Patriots Talk: Reasons for Optimism After First Joint Practice

Patriots offense gets some traction in first joint practice originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Is the New England Patriots offense starting to turn a corner after a slow start to training camp?

The Pats hosted the Carolina Panthers for their first joint practice on Tuesday, and they appeared to take a much-needed step forward. On a new episode of the Patriots Tak Podcast, Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry shared their takeaways from the practice, which should give fans reasons for optimism heading into the 2022 campaign.

Patriots Talk: Patriots’ offense gets some traction in fight-marred practice with Panthers | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

"My number one takeaway was the fact that this Patriots offense finally showed that it was gaining some traction in two different ways," Perry said. "Number one, some of the newer concepts that they've been emphasizing dating back to the spring I thought showed real progress early in practice. Wide zone, stretch, outside zone, Shanahan, whatever you want to call it. Progress there.

"Number two, I also thought there was a concerted effort by the Patriots to push the ball down the field, which we had seen hardly at all to this point in training camp. But you had long completions to DeVante Parker, you had a long DPI drawn by Nelson Agholor, Ty Montgomery gets into the mix late in the practice. They were pushing the ball down the field, which told me that they actually got a little bit of protection up front from Mac Jones' offensive line.

"So those are the two areas I have noted because we've talked so much about this Patriots offense. Those are two reasons for optimism for Patriots fans right there."

Perry: Jalen Mills shines as Patriots' No. 1 CB vs. Panthers

Curran shared takeaways of his own with an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball.

"My two big ones were first off individual drills, the Patriots cornerbacks were sticky, sticky, sticky," Curran said. "They're gonna make a switch defensively, probably play a little more zone, but it was interesting to hear Carolina Panthers coach Matt Rhule speak about the intricacy of the looks the Patriots defense gave them. ... Whether it was Jack Jones, Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, Jalen Mills who had an outstanding day, the Patriots cornerbacks were on point.

"The other interesting thing, we saw the Panthers a little noisier, a little louder. We're accustomed to that with teams when they play the Patriots because the Patriots are a measuring stick. Even though they're probably a middle-of-the-pack team in 2022, we still saw Carolina bring the juice a little bit more than the Patriots."

Also discussed in the episode: DeVante Parker and Jalen Mills are stars of the day. What led to the brawl between the Patriots and Panthers? And irrelevant questions with Jakobi Meyers.

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