Real football!

Ok, not really, but kind of.

On Monday, the Patriots began mandatory minicamp which in theory should have given us our first true look at the team, but there were still quite a few absences. Mac Jones had a good day but it got ugly down the stretch. That and more in our latest edition of the Patriots Journal with everything we saw for two hours…

-James White was back in the building, walking up the stairs to the practice field as the same time as the media. Always good to see the true Super Bowl MVP in 2016. Devin McCourty was also in the house again.

-No JuJu Smith Schuster, James Robinson (who was cut later in the day), Kayshon Boutte, Tyquan Thornton, Mike Onwenu, Trent Brown, Lawrence Guy (hold out), Quandre Mosley and Tae Hayes.

-Aaron Dobson and LeGarrette Blount were back. Bill Belichick was asked about them during his pre-practice presser and said they are both part of the Bill Walsh coaching fellowship and that they’re on hand to “learn and observe.”

-After stretching and individual drills the Pats went 7-on-7 to start. In a sign of things to come during the day, Mac hit Mike Gesicki several times while also finding Rhamondre Stevenson, and Hunter Henry.

-Zappe took over and completed passes to Raleigh Webb, tight end Anthony Firkser and Pierre Strong. During Zappe’s time running 7-on-7, Mac stood about 15 yards behind him and went through mental reps.

-Back to Mac and he completed passes to Gesicki, JJ Taylor, Henry, and had arguably his best throw of the day at this point, dropping a ball in-between the linebackers and safeties to Henry. He made a similar throw to Gesicki as well.

-Zappe’s turn again in 7-on-7 and his best ball of the day (probably) came when he hit Malik Cunningham, similar to the throws Mac made to Henry and Gesicki.

-It was basically special teams, 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 rotating throughout the day. During the first special teams period the right ends and QB’s went to work together on the opposite field.

-Back to 7-on-7 and Mac – who rarely let the ball fly more than 10 yards – hit Taylor, Montgomery (who continues to look really good), Scotty Washington and URI’s Ed Lee. Lee has shown a good burst both returning punts and once he catches the ball and gets in space. Practice squad maybe?

-During this time, Matt Slater and Jourdan Heilig worked on downing punts inside the five.

-During the first 11-on-11 drive, Mac hit a bunch of short passes and screens – which dominated the day. Gesicki, Taylor, Montgomery, Kendrick Bourne and Rhamondre Stevenson were all involved. On the other field, Nick Folk and Chad Ryland were booting field goals.

-Very briefly, the Patriots went into a ball security drill that many of us hadn’t seen before. The QB’s stood about three yards away from receivers, who quickly caught a ball and turned up field (basically in a circle) with defenders right on their back trying to strip the ball. The passing part of the drill was what was peculiar.

-Corliss Waltman continues to hit bombs while punting and that rotation of the left foot along with the hang time is something to behold. Ed Lee caught a few and continued to show his quick burst/shiftiness.

-As the ones and two’s rotated the Pats went back to 7-on-7. Washington had a sick leaping grab up over Bledsoe and Tre Nixon caught a deep post TD over Shaun Wade.

-At this point a few of us noticed Penn State coach James Franklin in attendance.

-Marte Mapu continues to impress. This staff seems to have big plans for him in multiple roles it seems. Mapu, Keion White and Gonzalez are on track to being Day One impact players.

-Around 12:20 we got some more kick return work while the QB’s went over to the other field and worked with Evan Rothstein.

-At 12:41, it was back to 11-on-11 and an up-tempo drive. Mac continued to feed Gesicki and Bourne n this portion, and his cadence led to an offside lap for Carl Davis Jr.

-In a real game Mac would have gotten Gesicki killed on a hospital ball over the middle, leading him right into Josh Uche who obviously pulled up. Mac quickly yelled “my bad!” to his new weapon.

-A Red zone dump off to Rhamondre Stevenson and a quick out to Parker ended Mac’s drive before Zappe took over Mac and Henry had a long chat after the reps as Zappe took over.

-Matt Judon looked a bit slow during this portion of the practice, but was still rocking the red sleeves.

-Back to Mac on another drive. Bourne had to run a lap, but then came back and caught a touchdown on a slant, celebrating with Parker. Before that, Jalen Mills came up with a PBU in a sign of things to come down the stretch.

-Zappe took over for a bit and hit Parker with a deep ball on the sideline where he toe-tapped against Isaiah Bolden.

-Bill O’Brien hasn’t had to yell much so far, but he did at this point when the Pats had trouble getting lined up.

-Another brief special teams period commenced and O’Brien went over to the opposite field with the QB’s, getting a full body stretch in before the team went two-minute offense around 1:07.

-This is where Mac’s would-be good day went downhill. Jones had a pass broken up over the middle by Jack Jones, picked off by Kyle Dugger when he jumped a ball outside intended for Stevenson and was picked off again by Adrain Phillips on a ball behind Henry. Christian Gonzalez also had a pass break up on a ball near the sideline while matched up with Parker.

-After the Phillips pick Mac hit one more short out to Bourne before the team went into walkthrough speed for the rest of the way.

-Field goal work ended the day and I honestly think it’s a legitimate competition between Ryland and Folk. Feels like Ryland has the better leg at this point with youth on his side, but Folk has been Mr. Consistency for this team. It’ll be interesting to see how that battle plays out.

The Patriots are back at it tomorrow again at 11 A.M. for the second of three mandatory mini-camp practices. Ideally, there are some more bodies there tomorrow – especially receivers – so we can get more of a sense of what this offense will actually look like. Right now, it’s clear that the tight ends will be a huge factor and the short passing game is making a big comeback. Defensively, it’s hard to really tell much, but there’s definitely a level of competition between the two units that can only be beneficial.