Things I will be looking for as the Patriots play their second exhibition game
As I write this – an hour before the Patriots are about ready to take the field against the Eagles for their second exhibition game of the season – thunderstorms are rumbling outside my window not too far away from Gillette Stadium. It is setting up to be another less than stellar weather day for a football game. Welcome to New England, Drake Maye. The weather is seldom perfect around these parts for home games.
New England’s players and, especially, the offense may be hoping for bad weather so they can use it as an excuse if they play as poorly, and sloppily, as they practiced on Tuesday.
Here are the things I will be keying in on during the game (in between the rain drops):
The “Offensive” Line
I know everyone wants to see Drake Maye play. I do, too. But if the offensive line is giving up sacks on one-third of the plays like they did during Tuesday’s practice, all we will see of Drake Maye will be him getting sacked, running for his life, or dumping the ball in the flats to his running backs.
Head coach Jerod Mayo needs to give up on the Vederian Lowe at left tackle experiment. Why did they bring in free agent Chukwuma Okorafor? Or why did they draft Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson with their third and fourth picks?
When Eliot Wolf got hired he said his emphasis was going to be on player development. Unlike the previous regime, Wolf wants to play the youngsters and allow them to make mistakes on the field. So what is the issue here? We’ll get to Drake Maye in a second, but for the purpose of this section, play one of both of the rookie linemen.
Robinson has outplayed Wallace to this point in camp. It's hard to blame Wallace. He played right tackle in college, was drafted in hopes of switching him to left tackle with New England, and then has bounced between the first and second units in camp playing both left and right tackle.
Robinson sees his path to the starting lineup blocked by Michael Onwenu. That’s because Onwenu was switched back to right guard after he was pressed into switching to right tackle last year. Onwenu signed a big contract during the offseason in line with the top right tackles in the league, but then was moved back to guard despite the Patriots still having issues at both tackles.
The mix-matching was cute in the beginning. Oh, look, Mayo is doing his due diligence trying to find the right mix for the offensive line. It is new age thinking.
But now midway through camp, Mayo and new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt look like they have no clue.
The Patriots should adhere to the old adage – keep it simple, stupid (KISS, for short). Play Okorafor at left tackle until Caedan Wallace is ready. Sidy Sow has settled in at left guard (Cole Strange who?) after being horrible at right tackle last year. David Andrews is David Andrews. The Patriots are fine at center. Let’s see what Layden Robinson has at right guard. And put Michael Onwenu back to right tackle for this season. You can move him back to right guard next year, if you want, once you draft or sign a tackles or two.
The offensive line will be the most important thing to note in this game. If they do poorly, it will be hard to miss it.
Let Drake Maye play
It has become painfully obvious in the last two weeks that there really was no intention of giving Drake Maye a chance to compete for the starting opening day QB job. He was brought along slowly at the beginning of camp and saw only one series in the first exhibition game. In practice, he has been restrained. The practice I witnessed in person, it was mostly handoffs and throws to the flat. I didn’t get to see the strong arm that I was hoping to witness firsthand.
If the plan is to redshirt Maye for most of the year, then he needs to play in these exhibition games – and play a lot. We know what Jakoby Brissett is. Give Brissett one or two drives against Philly, then give the rest of the first half and third quarter to Maye. Then give the fourth quarter to Joe Milton.
Why is Bailey Zappe even here? Don't even let him see the field. Zappe still being here is yet another indication to me that Mayo has no intention of playing Maye anytime soon. What happens if Brissett gets hurt in the first game? Mayo doesn’t want to be in the position of having to throw Maye out to the wolves. He may also not want to be put in the situation of putting Milton out there and having Milton pull off a three or four game winning streak and then what?
The Patriots are coaching scared. I know JJ McCarthy got hurt for Minnesota and is lost for the season. Those things happen. I am sure Minnesota’s offensive line is much better than New England’s and, yet, McCarthy got hurt.
Play The Kid.
What is the Patriots pass rush going to look like without Matthew Judon and Christian Barmore
A lot of pressure is being put on New England’s defense. They were being touted as one of the best defenses in the league. But that was before Matthew Judon started sulking at all his teammates getting lucrative contracts and before Christian Barmore was diagnosed with a serious blood clot ailment.
Judon has now been traded and there is no timetable for Barmore coming back this season. The defense should still be stout, but they won’t be as intimidating as if they had those two on the field.
Where Judon and Barmore will be missed the most is on the pass rush. Barmore provided that push up the middle which forced quarterbacks out of the pocket. Once the quarterback was flushed out of the pocket, Judon was usually there.
Now where will the pass rush come from? Josh Uche has shown he can put up sack numbers. Anfernee Jennings came on strong at the end of last year, but he is not really a pass rushing linebacker.
The one who needs to step up – absolutely needs to – is second year defensive end, Keon White. White showed flashes last year, particularly in the preseason games. He needs to take that second year leap. I think Mayo’s confidence in the youngster made the decision to trade Judon a little easier.
By the way, great job by Eliot Wolf getting a third round pick for Judon. Atlanta shocked everyone by drafting Michael Penix with their eighth overall pick instead of pass rusher, Dallas Turner. A pass rusher was Atlanta’s glaring need. Now they have one of the best ones. That should make the third round pick the Patriots get from them closer to a second round pick.
Who will be the Patriots kicker?
This has gone way under the radar. The reason is the Patriots haven’t had many opportunities to test their two kickers. Incumbent Chad Ryland hasn’t done anything in camp to reassure fans following his struggles from a season ago. Veteran Joey Slye has matched Ryland step for step and has a very real chance of unseating Ryland. Let’s see if the Patriots’ offense can get the team down into field goal range enough to see one or both of these kickers get a couple of field goal attempts.