FOXBOROUGH – It was your classic hot, sticky training camp practice behind Gillette Stadium on Friday morning.
The action on the field finally felt like training camp too.
For two hours, the Patriots worked in the red zone for just about the entire session, really getting the pads thumping as day six arrived. Some early highlights in two-man route combination work and 7-on-7 gave way to a few more in team periods.
As always, here’s what stood out in our camp rundown:
Maye-Brown connection continues ascending
After a lackluster start to camp without the pads on, Drake Maye and AJ Brown are starting to heat up. It’s now 8-9 over the last two days for Maye when targeting Brown in full team periods. Early on during the two-man game Friday, Maye dotted a throw to the back left pylon in front of the fans over Christian Gonzalez. In red zone 7-on-7 Brown reeled in a one-hand grab for a TD over Charles Woods, although one foot was most likely out of bounds.
The one we’ve all been waiting for came in the first 11-on-11 series when Maye hit Brown deep down the right sideline for a would-be TD once again against Gonzalez. It’s coming and when it’s fully there, this duo could be historically scary.
Raridon continues to impress
Kid might be really good. Or, at the very least, he’s adapting quickly which is a good sign. Eli Raridon was targeted quite a bit by all of the quarterbacks on Friday and had another strong showing. In the early 7-on-7 h had a back corner TD from Maye against Woods and another moments later in the back right corner. Tommy DeVito hit him for a quick TD in the same period. He made a few grabs in team periods as well as his stock continues to rise. His development may be one of the biggest developments for the Patriots. Giving Hunter Henry a legitimate backup and Josh McDaniels a legitimate No. 2 tight end could be game-changing.
Borregales still pretty damn good despite missing 2nd kick of camp
Andy Borregales was 5-6 on Friday in a live kicking period. This was his third ‘live’ period in the six days so far and he’s a very good 16-18. The two misses have both been wide, but distance remains more than fine from ranges between 35-50 yards. As I wrote earlier this week, it’s nice to have the dependability there heading into the season.
Run game looked better
After the defensive line had a pretty dominant day in the running game on Thursday, I thought it was better on Friday. TreVeyon Henderson – particularly in a later red zone session down away from the fans and media – looked noticeably shifty on a few runs with some fantastic cuts to find space. Rhamonde Stevenson has just been a steady presence and also showed some sneaky shiftiness. Jam Miller pops pretty much anytime he has the ball. He could be a nice little piece here and there if Lan Larison supersedes him, but it feels like those two are pretty much on equal footing right now.
Looking ahead
It’s back outside on Saturday morning for the Pats at 10:15. Gates open at 9:15 for fans. Unclear as of this moment whether it’ll be a third straight day in pads, but there is a scheduled off day on Sunday, so possibly? It’s a Monday-Friday week for the team (with a walkthrough Wednesday)n before having next weekend off.
