Fist flies at Pats OTAs: Curran and Perry share their takeaways

A "low tempo" Patriots OTA practice got heated on Tuesday.

During an 11-on-11 session, offensive lineman Cole Strange and edge rusher Anfernee Jennings got into a shoving match. The scuffle escalated when defensive lineman Christian Barmore threw a punch and had to be pulled away from the fracas by veteran center David Andrews.

Our Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry were in Foxboro for it all. They shared their takeaways from the incident in a brand new episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast.

Patriots Talk: Fist flies at Patriots' OTAs! | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

"My takeaway from this was, 'What are you doing, Christian Barmore?' " Perry said. "You can't be the third man in and raising the stakes like that by throwing a punch. And then it gets even more heated. You have David Andrews who has to step in and pull the guy back. You know he doesn't want to do that.

"... It's probably just emotions running high, but the big-picture thing for me on Barmore is, this is Year 3. He is one of your most talented players. You would like for him at some point to kind of develop into a cornerstone great player, great leader, and set the tone in a lot of different ways. It's a small moment and I shouldn't read too much into it, but it's the kind of moment that makes you say, 'OK, he's still a ways away from that.' "

Curran shared Perry's sentiments but noted if the punch came from a standout player during the dynastic Patriots era, it might be perceived differently.

"When you look at it, has he been a pro's pro so far in his career? If Ty Warren did this and threw a punch in 2005, or Vince (Wilfork) did that in '06 after having two really good seasons to start his career, I wonder if our reaction would be different with them. And I'm sure it would be," Curran said.

"But in the context of Barmore, I don't know if we're grading him more harshly because of his backstory where he was said to be a bit immature coming out of Alabama, didn't play a ton last year. He's incredibly talented. I mean, he could be Wilforkian in a lot of ways. Not a carbon copy, but same general level of 'best in the NFL' type, top five to seven defensive linemen. So they need that from him. And a scrap is fine. Pushing and shoving is fine. Wrestling somebody to the ground, even. Throwing a punch when no one's really looking at you is just escalating the situation."

Also discussed in the episode: WR absences becoming concerning. First impressions of Christian Gonzalez. And what are the expectations for Kyle Dugger and Josh Uche? 

Check out the latest episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast on the NBC Sports Boston Podcast Network, or watch on YouTube.