Patriots training camp: Storylines to follow this summer
FOXBORO -- The Patriots will take the field for their first practice of training camp on Wednesday, which will officially kick off the Jerod Mayo era in New England. There are plenty of questions surrounding the team heading into the 2024 NFL season, but not a lot of answers.
While we know this is now Mayo's team and he will bring a much different vibe to the organization, we don't know how things will run under the new head coach after 24 years of Bill Belichick running the ship. We know that Drake Maye is the future, but will he play in the present? What will the offense look like with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback? And can anyone (and we mean ANYONE) protect whoever is playing quarterback for the Patriots?
We all feel pretty confident that the defense will still be a stout unit and a bright spot for this team. But will that be enough to make the 2024 Patriots more successful on the field than the four-win team we watched in 2023? Other than the 2024 draft class, the Patriots didn't do too much to improve the roster from last season. Most of the transactions in free agency was the team re-signing players that were around last year, while the competition elsewhere in the AFC got better.
But before we start worrying about a win-loss record, we've got to talk about practice. A lot of practice. Here are the storylines we'll be following throughout Patriots training camp, leading up to the 2024 NFL season.
Is Jerod Mayo the man for the job in New England?
It will be a while until we get an answer on this one. Robert Kraft certainly believes that Mayo is the right guy, but he has the arduous task of replacing a legend in Bill Belichick. As a rookie head coach. With a team that won four games last season.
Good luck with all of that.
At least the expectations are pretty low and Mayo will be allowed to learn as he goes this season. He's bringing in a much different vibe along with some high-level experience, both as an NFL player and as an assistant coach. He learned under Belichick in both of those roles, so now we'll be watching to see what kind of coach Mayo is as he navigates through his first training camp.
Will he be hands on like Belichick was? Or will he let his assistant coaches coach and fill more of a CEO role as he gets his footing as an NFL head coach? Whatever his approach is, Mayo is the tone-setter in New England now. It will be up to him to keep the energy up in practice and everyone engaged.
Growing pains will follow once the regular season kicks off. But for now, let's see how Mayo runs a training camp.
The rise of Drake Maye?
The rookie jumped up the depth chart earlier this summer and sits as the team's No. 2 QB heading into training camp. After beating out Bailey Zappe last month, can he beat out Brissett over the next several weeks?
The Patriots seem set on letting Maye ride out his rookie season on the bench. And that might be the best move for the 21-year-old, given the state of disarray the offensive line is in and the lack of real weapons on offense.
But if Maye does what Mac Jones did three years ago and proves to be the best quarterback on the field in the summer, the Patriots will have a decision to make ahead of Week 1. If not, the team can let him learn from the bench and potentially insert him as the starter later in the season when things are (potentially) sorted out along the offensive line and in the receiving corps.
Figuring out the offensive line
The offensive line was all over the place last season, with the Patriots using 11 different starting combinations. Over the offseason, the Patriots let Trent Brown walk, gave David Andrews and Mike Onwenu new contracts, signed free agent tackle Chukwuma Okorafor, and drafted a pair of rookies in tackle Caedan Wallace (third round) and guard Layden Robinson (fourth round).
Andrews anchors the entire group -- he was on the field for every snap in 2023 -- at center while Onwenu will likely lock up the right tackle spot. The rest of the offensive line remains a great unknown.
Okorafor has been brought in to play left tackle, which he didn't play over his six years in Pittsburgh. He hasn't lined up at left tackle since his college days at Western Michigan. That's a concern at one of the most important positions on the field.
Following an impressive and solid rookie year, Sidy Sow is the favorite to land the starting right guard position in his second NFL season. But someone will have to occupy left guard while Cole Strange recovers from a knee injury that ended his 2023 season early.
There is a lot to sort out along the offensive line, which used to be one of the best units on the New England Patriots. Outside of Andrews and Onwenu, it's a lot of question marks heading into the 2024 season.
Which Patriots receivers will emerge from a crowded group?
The Patriots have no shortage of receivers to fill the roster, but it's unclear if anyone of them will be the impact player that the offense desperately needs.
There is hope that rookies Ja'Lynn Polk (second round) and Javon Baker (fourth round) can come in and make an instant impact. There are dreams of that duo growing with Drake Maye and leading the Patriots offense to the end zone for years to come. But it will all start in training camp -- particularly this training camp.
Those two rooks should be locks to make the roster based on their draft position. Demario Douglas led the team in receiving last season, so he too is a lock. Kendrick Bourne just got a nice new contract, so he'll be making the team as well. Considering the Patriots signed K.J. Osborn in free agency, he's close to a lock too.
But JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, and Kayshon Boutte are all living life on the roster bubble this summer, and are going to have to do a lot to make the final roster. Further down the depth chart, Jalen Reagor at least has some kick returning duties to help his cause, while Kawaan Baker, David Wallis, and JaQuae Jackson will be really fighting for a spot in camp.
Our first look at Alex Van Pelt's offense
The Patriots are starting a new year with a new offensive coordinator for the fourth straight season. This time, it's Alex Van Pelt's turn to get things on track in the post-Tom Brady era.
It can't possibly be any worse than the offense we saw last season. At least, we hope it won't be worse than last season's offense, which averaged a meager 13.9 points per game and ranked 31st in the NFL.
Van Pelt is bringing in his run-heavy, play-action-happy offense to New England, and plenty of experience on the offensive side of the ball. A former quarterback himself, Van Pelt has coached a number of quarterbacks (including Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay) throughout his career, and he held the Cleveland offense together in 2024 despite having four different passers throughout the season.
Van Pelt loves to set up big, chunk plays for his running backs, which in turns sets up the play-action for the rest of the offense. Rhamondre Stevenson and Patriots running backs could be in line for a big seasons in 2024, which would take a lot of pressure off whoever is playing quarterback.
Injured Patriots returning to action
Stevenson is among the players who are returning from a season-ending injury. His 2023 season ended in Week 13 due to a high ankle sprain, but he's good to go after an offseason of recovery and now has a four-year extension in his back pocket.
Bourne is coming back off an even bigger injury, with his season ending in late October with a torn ACL. He was Jones' go-to guy before going down last year, so we'll see how he looks in his return to action in a new system with a new quarterback.
There are two big returning players on the defensive side too, with Christian Gonzalez and Matt Judon both set to return to the mix. Gonzalez looked like he on his way to claiming the Defensive Rookie of the Year award, but his stellar rookie campaign ended after just four games because of a shoulder injury. He looks ready to pick up where he left off, but we'll get a better idea when he actually hits the field -- and starts hitting people.
Judon, who will turn 32 on Aug. 15, is coming off a pectoral injury that ended his 2023 season after just four games. We will hopefully get to see what he has when he takes the field, but there could be other factors with the pass rusher.
Matt Judon's contract situation
Judon is entering the final year of his contract and wants a new deal. He and the Patriots are reportedly nowhere near an extension, which could make things a little dicey in training camp.
Judon reported to camp on Tuesday, which isn't a big surprise. With fines for holding out, players have gone with the new approach of "holding in." They report to camp but don't partake in practice, usually relegated to the back fields for extended stretching. That's how Judon spent most of his summer last year until the team reworked his deal and got some more money.
On Tuesday, Mayo went to bat for Judon and defensive lineman Davon Godchaux, who is also looking for an extension this summer.
"They are valuable pieces to the organization and they've done a lot for us," said Mayo. "We want those guys here and are going to do everything possible to keep those guys."
Still, it doesn't seem like the Patriots are overeager to sign a soon-to-be-32-year-old pass rusher in Judon, so it may not end the way both parties want. There's a chance Judon could be traded before the season if he holds firm on wanting a new contract.
How good can this defense be?
The band is pretty much back together on defense, which is a good thing since the New England defense was strong to very strong throughout the 2023 season. They received no help from the offense, which often put them in precarious situations with some godawful turnovers, but were a top 10 defense for the majority of the season.
Can they be even better in 2024? We'll see, since not much will change on that side of the ball. Mayo will obviously have his fingerprints all over the defense, with DeMarcus Covington taking over as defensive coordinator after seven seasons on the New England staff.
Unfortunately for the New England defense, there is a lot of really talented offenses and extremely gifted quarterbacks on the schedule in 2024. They're going to be tested every week, and chances are the offense is going to do very little to help them again this year.
We probably won't know too much about this defense until the Patriots put on pads for the first time. A good indication will be when the Patriots and the Eagles team up for joint practices in the middle of August.
The Chad Ryland-Joey Slye kicker battle
Chad Ryland's struggles throughout his rookie season are pretty well documented. He missed a lot of field goals overall and a lot of very makeable field goals. Those misses helped the team land that third overall pick, but it's no fun watching a team lose 13 games in a season.
Ryland will have some competition in camp this year with veteran Joey Slye signed over the offseason. May the best kicker win this summer.