5 takeaways from Day 13 of Patriots training camp
Drake Maye bounces back after a rough start, Joe Milton throws a pick, and other things to know.
The Patriots opted for a lighter, shorter practice than usual in shorts and shells on Monday, one day before their scheduled joint practice with the Philadelphia Eagles.
There was plenty of red zone work for Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye, along with limited reps for Joe Milton and none for Bailey Zappe.
Demario Douglas was all over the field making catches against a shorthanded secondary. Dell Pettus grabbed an interception. Javon Baker made another big catch.
Here are five takeaways from the action.
Drake Maye bounces back
Neither quarterback was particularly efficient during the red zone 7-on-7 drills.
Brissett had a completion to Demario Douglas and a touchdown to Tyquan Thornton, but proceeded to miss three throws in a row.
Maye was fortunate that his first throw wasn’t picked off by Christian Gonzalez, but he settled in nicely after that. He hit Jalen Reagor on the hands with a pass that was dropped. But he followed with back-to-back completions to Javon Baker and Jaheim Bell for touchdowns.
Brissett fared better once drills switched to 11 on 11s. He found Demario Douglas for a pair of catches early and hit Austin Hooper for a short gain off of a play-action rollout. His best throw was to Jalen Reagor in the back corner of the end zone. When he was off, it was generally because the throws were too high.
Maye hit Antonio Gibson and Polk for short gains during 11s but also had a pass batted down and had a couple of hurried throws go incomplete.
Rough day for Joe Milton
Milton did make a nice throw at the beginning of practice that Ja’Lynn Polk was able to snag at the height of his jump with both hands.
But after that it got rough for the rookie quarterback. With Maye and Brissett getting the bulk of the reps, Milton mostly watched until the end of team drills.
Joe Giles-Harris batted a pass from Milton into the air, and Dell Pettus was able to come down with the interception. Milton also launched a pair of deep throws to JaQuae Jackson and David Wallis that went incomplete.
Shorthanded at cornerback
The Patriots were without a number of starters including Hunter Henry and Christian Barmore, but the cornerback position was hit especially hard with Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, and Shaun Wade out.
The defense was still able to hold both quarterbacks to a 50 percent or less completion rate despite working with a shorthanded secondary.
Marco Wilson, Alex Austin, Isaiah Bolden, Azizi Hearn, and Mikey Victor all got reps and the coverage was generally tight enough to force the quarterbacks into some difficult throws.
Christian Gonzalez nearly had an interception on a pass that Maye threw right at him, but wasn’t able to hang on.
Defense runs twice
The defense had to run twice on separate occasions during team drills due to issues that happened before the snap.
It’s unclear exactly what happened on the first one. The defense lined up without enough players on the second one.
The offense has typically been the unit punished more consistently for pre-snap issues throughout this camp, so seeing these issues from the defense was different than usual.
Bring on the joint practice
The Patriots will host the Eagles on Tuesday for a joint practice before their preseason game on Thursday.
With the starters seeing very limited reps during last week’s preseason opening win over Carolina, Tuesday will be an opportunity to get an extended look at how the Patriots look against another opponent in pads.
The Eagles went 11-6 before falling to Tampa Bay in the Wild Card round last year, but the Patriots aren’t backing down from the challenge.
“Hopefully we’ll come out and dominate,” defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington said. “That’s what we’re looking for, being completely honest. That’s what we’re trying to do is go out there and dominate. We’re trying to compete at a high level. We’re trying to execute on our fundamentals and technique most importantly. We’re going against another team so hopefully we gel together as a team on offense, defense, and special teams and work together.”
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