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“Vacation” is coming a day early in New England. For the second year in a row, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has cancelled the team’s final mandatory minicamp practice session.
Altogether, the Patriots completed twelve total offseason practice sessions over the last month – from rookie camp, to OTA’s, to this week’s two mandatory practice sessions. This was likely a situation where coach Belichick was satisfied with the progress made in the team building process. And although it is something he’s done before, it’s still a bit surprising in my opinion, with so few practices available in the offseason and with so many young players on the team.
On a side note, the Buccaneers also cancelled their final minicamp practice. So feel free to continue drawing parallels there.
The Patriots will now break until training camp in late July. And while we will be officially entering the slowest part of the NFL calendar, we’ll have plenty to preview over the coming weeks as we gear up for training camp and the 2013 season.