New England Patriots OTAs: Drake Maye Improving & Much More!

New England Patriots OTAs: Drake Maye Improving & Much More!

The offense is showing signs of improvement. That’s where we start on this episode of Locked On Patriots. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What’s up Patriots fans? I’m your host, Nick Catles. Born and raised in New England, your New England Patriots expert, host of the Everything Pats podcast, co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattles, and also a sports talk show host veteran. On today’s episode, two rookie wide receivers are opening eyes and three intriguing takeaways from Wednesday’s OTAA practice. But first, it’s all about baby steps. We appreciate you joining the show, making us your first listen, and for being an everyday. The Lockdown Patriots podcast is a proud partner of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. I do want to share a note with you. Starting next week from June 2nd through July 14th, that Monday, so June 2nd to July 14th, we will have a podcast on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays for all of you. So, we will have three days a week podcast from June 2nd to July 14th. And then when July 14th hits, we go back to five days a week as we get ready for training camp. You know, it’s critical. It is critical during this time to be reasonable. Reasonable expectations, a reasonable understanding as to what the team is trying to accomplish, when they’re trying to accomplish it. In this time of year with all the new offense, we’re talking new offensive skill position players, new offensive linemen, new offensive coordinator, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new all over the place. That’s why it is critical to be reasonable and understand with that much new going on, we’re looking for baby steps. When we talk about offensive improvement during this time of year, we talk about baby steps. It is very unlikely for somebody to take a gigantic leap in late May. It’s just not usually how it works. So, I’ve got some good news. When we think about baby steps, Drake May second practice at OTAAS in front of the media, he took some baby steps. Here’s Greg Baddard writing about May. After throwing four interceptions last week, he did not throw any today, although he and Garrett Bradberry had a fumbled snap. Baddard writes, “I had May 9 of 15 with a sack and a fumble.” May is obviously still feeling things out, working through his progressions, and playing on the slow side. That’s to be expected for a 22-year-old quarterback in a new system. New, new, new baby steps. Now, Baddar did say in the podcast that I co-host with him, he did say that May, even though he’s still on the slower side reading progressions within this offense, he felt like May was processing things a little bit quicker than he was processing them last week. Baby steps. If Drake May in late May is just a little bit quicker processing things in front of him, that’s a good sign. I know we all want him to be a top 10 quarterback right now. That would be a perfect world. It would be great if he went out to the practice field and was lighting things up every single time the media got to see him play. But that’s unreasonable. That goes back to the idea of having reasonable expectations at this time with everything new happening. So better processing that’s good news. Let’s not forget that May, even last year, the trajectory that he had during camp, he got off to a very slow start. Alex Vanpelt was working on his footwork constantly. We didn’t see much from him early on. But then all of a sudden as camp continued, May picked it up to the point where people were questioning and they should have been questioning whether or not May was going to be able to leapfrog Jacobe Brassette and be the starting quarterback week one of last season. So he went from looking like somebody who was going to need a lot of time to figure out this league to somebody by the end of camp that was pushing the veteran Brousette. If he has a similar trajectory this camp season, he should be more than ready to go week one with the nine or 10 games he has under his belt after his rookie season. Baby steps, more baby steps for this offense, which means improvement, less turnovers. May threw four interceptions last week. He had one fumble, bad snap between he and Bradberry. It happens. It happened more than I would like to remember during last year’s camp. Trust me when I tell you Antonio Mafi was a walking disaster trying to play center. This stuff happens. Bad snap. You can live with it. It is certainly not one two three four interceptions during the same OTAA practice. Less turnovers, which means if this is the way it’s going to move forward, that’s a huge step in Drake May’s maturation. what we need to see. There’s no doubting May’s natural ability. There’s no doubting the arm talent. There’s no doubting the athleticism. We understand that is all there. But the one thing that I think many are still waiting to see, including myself, is whether or not May can cut down on the turnover worthy plays. Can he take care of the football? Mike Vrabel talks about taking advantage of bad football. You take advantage of bad football by taking advantage of turnovers from the opposition, not turning turning it over yourself. So when you look at the baby steps, you look at less turnovers, less picks from last OTAA practice to this OTAA practice in front of the media. And that would be a huge step in May’s maturation as an NFL quarterback. And if we continue to see this, because again, it it’s only one practice. I didn’t go crazy last week when May threw four picks. I’m not going to go banana land when he just has one turnover on a fumble at the next OTAA practice. The word for today is reasonable. So, I’m trying to be as reasonable as possible. But if we continue to watch, we get to mandatory mini camp, which will be June 9th through the 11th. You get to mandatory mini camp. What do those practices look like? Do we still see less turnovers? May taking care of the football because as we slowly progress through this camp season, it’s pivotal that May’s taking care of the ball because not only is that great for May’s maturation, but that’s also great for the learning curve within this offense because a lot of the mistakes last week that people were reporting about were things that you can fix. Some of it was communication, some of it was confusion. So if you have less turnovers, that usually means you are not as confused. It usually means your communication is better. Everybody is getting closer to being on the same page. So if we continue to see practices moving forward that don’t involve multiple turnovers from your starting quarterback, that should mean guys are getting familiar with this system. They’re understanding the scheme and they know what everybody is supposed to be doing. Baby steps. Will Campbell. Will Campbell had some progress at this second OTAA practice. Back to Greg Baddard. He wrote Campbell had a couple of reps he’d want back, but seemed to improve, moves well, and is smart. That’s not a shocker. Leading into the draft, we talked about Campbell’s excellent athleticism. We talked about his super high football IQ. So, the fact that he’s moving really well and seems to be really smart, that should not surprise any of us. Evan Lazar posted the following. Campbell versus Keon White has been a good matchup through two open otaas. White beat Campbell’s two punch, two-hand punch rather, for a pressure around the edge. Some wins for the Patriots rookie too. The goal for Will Campbell as we move towards training camp in late July, you want Campbell to show that he’s generally good at left tackle as he gets to walk into his first NFL training camp. If by late July we’re getting reports that Campbell’s done a good job, that’s really good news because he’s so new to this. He’s still only 21 years old, just turned 21 a few months ago. So, the goal for Will Campbell and pretty much all these rookies is to be generally good by the time you get to training camp. And it sounds like Campbell progressed baby steps. He got better from last week to this week. And by the way, Keon White is a great test for Campbell during these OTAAS. He’s going to be a great test for him at Manny Camp. He’s going to be a great test for him during training camp. We talk about Will’s arm length and all of that. Keon White has 30 34 in arms. So, he’s got 34 inch arm length, which is something that could bother Campbell theoretically. And we also look at Keon White when he was a defensive tackle prospect in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 9.91 relative athletic score which ranked him at the time 14th out of almost 1,500 defensive tackles from 1987 to 2023. So great test for Will Campbell because Keon White has good length and he has elite athleticism and those are the two things that could theoretically bother Will Campbell. So getting reps against that guy every single day could be big for his development. Speaking of development, two rookie wide receivers are the talk of the town. That’s coming up next as we continue with today’s episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every [Music] day. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot or a breakout player, how about Tyrese Hallebertton? My goodness, what a game he had in game four. There’s never been a better time to get in on the action. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live with player props, performance trends, and same game parlays. Fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. Which players are showing up in the biggest moments? You could say Hallebertton as I just did. Or you can look at somebody else like Shay Gil Alexander. And how could tracking their trends help you build your next bet. New to FanDuel? Here’s the deal. It’s a perfect time to sign up. Head to fanduel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you’ll get $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Let’s talk about rookie wide receivers. It’s early. It’s early. There’s the caveat, the disclaimer, the warning. It’s early. But two rookie wide receivers have consistently opened eyes during these first two OTAA practices that the media has watched. And those two rookie wide receivers, we’re talking Kyle Williams and Eff Chisum III. Let’s start with Kyle Williams. It sounds like Williams is taking advantage of the opportunities that he is getting early during this camp season. Let’s get back to Greg Baddard writing about Kyle Williams day. Josh Dobs had the better day because he made more plays down the field, including the play of the day, a bomb down the right sideline to Williams, who did a great job stacking the cornerback and giving Dobs room to throw to the sideline. Stick a pin in that term, stacking the cornerback. Evan Lazar posted, “Williams separation has flashed in the two practices the media has attended. Separation is critical. How many times have we spent over the past couple of years talking about the wide receivers and their incapability of separating against defensive backs? The press coverage man has been a major issue. Being physical at the line of scrimmage has been a major issue. We’ve heard uh guys like Lazar talk about release packages at the line of scrimmage. Can he separate downfield? Can he stack the defensive back? Kyle Williams showing those flashes of separation is so big for this offense. If he can continue to do that as we get closer to training camp and he starts separating against these defensive backs, cuz let’s not get it twisted. Carlton Davis was not out there during this practice. But if Williams is separating consistently against the Christian Gonzalez’s, Carlton Davis’s of the world, he is certainly going to separate against most NFL cornerbacks. I mean, even Alex Austin is a pretty good challenge for a rookie wide receiver. The separation is huge, but it’s not just the separation because Taekquin Thornton could get separation at times. It’s also the technique. It’s the route running. And that’s why I stuck a pin in Greg Baddard’s post about how Williams stacked the cornerback, got up on the cornerback, created that space, made the play downfield. So, when you can mix your ability to create separation at the line of scrimmage with some technique like stacking the defensive back, when you can combine those two elements, that’s what makes you a successful wide receiver. That’s what makes you a successful NFL wide receiver. So, the fact that Williams is getting separation, the fact that he is showing some technique makes me feel good where he’s at. Am I telling you he’s going to catch a 100 footballs? Of course not. Am I telling you he’s a number one receiver? Of course not. I’m just saying at this spot in the off season, at at this juncture of your progression and in your development and what you’re trying to do as a rookie, these are good signs. These are good things to hear. They’re good things to read. But Williams is not the only rookie wide receiver who is opening eyes. I am here to tell you that the Chisum hype continues. The disclaimer again is that it’s very early and we’ve seen some receivers, some receivers that have very similar games to Eftton Chisum. We’ve seen these guys before. We’ve seen them have some success early in in the camp season and then they get through mandatory mini camp and they get to training camp and then they run into a brick freaking wall and it’s just different. It is completely different and that can certainly happen to Eftton Chisum. But we’re looking at this right now in a vacuum and how these guys are progressing and developing and Chisum continues to look really good out there in these practices. Mark Daniels of Mass Live posted, “Chism continues to stand out. He’s really quick. Will be interesting to see if he moves up the depth chart this summer.” Back to Bedard. Chism continues to pop. Did a great job coming back on an incut and then using his jump stop to lose a defender. Let’s just go down this road for a minute. And this is well down the road again with the caveat that it’s very early. He can certainly hit a brick wall at some point. But let’s just go down this road. If Chisum continues to stand out, if he continues to make plays, if he starts to climb up the depth chart, the UDFA Effism III could absolutely make the Jaylen Poke pick last year less hurtful for you. Because in a perfect world, if we’re looking at which receiver plays which position within this offense, if you’re looking at X and Y and Z and you’re looking at Jaylen Poke and you’re saying, “Well, you could play Jaylen Poke some in the slot, right? is not going to be devoted to the outside, especially after you drafted Kyle Williams, but if you’re if you’re trying to size Poke up to some of these other guys on the roster at his position and you need somebody to play that slot and and of course you have Pop Douglas, but if you if you want somebody that brings some some impact in different ways than Pop Douglas, like having maybe a bigger frame to block, for example, If you replace Poke with Chisum, then the Poke pick, of course, you would want a lot of contribution from the second round pick last year. But let’s say again going down the road that that pick is for all intents and purposes wasted. Well, you feel a little bit better about wasting that pick if you found somebody like Chisum as an undrafted free agent and he has the capability of taking the spot that Poke would have had anyway. So, yes, it hurt for a year, but if Chisum can replace Poke in essence, that makes the Poke swing and miss less hurtful for you moving forward. And I would imagine that Josh McDaniels has an affinity for Chisum based off the receivers we’ve seen here in the past. and the the quick short area bursts and the different things that we have read about in cuts as Baddard wrote in and the jump stop to lose a defender that’s very Julian Edelman Danny Amandolaesque. So I would imagine that when McDaniels looks at Chisum if he starts to think about ceiling he might get a little bit excited about it. But the biggest question, no matter if we’re talking about Williams or Chisum, is can they continue this kind of trajectory? Can they continue this kind of progression throughout the entire camp season? Because right now, they’re opening some eyes, but you’ve got to do it consistently. You’ve got to do it practice in and practice out. You get to those joint practices, when you get an opportunity, you have to show out. When you get into a preseason game, you’ve got to make sure that everybody notices you for all the right things. So, it’s great here in late May, but the million-dollar question is whether or not they can carry this over into mandatory mini camp into training camp. More of the offense is installed. More things are being added. Things are being subtracted. You get into much more competitive football. Can Chisum and Williams continue this step in the right direction as we get to late July? More OTAA practice takeaways that you don’t want to miss coming up next as we continue with today’s episode of Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every [Music] day. Let’s talk about three critical aspects of this camp season for your Patriots. Number one, deciding the pecking order. Figuring out your depth chart, creating the hierarchy, critical. Number two, find the best five offensive linemen that you can find to start week one. And number three, can you develop the secondyear guys? Now, I’m not talking about these being the top three critical aspects of camp. I’m talking about these being three of the critical aspects of camp. And what did we learn during the second OTAA practice that was open to the media in correlation to those three critical aspects I just brought up deciding the pecking order. Let’s look at the wide receiver competition. What did we learn this week about the wide receiver competition? Greg Baddard noted that the wide receiver rotation you had Pop, Bourne, and Booty continuing to get a lot of time. So, it sounds like those were your top three receivers in the second OTAA practice. It was Pop, it was Bourne, it was Booty. Now, a reminder, there was no Stefan Diggs. I don’t know if he was on a yacht or what was going on, but there was no Stefan Diggs. Of course, Diggs was not at OTAA practice last week when it was open to the media. And then we saw pictures of Stfan Diggs participating in football activities. Like we talked about on yesterday’s episode, we saw that picture later in the week when apparently Diggs showed up and was ready to participate in some kind of way. But as far as this practice, this specific practice, no Diggs and no M. Collins. So neither of those guys, neither of your free agency editions uh were there at practice. And also Jaylen Poke was limited. The fact that Pop Douglas and Kendrick Bourne are getting a lot of reps doesn’t surprise me. It shouldn’t surprise you. If you remove Stfan Diggs, I’d say less Hollands because I don’t think Hollands is going to get a ton of snaps. I I think he might play a little bit more than we might expect him to, but I don’t think he’s going to be a, you know, a vital part of this offense. He’s going to help this offense. He’s going to help special teams, but I don’t think M. Collins is going to be out there the majority of the time. But with Diggs not being at practice, it’s not a surprise that Kendrick Bourne is the one that for all intents and purposes takes the Diggs spot because Kendrick Bourne has the experience with McDaniel’s offense. He is a proven NFL receiver, so it makes sense. And Pop Douglas was the team’s best receiver last year. You could argue. So Pop Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, not surprised. I wonder if when Diggs comes back and he’s actually practicing day in and day out, does he just easily replace Bourne or does McDaniels mix and match a little bit more and say, “No, we have this ability on offense at that position to be more versatile than many might think.” Like Diggs can play inside, he could play outside. Bora could play inside, he could play outside. So, I don’t know if it would be a one forone swap where Diggs comes back and he replaces Bourne. Something we keep an eye on. Also to keep an eye on, as we mentioned last segment with Kyle Williams, does he start to impose his will during this camp season as it moves forward? And does he overtake Kahan Booty and become that guy in that spot? So in essence, Diggs comes back and everybody kind of moves down a peg, but instead of Booty moving down a peg, Williams leaprogs Booty and now you’re looking at Diggs, Pop, Bourne, and Williams as your top four receivers. Booty probably would be five. And then you’ve got that fight for the sixth spot between Poke, Baker, Chisum, and others. You got M. Hollands involved, too. So, if Diggs is ready to play week one, I mean, you’ve got Pop, you’ve got Bourne, you’ve got Diggs, you’ve got Hollands, you’ve got Williams, you’ve got Booty, if you’re taking six. Can two guys leaprog Booty? So, these are the things we’ll be paying attention to, keeping an eye on, but the wide receiver competition is certainly going to be a story as we move all the way through camp. And that competition includes Jayvon Baker. And I want to give you a Javvon Baker update. Can Baker enter the chat? Because I think people, including the one that is talking into a microphone right now with all of you, I would look at Baker and Poke pretty much in the same spot. You got Poke, you got Baker, you got Chisum. Booty is ahead of those guys. And the battle between Williams and Booty is is going to be fun to watch. But can Baker make enough of an impact during this camp to make the argument that he should be the one that makes this time this team ahead of Booty, Poke, Chisum? Is he going to do enough? And I just thought, you know, it was like the perfect Javvon Baker story from what happened at practice that was open to the media. Mike Ree posts this. Mike Vrabel walked the locker room with Baker after practice, continuing to coach him based on one play. Baker caught a deep pass appearing to push off and celebrated afterwards. Vrabel wanted him back in huddle quickly and had let him know that in decisive [Laughter] terms. Uh Greg Badard also posted that Baker made a few plays down the field. It’s really just like the perfect Baker anecdote because when you think about Jayvon Baker, he’s got that enticing talent that we all saw with the highlights and what he did in college, but then it just seems like there’s always something else with Baker. Same kind of vibe with Jaylen Poke last year. Just there’s always something else. There was the airport thing. There was when he got drafted and talked about people jumping out of wheelchairs. There were these celebrations during camp like he obviously had during this practice where you know all right settle down a little bit. You made a play but relax. You’re slowing the process down. And it’s, you know, it’s the onfield enticing talent in hopes that he can figure it out. But it’s the off the- field and even on the field shenanigans that he seems to get himself into. And I think Jayvon Baker is going to be a very interesting litmus test for Mike Vrabel’s approach and can he get something out of guys that have some of those shenanigans? Because the idea is that Vrabel is that kind of guy, that kind of head coach that can make the connection and help Baker understand if you want to be a successful NFL player, this is what you’ve got to do. So, this is going to be a nice early test for Vrabel and the offensive coaching staff to see if they can get that out of Baker and knock some of the other stuff off. All right, one last note. A surprise left guard competitor. Tyrese Robinson, according to reports, got more reps at this practice, was out there playing a decent amount at left guard. And it feels like the Patriots might be going with the uh the more the marrier approach at left guard. And Tyrese Robinson, we haven’t talked about him nearly at all. Uh he was brought in from Minnesota last year, the practice squad, and he’s getting more reps and he was more a part of the conversation in this OTAA practice versus last week’s OTAA practice. And I just wonder like it goes back to the idea of picking the best five offensive linemen for week one. What kind of timeline are the Patriots working with? Because you’ve got to make these decisions and you’ve got to make sure that you have your best five to give them time during camp, during joint practices. You’ve got to make sure you give them enough time to build that chemistry and get into the season week one feeling like they’re ready. and maybe Robinson ends up being that guy at left guard. Wide openen competition. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Let me know your thoughts on today’s topics. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nickc Radio. Don’t forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. And uh thank you for making Lockdown Patriots your first listen today. For your second listen, check out Lockdown NFL Scouting. Crabs Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this offseason. Find Lockdown NFL Scouting on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Have a great day and we will see you tomorrow.

The New England Patriots held their second OTA practice in front of the media. Drake Maye showed some improvements and we’ll break that down.

Is Will Campbell also showing signs of improvement? And, why is Keion White so important for Campbell? In other rookie news from practice, how does Kyle Williams look and did Efton Chism keep impressing onlookers?

Finally, a surprise name enters the Left Guard competition and the WR depth chart might give us some clues to how things are going to unfold at that position. Pull up and enjoy!

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