FOXBOROUGH — As you may have heard, the media had access with Patriots assistant coaches Tuesday morning. And while many of them don't say anything, you can always count on Dante Scarnecchia for some insight. And he delivered again this time around.
Scarnecchia talked about the blocking assignments on the first third-down against the Panthers, and how that led to the pressure Trent Brown allowed on that play, which resulted in Tom Brady throwing early and high to James White, short of the first-down marker. We've included the audio of that in the video of that play below.
But first, we asked Scarnecchia if there was some concern about Brown's conditioning, given his size (6-foot-8, 380 pounds). That concern arose from a four-play stretch late in the second quarter of the second preseason game against the Eagles. We pointed out at the time that Brown — who was terrific in camp — struggled out of the blue, and that his conditioning would need to be monitored. Scarnecchia didn't disagree with that assessment. And, as a result, from his words below, it wouldn't be a shock to see New England incorporate some sort of rotation in the first month of the season.
That's not unusual for the Patriots; they've done it in the past. And with Marcus Cannon coming back from injury and also needing to be monitored, it wouldn't be a surprise if New England used LaAdrian Waddle (and/or Ulrick John or Matt Tobin, whoever is the fourth tackle, if they keep one) to rotate with Brown and/or Cannon in September, as both need to get into game shape. The Patriots like to run as many plays as possible — it's one of their offensive benchmarks — so it might be too much to ask for Brown and Cannon to all of a sudden go for 80-90 plays in a game, especially if the hurry-up is part of the attack.