The offense wasn't so great on day one of camp and most of the media agrees that this is just OTAs until the pads come on. The general consensus is the offense looks like an NFL offense again and is still being installed. Right Tackle, Running Back behind Stevenson, and Free Safety seem to be the questions that the media is concerned with at the moment. Here's three summaries coming out of Patriots camp.
Summary one:
Nothing special with how camp is being ran so far. Focus has been all red zone. Offense is looking poor, lots to clean up. No quarterback competition. Quarterbacks making poor decisions and playing inconsistently. Quarterbacks need to play within their abilities, as they're struggling to go outside them. Offense ran the same play repeatedly. JuJu is being heavily targeted and should be ranked between 30 to 40 in receivers.
Reiff is inflating the defensive production. Montgomery dealing with injuries already. Injuries are the reason for meeting with Cook. Patriots are trying to avoid a mutiny with contracts. Guy's still having contact issues, although he reported. Uche's having a good camp. Kicking competition is too close at the moment.
Summary two:
The offense is practicing the basics in the red zone which is why they're getting beat. O'Brien's not being flashy. Offensive strategy has been about improving execution. O'Brien is running RPOs and play actions. A lot of scripted plays. The Patriots we're also throwing into coverage. To be successful, they need to play in more space.
Patriots are catering offense more to Mac, letting him use his abilities. Mac continues to show he needs a more intelligence based offense. Mac showed he's not a mobile passer.
JuJu and Parker are the only qualified red zone receivers. Pass catchers still not getting seperation. Douglas looks like a candidate to make the 53 and is moving up the depth chart. Thorton is useless in the red zone. Douglas has been the quick seperation guy.
Strong is getting the number two back reps. Montgomery should be the third down back. Hurd is most likely Montgomery's backup. Trent Brown looks ready. Right tackle is a position to watch and has a lot of questions.
Gonzalez is working against Parker and JuJu and holding his own for the most part. Tavai looked good and is showing signs of improvement. Jack Jones demoted. Lots of Patriots with contract concerns. No one pulling ahead on kicker battle.
Summary three:
Stevenson is injured and J.J. Taylor has been the better of three between Strong, Harris, and Taylor. However, Strong is getting more reps. Offensive timing is not there. Zappe has been playing extreme conservative, to explain his production and the quarterbacks have been holding on to the ball too long. Juju's out of shape but him and Parker been making plays. And Lumpkin and Sokol have each had their moments the first two days.
Offensive's poor play is due to lack of contact but looks better than last season. Trent Brown is back and Reiff is not playing well without contact. Right tackle is a liability at the moment. Bill Murray is getting a high volume of reps. Secondary is rotating personnel outside of Gonzalez. The safeties are getting a heavy work load. Tavai is looking good. Judon is disgruntled over contract. Limited number of players returning kickoffs, for a team with so many special teamers capable of doing the job.
Overall, I'd say the offense isn't trying to look good. Mac is trying to be a more aggressive mobile passer. The tight ends, Parker and JuJu are the red zone offense. And the third down back at the moment isn't a true running back. Thorton's rookie year looks like it was wasted and the only classic "Edelman type" slot appears to be Douglas. The team has no answers behind Stevenson and probably should've brought Wynn back. Defensively, by demoting Jack Jones, they've added a second question to answer, when all they needed to figure out was free safety.
Sources:
Tom Curran, Phil Perry, Alex Barth, Greg Bedard, Evan Lazar, CLNS, NESN, NBC Boston, and the BSJ.
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