{"id":914708,"date":"2026-06-10T01:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/914708\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T01:21:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T01:21:23","slug":"5-takeaways-from-day-1-of-patriots-minicamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/914708\/","title":{"rendered":"5 takeaways from Day 1 of Patriots minicamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew England Patriots\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDrake Maye turned in a strong showing as the Patriots narrowed their focus to the red zone.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tDrake Maye AP Photo\/Charles Krupa\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\"New\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristian Gonzalez on ongoing contract stalemate: \u2018I want to be rewarded as a Patriot\u2019\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRob Gronkowski loves Josh McDaniels\u2019s A.J. Brown comparison\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

FOXBOROUGH \u2014 The Patriots<\/a> kicked off their three-day mandatory mini-camp at Gillette Stadium on Tuesday with an emphasis on the red zone.<\/p>\n

The offense looked smooth and efficient with Drake Maye<\/a> under center. The second-year signal caller peppered the defense with short, accurate passes.<\/p>\n

There were a couple of times when he had to tuck the ball and scramble because of the pressure, but for the most part he was able to hit a wide range of targets in the quick game and get the ball to speedy playmakers like A.J. Brown<\/a> and DeMario Douglas.<\/p>\n

With the team practicing in shorts and shells and working within short distances, the offense took advantage of the quick game and scored in a variety of ways. There were only a handful of hand offs. Tuesday was about testing the Patriots in an area that gave them some trouble last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fifth in red zone drives offensively,\u201d coach Mike Vrabel<\/a> said before practice. \u201cBut, unfortunately, we were middle of the pack and too many negative plays, too many turnovers. Almost half of our turnovers were in the red zone. So, that hurts you there.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a big day for Maye and the receiving corps. Here are five takeaways from the action. <\/p>\n

Boutte, Gonzalez return<\/p>\n

The biggest storylines of the day were the respective returns of Christian Gonzalez and Kayshon Boutte, both of whom were absent during the team\u2019s voluntary OTA sessions. <\/p>\n

Boutte, who said missing OTAs was a personal decision and that he wants to stay with the Patriots<\/a>, participated in both individual and team drills on Tuesday. He hauled in one of the deeper throws of the day from Tommy DeVito in the end zone, but was ruled out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez also said he wants to stay with the Patriot<\/a>s, but mentioned that he wants a contract extension. He did not participate in the 11-on-11 team drills, but was active during individual drills.<\/p>\n

Dominant day for Drake Maye<\/p>\n

Maye completed all but three of his passes. He looked sharp, poised, and under control. <\/p>\n

He had a throw intended for Jack Westover in the end zone that sailed too high but, other than that, there weren\u2019t too many noticeable mistakes.<\/p>\n

The Patriots were working on a ton of quick hitters, so the high completion rate wasn\u2019t exactly a surprise. There were a lot of short routes underneath and in the flat, testing the defense\u2019s ability to react quickly.<\/p>\n

Maye made his reads quickly and decisively and spread the ball around to a bunch of receivers. There wasn\u2019t much the defense could do to stop him. <\/p>\n

Increased workload for A.J. Brown<\/p>\n

Brown took just a handful of snaps last week as he eased into practice last Tuesday<\/a>, the day after he was traded.<\/p>\n

This week, Brown was more active during the scrimmage portion of practice. He won a battle against Kindle Vildor for a contested catch, jumping and snagging the ball at its high point. He finished with three catches. <\/p>\n

Brown is still getting into the swing of things, but he appears to be taking on a bigger workload during minicamp as he continues to acclimate to the team. <\/p>\n

Lomu gets reps with first team<\/p>\n

Morgan Moses was out, which gave rookie first-rounder Caleb Lomu an opportunity to work with the first team in the right tackle spot. <\/p>\n

Lomu played left tackle at Utah. Eliot Wolf said Lomu has the tools to play anywhere on the line. <\/p>\n

The Patriots have stuck with Will Campbell consistently at left tackle so far. On Tuesday, he and Lomu were both out there with the starters. <\/p>\n

Last week, Campbell told reporters that he reached out to Lomu after the draft because he appreciated it when Moses welcomed him to New England last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously feels good whenever guys on the team reach out, so I wanted to reciprocate that,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cPlan on me and him being here for a while together so starting a relationship as soon as possible was something that I wanted to do and I\u2019m super excited for the future with him.\u201d <\/p>\n

Life on the edge<\/p>\n

Vrabel said rookie second-rounder Gabe Jacas is not yet under contract with the team. Jacas missed Tuesday\u2019s mandatory mini-camp session.<\/p>\n

Vrabel said the young edge rusher had a medical procedure done, but declined to say what it was. <\/p>\n

Fellow edge rusher Harold Landry was not spotted at Tuesday\u2019s practice, further limiting the Patriots\u2019 depth at the position. <\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\t\tKhari A. Thompson<\/a>Sports Reporter\t<\/p>\n

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n

Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots Drake Maye turned in a strong showing as the Patriots narrowed their focus to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":["post-914708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-football","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116723193450779401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}