Patriots training camp thoughts

Through the first round of Patriots practices, I can tell you the offense looks functional, and the defense is solid. Mac Jones is the starting quarterback with Zappe working with the backups. There is no quarterback competition during training camp. The only issue right now with the offense is the receivers need to get better at separation. They’ve worked a lot on the red zone offense because they have had issues over the few seasons scoring touchdowns. Padded practice begins on Monday which will be a real test for the offense.

Patriots’ Defense Is Pretty Solid

So far on defense Christian Gonzalez, and Kyle Duggar are having a great camp so far. Duggar has two interceptions off Mac Jones. On the offensive side Mac has looked more comfortable and his key target so far is Hunter Henry. Douglas is also having a great camp and has a real shot at making the team. Bill O’Brien has already made improvements from last year’s clown show.

Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick Observes The Offense

#patriots training camp recap pic.twitter.com/zzCnbCXWQW

— Steve (@steveA1127) July 28, 2023

Belichick observes the offense and really focuses on the defensive side. Mac even said this past week that Belichick is really good at reading defenses it helps the quarterback.

Yeah, I think he’s done a great job,” Jones said of Belichick on Wednesday. “I think at the end of the day, he does a great job explaining defenses and all of those things that can help a quarterback and especially in the red zone because it’s a little bit tighter down there”

Notice the emphasis on “he’s good at explaining defenses.” Not like last year when he screwed me over with trying to explain offense with Patricia and Judge.

Mac Jones had high praise for Bill O’Brien and having a real offensive coordinator.

“I think (O’Brien) does a great job, as well, just explaining everything and (assistant quarterbacks coach) Evan (Rothstein), so it’s kind of those three guys that you can lean on and obviously the players, too. You can ask the players questions, and I think it’s great that our defense is really good. It makes it harder. It’ll be a great camp, because we’re going to go back and forth hopefully and just battle with each other”

Sunday’s practice the offense opened up more and it looked more fluid. Mac Jones went 6-10 while Bailey Zappe went 11-13 with an interception. With padded practice starting Monday we should see the offense come to life with real game situations.

Kendrick Bourne seems to be out of the doghouse like I predicted. There is no way Mac’s favorite target in 2021 was just going to go away completely. Bill Belichick did say on Sunday that Bourne has worked hard this offseason and Bourne said he and Belichick are good. During minicamp Bourne spoke about the Bill O’Brien offense and gave high praise to the direction