FOXBOROUGH – For the most part, nothing went wrong last year.
Incredible injury luck, Drake Maye’s Year 2 leap, even the way the Patriots practiced…everything worked out.
And that’s not even including the nauseating schedule talk.
Even sitting at 1-2 last season, things felt somewhat optimistic heading into a Sunday night road game against the Bills that ultimately turned the season around. This Sunday when the Patriots play their first game in HighMark Stadium out in Western, NY, it feels like things are crumbling to the ground already in Foxborough.
Aside from the clear regression from Drake Maye so far, injuries, depth concerns and an overall lack of skill in the wide receiver room without AJ Brown – he did make an appearance in the locker room on Monday without a limp – all adds up to serious doubts about a repeat run to the Super Bowl, or even the playoffs.
It’s early, but Mike Vrabel and the staff need to come up with answers quickly. One of the first things Vrabel is looking at is how the team approaches practice, which I asked him about Monday morning.
There’s a fine line between tweaking just to tweak and doing it because some things just aren’t working like they did a year ago.
“Yeah, I think that is a great question. I really do. And you do a lot of thinking – what’s best? I think that we believe in the way that we prepare. We believe in the schedule, and we would not be doing it if we didn’t believe in it,” Vrabel said.
But…
“And at some point in time, you may have to alter things just to change it up. Paint the walls – I don’t know. See if production goes up. But I don’t know if there will be a ton of things that change,” Vrabel continued. “We’ll still have to make sure that we are ready and we’re good on first and second down, that we find ways to convert on third. And then defensively, we’ll hit red zone on Friday. But a lot of it is depending on the health of the football team, what guys are able to do and the pace in which you have to practice.”
With injuries mounting by the game, there’s no choice but to find a way to slow it down while still productively getting prepared enough for Sunday. Practice execution produces game execution, it’s something Vrabel has preached since Day 1.
Right now, the way the Patriots are practicing isn’t producing results on Sunday.
“Again, we have always said this, you have to be a team that can practice at different speeds and tempos throughout the year to be able to be ready for Sunday,” Vrabel added. “Every day isn’t going to be 30 full speed reps, and that’s just not possible.
“So again, we’ve said that, and I think we have to continue to find ways to be prepared and ready to go, while going at less than 100% every single rep throughout the week.”