The New England Patriots were back on the practice field on Thursday for Day 2 of training camp.
In many ways, it felt like a carryover from Wednesday’s practice with the team focusing more on red zone work. Coach Bill Belichick mentioned the first week was an extension of minicamp and OTAs, but the team is expected to up the intensity and bring out the pads next week.
The story of the day was once again about the defense dominating. Granted, quarterback Mac Jones and the offense had a few nice plays in 11-on-11s, but for the most part, they struggled against a stingy Patriots defense that appeared tough to fend off at every level.
Here are six takeaways from Day 2 of Patriots training camp:
Concern surrounding Ty Montgomery injury
Ty Montgomery can’t seem to catch a break.
The veteran receiver went down with a leg/knee injury on Thursday after a collision with linebacker Terez Hall. It’s a sickening turn of events after he racked up four touchdowns at the opening of training camp practice on Wednesday.
Montgomery was also knocked out of the season early due to injuries last year as well.
Ty Montgomery collided with Terez Hall reaching for a throw behind him. Got up slow and was limping a bit. He’s still on the field though and didn’t need the trainers.
— Alex Barth (@RealAlexBarth) July 27, 2023
Hopefully, the injury is nothing serious, and he is able to return to training camp at some point. But it is something worth monitoring.
Not having him on the field limits the depth the Patriots have in the offensive backfield.
Even if Montgomery was going to be utilized as more of a receiver, he was still catching passes out of the backfield. So his absence could leave New England without a third-down receiving option behind Rhamondre Stevenson. Granted, they could also promote Pierre Strong Jr. as the primary backup, assuming he’s ready for that role.
Kyle Dugger steals another one from Mac Jones
People keep asking who Mac Jones’ best receiver is on the Patriots’ roster. An argument could be made that safety Kyle Dugger should be added to that list of candidates with him picking Jones off once in each of the first two practices.
Dugger is in a contract year and clearly playing for a big-money deal that could come sooner rather than later, especially if he continues to perform like he’s been doing at training camp. Even coach Bill Belichick categorized him as a big-money player when speaking with the media.
“Kyle is a really good player. He can run, tackle, he can cover, he can blitz—yeah, he’s great. Those guys are great,” said Belichick. “That’s why they go high in the draft, and they’re getting paid a lot of money. That’s what they bring.”
If this is a preview of what’s in store for 2023, the days of Dugger flying under the radar could be nearing an end.
Christian Gonzalez has been up and down early, but that isn't a bad thing
Patriots first-round draft pick Christian Gonzalez has been beat on a few plays that have done little more than hammer home the fact that he’s a rookie still trying to get up to speed with the defense.
It’s clearly nothing for people to be losing their minds over. The Patriots still aren’t practicing in pads, and this was only Gonzalez’s second training camp practice ever. There have certainly been high IQ coverage moments, along with him batting a pass away from JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Christian Gonzalez has gotten beat a few times in coverage to start camp. But I continue to be impressed with how he plays to his help/leverage. He also had great coverage a few times on JuJu.
Very common for rookies to have both good and bad moments this early. #Patriots
— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) July 27, 2023
Keep in mind, Gonzalez has been working with the first-team defense against the starting offense right out of the gates. So he was thrown immediately into the fire.
There will be ups and downs as he works to become acclimated to football at the next level. He clearly wasn’t stepping on the field as a shutdown corner in his first week of practice.
Still not much from Tyquan Thornton and Kendrick Bourne
It’s still early in the process, but it’s worth noting that Kendrick Bourne and Tyquan Thornton have only seen one target each in the first two practices. And both ended up being incompletions.
It’s easy to see why that would be concerning to some considering how much the two wideouts struggled to get involved last season as well. But I would caution anyone from jumping to conclusions after only two training camp practices.
The Patriots are still getting a feel for Bill O’Brien’s offense, and the early work has been mostly conducted in the red zone. When things open up a bit more and the pads come on next week, we should see Thornton and Bourne get more involved on the field.
JuJu Smith-Schuster already emerging as Mac Jones' favorite target
JuJu Smith-Schuster was targeted on nearly half of all of Mac Jones’ throws in 11-on-11s on Day 2.
It’s no surprise considering Smith-Schuster is stepping into the role left behind by Jakobi Meyers. He’s a solid route runner with the smarts to find holes in the coverage, although there really haven’t been many against the Patriots’ defense so far.
Jones even hit Smith-Schuster for a touchdown pass that beat rookie corner Christian Gonzalez.
Active practice for JuJu Smith-Schuster, who saw four targets from Mac Jones in full-team drills and another in 7-on-7s. Caught two of them: TDs vs. Christian Gonzalez and Marcus Jones.
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) July 27, 2023
Even though Smith-Schuster missed the spring practices, he still worked with Jones behind the scenes to try and develop some chemistry together. That effort appears to be paying off on the practice field.
