What To Watch For: Patriots Open Preseason Against Packers
BOSTON (CBS) -- There should be no false pretenses about what is going to take place Thursday night at Gillette Stadium. It will not be a meeting of an AFC power and a favorite in the NFC. It will not be an epic duel between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. It will not be a rematch of last year's showdown in Lambeau, and the results this time around will have no bearing on the immediate future of either team.
However, what will undeniably take place is a football game. And though it's only a preseason contest, it is nevertheless the most powerful reminder that real football games are mere weeks away from taking place. And real football games are glorious.
So it should be a fairly festive atmosphere at Gillette Stadium, as the locals get to see their first glimpse of the Patriots in their home stadium since that 45-7 dismantling of the Colts in mid-January. In that game, Tom Brady threw three touchdowns, LeGarrette Blount ran for three more, and Julian Edelman had nearly 100 receiving yards. (Oh, and there was also something about the air pressure in the footballs. I overheard it on the news once or twice. Not sure what it's about. I assume it was no big deal.)
It will of course be a very different look this time around. It will be the Jimmy Garoppolo Show, perhaps with a cameo from Brady and Gronkowski, and the second half will feature everybody thumbing through their roster sheets to figure out the name of whoever it was that made that play.
So it's not exactly the Super Bowl. But it football. Here's what to watch for when the Pats and Packers kick off in Foxboro.
Whole Lot Of Jimmy
For various reasons, Tom Brady occasionally sits out for the entirety of the preseason opener. Originally it seemed that he may not be afforded that luxury this year due to the lack of depth at the position. While Jimmy Garoppolo is certainly suited to handle a heavy preseason workload, new addition Ryan Lindley just joined the team on Monday. There's only so much the 26-year-old can learn in three days to be able to run an NFL offense at full speed. (Plus, he struggled to do that very task last year after having had three years to learn Arizona's playbook.)
However, hopes of the home crowd getting to see Brady play were dashed on Wednesday, when NFL Network and ESPN reported that Brady will not be playing on Thursday night. It's too bad, really. For one, it's always more fun when Brady plays, but also it might have been nice for Brady, who's spent the last six-plus months fighting the battle known as DeflateGate, to get back into a game situation.
Update: Brady may play now, according to ESPN.
As for Garoppolo, he's played to mixed reviews thus far in camp. But as we learned last year, Jimmy G. tends to step up his game when the lights shine bright and the TV cameras are rolling. In last year's preseason, Garoppolo went 46-for-79 (58.2 percent) for 618 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. With a full year of NFL experience under his belt, and with the possibility that he may need to start some real games in the regular season still looming, his preseason performance will draw even more attention this time around.
Rookie Linemen
Speaking of the quarterbacks, it's probably a good time to mention the offensive line. You'll remember that long before the Patriots were parading around Boston as Super Bowl champs, their 2014 season was nearly grounded by putrid play on the offensive line. With veteran guard Logan Mankins and veteran coach Dante Scarnecchia no longer with the team, the picture of the Patriots' offensive line looked bleak through the first month of the season.
That was until rookie Bryan Stork assumed the center position and helped sort everything else into place. There were some injury hiccups throughout the season and postseason, but for the most part, the Patriots' line held up well enough to allow Brady to have a renaissance season and the running game to explode for big games when needed.
This year, with veteran guard/center Dan Connolly retiring, the Patriots may very well come to rely on at least one rookie to help solidify the line.
The Patriots drafted Tre' Jackson and Shaq Mason in the fourth round, both of whom could realistically play significant roles on the interior of the line, and both of whom who could potentially save the world (and Tom Brady) from seeing Jordan Devey get playing time this season.
The Jordan Devey/Josh Kline/Marcus Cannon trio struggled when pressed into duty last season, so keep an eye on Mason and Jackson in their first live action in the pros. You won't be able to necessarily tell that they're ready, but if they're not ready, it'll be pretty clear.
New PAT Rules In Effect
Do people care about this? I think they do. Right? At least, that's how the rule change has been sold. Many voices in the media and the league have stated a desperate need for football to change its PAT rule, because as Bill Belichick likes to say, the extra point has become as close to an automatic play as there is in the sport.
And so, PATs will move back to the 15-yard line, forcing teams to kick 33-yard field goals for the extra point. (If they want to go for two points, the ball remains at the 2-yard line.)
This is, theoretically, exciting? Maybe? The NFL did use it for half of last year's preseason as a test run, so it's not entirely new. But this year, knowing that it will actually go into effect for the regular season, it'll be interesting to see if coaches get a bit more experimental during the preseason to see what if they can figure out a way to manipulate the new system to their liking.
The Walking Wounded
In case you haven't been paying super close attention to training camp this summer, the biggest story is that everybody on the roster is injured. OK, well, not everybody. But almost everybody.
Brandon LaFell, Julian Edelman, LeGarrette Blount, Bryan Stork, Ryan Wendell, Nate Solder, Sebastian Vollmer, Travaris Cadet, Scott Chandler and Brian Tyms have all missed time -- and that's just on offense.
Maybe it was the short offseason that comes after playing in the Super Bowl, maybe it's the team being cautious, maybe it's a string of bad luck, or more likely it's a combination of all three. Whatever it is, the Patriots have themselves a bit of an injury issue heading into the preseason slate of games.
The most important thing that the Patriots can accomplish on Thursday night is to come out of the game without adding anybody else to the list of injured players. That trainers room is getting crowded.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
Tune in to Thursday's preseason opener on 98.5 The Sports Hub and WBZ-TV -- the flagship stations of the New England Patriots! Pregame coverage on 98.5 FM begins at 3:30pm, and on WBZ-TV at 7pm with Patriots GameDay!
