First there's the kickoff return man. Gunner Olszewski seemed to return every kick including those 9 yards deep in the endzone. Gunner is now competing with anyone and everyone for that position. Devin Smith, IsaIah Zuber, Tre Nixon, who knows maybe even Brian Hoyer takes the spot. Joking but you get what I'm saying. It's a spot the Patriots must have someone lockdown.
Then there's the kicker battle. Nick Folk is back but he turns 37 in November. I know, who cares about age with kickers but there's more to it with Folk. His entire career, he's bounced between the upper 70s and lower 80s in field goal accuracy percentage. 2020 was only the second time Folk reached over 90% and third time he got over 85% in his 13 seasons. Coming off a career year, Folk is sure to regress.
The Patriots also have Roberto Aguayo, the Buccaneers 2016 second round draft pick. That's pretty high to take a kicker.That year he went 22 of 31 and has been bouncing around the league Since. The 27 year old Aguayo's 71% as a rookie was a big drop from his 88% accuracy in college. He's been a camp body since.
Then the Patriots signed 2021 undrafted free agent Quinn Nordin from Michigan. He's a cold weather kicker but he only made 72% of his kicks in college. Nordin was the top rated kicker in the country heading into college during 2016 and Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh thought he was good enough to have a sleepover to make sure Nordin signed. Belichick has respect for the Harbaugh brothers, so if Jim went that far, Nordin has to be something special. Will Nordin continue the undrafted player streak of making the roster?
The last position to watch is the long snapper. The Patriots drafted Joe Cardona in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. Long snapper isn't normally a position people think about but Cardona is on his seventh season and the average career length for the position is only six years. Cardona is now on borrowed time. Thus we can now expect a yearly camp battle.
This off season the Patriots signed long snapper Wes Farnsworth. At first glance, the Patriots are having a kicking competition, so it makes sense to have a second long snapper in camp but with Cardona now exceeding the career average, it has to be monitored. Farnsworth came into the league in 2019 and has been nothing more but a camp body for the Dolphins and Broncos, losing out in both his competitions.
The 24 year old is on his third team, entering his third season. The third strike is the charm but it's also theee strikes and you're out. So depending on if you're a pessimist or an optimist will be how you look at Farnsworth.
How one determines when it's time to move on from a long snapper, I don't know. Which makes this one of the more interesting battles to watch.
Rememer there are three phases of the game and Belichick values special teams more than other coaches. There are other special teams players to keep an eye on. Brandon Bolden, Justin Bethel, and Matthew Slater are three just to name a few. Bolden is an opt out player, so that might be enough to see him cut. With the hungry young bloods on the roster, which veterans will get devoured and which will send the whelps crying back to their mothers?
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