What happens when Bill Belichick leaves clips for Mac Jones and Cam Newton that says "Jalen Hurts is the better quarterback of the three"? The Answer is they put on a clinic together going 26 of 29 against an Eagles defense, making sure the offense finds it's way to put points on the board multiple times. Jalen Hurts would put on another strong performance however.
So how did the Patriots quarterbacks do?
Andrew Callahan tweeted, "Newton 13/15, Jones 13/14, INT.
- Both QBs threw just 2 passes in 11-on-11s, the rest were red zone 7-on-7s."
Good or bad, it was a lot of smart paper cuts. If you like that sort of offense, then today was the camp for you. If you like the more reckless abandonment gun slinger style, than today would've bored you.
Future Franchise Guy Mac Jones:
Mac started good going through his progressions. Shortly after, he tried to force the ball to Asiasi for an interception. It's a learning experience for Jones but a mistake nonetheless. Jones would go seven of eight during this periord.
Zack Cox would write, "was flawless from there on out, closing 7s with 10 consecutive completions and going 3-for-3 in 11-on-11s."
Phil Perry would write, "Mac Jones hit Devin Asiasi for a score, handed to Brandon Bolden on a jet sweep score, and handed to James White for a score."
Jones ended things on a good note and celebrated with his teammates after the play according to Mike Reiss.
Mike Reiss tweeted, "Mac Jones’ TD pass to TE Devin Asiasi in his final red-zone drill, on play-action, had him fired up. Jones pumped his fist, pointed to Cam Newton, and the two leaped into the air in celebration."
Jones took a handful of snaps behind presumed starters as well. Jones may have held the ball too long a couple of times but continues to show good pocket presence and movement.
Jones forced a pass to Asiasi. People got on Jones for making that throw. Jones has to learn what's open and what's not. N'keal Harry is a fifty-fifty ball receiver. Jones needs to learn in the NFL when to make throws into coverage. Otherwise the Patriots could go and get an elite fifty-fifty guy and Jones may be too scared of a turnover to throw to them. The good thing is Jones appears to be learning from his mistakes.
Starter Cam Newton:
Newton started good but there were some areas for concern that stats don't tell. Some of the media was kind enough to let fans know.
Andrew Callahan tweeted, "Callahan initial team drills - Newton 8/8, Newton had 1 poor rep. An Eagles DL reached him for a would-be sack, then his pass hit a linebacker's hands, bounced to Kendrick Bourne."
Callahan was backed up by Bernd Buchmasser who wrote "he did get lucky on one pass that ended up in Kendrick Bourne’s hands rather than that of an Eagles linebacker."
Newton was near perfect with the starters, his only incompletion was a drop by Wilkerson. Newton even found the end zone on a run. Newton had a solid day overall as stated by Zack Cox.
Zack Cox wrote, "Cam Newton went 11-of-12 in 7-on-7s, opening with 11 straight completions before a Kristian Wilkerson drop in the end zone. He was 2-of-3 across a few brief 11-on-11 periods, completing a short pass to Kendrick Bourne that was nearly intercepted and a screen to Sony Michel. Newton’s lone incompletion was batted down by a linebacker."
World nation news desk wrote of their player of the day Cam Newton, "Two dropbacks, it looked like Newton was tracking for more trouble. Entering Tuesday, he threw an interception in three straight competitive practices, and three potential picks were dropped by Eagles defenders the day before. His second throw hit linebacker Eric Wilson Squire on Tuesday, then took a lucky bounce off Kendrick Bourne.
This was the last chance the Eagles’ defense had against him."
Things weren't all great for Cam, as Newton held the ball too long again. He had Agholor open but by the time he threw the ball, the defender was able to make the play. If the Patriots are hoping to have Newton run an offense based on timing and anticipation throws, they're screwed but it doesn't make sense to install Newton's offense just to change it later this season or next offseason.
Newton also would've had a few sacks on the day. Newton had a lot of completions but it seemed to a few like he was scared to test the Eagles secondary and even got the nickname 'the check down king.' The good thing is Newton took what was given. Later, the Eagles started calling Cam a running back as an insult.
Offensive line
Onwenu and Brown showed solid performance but the problem thus far has been with depth guys.
Kicker competion: Nordin made 3 of 4 attempts with a long of 44. His competition Nick Folk is still barely an after thought.
Pass Catcher shine. Meyers, Harry and Asiasi had good days as pass catchers. although Asiasi had a drop.
Speaking of drops, The Patriots receivers had decent one on one drills but Agholor continued his case of the drops. The guy is making a lot of money to be looking like Mo-Harris.
Wilkerson had another drop and some have said it's reason to cut him. Drops have been something to plague all the Patriots pass catchers this offseason, so how much different is a drop today from Wilkerson and a drop earlier in the day from Agholor? I mean other than Agholor's drops come with a bigger salary. Singling out one player while not acknowledging another players flaws seems to have become the new 'Patriots Way.'
Tight Ends: Jakob Johnson and Justin Herron worked as tight end. The Patriots are getting created at tight end. Although he lost weight to get faster, Ray Rauth of News Break suggested "Harry convert to tight end, with the depletion of the core."
Gunner Olszewski showed off receiving and blocking skills as he makes a push for the number four spot on the depth chart and is sounding more and more like Welker and Edelman who came before him.
Mike Kaye of NJ.com wrote, "Patriots WR Gunner Olszewski is a fun player to watch. Nearly every pass thrown to him leads to some sort of drama. Olszewski is very comfortable diving and sacrificing his body for a completion. He’d be a fixture of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” if the Patriots were the subject."
Kickoff return: Bolden, Taylor, and Dugger fought for the kickoff return position. No clear winner reported
Cuts: Fumagalli was cut to get down to 85.
Final thoughts, Phil Perry and I believe Evan Lazar have talked about how people score practices differently. Here's a scoring from the World Nation News Desk.
WNND wrote, "Note: The passing statistics below were only tallied during the competitive 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 periods. Full training camp statistics are in parentheses.
Cam Newton: 13/15 (108/168, 8 INT, 6 drops)
Mac Jones: 13/14, INT (125/190, 4 INTs, 12 drops)"
These stats continue to show what we already know, the offense is more balanced under Jones, Newton is a bigger turnover liability under center, and the team has a drop problem. We know the Patriots aren't perfect but are they worse than we want to believe?
The two days of joint practice did not seem to impress the Eagles media and one member of the Philadelphia media writer Jimmy Kempski said the Patriots fans should be worried. Kempski doesn't trash the Patriots in his assessment of day two, so his overview of the Patriots was interesting.
Kempski wrote, "Over the last two days of practice, I have not been impressed at all by the Patriots' play. Their roster is pretty weak, with some major question marks at quarterback, in my opinion, and they might struggle this season."
Elliot Shor-parks tweeted, "The Pats ran 14 straight plays inside the 20 without scoring vs the #Eagles"
As far as weak roster, there are players out with injury but honestly how does the depth really look? How does the roster really look overall? Intelligence and ability can trump ability but but players still have to execute.
Now there is no love loss between the Eagles and the Patriots, so this could be just Eagles media sticking it to the Patriots but since it's not the Patriots homers, it's not a favorable biased opinion on the Patriots from Patriots media. We should take what the Eagles media saw with some value and reasses what we've seen thus far.
Are the Patriots worse off then we initially thought? Only time will tell. If we go by how the Patriots were viewed prior to the Raiders game of week three, then yes because last year the team was viewed with rose colored glasses and reality slapped us in the face. Are we making the same mistake heading in to 2021?
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