Bedard: Five big questions heading into Patriots' mandatory mini-camp

The Patriots will be back on the field Tuesday through Thursday for their mandatory mini-camp. Every player is expected to be on the field, including players who have stayed away from the voluntary practices like Isaiah Wynn, Matthew Judon and N'Keal Harry.

There are still no pads — real football has to wait for training camp (even then, it's another wait for pads). The rules:

• No pads except protective knee and elbow pads, helmets are permitted
• No live contact
• 7 on 7, 9 on 7 and 11 on 11 drills will be permitted provided no live contact takes place
• Physicals today
• Practices Tuesday-Thursday, with a day off on Friday
• Allowed two practices totaling 3½ hours on the field per day; second practice limited to walk through activities only

With that in mind, here are the five big questions on my mind hitting the pitch (BSJ members, please add yours in the comments and I'll try to keep an eye out):

1. With every player on the field, are the Patriots still running mostly a zone offensive scheme, or was that just a phase/experiment?

We went over all the ins and outs of this important point over the weekend. These next three days will give us a lot more data, but remember this: the Patriots could just be getting a look at this to decide if it's worth going in a different direction offensively.

Already, the Patriots have been backtracking on Kendrick Bourne's comments about a new system, saying privately that they are just changing some things with their offensive language. That could just be them putting the cat back into the bag, that Bourne was speaking out of turn and they don't want to alert the rest of the league to big changes. But they could also be telling the truth — which would seem more likely because moving to a whole new system really would have made last season a waste for a lot of people, including Mac Jones. It smells like this is more of a new portion of their playbook. But we should know more by the end of the day on Thursday.

2. Where are Isaiah Wynn and Trent Brown playing?

Wynn should be on the field, but he and Brown (tweaked something) could be watching due to physical issues. If both are back, have things returned to normal with Wynn at LT, and Brown at RT? If Brown gets any looks at LT, that's a big tell that they are still looking at that, and they could be trying to send one last message to Wynn that he better get with the program or he could be playing in a place like Detroit this season.

Expect the rest of the line to keep getting entrenched: LG Cole Strange, C David Andrews, RG Mike Onwenu. Would be interesting to see Strange get a few center snaps.

3. Who's calling the plays?

I don't want to keep talking about this, but it's absolutely fascinating and we will have more data since there should be some 11 on 11 work, including two-minute drills. We still believe that Matt Patricia is the leader in the clubhouse to call plays, possibly from the press box. But will Joe Judge also get some reps in 11 on 11 to continue a "competition"?

4. What's going on at cornerback?

In the two practices thus far, the pecking order has been clear:

First group: Malcolm Butler, Terrance Mitchell, Jonathan Jones
Second group: Jack Jones/Joejuan Williams, Jalen Mills, Shaun Wade/Myles Bryant

Have things changed at all? How does that first group fare with more competition? Will the Patriots swap out players on a play-by-play basis, indicating more competition?

What we really want to see is if we can get a better handle on where Butler is from a talent perspective at this point of his career. Also, we really don't know much about Mitchell.

How do these hold up against the Patriots' receivers? The weapons are a whole different subset of this.

5. What are the different linebacker, edge and safety combinations?

With Judon back, what does that mean for Josh Uche? Does he move to first-team ILB? What about Ronnie Perkins on the edge?

Last week, the first ILB pairing was Ja'Whaun Bentley with Jahlani Tavai. Mack Wilson and Harvey Langhi were next. Cam McGrone didn't do much, do they increase his reps?

Would be surprised if Jabrill Peppers does much of anything so not much will be revealed at safety, but it will be interesting to see if Marcus Jones is there again for the second-straight week. We've talked about Jack Jones as the future slot, and Marcus Jones as the future safety/Honey Badger for the Patriots so their initial positions should be noted. They can always change, however.