The Quarterbacks Threw More Than The Handful Of Passes From The 7 on 7 Drill.

The media was allowed into the Patriots camp for a day of OTAs in Thursday the 27th. The team did their workouts and the media gave their opinions. There has been criticism over Cam Newton and some fans are saying "he only threw four passes", going off the 7 on 7 drill numbers.

Now it is true that Cam only threw four passes during the 7 on 7 drill, while Hoyer threw only two but that wasn't the only passing drills ran in front of the media.

Phil Perry of NBC wrote, "Patriots QBs did some bucket drill today. Stidham and Jones threw the best-looking deep balls. McDaniels also had QBs do a who-can-hit-the-target-quicker drill. From "hut" to the receiver's hands, who wins? Hoyer beat Jones 2x. Stidham and Cam won one each. Hoyer and Cam tied."

There's no way Brian Hoyer threw only two passes and beat out Jones in a drill. Phil Perry wasn't the only member of the media there, let's look at a second source.

Paul Perillo of Patriots.com wrote, "*Always fun to watch the quarterbacks taking part in bucket drills and we caught a glimpse of that on Thursday. All four alternated throwing deep fades from the 20 into the back left corner of the end zone. The quartet went around six times and none managed to sink one. At one point Hunter Henry joined in on the fun and tried a few throws of his own, but he met similar results."

Since Henry threw, his numbers would've been part of the stats released, especially if he completed more than Hoyers two passes. But these throws weren't part of the 7 on 7 drill and weren't recorded. Did any of the media report any other drills? Yes...

Ryan Hannable of WEEI mentioned the bucket drills and 7 on 7 but included, "There was some 11-on-11 work late in the practice, but that was pretty much a walkthrough."

Hannable doesn't get into a lot about the 11 on 11 and this is voluntary OTAs, the entire practice is a "walkthrough. " Now unless you played football, you might not have a full understanding of what a bucket drill is but yes for quarterbacks, it's throwing to a bucket.

Here's is the definition of a quarterback bucket drill according to the Jerry Campbell football. "Each quarterback throws up to 30 passes during the drill. The buckets are moved to various spots on the field on different days so that the quarterbacks can practice a variety of passes. One day, it might be a 15-yard out. The next day, it could be a 15-yard in, or a deep post..."

So here's the thing. It's okay to be fans of players, and maybe the 7 on 7 drill was the only passing drill that mattered but don't ignore the entire body of work done in front of the media. The media got to see more than 3 or 4 passes from each quarterback.

Seeing as the Patriots ran bucket drills and some 11 on 11, to go with the 7 on 7. The media may have seen around forty to fifty throws. It's fair to say they have an early idea of how each quarterback is actually looking.

So if some are saying Newton is looking the same as last year or that one of the other quarterbacks was looking good, they probably know what they're talking about for at least the first day of OTAs with media. Remember this is where players work on improving, so that when the preseason comes, they don't all look like out of shape bums.