FOXBOROUGH - Patriots conducted their second open OTA practice off the offseason on Tuesday. Before practice, Bill Belichick said the team went hard on Monday so today might be on the lighter side. That seemed to hold.
The newsier observations before we get into our own quickie thoughts:
- A number of players were back on the field, including top picks Christian Gonzalez and Keion White (definitely noticed him this practice), along with Christian Barmore and Davon Godchaux.
- For some reason, the Patriots had barely any veteran receivers at practice, forcing Tre Nixon and Kayshon Boutte to get the first-team snaps. DeVante Parker was on the rehab field and Tyquan Thornton was present, but did not see him on the field. No Kendrick Bourne or Juju-Smith Schuster.
- No Trent Brown, Matthew Judon or Lawrence Guy
- Marcus Jones, James Robinson in the rehab group.
- Gonzalez immediately assumed the No. 1 CB spot opposite Jonathan Jones, with safeties playing the star. Jack Jones was in the second group.
- Mac Jones got all the starter reps.
- Cole Strange and Anfernee Jennings got into a decent scrap, with Barmore throwing a punch late as part of it.
- Marte Mapu was at safety.
- Jalen Mills was at safety and slot/star.
- Calvin Anderson and Riley Reiff were your tackles again. Don't recall seeing Conor McDermott.
- Very active no-huddle period with emphasis on short passes and quick screens, drawing the defense offsides.
- Hunter Henry hobbled off at one point.
BEDARD'S ANALYSIS
- On Gonzalez ... We didn't get WR/CB one-on-ones or many deep passes, so it was tough to judge much. He certainly looks the part with his length and quickness. Definitely showing early confidence in him.
- White has an impressive build for a young player, and he's powerful. Generated a few pressures. Tough body for the young backup linemen to handle, which were his matchups.
- The offense had a good, solid and productive day. Mac Jones was definitely in good spirits, and into the practice emotionally from start to finish.
- First practice I can ever remember with this few receivers. All the TEs and RBs were there. Why no WRs?
- Belichick was a bit more involved in this practice as sort of head official during scrimmage portions. Last 15 minutes was walkthrough.
- Kayshon Boutte got an earful at one point from one of the coaches.
- Mapu's speed was evident at one point when he flew across the field to tackle in the flat. That was nice to see.
- Sidy Sow was at backup RT. Like his skills. Seems a tad small for tackle but the feet are there it seems.
- Backup line was LT Stueber, LG Bill Murray, LG/C Russey, RG Jake Andrews, Sow. Andrews did get C reps.
- Patrick Chung was tutoring Mapu.
- Tre Nixon had a nice leaping catch of a third-down pass from Mac Jones, which had the QB dancing a bit.
- Have to admit, Bailey Zappe looks good executing some of the playfakes in this offense.