with the San Francisco 49\u2019ers on a possible trade for WR Brandon Aiyuk. \u00a0At least that was what was posted by ESPNs Adam Schefter.\u00a0 This is a day after NBC Sports Bay Area 49\u2019ers beat reporter Mike Maiocco posted on X that the Patriots and Browns had reached an agreement with the 49\u2019ers on trade parameters to acquire Aiyuk.\u00a0 The ball was now in Aiyuk\u2019s court on which team he wanted to sign with.<\/p>\n Reports indicated that the Patriots had the highest offer, well in excess of $30M a year, and an undetermined length of contract of between 4 and 5 years.\u00a0 That would make him a salary in the top 3 WRs in the league.\u00a0 The Patriots\u2019 statement they had broken off negotiations was nice way of saying that Aiyuk didn\u2019t want to play for the Patriots.\u00a0 Even overpaying a stud receiver like Aiyuk isn\u2019t enough for the lowly Patriots to bring a star player to the team.<\/p>\n Per ESPN’s Adana Schefter, the Patriots weren’t getting a great vibe from Aiyuk’s camp, and they eventually thought it would be best to back out and focus on the talent already on their roster.<\/p>\n “New England had the parameters of a trade in place. That wasn’t the issue,” said Schefter. “They weren’t getting a great vibe here. as they tried to conduct communication with Brandon Aiyuk and his agent. And the longer it went on, the worse they felt about it. And eventually they said, ‘What are we doing here? Let’s just focus in on the young receivers that we have.'”<\/p>\n The reported agreed to compensation was a 2025 2nd<\/sup> round pick (probably in the top 5), Matthew Judon and Kendrick Bourne.\u00a0 It was interesting that Judon didn\u2019t really practice yesterday and Bourne didn\u2019t even do stretching which he has been doing while on PUP.\u00a0 If that was in fact the compensation, it was way too high a price to pay for Aiyuk and then have to pay that salary too.<\/p>\n I do find it interesting that SF thinks so highly of Bourne that he would be included in the compensation despite the fact that he hasn\u2019t practiced since his ACL surgery last year.\u00a0 Do they know something we don\u2019t?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Patriots will knock heads against someone other than their own teammates.\u00a0 They had two practices this week before their first Preseason game on Thursday versus the Carolina Panthers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":54815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-news"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/USATSI_23529290_168390408_lowres-450x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPatriots News and Notes<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Possible Brandon Aiyuk Trade Dead in the Water?<\/strong><\/h3>\n