Some Patriots and NFL-related news and notes for this Monday:

1) We’re just days away from the start of New England Patriots training camp, which kicks off on Wednesday morning when the team takes the field for its first public session.

The Patriots announced a handful of players over the weekend who will start the season on PUP and NFI ahead of training camp, and there were a few notable names that appeared.

Here’s how it breaks down:

PUP

• Mack Hollins, WR
• Austin Hooper, TE
• Vederian Lowe, OT
• Jahlani Tavai, LB

NFI

• Carlton Davis III, CB
• Josh Minkins, S
• Jeremiah Webb, WR

Each of the players who are on PUP are coming off of offseason procedures, with the club likely taking it slow before they come off and start practicing.  Each of those names have a high probability of making the roster, barring a bad training camp.

Tavai has been a name discussed as potentially being in a spot where it’s unclear of how he fits into Mike Vrabel’s defense, and he’s also in a crowded linebacker room.  As a result, one would have to believe he’ll need to get healthy sooner than later to take part in that competition.

Meanwhile, the fact that Stefon Diggs’ name didn’t appear there is a positive sign.  Diggs did participate during portions of the team’s minicamp practices last month, and a recent workout video he was shown in where he spent time with Drake Maye and other fellow offensive players had him looking like he was close to 100%, at least based on what limited footage we saw him in.

As for the players on the NFI, that list means they haven’t been cleared to practice and it’s unknown – especially with Davis III – what their respective issues might be.

As Mike Reiss of ESPN pointed out, the opportunity is there for all of those players to come off at anytime.  But for now, they’ll be among the list of players to keep an eye on in the coming days.

2) Wide receiver is likely going to be a position that gets a lot of attention, especially given all the concerns on offense coming off a season where New England was near the bottom of the league in most categories, having finished with the third-worst point total in 2024.

We had NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry on our most recent “Patriots No Huddle” podcast, with Perry talking about who might be a surprise out of the 12 players to make the roster.

“I would just say because there are some locks at that position… Now, you might have some flexibility in that receiver room to start the year in terms of being able to keep an extra guy if [Stefon] Diggs isn’t ready,” said Perry last week.  “That, to me, is still an if. He’s looked good in camp. He hasn’t looked great in camp, in my opinion. I think there are times where I’ve watched him – I know there are times where I’ve watched him, and he looks a little reluctant to cut. That was just my observation. It’s not surprising at all. The guy was seven months removed from a torn ACL. We’ll see. On the other hand, he’s looked much better than guys that have been seven months off a torn ACL.”

“It’s not the deepest roster across the board at other positions. And so if you feel like you want to keep a sixth wideout because you like the potential, and maybe he’s a healthy scratch. Maybe it’s a Malcolm Butler kind of situation.  You’re just going to keep him, you like him, but he’s not going to play all year. That’s what happened in 2014 with Butler, essentially. Maybe he shows you enough that he’s worthy of that kind of thing.”

“I would say this, knowing that padded football is a far different animal than non-padded football.  There are not a lot of guys that we’ve watched in the spring that, I would say, decelerate the way that Chism decelerates. He is very quick to stop, and that can help create separation. And we saw it. There were not … I’ll compare them to the other rookie, and their games are very different. But Chism, to me, looked more useful in that short to intermediate area because of his route running than [Kyle] Williams right now. And he just saw more targets. And he was not, I would say, as frequently with the top group as Williams was, which makes sense.”

“Obviously, he’s a third-round pick versus an undrafted guy. But that’s a name people should be keeping an eye on because we’ve seen crazier things happen with undrafted rookies, especially with McDaniels, especially when it comes to using that slot position. Guys that feel like they should be roster fodder, end up being anything but. I don’t know if he can block. He’s certainly not a big guy. I doubt he can block, quite frankly. So he’s not Jacobi Myers. That was one of the reasons why Myers was able to play as much as he did for McDaniels. But that’s a name to keep an eye on.”

Perry actually ended up talking about another position that will potentially be worth watching, which is based on a wrinkle he feels McDaniels might be incorporating this season.

“Another one because they’re going to use a fullback, in my opinion, to be Brock Lampe,” said Perry. “I mean, and I get it because he’s going to bring a skill to the table that not a lot of other people have. And so we’ll see, is there a tight end that maybe they could use? Could they use C. J. Dippre, another undrafted rookie? I’m trying to go under the radar for you, Mike [D’Abate], because like you said, people already know a lot of these names. But these undrafted guys, those three that I just mentioned, I think have a real shot at making the team. And maybe Dippre takes Lampe’s spot if he shows he can line up in the backfield and really lay into people. But that’s a different animal. You got to be wired a certain way and Lampe, to me, probably is the best fit there because he’s already shown, at the college level, at least, a willingness to take on that kind of role, whereas Dippre was more of a traditional tight-end.”

“Those would just be a handful of names because I think the depth of tight-end, even though they have [Austin] Hooper and they have [Hunter] Henry, it’s not amazing depth. And so Dippre, because of his size and his pedigree coming from Alabama, even things like just watching him work with Mike Vrabel closely in some of these special teams’ drills.  During OTAs, it felt like he was getting a little some special time with the head coach. Those are the kinds of things that I’ll be paying attention to in camp to see if any of these guys can crack the roster.”

3) Another question that came up had to do with how McDaniels will use Maye in the offense, and whether or not he might be conservative when it comes to what he allows the second-year quarterback to do.

Perry feels McDaniels likely won’t hold back, and that Maye will definitely see more in terms of his overall approach offensively compared to last season.

“Yeah, I think he has to,” said Perry on Maye’s increased involvement. “That’s just who Drake Maye is. And I think Drake may will end up being … talking about offensive weapons, I’m thinking for the most part, pass catchers, ball carriers, but Drake may is going to be his best weapon offensively this year. So you want the ball in that guy’s hands, and you want him to do what he does well, which is throw the ball down the field. You want him to be able to use his legs. So you want to encourage him to run, and not only in scramble situations, but allow him to run in designed quarterback run situations, which the Patriots last year refused to do. And they were very open about how they did not want to call running plays for him because they wanted to try to keep him healthy. Then that changed toward the end of the year because they couldn’t score points. They just couldn’t square the logic where, ‘Yeah, we’re trying to do everything we can to win these games, but we’re also going to just tell him not to run, even though he’s already probably as a rookie, like our best offensive player.’”

“McDaniels will do those things. I think you’ll see an offense that is a little bit of a mélange, guys, of 2020 with Cam Newton and a lot of designed quarterback runs. It won’t be that much, but you’ll see some of that stuff. 2018, late 2018 with the fullback on the field because we’ve been seeing that already. I could tell you from being at OTAs, no pads, but we’re already seeing they’re using alignments and formations where they’ve got two backs in the backfield there looking like Sony Michel and James Devlin.”

“I think there’ll be some aggressiveness, but I think Derek [Havens], that down the field stuff, on the one hand, it’s what Drake Maye does well. On the other, unfortunately for him, they don’t have guys that are going to do that all that often, in my opinion. We’ll see. Maybe Kayshon Boutte turns into that. I don’t see Diggs doing that, even if he’s healthy at this stage of his career. It’s not really Demario Douglas’s game. It’s not really Kendrick Bourne’s game. It could be Kyle Williams’ game, and I like him, and we’ll see how much he’s able to perform. But again, that’s sort of TBD.  He’s a young player in an offense with a language that has traditionally been difficult for young players to pick up. So, they’ve got some work to do in terms of squeezing the most out of Drake Maye because of what I view as a sort of deficient personnel group around him.”

4) TreVeyon Henderson getting his deal done late Friday night was definitely good news, which now has the team set to begin training camp having all of the 2025 Patriots draft picks under contract.

One other interesting note is the fact that had Henderson not signed, it doesn’t sound like the threat of holding out was something the rookie was planning on.

Mike Reiss of ESPN reported on Sunday that sitting out was “never a serious consideration,” citing sources familiar with the negotiation.  That’s good news for the Patriots, as Henderson’s name has been mentioned quite a bit this offseason as someone they’re expecting to be a significant part of the offense in 2025.

The rookie impressed during the spring, with his speed and explosiveness being two things that stood out during the team’s practices last month.

The hope now is that Henderson can build some momentum among a running back group that does have some questions.  While Henderson is likely a roster lock, there are still questions among the rest of those players, especially if what Perry said comes to fruition when it comes to how McDaniels might be planning to operate at that position this season.

Odds and Ends

Meanwhile, we’ll hear from Vrabel for the first time since his final press conference of minicamp on Tuesday, with the time for that press conference still to be determined. … The Patriots added defensive tackle David Olajiga over the weekend.  The former undrafted free agent is part of the International Pathway Program, giving the Patriots a roster exemption as they add another player to compete at that position.  Olajigo essentially steps back into the defensive tackle mix after the Patriots previously released DT Wilfried Pene back on June 26th, who was also part of that same International program. … Speaking of other guys at that position, Mike Reiss caught up with Florida State football general manager Darrick Yray, asking about rookie DT Joshua Farmer.  Yray believes Farmer’s work ethic and his play against the run are among several attributes are things that stood out during his time in college.  “First of all, the effort stands out,” Yray told Reiss.  “You watch him on tape, the ability to two-gap, chase the ball down. He’s going to be physical. He plays with great leverage, and has the ability to have a quick first step and be able to penetrate. But he also has the ability to hold up against the run.” … Down in New York, the Jets recently signed two key players on both sides of the ball, having locked up Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner to long-term deals.  Former Patriots center and Jets analyst Damien Woody noted that they’re establishing a new culture there, and keeping their young talent in-house is a key step.  “The Jets are going to go into this thing where two of their top players are under contract, everybody’s feeling good and happy and paid, and now you get to focus on what’s really important, the game of football,” Woody said via the Boston Globe. “That’s what smart franchises do.”  … The Jets still don’t have a high-end signal caller, but they do have both Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor there, who if nothing else should help avoid the distractions created by Aaron Rodgers last season.  Still, they’ll likely have a long year ahead of them, but it does feel like things are potentially headed in a better direction with Aaron Glenn at the helm.  Hopefully, 2025 will be a season where New England holds the advantage as the Patriots try to climb back into the race after two-straight 4-13 seasons.