Live from Patriots minicamp: Mac Jones lit up the Patriots defense in impressive fashion

FOXBORO – As Mac Jones dropped back in the pocket, Tre Nixon took off from the slot where he was tightly covered by cornerback Jonathan Jones. When Nixon had a step on the veteran, Jones launched a deep ball and as the receiver sprinted downfield.

A moment later, Nixon made a 40-yard leaping grab. It was equally a fantastic throw and catch for the two offensive players. It was the type of play that certainly made Nixon stick out, but also previewed what was about to happen on the first day of Patriots minicamp on Tuesday.

“Amazing,” said Nixon. “You can’t complain. He put it right on the money.... He’s a great player… As you can tell on the field watching him, (he’s) making tremendous strides for sure.”

Simply put – Mac Jones put on a show in Day 1 of Patriots minicamp.

That deep pass to Nixon was Jones’ third completion in team drills on Tuesday. It wasn’t long before the second-year quarterback made more highlight throws. At one point, Jones completed 23-straight passes in competitive team drills against the defense. He had back-to-back highlight throws in 7-on-7s to J.J. Taylor and Jonnu Smith. Both were tightly covered. There was also a deep throw to DeVante Parker, who made a nice grab while tightly covered by Jalen Mills.

Jones looked more confident on Tuesday and this practice was one of the best we’ve seen from the quarterback in this non-contact setting. Jones finished 14-of-14 in 7-on-7 drills and 11-of-12 in 11-on-11 drills.

"I just feel very fortunate to share the field with Mac," said running back Damien Harris. "He’s an incredibly hard worker. That’s what I appreciate about him the most – just coming out here, seeing the way that he leads, the way that he works his butt off to be the best, to be his best in order to help all of us be our best. He does a great job every day just coming out with that mentality, working hard, doing his job and that’s the mentality we’ve all got to have. We all have to embody that."

The other Patriot quarterbacks didn’t have the same success. Brian Hoyer finished 3-of-7 with an interception in 11-on-11 work and went 4-of-6 in 7-on-7s. Rookie Bailey Zappe went 1-of-4 in full-team drills and finished 6-of-7 with an interception in 7-on-7 drills.

Linebacker Jahlani Tavai intercepted Zappe while safety Kyle Dugger intercepted Hoyer. Rookie cornerback Jack Jones, Mills and linebacker Cameron McGrone all had pass breakups on Hoyer.

The Patriots were without five players on Tuesday: Kendrick Bourne, Nick Folk, Quinn Nordin, Andrew Stueber and Chasen Hines. Trent Brown, Marcus Jones, Henry, Jakobi Meyers and James White were limited.

Patriots swapping Trent Brown and Isaiah Wynn

One of the more interesting developments this offseason has been the Patriots offensive line. It appears that the team is moving Trent Brown to left tackle and Isaiah Wynn to right tackle after both players played opposite positions last season.

When Wynn skipped optional OTAS, we saw Brown at left tackle and Justin Herron at right tackle. On Tuesday, Brown was limited and missed the start of practice. During that time, Yodny Cajuste was at left tackle with Wynn on the right side. When Brown returned to the field, he was back at left tackle.

Brown played left tackle with the Patriots in 2018 before moving to the right side the next year with the Raiders. He stuck there all last season. Wynn, however, has started 33 NFL games with 32 starts at left tackle and one at left guard. Seeing him at right tackle is certainly an interesting development.

Another interesting note is that tight end Hunter Henry took part in receiver positional drills on Tuesday.

The Pats also had an interesting assortment of punt returners with Kyle Dugger, Myles Bryant and Jack Jones. Jones, however, muffed a punt in one drill.

N'Keal Harry had a tough return to practice

N’Keal Harry had a rough day back in Foxboro.

The receiver skipped optional OTAs and it looked like he was relegated to third-team duties as he mainly shared the field with Zappe’s unit instead of Jones or Hoyer. That was eye-opening as the starting offense was without Bourne and Meyers.

Harry played briefly with Jones’ unit in 7-on-7 where he had one reception. He earned some run with Hoyer’s unit at the end of practice, in full-team drills, but his only target was swatted away by Mills.

It was noteworthy that Harry wasn’t on the field much with Jones or Hoyer. At this point, the 2019 first-round pick looks like a long shot to make the Patriots 53-man roster. He’s clearly behind Meyers, Bourne, Nelson Agholor and DeVante Parker on the depth chart. On Tuesday, he practiced behind Kristian Wilkerson and Tre Nixon.

Harry has a chance to rebound as the Patriots are set for Day 2 of minicamp on Wednesday.

Ronnie Perkins ready to make an impact after steep rookie learning curve

Ronnie Perkins pinned his ears back and let loose on most plays during his college days. When he was at Oklahoma, Perkins was used as a defensive end where he specialized in pass rushing. After making 16.5 sacks in three seasons, the Patriots drafted Perkins in the third round, 96th overall, in the 2021 NFL Draft.

It’s always said that rookies have a steep learning curve. For Perkins, it was more than that. As a rookie, he never played in a game last season as the Patriots had him transition from college defensive end to linebacker.

A year later, Perkins said he’s more comfortable in the defense and ready to help.

“Pretty much at Oklahoma, I was like Deatrich Wise – a pass rusher,” Perkins said on Tuesday. “Not dropping (in coverage) at all. Not play in a two-point (stance). Coming here, technique and everything I do is different. I put the work in and feel like I’m ready to help myself and be a linebacker.”

Perkins spent his rookie season in meeting rooms, soaking up film study and learning from veteran linebackers Kyle Van Noy, Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins. With all three of those veterans not on the roster, there’s a spot for Perkins to step up and make an impact

The Patriots could use more speed on defense and someone like Perkins fits that mold. When it comes to his new skill set (dropping into coverage), Perkins is happy where he’s at as a player.

“I like it,” said Perkins. “It’s fun. I like to be in space. First time doing it, it was kind of off, like anybody the first time doing anything. Now, I’m off the ball and I like it.”

Here's what to expect during today's Pats practice

The Patriots will have their busiest week of the spring when the team meets for the start of their three-day mandatory minicamp on Tuesday. This will be a tune up before the team meets for training camp at the end of July.

These sessions run through Thursday and will be open to the media. Next week, the team has two OTAs scheduled on June 13 and June 14, but Bill Belichick historically lets his group either go on vacation early or plan a field trip. One year, they went to Fenway Park to play corn hole. Another year, the Pats played indoor soccer inside their practice bubble.

So far, the media has seen two OTAs. In the first, Mac Jones looked sharp. Last week, we saw a walkthrough so there wasn’t as much to takeaway.

This week, we’ll continue to monitor the biggest storylines around the Patriots as the practice tempo should pick up a bit.

Right now, the biggest is whom the offensive play caller will be. In two practices, we’ve seen Belichick, Joe Judge and Matt Patricia all call offensive plays. According to The Athletic, Belichick hasn’t decided if it’ll be Patricia or Judge, but it is believed that Patricia is the favorite to replace former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

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Judge has been working with quarterbacks, but also has been running drill involving receivers, tight ends and running backs. Kendrick Bourne said that Judge has implemented new terminology in the offense.

“The challenge is always learning something new. I learned something new last year and then learning something new against is just a challenge in itself,” Bourne said after the first OTA session. “But football is just football. It’s all kind of the same. Just different terminologies. Joe has different words he uses. Different terms. Football is football and it’s just about knowing the new words, taking the old ones away and applying the new ones.”

The biggest difference between OTAs and minicamp is that attendance is mandatory whereas it’s optional for OTAs. Last week, we didn’t see Trent Brown, Isaiah Wynn, N’Keal Harry ,Matthew Judon, James White, Chasen Hines, Andrew Stueber, Davon Godchaux, Anfernee Jennings, Byron Cowart or Quinn Nordin at practice.

Some of those players were out due to injury, but others, such as Wynn, Harry and Judon, opted out of OTAs this spring. We’ll see who’s back on Tuesday.

Stay tuned as we’ll have you updated right here.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: New England Patriots: Here's what to expect during today's practice