Over the next two-plus weeks, we’re going to get a chance to see the Patriots practice four times — maybe five, if Bill Belichick doesn’t call off one of the days for a trip to Fenway or a waterpark or something. The first one is Thursday morning on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. We are going to be reading way too much into every snap, every formation, every completed and/or dropped pass, but honestly, you don't need to get bogged down in that minutiae. Instead, here are a few things we'll be keeping an eye on.
Veterans who look like they have no business on the field: Not so much the rookies — we'll get to them in a second. I’m talking about veterans. If there are guys who are theoretically on the bubble but who get winded running from one end of the field to the other, that's trouble. (Bo Scaife was a June pickup in 2012, but was so far gone over the course of a few practices, you could tell he wasn’t long for Foxborough. He was signed on June 7, and released after minicamp, 11 days later.) If there are guys who are consistently out of position. That same spring, Chad Ochocinco lined up in the wrong spot in full view of the media fairly consistently over the course of a couple of practices. At one point, he stuck out so badly Deion Branch had to come over, grab his shoulder pads, and steer him to where he needed to be. He was also cut soon after that. While Jared Veldheer sounds like he would have likely been a candidate here, we’ll keep out eyes open for some other possibilities.
Rookies who are overwhelmed: You don’t want to read too much into what first-year players look like the next few weeks. Sure, there will be guys like N’Keal Harry who come ready to make a seamless transition to the pro game. But for many of the rookies, working with the veterans and coaches will be their first real test of professional life, and it can be eye-opening. I once asked former Patriots offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger for his favorite rookie story, and he told us about his first real interaction with offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia.
“Dante is putting us through our paces, and we’re working on snapping the ball to the quarterback — he’s playing quarterback receiving the snaps. My first snap, I misfire, and turn around to see what happened and pick up the ball. He shoves me in my chest plate and he’s immediately inside my face mask. ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING? IF THAT’S A GAME AGAINST THE RAVENS, WHY WOULD YOU TURN AROUND TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS? YOU’RE GOING TO GET YOUR QUARTERBACK KILLED.’ He was doing chin-ups on my facemask, and just took the ball and fired it into my belly and told me to do it again. It was baptism by fire, this tongue-lashing I got from this tiny man who I came respect immensely. You work your tail off for the guy, because you love him, and you want to make him proud by playing the best ball you can. But that was a rough way to start.”
Guarding against overreactions, both positively and negatively: First time I saw Brandon Lloyd catch passes from Tom Brady in the spring of 2012, I started thinking about what Lloyd’s Hall of Fame speech in Canton would be like. On a mostly quiet practice field, I’m not sure I ever heard anything like a Lloyd reception — there was no slap of the ball hitting his hands you'd hear from other pass catchers. He just sort of absorbed it. That spring, he caught everything that was thrown in his direction, flew all over the field, and looked like a star. Of course, Lloyd had a good year, but he was never Moss-esque. (Mostly, just straight-ahead stares and short answers, at least with us in the media.) In this same vein, I'd preach patience and perspective with the guys who are coming off injury, including the likes of Isaiah Wynn and Ju'Whaun Bentley. This is their first step back -- it'll be good to see them doing football things again, but let's not make too much out of them being on the field at this point in the process. The bottom line? We only get a few glimpses of these guys in the spring, which means the rush to crown the next great star (Remember Zach Sudfeld?) or bust usually doesn’t come until the summer. But it’s important not to swing too far in one direction or another based on a few spring workouts.
Early circle-of-trust candidates: Brady won’t be there, but if you’re a new pass catcher, it’s never too early to start working your way into his circle of trust by leaning on and displaying chemistry with Brian Hoyer, Danny Etling or Jarrett Stidham. The nicer you are to the backups now, the better your chances are of being included in August. With Rob Gronkowski no longer in the picture, there’s an opening — our early bets are some combination of Julian Edelman, James White, Phillip Dorsett, Demaryius Thomas, Dontrelle Inman and Ben Watson. (Austin Seferian-Jenkins is not expected to be there for this stage of workouts.)
Who has the early lead when it comes to some of the better position battles? You have to put it all in perspective because -- again -- they’re just out there in T-shirts and shorts, but when it comes to personnel packages and potential positional battles, you can start to get a sense of where things stand at this point on the calendar. Specific to the 2019 team: How will the reps be divided at backup quarterback between Hoyer, Etling, and Stidham? How things are going to shake out at the back end of the depth chart at linebacker and wide receiver? How will punter/kickoff specialist Jake Bailey figure into the mix when it comes to special teams? And who is going to return kickoffs? All concrete questions worth asking. While we won’t get a definitive answer to any of those queries over the next few weeks, we should get some sort of idea as to how things might ultimately shake out.