FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots’ final mandatory minicamp session is in the books. Here’s what went down:
TAKING ATTENDANCE
Not spotted: J.C. Jackson, Sony Michel, Nick Brossette, Deatrich Wise, Patrick Chung and Demaryius Thomas.
Red non-contact jerseys: None, other than the four quarterbacks.
New injuries: Jackson, who pulled up lame after a drill late in practice on Wednesday, was out.
Limited: Isaiah Wynn. Nate Ebner was present but not dressed. Michael Bennett, looked like veteran rest.
Dress code: Per rules, shorts, shells and helmets. No hitting.
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Isaiah Wynn can do things: Besides Sony Michel's disappointing absence from mandatory minicamp (guessing it's a minor injury recovery, like a scope — his knee was an issue at times last season), one of the biggest developments of camp has been the lack of work by the 2018 first-round pick, who was expected to be the starting left tackle this season. That may still happen, but he didn't exactly hit the ground running in minicamp, as he was solely an observer the first two days. That changed on Thursday. During a positional period midway through practice, Wynn jumped in with the rest of the tackles taking turns as a pass rusher and pass blocker — on the left side — in a drill designed for the tackles to work on their pass sets. Wynn, while still looking a bit on the heavy side after recovering from Achilles surgery, took regular reps and his feet looked good. He was able to shuffle his feet quickly and didn't seem to be limited. And his technique appeared to be sound — he wasn't corrected much by Dante Scarnecchia. This is a very welcome development for the Patriots and indicates his recovery appears to be on schedule. With players coming back from major leg surgery, the Patriots like to take things slow. In all likelihood, Wynn should be on schedule to either start camp on time, or very likely within the first week without any setbacks.
Patriots get back to their regular groups: Like most teams, the Patriots like to use these offseason practices to take a look at several personnel groupings to see what they have, which combinations they might want to take a harder look at in camp, and which ones don't deserve another look. On offense, that has meant a rotation of single heavy days for new pass catchers — N'Keal Harry on Tuesday, Maurice Harris on Wednesday, and Thursday was Dontrelle Inman's closer look. On defense, the Patriots got back to their core group and likely projected starters (sans Bennett, who watched most of this session). So you had a line of John Simon, Lawrence Guy, Mike Pennell and Jamie Collins on the edge (he's gotten a lot of looks there the past two days). The linebackers were Kyle Van Noy and Dont'a Hightower, and Duron Harmon was back with Devin McCourty. Cornerback remained unchanged with Stephon Gilmore, Jason McCourty and Jonathan Jones.
Passing offense sputters until very late: If this was the last real glimpse we get of the revamped passing offense until training camp ... they have a long ways to go. There was a lot of "teaching" from the coaches on how to properly run routes, more drops than usual, and a lot of passes broken up by the defense. Overall it was very sloppy — until Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer led touchdown drives. Maybe that's why Bill Belichick said, when I asked about the toughness of hockey players, "... Just trying to see if we can get a couple of first downs out here."
HANDS TEAM
- Drops: Matt LaCosse, Julian Edelman, N'Keal Harry, Maurice Harris, Damien Harris.
- Pass breakups: Duke Dawson, Jamie Collins, Stephon Gilmore
- Interceptions: None.
- Brian Hoyer to a leaping Phillip Dorsett in the right corner of the end zone, where he took the ball away from Joejuan Williams, who is four inches taller.
- Hoyer to Braxton Berrios for a touchdown in the same spot on the next play against ... Williams.
- Brady hit James White in stride on a 60-yard bomb.
- Maurice Harris hauled in a flea flicker from Brady.
- Wouldn't say that Braxton Berrios had the greatest three days ever, but I will say this: the difference between his body and athletic ability from last year is night and day, and it speaks to the fact that players are never static, they can get better. Berrios looks much quicker and his body is much better. Last year he didn't have a chance to make the team, but he does this year.
- Matt LaCosse drew the ire of Brady and some coaches for apparently running a wrong route. Brady was all over his case to the sideline and LaCosse was obviously not happy.
- Second team offensive line appeared to be: LT Skipper, LG James Ferentz, C Ted Karras, RG Shaq Mason (starter), RT Cole Croston.
- CB Duke Dawson popped the past couple of days. So did TE Ryan Izzo.
- Patriots ran a two-way drill I had not seen before. Receivers caught slip screens on air and two safeties had to rally to the ball.
- This practice was definitely dialed back. A lot of glorified walk throughs.