Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots kicked off their 2026 training camp on Saturday on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. The 90-minute session did not feature any pads and minimal contact while the focus of the day was the zone run game installation.
“There’ll be a few more runs. We have to get into that,” Mike Vrabel said before the session. “Admittedly there’ll be more zone runs, to take away some of those double teams that you have and some of the the gap scheme runs. We we’ll save pads for that… So, there’ll be some of that with the outside zone. We’ll work on first and second down. We’ll have tempo.”
Here’s what went down throughout the day.
Absentees: ED Gabe Jacas
PUP/NFI: RB Terrell Jennings, TE C.J. Dippre, ED Harold Landry III, S Brenden Schooler
Injuries: N/A
Edge rusher Gabe Jacas continued to be away from the team on Saturday, but that may change soon. The Patriots’ second-round draft pick reportedly agreed to terms on his rookie contract earlier in the day, and might therefore make his practice debut before the start of full-pads sessions later in the week.
Outside of Jacas and the four players on the injury lists, the Patriots enjoyed perfect attendance on Day 1 of camp. They also suffered no notable injuries.
Gonzo participates: Shortly after owner Robert Kraft shared that his team had offered Christian Gonzalez a contract extension that would make him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history, the 24-year-old was a full participant in Saturday’s session. That was a noteworthy change from the spring, when Gonzalez stayed away from a large portion of voluntary workouts and sat out of full-team drills during mandatory minicamp.
It took no time for him to be tested either, as Drake Maye’s first pass of camp went to A.J. Brown with Gonzalez tight in coverage to help force an incompletion.
“I think I had too,” Maye said. “One-on-one over there with Gonzo. I was going to try to start off the camp with a little bang.”
Aggressive Drake: Outside of testing Gonzalez on his first pass of camp, Drake Maye was aggressive throwing the football in his four periods of work. With a focus on the run installation, Maye threw the ball just nine times in competitive work but quickly delivered the highlight of the day early connecting on a deep ball to a diving Kayshon Boutte.
Near the end of his day, Maye seemingly hand-delivered a seam ball to Hunter Henry just on top of Christian Elliss before hitting an open DeMario Douglas over the middle of the field for a chunk gain.
Receiver watch: A.J. Brown did not catch a pass on Day 1 of camp while Romeo Doubs and Maye connected on their lone target. But those two were stapled on Maye’s unit for much of the afternoon with DeMario Douglas often being the third receiver in 11-personnel.
As Kayshon Boutte worked in with both first and second units (catching...
