FOXBOROUGH – Felt like October out there today.
Aside from that, Pats fans should be encouraged. More good things on both sides of the ball during the roughly two hour session and Mike Vrabel already cancelled the third and final practice on Wednesday.
“I just felt like hopefully we can get two good days of work here and get going on to the offseason program,” Vrabel said on Monday afternoon. “We’ll still work; I just didn’t want to come out. We’ll be out on the field. We’ll be lifting, running and meeting.”
Drake Maye began the day 5-5 in actual team periods with two completions to Pop Douglas – who continues to look good, albeit in a passing camp – Kendrick Bourne, Kayshon Boutte and Hunter Henry. The second to Pop was about 25-30 yards downfield in a wide open spot in the defense.
Josh Dobbs had the throw of the day, hitting Kyle Williams on a deep post for a touchdown in-between Dell Pettus and safety Marcus Epps. Williams’ speed was on full display as he split both of them before hauling the pass in.
After a rough next drive for Maye with a few incompletions and Harold Landry blowing by Morgan Moses to force a scramble, both kickers (Parker Romo and Andres Borregales) went 4-4 from about 40-45-yards out. The team split into an indy period for the defense with the offense working on red zone rout concepts.
Once moving into some team red one work for the first time this spring with the ball at the 10, Maye proceeded to throw three TD passes to Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson and Kendrick Bourne. Both TD passes to the backs were on slants with Bourne beating Carter Davis III clean to the back right corner.
Dobbs threw a TD to Efton Chism III (who still hasn’t dropped a ball yet…seriously), Antonio Gibson made a nice diving five-ish-yard catch around the five and C.J. Dippre dropped a TD pass at the goal line right in his chest. Safety Josh Minkins had a nice PBU over the back of Gee Scott Jr.
Maye’s final competitive reps of the day inside the red zone went like this: Short pass over the middle to Henry (Spillane with the ‘tackle’); a PBU for Marcus Jones against Pop (Will Campbell abruptly denied a speeding Keion White off the edge this play too); a PBU for Davis III against Henry and then a goal line TD pass to Pop. Douglas went to dunk the ball on the goal post, but got stuffed, drawing a big laugh from players and media alike.
A great TD catch for running back Lan Larrison from Dobbs drew a big cheer. Diggs ran over to give him some love and then made a full-field sprint with Drake Maye to track down Isaiah Bolden, who came up with an easy INT and raced down the left sideline.
A little more red zone walkthrough work ensued before conditioning, ending one of the final days of the spring for the Patriots. Earlier in the afternoon, the Diggs Show continued during indy period. Nearly every media member (myself included) was only watching and filming the wide receiver group (in fairness, they’re the closest to us aside from he DBs). He led off every drill and again, had the other guys trying to raise their game in every little competition.
The energy and effort for ‘just a passing camp’ from the entire team has been hard to ignore too. No physicality, but when you know something looks right after seeing so much look wrong for the last five years, you know it. The Patriots are functional and dare I say competitive again.
And yes, I know it’s only June. Wait until you see them in training camp. Which, by the way, will be packed again because of the Diggs Factor. I’m calling it now.
