Patriots Mailbag: Getting ready for training camp
Answering New England Patriots fans questions as the team begins training camp for the 2024 season.
Football is back in Foxborough, with New England Patriots veterans reporting to Gillette Stadium for training camp on Tuesday. The team will begin practice on Wednesday, in the month-plus ramp up to the season opener on September 8.
With the Patriots back in action, it’s time to bring back regular editions of the 98.5 The Sports Hub Patriots Mailbag. This will be a (mostly) weekly feature throughout the season, answer your questions about the biggest Patriots topics of the week.
For this edition of the Patriots mailbag, we got some bigger-picture questions about what’s ahead not just for this week, but training camp as a while. We’ll start there…
I’m assuming this question is about Marcus Jones moving to offense full-time, which doesn’t seem likely. There are a few reasons for this. At the top of that list is that while he was impactful in a gadget player role in the past, that’s about as expansive as his skillset is offensively at this point. Going from running a few trick plays to developing a full route tree would take significant time and work.
Plus, assuming he did that all successfully then he’d project similarly to a player the Patriots have in their wide receiver room – DeMario Douglas. If the Patriots want that skillset and explosiveness on offense, it would make much more sense to just increase Douglas’ usage rather than teach Jones a new position.
Plus, Jones should play an important role for the Patriots defensively this year. He’ll either be the starting slot cornerback if Jonathan Jones remains on the boundary, or replace Myles Bryant as the nickel safety if Jones returns to the slot. As a rookie he showed an ability to be an effective cover corner, and if he can build on that this year he should be a key member of the defensive unit.
This is a tricky question to answer, because in the limited looks we got in the spring the Patriots had two returners deep and nine players up in the blocking group. Isaiah Bolden and Jalen Reagor are the two best candidates for that job, and it wouldn’t be surprising if they end up as the two deep men (assuming they both make the team).
That being said, Reagor probably has the edge as the primary returner. He’s more of a natural ball-carrier, which will be important in that role.
1. Thank you!
2. It wouldn’t be surprising for the Patriots to keep four quarterbacks on their roster for most of if not all of camp. Bill Belichick used to talk about how teams need four arms simply to run a training camp practice, even if one quarterback is just there to throw on individual drills and max out reps. However, once the season starts we’ll probably see the team go with either three quarterbacks on the roster, or two on the roster and one on the practice squad as they’ve done in the past.
3. Any players that head to the NFL will be in Madden next year.
The Patriots don’t have the pure talent on their roster that the other three teams in their division do. If the gap is going to close quickly, it will have to be because younger players who are more ‘unknowns’ right now prove to be contributors. That could be rookies like Drake Maye, Ja’Lynn Polk, Caedan Wallace, and Javon Baker, as well as second-year players like Christian Gonzalez and Keion White.
In terms of a ‘standout’ camp, I’ll go with Antonio Gibson on offense and Keion White on defense. Gibson’s signing in free agency sort of flew under the radar, but he’s a great fit for the Patriots’ offensive system and fans who see him in person will notice his impressive size/speed makeup. Meanwhile, the coaching staff raved about White’s offseason improvement throughout the spring, and now we’ll see if that translates to a ‘Year 2 jump’ starting in camp.
I also published a list of six Patriots who I think could make surprise runs at a roster spot this year, even if they won’t dominate the training camp headlines. You can check that out here.
Obviously avoiding injury is paramount for any player. Even if he plays well then gets hurt, any injury – especially a season-ending one – could risk derailing any progress he makes. That would be a worst-case scenario. At the same time, if he plays eight games at an average level but is making steady progress over the two months, that would be encouraging heading into 2025.
Thoroughly explaining a full breakdown of yards and touchdowns player-by-player would be a full post, but I’ll answer this way – I’m picking DeMario Douglas to lead the team in catches and yards, and Hunter Henry to lead the team in receiving touchdowns.
This will be something to watch during training camp. Jaheim Bell isn’t a traditional Y tight end like Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper. He’s more of an H-back player who has experience inline, in the slot, and in the backfield. It will be up to Alex Van Pelt and the Patriots’ coaching staff to find out where he can be the most impactful. Expect to see them try him in a few different spots this summer.
