Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots got absolutely destroyed in their final preseason game on Thursday night. Entering the contest with two victories in their bag, they got handed a 42-10 defeat by the New York Giants to finish the exhibition slate with a 1-2 record.
Even with the majority of starters sitting out, and despite the game being incredibly boring, there were still some lessons to be learned. Let’s get into them now.
…they had seen enough of their starters: Most of, if not all, of the starters for the Patriots had the night off on Thursday. That was telling for who actually played in the game. On defense, Jabrill Peppers, Craig Woodson, and Keion White played, and on offense, Jared Wilson played. I would assume that they wanted to get Wilson more reps, since he’s a raw player, and he didn’t start last week. Defensively, it looked like all the safeties, except for Jaylinn Hawkins, played, so there’s nothing to take away from the fact that they both played.
“Just a short week,” said head coach Mike Vrabel after the game. “We had a couple good days. That’s kind of where I was, decided to do that, give us a chance to evaluate some other players.”
Keion White is a different story though.
…Keion White might be facing an unclear outlook: Keion White worked almost exclusively with the starters all offseason, but he still played the entire first half on Thursday. This could be a sign that the Patriots aren’t happy with what they have gotten out of him recently, or that they want to get more reps for him.
According to Vrabel, it was the latter.
“I decided and talked to Keion and wanted to see him work on some things and continue to develop and try to continue to improve,” Vrabel explained after the game. “He was excited about playing. He wanted to play more. That’s kind of our whole job, to be ready to play and prepared until told otherwise. Just try to work on some things that we had been talking about and do it in game action.”
Despite Vrabel’s statements, and some reassurances from other coaches on staff earlier this week, it looks like White’s role is a question mark with two weeks to go until the season opener. It seemed like he was primed for a big season earlier in training camp, but seeing him passed on the depth chart by K’Lavon Chaisson and subsequently playing extensive snaps in a meaningless game might be cause for concern.
…interior depth is a serious concern: The Patriots’ top five along the offensive line looks to be significantly better than it was last year, which is good news for the team as a whole. The depth behind the starter level, however, looks like it might be just as bad as it was last year, especially on the interior.
Sidy Sow and Cole Strange both struggled on Thursday night, and the Patriots...
