The New England Patriots are in the third and final phase of offseason workouts, and will go through their remaining days of organized team activities as well as mandatory minicamp over the coming two weeks. While only a handful of these sessions will be open to the media, they will be opportunities to gain some additional knowledge about the 2023 version of the team.
In order to clean out the notebook from what already happened the last few days, please enjoy this week’s edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
What the first open OTA taught us about the 2023 Patriots. New England will be holding five open practices this spring, and the first of those is already in the books. Wednesday’s organized team activity was open to reporters, giving us a first look at this year’s version of the Patriots.
To recap the session, please check out Pats Pulpit beat reporter Brian Hines’ Patriots OTA Notebook. For a few add-ons to that, let’s take a look at what this first practice can tell us about the 2023 squad.
Mac Jones looks like QB1: Taking top-tier reps in practice over fellow quarterback Bailey Zappe, it appears the supposed competition at the position might not be a competition at all. Mac Jones looks like the starter, which should not come as too big a surprise but offers definitive proof after an offseason filled with speculation that “Zappe Hour” might be a thing of the past.
Evan Rothstein will work with the quarterbacks: A former member of the Detroit Lions, Rothstein arrived in New England alongside his former boss, Matt Patricia, in 2021. But while Patricia will not be back, he is still around and will continue to serve on the offensive staff. An offensive assistant a year back, Rothstein continues to work with the quarterbacks.
Sidy Sow will help bolster the offensive tackle depth: While he spent most of his college career at guard, Patriots fourth-round rookie Sidy Sow also offers experience at tackle; he started 11 games at left tackle at Eastern Michigan during his freshman season. New England appears willing to give Sow a shot at that position as well, and he saw plenty of action as a backup during last Thursday’s practice.
Trent Brown, Calvin Anderson and Riley Reiff are the top-three OTs: While the introduction of live contact will give us a clearer picture about the offensive line, by the looks of it the Patriots have found their top-three tackles already. With returning left-side starter Trent Brown out, the Patriots gave Calvin Anderson (LT) and Riley Reiff (RT+LT) the top-tier reps. If they indeed are the first three men on the depth chart, Conor McDermott can be seen as No. 4 — which might not be enough to help him keep his job versus de facto roster lock Sidy Sow.
Marte Mapu is a linebacker, for now: Even though he served primarily as a versatile box safety at Sacramento State, the third-round rookie appears headed for a position change of sorts. Wearing a red non-contact jersey, he lined up next to starting off-the-ball linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley quite a bit. Mapu does have the skillset to succeed at the position, and he already saw plenty of linebacker-esque assignments in college, so this transition should not be too big of a challenge.
Jonathan Jones is still an option at outside cornerback: With first-round draft pick Christian Gonzalez not participating during Thursday’s session, the Patriots used Jack Jones and Jonathan Jones as their top outside cornerbacks. The former being in that position is no surprise, while the latter was a starter on the perimeter last year. That said, it will be interesting to see how the team opts to shuffle its deck once Gonzalez as well as fellow absentee Marcus Jones are part of the mix; Jonathan Jones might very well move back into the slot.
The kicking positions should be in good hands: With veteran place kicker Nick Folk absent, the Patriots had one kicker as well as two punters on the practice field. All three of them looked good. Chad Ryland and Bryce Baringer, the team’s rookie kicker and punter, respectively, showed their strong legs and appear to be on the inside tracks for roster spots. Free agent punter addition Corliss Waitman, however, also boomed a few punts and should make for a formidable challenger.
At the end of the day, all these observations should be taken with a big grain of salt. After all, OTAs are one of the earliest steps in building this year’s Patriots team and the way they are set up — there is no contact, as mentioned above — means that things are almost certain to look quite different once training camp and preseason start rolling around.
Bill Belichick praises Mac Jones’ work ethic. Coming off a challenging sophomore campaign, the Patriots’ QB needs to bounce back to show himself deserving of the fifth-year option in his rookie contract and the unquestioned starting gig. In order to do that, Jones is trying to block out the noise and focus on himself.
“All I can do [is] run my race, and hopefully everybody will run right behind me,” he said after Thursday’s practice. “We’ll be able to push this thing along and learn from everything. I’m going to do everything I can to earn the respect of everybody in this building again, and from there, go out there and win some games.”
Throughout the 2022 season, Jones’ teammates expressed support for the young passer. However, Jones acknowledged that his own leadership was not always up to the standards that he wanted it to be at.
Nonetheless, he is enjoying the team’s trust. His commitment and work ethic appears to be a big reason why, and something that has been mentioned repeatedly by teammates in the past and this offseason.
Now, head coach Bill Belichick has also joined the choir.
“I think Mac works hard every day,” he said. “He puts in a lot of time both in the weight room, in the classroom, works hard on the field. His work ethic is really good, and hasn’t changed.”
Tyquan Thornton is learning on veteran help in Year 2. The most active wide receiver on the field on Thursday, second-year wideout Tyquan Thornton making the famous second-year jump would be good news for the Patriots passing offense. It remains to be seen whether or not he can do that, but he himself is not leaving anything up to chance.
Thornton participated in throwing sessions with quarterback Mac Jones this offseason, and furthermore is leaning on the veterans in the room to give him pointers.
“I learned a lot from all the veteran receivers in our room. We’ve all been working together here, and we’re getting better,” he said. “[DeVante Parker] and all the rest of the guys, the older guys like Ty Montgomery, [Kendrick] Bourne, add JuJu [Smith-Schuster] to it, those guys have played a lot of football. Taking the little notes from them that can help my game out.”
Thornton appeared in 13 games as a rookie, playing half of the team’s offensive snaps. He finished the year with 22 receptions for 247 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also carried the ball three times for a combined 16 yards and another score.
Count David Andrews among the Adrian Klemm fans on the Patriots’ O-line. New Patriots offensive line coach Adrian Klemm differs from the man whose footsteps he is trying to follow: unlike Dante Scarnecchia, who was part of five Super Bowl teams in New England and widely regarded as one of the best O-line coaches of his time, never actually played as a blocker at the NFL level.
Klemm, meanwhile, spent six years in the league after getting drafted in the second round by the Patriots in 2000. He never developed into a regular starter, but his experience certainly is valuable when it comes to his new job — something center David Andrews also pointed out.
“He’s someone that’s done it,” Andrews said about Klemm on Thursday. “Obviously, was coached by Scar who was so impactful to me. He’s been here as a player. He’s been to other places and kind of built his own career. Lot of things I think I can learn from him. Excited to get to work with him.”
Andrews also made sure to mention the Patriots’ other offensive line coach: Billy Yates is expected to assist Klemm this season.
“Having Billy there to kind of help with him bridge some gaps to things like the communication thing. Like, ‘I call something this, how do I put it in buckets with things that I’ve learned?’ So, that’s been a big help,” he said. “Billy’s been a big help, too. So, it’s been great.”
Matthew Slater addresses the Patriots’ OTA cancellation. New England lost two organized team activities due to a scheduling violation in Phase 2 of the offseason program. Team captain Matthew Slater, who once served as the team’s NFLPA representative, addressed the issue on Thursday.
“I don’t want to address it in too much detail, because I’m no longer a rep; I’m more of a liaison at this point,” he said. “I believe that that union is always going to act on what they believe is in the best interest of the players, most of the time. And I believe that our organization, regardless of its reputation, is always going to try to abide by the rules.
“Things happen that happen, and I can’t speak to that. I don’t know what all went into these things, and so on, so fourth. But I don’t believe that we’re an organization that’s going out of our way to break the rules or to gain an edge. I know people are going to say, ‘Well, this, this, this.’ But I don’t think that was the case here.”
Setting up the week ahead. As noted above, the Patriots are in the final days of organized team activities. The last four — sessions No. 5-8 — will take place this week: New England will hit the practice fields and classroom on both Monday and Tuesday before returning for two more sessions on Thursday and Friday. The Tuesday session will again be open to the media.
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