FOXBOROUGH — Three takeaways from the Patriots’ training camp practice Friday, a workout with shell-pads that lasted 1:40: 1. The offense isn’t producing much excitement. Practice started on a high note.
The stands were full on a beautiful day at Gillette Stadium. The fans brought energy, cheering every time Jacoby Brissett, Drake Maye, and the other two quarterbacks whizzed a football into the tiny square target in the net in front of them. But the buzz didn’t last long.
For the next 90 minutes, fans mostly sat on their hands as the quarterbacks struggled to make highlight plays. Brissett and Maye completed plenty of checkdowns into the flat but rarely pushed the ball down the field. I counted five times when the fans cheered audibly: on a deep seam pass from Maye to Hunter Henry; a beautiful deep ball from Maye to rookie Ja’Lynn Polk; a 60-yard bomb from Joe Milton to rookie Javon Baker; a laser over the middle from Milton to rookie JaQuae Jackson; and the standing backflip Milton did after a drill.
Milton’s majestic bomb to Baker came almost simultaneously as Maye threw a pick-6 to Matthew Judon on the opposite practice field. Advertisement It continued a trend through three days of camp in which the offense has produced few fireworks. Coach Jerod Mayo said the struggles are only natural considering the defense is returning almost everyone while the offense is brand new.
“The offense, obviously they’re still jelling together, and we have a lot of guys on de.