Patriots Day 3 takeaways: Efton Chism shines, players gearing up for padded practice and more

Danielle DuBois here at Day 3 of Patriots
training camp. And we have Nicole Yang, Patriots writer,
to chat with us about Day 3. Nicole, welcome. Thanks for having me. Now the third day just wrapped up as I said, the pads come on on Monday. What are you looking for
on Monday when those pads do come on? Yeah. I think everybody is really excited
to see the line play. The Patriots have a really strong defensive front with Milton Williams,
Keion White, Christian Barmore,
and then they have an offensive line that’s kind of been under fire
the past three seasons. So just to see some more contact
between those two units will be good. And then also the running game,
I think through the first three days and through
the spring camp is really a passing camp. There’s a lot more emphasis
on the passing game, but so to see the running game
come through as well, I think those will be the two main
focuses. Now, you brought up that it is a
passing game for the first few practices, and one of the big people
that everybody has been talking about is Will Campbell,
first-year rookie for the Patriots. Can you tell me what you’re
looking forward to seeing him on Monday, what he’s going to do
and what you’ve seen from him so far? Yeah, I think it’s really hard to evaluate
offensive line play right now just because they aren’t wearing pads
today. The players were in hats,
they weren’t even wearing helmets. But I think when the pads come on,
you just want to see how he holds up. There was a lot of conversation
surrounding his arm length. So it’s like, how can he compensate
for those shorter arms, shorter wingspan and just see what he looks like
as a pro tackle. We really haven’t gotten a good glimpse
yet, so this will be our first impression. Now, a lot of players
and Coach Vrabel have talked about Drake Maye in the role that he has kind of stepped into entering his second season
and mainly talking about the leadership. Can you tell me what you’ve seen so far
from him, the leadership aspect of it? Yeah. So last year Drake comes in as a rookie. He’s the backup to Jacoby Brissett. He doesn’t really want to overstep
those boundaries. He doesn’t want to – he really defers to Brissett
in that sense. So this year it’s very clear
he’s the starter. He’s the face of the team. There’s been a lot of turnover
on this roster, so he’s definitely
probably going to be a captain. And he’s just someone
that can set the standard. You see it
not only in the conditioning drills, he’s the first one out,
but also in his offseason activity. He organized, workout with his receivers,
running back, tight end. So he’s definitely trying to take on
more of a leadership role as the team sort of enters
this next phase of their rebuild. Now there’s one player every single year
that you kind of don’t expect to stand out as much as they do. Who do you think that is in your mind? That’s a good question. I think Efton Chism, the undrafted rookie
receiver, is a popular choice just because he can contribute
on special teams. He seems to have the body type
and the skill set to match the typical slot receiver success that has happened
in Josh McDaniels’s offense and he’s undrafted, which everyone loves. Sort of that underdog story. So I could see him, popping once sort of we get more into one on ones,
team drills, things like that. Once the preseason starts,
he’ll probably get a lot of run as they sort of sort out
that wide receiver room. Well Nicole, thank you so much for joining us on fill
in from Foxborough Day 3, and we will look forward to chatting
more next week when the pads go on.

The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang and Danielle DuBois break down the latest from New England Patriots training camp. When the pads come on next week, the offensive and defensive lines will be in the spotlight. How will rookie Will Campbell perform?

Get caught up with what you missed at Day 3 of Patriots training camp with the @BostonGlobe’s Nicole Yang and Danielle DuBois.

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