Patriots Takeaways: Defense Dominates Red Zone-Heavy Day

FOXBORO, Mass. — The Patriots took the field for their penultimate OTA practice Tuesday, looking to find some things out about their offense.

“I will say the early-down stuff has looked pretty good,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo said prior to the start of practice. “There’s only probably three trees to fall off of as far as early-down stuff, but (Tuesday) you’ll see us working in the red area and third down; that’s when you can really see the creativity of offensive coordinators.”

You know and love it! It’s the OTA staple of installing a red-zone offense!

If you don’t already know the drill by now, things pretty much shake out the same way each spring. The Patriots defense dominates during team periods, before the offense rebounds during 7-on-7 when the field opens up. It’s difficult to convey each day’s biggest themes through charting throws, but if there was ever a practice to trust the numbers, it came on Tuesday.

Jacoby Brissett got starters reps, finishing 2-of-7 in full team drills, while Drake Maye was 2-for-5 with a pair of interceptions in relief. Bailey Zappe fared a bit better, finishing 3-for-4 as the clear-cut third option.

Brissett (5-for-8) Maye (3-for-4), and Milton (1-for-4) each did their best work in 7-on-7 drills, with DeMario “Pop” Douglas shining through by being on the receiving end of three touchdowns from Brissett, Maye and Zappe — who finished 2-for-4.

JuJu Smith-Schuster and Hunter Henry each had a pair of touchdown grabs, as well.

New England’s offense isn’t set up to thrive in the red zone without pads on, of course. Alex Van Pelt relies heavily on running the football, with play-action designs being his most successful in the passing game.

“I think it’s hard to tell without the pads,” K.J. Osborn said following practice. “You have to have the marriage of the run and the pass. You saw it in Cleveland, where they had a really strong run game that opens up the pass game, opens up the play-action, opens up the RPO. It’s kind of hard to tell without the pads on, but we’re doing the best we can to learn the offense.”

The Patriots obviously don’t have any superstar targets for Brissett and Maye to be throwing to just yet, so for the time being, it’s all about implementing a system that hides those weaknesses — even if it doesn’t look pretty when they have to throw it against a solid defense in early June.

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Here are more takeaways from Day 5 of OTAs:

— Matthew Judon, Mike Onwenu, Joshua Uche, Jonathan Jones, Chukwuma Okorafor, Davon Godchaux, Daniel Ekuale, Marcus Jones, Sione Takitaki, Jake Andrews, Zuri Henry, T.J. Luther, Kendrick Bourne, Cole Strange and Jahlani Tavai were all absent from practice, with rookies Javon Baker and Marcellas Dial Jr. being limited.

— Onwenu and Okorafor’s absences made for some funky offensive line combinations. Calvin Anderson-Sidy Sow-David Andrews-Nick Leverett-Caedan Wallace was the top grouping.

— Drake Maye was the second QB to see the field, which was the first time in OTAs he repped ahead of Bailey Zappe.

— The Patriots had three tight ends on the field during 11-on-11, but none were named Hunter Henry or Austin Hooper.

Jaheim Bell, Mitchell Wilcox and La’Michael Pettway got the competitive reps when linemen were on the field, giving a pretty good snapshot of what the TE3 competition looks like. Pettway was the best of that group, beating Marte Mapu for a touchdown.

— Mapu had an up-and-down day, which was perfectly encapsulated by a moment he shared with Jabrill Peppers — who jumped in to do some one-on-one teaching.

Peppers was (unsurprisingly) extremely vocal with the defensive backs throughout practice, helping guys like Mapu and Kaleb Ford-Dement bounce back from mental errors.

— Maye is not afraid to take off, doing so on a couple of occasions during team periods. He’s clearly athletic enough to find success with his legs, but the Patriots probably don’t want him doing it a ton throughout his rookie camp.

— Alex Austin was the top cornerback opposite Christian Gonzalez. It looks like he’ll have a legitimate role in his sophomore campaign, especially whenever Jonathan Jones and Marcus Jones aren’t available.

— The Patriots will conclude OTAs on Thursday, but media won’t be in attendance as the Friday session was canceled. New England will then hold mandatory minicamp from June 10-12, which will be open to media.