This is I on Foxborough, the premier podcast for all things new England Patriots. Brought to you by MassLive. Welcome back to I on Foxborough. I'm Chris Mason here with Mark Daniels, fresh out day two of training camp, a little reminder up front. So we're not going to do these after every single practice. We're probably going to have two pods a week, plus Karen's guest pods. So you'll still have your three pods a week for squeezing the second one in here this week because we love you guys. I just wanted to, you know, set you straight on the pacing of these things. So day two is in the books and it wasn't a super eventful practice, but I think the most intriguing thing of the day is there's a little shake up in the quarterback room. And Joe Milton was repping in front of Bailey Zappi in seven on seven and 11 on 11 drills. We hadn't seen that to this point. Mark, is this a big deal? I think it is. And the truth is we haven't seen a lot of Joe Milton during OTAs and mini camp, Joe was always number four in the depth chart. He took an 11 on 11 rep in one practice during the OTAs we saw in the three day mini camp. He never attempted more than eight passes and that happened once during the spring when we were there in practice. And then today, day two of training camp, he's third on the depth chart, he's ahead of Bailey Zappi and he goes six to nine and he goes four, six and 11 on 11. We saw more of Joe Milton and we saw him bypass Bailey Zappi, which could could be a big deal. And let me explain. It could be a big deal if this is a sign of things to come. So if we go to training camp on Friday, day three, and it's the same order, I would say it is nearing the end of Zappi hour, Zappi will probably moved or released at some point because it's that would signal the Patriots want to give Joe Milton more reps and they just, you know, he's a six wrong pick. He has an absolute cannon of an arm and they just want to see more of them. You know what? If you want to see more of two rookie quarterbacks and you already have your veteran Jacoby percent, it's tough to do it with four people. However, there's also a chance that just wanted to give him a bigger day today and then we see more of Bailey Zappi tomorrow. So I would say it's hard to jump to conclusions after one day a camp, but I potentially Chris, I potentially think that's a big deal. And so I think either way, it speaks well to how Joe Milton spent the six weeks off the six weeks they had in between because I mean, if that's a major change coming from the end of many camp where he's not repping there at all, really, like, like you said with the 11 on 11s to the second day of training camp, where suddenly he's leapfrogging Bailey Zappi on the rep chart. I think I just coined that term the rep chart instead of the depth chart, like he's, but I mean, I think that speaks to the work that he must have put in over the last month and a half where Gerard saw what he did and said, okay, yeah, we're going to give you a shot. And I think I thought he did reasonably well today. I think you had him six of nine in your charting, right? Yeah, he was four, six in 11 on 11s and I'd say on his two incomplete passes, one was an overthrown. He threw it a hundred miles an hour when he probably needed to dial it back to 60. And the other was deflected by a linebacker, Joe Giles Harris and then seven on sevens. I thought he was solid. He missed his first pass. He didn't have a great touch on the ball, frankly. But then he hit the last two to jam on Baker, went two or three there. So, you know, I say this, I think Alex van Pelt has a type, Jacobi Bursett is a big quarterback with a big arm, sort of mobile Drake may is a big quarterback with a big arm, sort of mobile. Joe Millen at the very least is a big quarterback with a big arm and I'm bringing that up because that's not Bailey Zappi. He's not a big guy. I don't think he hit six feet. He's probably like five, 10, frankly, I don't even think he has that big of an arm. And what I will say this spring, Bailey Zappi Chris was the number two guy in the depth chart. He started OTAs right behind Jacobi Bursett and what we saw at the end of OTAs was Drake May jumping up to number two, you know, Bailey Zappi going to three. And now it's day two, a training camp and Bailey Zappi goes down to number four. It's not a great sign. And I kind of go back to what Albert Breer reported. I think it was in like May or June where he talked to John Mayo and John Mayo basically said or told him that they wanted to have three quarterbacks sort of said to take all the reps by the beginning of training camp. If that holds true, although Gerard has walked back those words, if that holds true, I think Zappi could find himself on another team. And Chris, what do you think? Just released. I don't think the Patriots could probably get much. Yeah. I don't think he has any trade value at this point, maybe a seven, but I doubt it. I think other teams around the league can also read the writing on the wall. And it's like, why are we going to trade you something for a guy who's going to be cut inevitably, Milton's natural ability, though, really just jumps out at you. We're even on Wednesday, day one of training camp. So all the starters are going on one field and there's backups and third stringers going on the other field. And so naturally we're tuned into the starters, right? Because that's, you know, if you were just getting training camp reports on third and fourth stringers, you probably would not listen to this podcast for very long. But at one point, even when they're repping side by side, I saw Milton out of the corner of my eye breaking out of the pocket and he's like backpedaling, flicks his wrist and throws an absolute seed, like 40 yards. It was a completion right down the left sideline and his natural ability is just like, wow, it was like he didn't even step into that throw as he was backpedaling. So I think if he can develop his touch, the Patriots would at the very least have like a pretty impressive and serviceable backup. But that's a big if because the touch needs a lot of work right now. Because he's a true developmental player that, you know, he's a dart throw, he's someone who could pay off in the long run. And if he develops, you know, who knows, maybe another team could see him as a starter. I think the Patriots hope that Drake may is their guy for the next like 10, 11 years. But if you could develop Joe Milton into something, either you have a capable backup or you have a trade chip and you could get in and get an asset for him, that would be great. You know, there was a part of me, I'd say earlier this offseason, I thought maybe keeping Bailey Zappi around was worth it. He's a veteran, he started games, he could, you know, give you more depth. But the more I see these practices unfold, the more I think they just need to stick with the three. I think it would be easier just to give more reps to Milton and May and, you know, and let Jacobi Brissette essentially get ready to start the season, right? You're trying to get Jacob Brissette ready for week one against the Cincinnati Bengals on the road and you want your rookie quarterbacks to develop. And I think there's a misconception about developing rookies throughout the NFL season because, Chris, those practices are game plan specific, you know what I mean? I think the time to develop young guys is really now. It's in the end of July and August where you have these practices and you're installing the playbook. The time to give them the reps is now. So, you know, if I'm Elliot Wolf, Gerard Mayo, you know, Matt Groe, I'm saying, hey, you know what? Let's whittle this down to three. I think that's the direction I would go. I agree too. And as for today's practice, we don't have to spend a ton of time on this because I think it's kind of what you guys expect, but the defense just absolutely wrecked the offense during the one, like really intense competitive 11 on 11 period where we can run through it pretty quickly. But essentially, Jacobi Brissette was quarterbacking with the ones, first play, Matthew, you don't sack right off the edge. Yeah. Second play you want to jump in? Yeah. So in this, it was the second period of full team drills, there were five drawbacks. If contact was allowed, Chris, Jacobi would have been sacked three times in his five drawbacks by Matthew Judon, Joe Giles Harris, and Dietrich Wise. It wasn't pretty. And even within there, like they had a running play and Keon White was in the backfield so quickly. Yeah. There's stuff this run that he actually bonked helmets with her Monterrey Stevenson. Like it's supposed to be no contacting, but he was just there so quickly that he wrecked him right there. And there's like, oh, wow, like this is not how this is supposed to look. You know, and when we talk about like a concern about the Patriots that we have that we had last year, it's about the offensive line. And even though there are no pads on, I'd say that that one period of, you know, eleven on elevens were Jacobi would have been sacked three out of five drawbacks. I said to myself, oh man, like this, and if they don't get this in order, this could be bad. And there is another one of those drawbacks. There's one completion there to psych want Thornton. And there was like another incompletion that was incomplete because Josh Bledso time to blitz perfectly, it was coming free and Jacobi just was like, ah, just got rid of it and threw it to nobody, which I mean, maybe could have been intentional grounding. I don't know. I wasn't looking close enough at the receivers in the area. I was more focused on Bledso's rush. So it just was ugly, ugly, ugly. And I think like I said, to start the segment, we expect that going in, right? Because the Patriots defense is very talented and they have a ton of continuity on the offense side of the ball, not as talented and learning a new offense. So it's completely different. It is totally different. It's what we'd expect. I'd like to tell you what to practice today and that is what happened in like the most competitive period of practice. Yeah, to really sum it up, it's not fair because the defensive playbook is really the same. You have a new head coach, a defensive coordinator, but John Mayo and Demarcus Covington are running the defense like they should because they have a good defensive unit. They return most of all their starters. So these guys already know the playbook where Alex van Pelt brings in a brand new offense that really only Jacobi Brissette has run what one year of his career and it's just, there's so much, I just, newness. I would say to what the offense is doing right now that, yeah, as Chris said, we don't expect them to be overly competitive and we'll see if that changes as the course of training camp goes on. But right now it's clear the defense is miles and miles ahead in the offense. Yeah. And I think long term, this could be helpful for the offense too, just because they're going to have a real measuring stick at a certain point. And if by the end of camp, I don't think I was expecting them to beat the defense consistently, but if they can hang with them more and it's more back and forth, I think we'll know that they've grown, whereas if it looks like this in another month, there are going to be some real issues. Yeah. And I mean, there's, there's some things that could happen for the offense that could help them, right? I mean, one is getting continuity on the offensive line and two is getting wide receivers who can get open. And we're going to talk a little bit about that because my biggest concern about the Patriots is just their offensive line and the lack of continuity. So day one of trading camp, Chris, the right tackle was Calvin Anderson, which was, I would say probably the biggest surprise for me. Then comes day two. It's not Calvin Anderson and right tackle. It was Vadarion low and that was a shock to me. So to sort of rewind, the Patriots offensive line has been left tackle, it chukes a core for left guard city. So center David Andrews in right guard has been Michael Wenew. At the end of mini camp, the Patriots had Kaden Wallace, the rookie as the starting right tackle to begin training camp. Again, it was Calvin Anderson. And then today on Thursday, it was Vadarion low, Chris, I would like to see them settle on five and just stick with it, but that, that has not happened. I don't think it's going to happen until there's contact. You know, it's hard to have these competitions until they put pads on when your offensive lineman and you're not going live, like there's only so much you can do. So I'm not too concerned with the rotation right now. I think for weeks from now, you're going to need your five. You need to know, but I really do think the right tackle spot is wide open as it should be, in my opinion. I think there's anybody that you just pencil in and say, oh, well, they definitely like to serve the spot. And even at the left side, I think a core four might get some competition at some point to just because, you know, that's kind of one of those ones that's been penciled in now and kind of taken for granted. It's like, oh, a core force left tackle. It's like, okay, well, you didn't play left tackle at all on Pittsburgh and you got benched as a right tackle last year. So, you know, I think there's going to be more competition there. So at this point in the calendar, it's not alarming to me that they haven't set a five. I think they're going to keep running guys through there and even like Vadarion low, who's in there today, started a games last year. He wasn't great, but he was serviceable at times and that was only a second year. Maybe he like grows and maybe he like wins that job, but I think it's going to be a wide open competition. And I think it should be. Ultimately, yes, you absolutely need to figure out who you're starting five are going into week one. But right now, I think let him compete, rotate him and, you know, you're installing a lot of plays right now and doing things where like right tackle is doing the same thing at right tackle. So it's not too concerning to me, but it's definitely something to watch. Yeah. So come next Monday, when the Patriots are in pads, it will honestly be the first time when you see these players block. They do these one on one drills where they fit defensive lineman up against offensive lineman. And it's really cool. You know, basically one guy is trying to get past the other and the other guy is trying to stop them. It's a lot of fun to watch. But those are the moments where we actually get to see like, all right, you can shoot the core for pulled off, Matthew Judon or Dietrich Wise, you know, how does, you know, city so look against Christian Barmore and those will be the, I say the moments where we really get to sort of gauge how the skill level is, is for some of these players, because even right now, like defensive lineman, it's hard to grasp how they're out, even like the running backs because Chris, there's no contact. So like sure, like Jim Michael Hasty looks fast, but what happens when there's pads on and people can hit them. He might not look as fast. So a lot to come there. And it is interesting though, that it does feel like while there's a lot of rotation at tackle, especially right tackle that like feels like the inner three are pretty solidified at this point where, I mean, Andrews is obviously going to start at center and then city so has been at that left guard spot the entire time Cole Strange has been out the summer. So I think you slot him in there. And then if on one who is playing guard, then I think he's clearly going to be a starter right card, right? He's even, he's either a guard or a tackle and that's another variable that could happen if like none of these guys can play tackle, but it's pretty tough for him to train for like one versus the other and just try and get used to what he's doing there where he's taking the diplomatic approach with it yesterday. He told us like, as long as I know, like where I'm going to play the day before the game or whatever, then I'll be good. But I mean, I think it's challenging to keep moving someone around like that too. Yeah, absolutely. And one other thought in the offensive line, I think in under the radar issue the Patriots have is their backup center spot. They wanted it to be Jake Andrews, he's on the public so the Patriots have been rotating all these different guys and we've seen Charles Turner, a guard Nick Loveret and a guard at Tony O'Maffey and frankly people, it hasn't been great. So like you like to have some depth, but I think one concern here would be like if David Andrews gets hurt at any point, they're in serious trouble. And it's one thing that's fun or the radar that's definitely complicating things for Drake May too, is that especially the guards when they're having them try and play a center, the snaps aren't consistent, they're not in the same spot. They are bad. It's hard enough to like get an NFL offense down as a rookie quarterback and get the timing down. When you don't know where the snap is coming, that makes it even tougher to get into a rhythm with your footwork. So that's something they absolutely need to iron out in the coming weeks. I mean, maybe Jake Andrews comes off pup in that simplified, but he's more of a compression sleeve on his leg. Who knows how long he's going to be out for? Yeah. And you know, another thing that could really help the offense Chris is if wide receivers get open. I think an interesting thing over the first two days of camp has been to which wide receivers have stuck out. And on day one, it was Jalen Rhaegar, who made the catch of the day and on day two, it was Taekwam Thornton, who led all players with five catches. He had four receptions with Jacobi Brissette, which I thought was notable. Like Jacobi Brissette is your starting quarterback and who was he going to the most? Well he was going to Taekwam Thornton, who is, you know, had a strong spring before getting hurt, which is sort of his story, and he's continued that, you know, sort of star camp here. And so I actually think that Thornton's day two is more impressive than Rhaegar's day one, because we talked about this yesterday, but Rhaegar's big catch came with Brendan Schuller and Azizi Hearn in coverage, right? Like, okay, great. You made the catch. It was really athletic, but you had those guys burned by five yards. Two of Thornton's catches that I came against, Christian Gonzalez, where he just flat out beat him on both of those. Yeah. And you know, that's the number one corner on this defense right now. So if he's getting open against him, I think that's a good sign. But Taekwam, the caveat is always they're not in pads yet. He's not getting pressed to line a scrimmage. Can he get off press coverage? Is he going to be able to run good routes when there's more contact? That's something we're going to need to see moving forward. But for right now, I mean, he's doing what he can do, and you can't ask anything more than that, right? I mean, right now, he's probably been your most consistent wide receiver. And there's an asterisk here, people. Kendrick Bourne's on pup and pup Douglas has been limited and not participating in full team drill, so someone has to step up and say, all right, who are the players stepping up for the Patriots? Well, Taekwam Thor and Jalen Rhaegar, and also give a shout out to Jalen Polk. He had one catch today in practice, but guys, he was matched up on Christian, on Christian Gonzalez. He ran a really nice route. He has nice hands. Polk also caught two passes from Jacobi Bursett on day one at training camp. And I'd say for a rookie, you know, lining up with the starters and making plays. And then on day two, beating Christian Gonzalez, it's, it's a good sign. I actually, I like Jalen Polk. All right, I think he's going to be a good player in the NFL. I don't know if he's going to be like a world beat or a thousand yard guy, but Chris, I wouldn't be shocked if he's that like 600 to 800, like consistent type Jacobi Myers guy. You know, he just seems solid to me. Yeah, I agree with that assessment. And even in that same like Kendrick Bourne type mold where like that, that sort of production where, yeah, it's like you said, it's not like he's coming out here with seven catches and just lighting the defense on fire. But I think he's been like quietly consistent. And I think he's going to keep continuing to build. And I also think that he's going to develop a bunch of continuity with Drake May over time. They're going to develop more chemistry. And I think that's going to help when those two start playing together more, where they're still thrown at the end of practice every day where today, Drake May and J. Von Baker were actually the last two on the field because Polk had to come over and do media availability. But those three have been putting in a ton of extra work. And I think like long term, that's the stuff that's going to start to pay off. Yeah. And talking to Jalen Polk after practice, Chris, he was really confident. He said, quote, I'm not here to prove nobody wrong. I'm just here to prove everybody that believes in me. Right? He's a very confident kid. He talks about how hard he works. He's saying all the right things and for a rookie receiver, a draft in the second round. I think so far, you know, he's doing what you want him to do, which is catch passes and makes him plays. Agreed. All right, guys, that's going to be our pod for today. We've been told that they're going to be in pads for the first time on Monday. So if that's the case, we will have a pod for you following the first pad of practice and there'll be a whole lot more to break down. So thanks for following along and we'll catch you further on down the trail. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
