The team announced today the first public workouts in Foxboro will be held July 26 from 1:30 to 4 pm. They'll hold open practices at the same time July 27-29, with further dates/times TBA.
Ninety Patriots players report to training camp at Gillette Stadium for daily practice sessions under the watchful eye and often vociferous instruction of their coaches. In addition to getting an up close and personal football experience, the football-themed Patriots Experience is a fun, interactive playground enjoyed by kids of all ages.
All public training camp practice sessions, as well as admission to Patriots Experience and parking, are FREE. Check back on this page for the most up-to-date schedule.
Other Key Dates:
July 16 - Deadline to sign a designated franchise player to a multi-year contract or extension (4 pm EDT). Otherwise no long-term offer can be extended until after their last regular-season game. July 22 - Deadline for unsigned UFA to sign with new clubs. July 22 - Deadline for transition players to sign with new clubs. Aug 7 - Deadline for players under contract to report to their clubs to earn an accrued season for free agency. Aug 7 - If a drafted rookie has not signed by this date, he cannot be traded to any other club in 2012, and may sign a player contract only with the drafting club until the day of the 2013 NFL draft. Aug 9 - Pats vs Saints (ex) Aug 20 - Pats vs Eagles (ex) Aug 24 - Pats @ TB (ex) Aug 28 - Roster cutdown to 75 players (4 pm EDT) Aug 29 - Pats @ NYG (ex) Sept 2 - Roster cutdown to 53 players (9 pm EDT) Sept 3 - Practice Squad assignments begin (up to 8 players) Sept 9 - Pats @ TEN (season opener)
Additional Info:
Spoiler
PATRIOTS PRACTICES Patriots Training Camp sessions are held on the practice fields at Gillette Stadium and are FREE for the public to attend. Daily schedules, including last-minute cancellations or schedule changes, will be posted on this page. Fans are also encouraged to call the training camp information hotline at 508- 549-0001 for daily updates throughout camp.
ACCESS AND PARKING Parking is FREE for all public training camp practices. To access the parking lots for camp, fans arriving from the north should enter the P6 entrance. Fans arriving from the south should enter the P8 entrance. Wherever you choose to park at Patriot Place, pedestrian walkways to training camp are available.
CONCESSIONS A variety of concessions will be available for purchase at training camp, including popcorn, sausages, hot dogs, frozen lemonade, ice cream sundaes and a variety of cold beverages. Stands will be positioned at various locations, including Patriots Experience and near the practice fields.
FOR OUR GUESTS WITH DISABILITIES Gillette Stadium welcomes all fans to 2012 training camp. For those requiring additional assistance, enter the stadium parking lots as directed and follow signs for accessible parking. Seating at the practice fields will be available in all bleacher sections. For more information, please call the Gillette Stadium ADA coordinator at 508-384-9191. TTD/TTY is also available by calling 508-384-4389.
RAIN POLICY When the Patriots are forced to practice indoors due to inclement weather or poor field conditions, those practices will be closed to the public. For that reason, we stress the importance that fans and media visit Patriots.com or call the training camp hotline at 508-549-0001 prior to every practice for up-to-the-minute changes in the daily practice schedule.
PROHIBITED ITEMS AT TRAINING CAMP To ensure that all fans have a safe and enjoyable visit to Gillette Stadium for Patriots Training Camp, the following items are prohibited: Animals, except service animals assisting those with disabilities. Any alcoholic beverages Beach balls Bullhorns and air horns Coolers Fireworks or pyrotechnics Flags will be allowed, however flag poles over two feet in length will not be allowed. Helium balloons Illegal drugs or any other illegal substance Laser pens Noise makers Video Cameras Weapons of any kind (including knives) Any other item deemed inappropriate by stadium management No prohibited items will be accepted at training camp for safekeeping. Fans are reminded to please leave all such items secured in their vehicles.
Individuals with possession of a prohibited item(s) may be denied admission to training camp, ejected, arrested and prosecuted. Prohibited items that are discovered at training camp will be confiscated.
So, who hits IR within the first week? I think we're on a 4-year streak.
Don't you mean who gets a seemingly innocuous injury during a practice, doesn't appear on the field for two weeks and then suddenly with no warning or insight gets placed on IR on a random Tuesday afternoon? I think it generally works more like that.
Has anyone ever taken their kids to the Patriots Experience? Superbowl 46 was the first football game my nine-year old nephew ever watched - poor bastard - and now he's hooked. I wanted to take him to training camp, and I was talking up this part of it to his mom but I didn't know if it was fun or lame. Seems like a good idea for a kid with a lot of energy.
Don't you mean who gets a seemingly innocuous injury during a practice, doesn't appear on the field for two weeks and then suddenly with no warning or insight gets placed on IR on a random Tuesday afternoon? I think it generally works more like that.
Most likely: Jermaine Cunningham, Myron Pryor, Kyle Arrington
Most disturbing possibilities: Patrick Chung, Devin McCourty, Dont'a Hightower
I can't wait to see the impact Brandon Lloyd has on the offense. He's really the one piece that was missing last season: a bigger receiver who can demand attention from the #1 CB and stretch the field. Imagine a formation with Lloyd wide to one side, Welker in the slot, Gronk on the strong side, and Hernandez flexed out.
Arrington, McCourty, Chung and Hightower have really limited injury histories so you're mostly just spouting off random names.
Eh, I'd worry about Patrick Chung's durability for sure. Remember:
In 2011, Chung missed half the season: one game to thumb surgery in September and seven to a foot injury in the latter half of the season. In 2010, Chung missed two games with a knee injury.
He was injury-free in his rookie season, but that's 3 significant injuries in the last two years. That's not especially limited.
Eh, I'd worry about Patrick Chung's durability for sure. Remember:
In 2011, Chung missed half the season: one game to thumb surgery in September and seven to a foot injury in the latter half of the season. In 2010, Chung missed two games with a knee injury.
He was injury-free in his rookie season, but that's 3 significant injuries in the last two years. That's not especially limited.
I wouldn't call the thumb or the 2010 injury significant. He's missed ten games in seven years (including college). He's never been on IR. It's not perfect but it's a pretty good health record-don't let the one recent injury confuse the matter.
Vollmer, Dowling, even Gronk--those guys are bigger injury risks in my mind.
ESPN Boston says Deion Branch and Donte' Stallworth are battling for one roster spot.
Brandon Lloyd, Wes Welker and Jabar Gaffney are all locks for the final roster. Special teams captain Matthew Slater and returner Julian Edelman have specific roles as well. Branch and Stallworth are similarly out of gas, but the former has been slightly more durable and knows the offense better. Whoever wins the battle will need an injury ahead of them to get on the fantasy radar.
ESPN Boston says Deion Branch and Donte' Stallworth are battling for one roster spot.
Really? There's only room for one of them? Slater and Edelman are special teamers who -- combined -- have caught 12 passes in the past 2 seasons.
In essence, then, we have two people fighting for the #4 WR slot and we're going to cut the loser? In the injury-prone NFL and a pass-first Patriots offense, that does not seem wise.
Really? There's only room for one of them? Slater and Edelman are special teamers who -- combined -- have caught 12 passes in the past 2 seasons.In essence, then, we have two people fighting for the #4 WR slot and we're going to cut the loser? In the injury-prone NFL and a pass-first Patriots offense, that does not seem wise.
Seven wideouts would be a lot, especially since Lloyd, Branch, Stallworth and Gaffney won't contribute at all on special teams.I assume Stallworth gets cut--he's done jack shit since the 2007 season-so it's a nonissue.
The Patriots will also hold joint practices with the New Orleans Saints on Tuesday, August 7th and Wednesday, August 8th. Public viewing times are still to be determined.
I was there. The place was packed; the reports of it being the largest crowd ever at a Patriots training camp practice are not exaggerating. Wasn't full pads so it was a bit tough to get a read on too much, and given that it was day 1, I imagine quite a few things will sort themselves out over the coming weeks. Of note, Gaffney caught a ton of balls. Granted the drills yesterday were only a small step closer to real gameplay than playing catch with a defense present, but it was promising to see him more or less instantly resume the chemistry he's always had with Brady. Lloyd, Welker, Gronk, Branch, Hernandez, and even Shiancoe all caught a good handful of passes in the scrimmage-esque drills, and Stalllworth didn't really stand out positively or negatively. He took some reps at kick returner, which would certainly help his chances of making the team. In general Brady looked solid, though I would have liked to see him bomb it a couple more times.
As far as the running backs go, it looked to me like Ridley was on the field with the Brady unit the vast majority of the time, but it being so early in camp I wouldn't read into it too much. Vereen looked quick from what I could tell. Defensively I can't really provide much insight, but I did notice Sterling Moore break up a couple passes on the afternoon. I was paying far ore attention to the receivers in drills, however, so I can't tell you I noticed a single rookie except Dennard who didn't really make an impression on me good or bad.
Outside of the enormous cheers that Welker got on his first few catches, the best crowd reaction of the day came from a crisp 30-40 yard pass from Mallett to Edelman late in practice. RM had a few accuracy troubles to begin the day (mostly short stuff), but by the end of the day he had thrown a couple of really nice deeper balls. Very intrigued to hear about the rest of his camp.
With all the heat, and it being the beginning of training camp, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just some cramping. There's going to be a lot of that early on.
With all the heat, and it being the beginning of training camp, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just some cramping. There's going to be a lot of that early on.
I'm going to live and die on Dennard's progress. He's my binky.
shalise manza young @shalisemyoung Caserio said he isn't sure if CB Dennard will be at practice today - "we'll take it day by day"...Dennard left practice early yesterday
Gronk took a pretty good shot to the face, went off into the locker room, but came out a little bit later with a bandage on his face and seems to be fine according to the beat writers there.
Justin Francis left with a knee injury yesterday.. but was back at practice today. The patriots.com guys think he has looked real good and has a chance as an UDFA to make the team on the DL, which would be unbelievable.
Also said that most of the passing in camp has been screens and bombs. Probably good news for Vereen.
It also looks like Bobby Carpenter has been in on a lot of defensive packages. I really hope he has more left in the tank because he was awful with Dallas. Andy Hart also said that Brandon Bolden has had a nice start to camp. He needs to make the team because the RB depth is rather low now that Addai isn't on the team.
Justin Francis left with a knee injury yesterday.. but was back at practice today. The patriots.com guys think he has looked real good and has a chance as an UDFA to make the team on the DL, which would be unbelievable.
Also said that most of the passing in camp has been screens and bombs. Probably good news for Vereen.
I love reading that McDaniels seems intent on bringing back the RB screen game to the offense. It was an important part of the offense in the early 2000's and would only help now that there's guys with more speed such as Vereen and Ridley. The only screens lately have been the WR screens and they have been less successful lately as defenses started to key in on Welker.
Hmmm...I'm not sure why I can't copy the html code into this thread, as opposed to other threads. So, I'm not able to embed the pics from my Flickr account. If someone knows how to do it (usually, there's a box on the right which gives me the various html options), then please let me know. Otherwise, if anyone is interested, I've got some images over here:
Greg Bedard tweeted that Gronk may be having problems with his ankle still. They really should limit him in camp because they need him for the long haul.
Greg Bedard tweeted that Gronk may be having problems with his ankle still. They really should limit him in camp because they need him for the long haul.
I just tweeted that Brady may be having problems with his knee still. They should really limit him in camp because I have no information on this.
Lloyd continues to shine. Receiver Brandon Lloyd has been arguably the top performer for the Patriots in training camp thus far, continuing to stretch the field and catch everything thrown his way. Here’s an opinion on what makes Lloyd unique, beyond his obviously strong hands. Lloyd is an extremely efficient strider -- there’s no lost steps in his routes. He sinks his hips in and out of breaks, and has exceptional ability to keep his weight underneath him -- he rarely finds himself off balance. As a route runner, Lloyd seems to keep the details on his mind at all times. We don’t know the exact assignment he’s drawn on every play, but it sure looks like he makes it to the right spot on every drill -- a 10-yard out means a 10-yard out, not 9.5. The results have been evident: Lloyd toasted the secondary for deep receptions on at least two occasions on Sunday.
Love seeing this. Sounds like a perfect guy for Brady on the outside. One of the big reason's Brady always connected well with Branch was that Branch ran perfect routes. Brady could count on him to be at the spot the played called for. This could open up the offense even more than last year.
Edelman was asked if he's playing defense. His response: "I don't know if that'd team policy." - PFT I thought he did fine but I prefer not needing him back there as I'm sure everyone else does.
It comes out at like 5PM and the patriots.com guys give like a 15 minute recap of everything that happened that day. Enjoying it so far.
The guys on the PFW podcast generally seem more willing to share information about what players are playing what position than the other media sources covering the Pats.
Interestingly it looks like they're playing predominantly nickel/dime but otherwise they're generally in a 4-3 with Mayo and Hightower as the OLBs and Spikes/Fletcher at MLB, but also with two smaller DEs (Cunningham, Ninkovich, Scott, Jones)--those are really big LBs for a 4-3, but its different from much of what they did last year when they frequently played with one 300 lb DE.
I don't like that math. That's about 200 carries and 3.5 yards/carry. That would be disappointing.
He's could just throwing numbers out there, but he could also factoring in that Ridley is likely to be the Pats' short yardage back. It only takes two 1 yard runs in 14 carries to bring a 4.0 ypc rate down to the 3.57 ypc.
Hightower at OLB and Fletcher in the middle is not what I would have expected. Should be fun to watch these guys work together and mold into a unit. I can't remember the last time I said that about a Patriots LB core.
Playing a 4-3 should give the D-line a ton of rest, especially given the depth already at the position. Should make for some interesting personnel decisions, and probably one less DL slot than last year. That likely leaves Brace and Cunningham, each of whom is apparently having a great camp, fighting for one spot.
According to Bedard, Koppen is looking really slow and getting killed in one-on-ones by the likes of Brandon Deadrick. Looks like Connelly could keep the starting job he won last year.
Hightower at OLB and Fletcher in the middle is not what I would have expected. Should be fun to watch these guys work together and mold into a unit. I can't remember the last time I said that about a Patriots LB core.
Playing a 4-3 should give the D-line a ton of rest, especially given the depth already at the position. Should make for some interesting personnel decisions, and probably one less DL slot than last year. That likely leaves Brace and Cunningham, each of whom is apparently having a great camp, fighting for one spot.
To be clear, Fletcher has been at ILB because Spikes wasn't practicing: once Spikes started playing it's been pretty much all Mayo-Spikes-Hightower.
It was funny to me that a few people I respect bought into the notion that Brady had lost his deep ball and the 2011 offense was really about his diminishing arm strength. I don't buy into that notion after watching practice. Brady threw three balls over 55 yards in the air during the team period, he completed a dozen balls from the far hash mark to the deep out on the wide side of the field and after practice ran a deep ball drill and no receiver could outrun his passes. I talked with Brady about his deep game and Lloyd and he said, "We are preparing to take what defenses give us and Lloyd as well as other outside receivers will get the ball when the coverages dictate we should go there." Lloyd told me, "Tom is so precise about my route running even on the deep stuff and even on a deep corner route that I dove for and made a great catch Tom told me to change that route ever so slightly and I wouldn't have to dive for it again."
(I also posted this in the "Can Brady Throw deep" thread). I think this is telling not only about Brady's skills but also about Lloyd's. Definitely makes me excited to see what he can do. I'm thinking something like Randy Moss ca 2008-2009 -- 70-80 receptions, 1000-1200 yds, 10-12 TDs.
Second interesting quote:
Brady and Belichick both spoke about last season's problems at center, with four guys rotating through the position. As Belichick said, "They all graded out pretty good considering the circumstances." Brady talked about the consistency of the shotgun snap and the ball coming back in the right spot so he could execute the "fast pass" game with little hesitation trying to get the laces in the proper spot. On the right side,Marcus Cannon looked solid working in place of Vollmer, which tells me when Vollmer is back the Patriots will use their three-tackle offense once again. Brady will protect any line combination the Patriots put on the field with his quick decision making. It was clear in practice the team wants the quick pass out of the shotgun to be a big part of the offense.
I had never thought about the importance of where the laces come out on a shotgun snap. Maybe no one other than Brady (or a Manning/Brees/Rodgers type) thinks of these things. But in any case, it amazes me that these centers are so good that they can not only get the ball to the right place, but in the right alignment. Far from the days of Damien Woody having to move to G because he simply couldn't shotgun snap.
I'm really excited about this linebacker group as well. Mayo's got fantastic sideline to sideline speed, we've all seen how well Spikes can plug holes between the hashmarks, and Hightower has the ability to play that elephant LB role in any under 4-3 formation, or if they decide to rock the 3-4 defense.
If they choose to go 4-3 most of the time for their base defense, than it seems that Ninkovich has lost a starting spot because there is better talent on the field. As much as I love Nink, it's good to know he was bumped into a role that fits him better (Nickel LB with Mayo, 3-4 OLB, sub LB). It's not like he was awful at his job, so the fact that he was bumped to a lesser role means that the top 3 linebackers have gotten that much better with the Hightower addition.
The LB group now has serious depth, and they look like they could be downright mean against the run.
Two interesting things from the Kirwan article: (I also posted this in the "Can Brady Throw deep" thread). I think this is telling not only about Brady's skills but also about Lloyd's. Definitely makes me excited to see what he can do. I'm thinking something like Randy Moss ca 2008-2009 -- 70-80 receptions, 1000-1200 yds, 10-12 TDs.
Second interesting quote:
I had never thought about the importance of where the laces come out on a shotgun snap. Maybe no one other than Brady (or a Manning/Brees/Rodgers type) thinks of these things. But in any case, it amazes me that these centers are so good that they can not only get the ball to the right place, but in the right alignment. Far from the days of Damien Woody having to move to G because he simply couldn't shotgun snap.
As a former center, it is really important how you get the laces to the quarterback. I was always taught to get the ball to the QB horizontally so he can get the laces right away.
