Patriots News: Davante Adams, Jerod Mayo, SpyGate and Bailey Zappe

As the Patriots enter their second week of training camp, many headlines have already been made since the team returned to Gillette Stadium this summer. There has been plenty to discuss, and rumors have taken off, but there are some snippets of news you may have missed during the shuffle.

Here are some of the lesser-discussed stories of the past week.

Davante Adams wishes he could have played with Tom Brady

Throughout Tom Brady's illustrious career, several players have expressed their desire to play with the greatest quarterback of all time, whether during his time with the Patriots or near the end with the Bucs. It wasn't just because he was winning so much; it was also known how much better Brady made his receivers, many of whom had the best seasons of their careers when catching passes from him.

The latest player to share his wish of playing with Brady is Raiders receiver Davante Adams, who spoke about how cool it would have been to play with the retired quarterback and Aaron Rodgers during his career while appearing on Shannon Sharpe's podcast "Club Shay Shay."

“Look, Tom know how I feel about him, man. And the other part is I think I’d be the first person that played with Tom and Aaron [Rodgers]. So that would be pretty cool. I mean, he’s getting older, but he got to still be able to throw it better than half of these dudes in the league.”

Although it will never happen since Brady has moved onto broadcasting, it's hard not to imagine the greatness that could have been accomplished by pairing Adams with Brady at some point during their careers.

It could have been a season reminiscent of the Brady to Randy Moss connection in 2008.

Calvin Anderson gushes about Jerod Mayo's coaching style

When Robert Kraft announced that Jerod Mayo was going to be the one to replace Bill Belichick as the next Patriots head coach earlier this year, there were a lot of concerns regarding his lack of experience and how that might impact his chance of having a successful tenure.

It wasn't going to be an easy position to be in for anyone replacing a coach who was leaving the job they had for 24 years, but Mayo has already impressed fans, reporters, and the roster in a short amount of time, bringing a bit of optimism for the season ahead.

Because he was coached by and worked for Belichick as a player and a coach, there was speculation about Mayo implementing some of the best parts of Belichick's coaching style, while also being more of a "player's coach" because of his experience. So far, that appears to be the case, which has players raving.

Offensive lineman Calvin Anderson is the latest to praise the young head coach for how he's handling his new role, and he shared what he believes is the best trait that Mayo has demonstrated thus far while speaking to reporters after training camp last week.

"He puts an emphasis on relationships, and I think that helps the team culture. I don't know how other head coaches are, but Mayo walks around knowing his guys. So you walk around, you feel like you have a personal relationship with him. It makes it so much easier to buy in.

Obviously, when we're on the field, you can feel him when he's walking through. When you have a coach who prioritizes that relationship part, which gets lost in business, it brings you back to why we love to play this game, which is the team aspect of playing football.

It's much easier to play as a team when you have that relationship part. He emphasizes that, which I think everybody is much better for."

It's certainly a different approach to the job than what has been seen in New England over the past two decades, and although some might be concerned about the "player's coach" label becoming an issue for Mayo in the long run, it's working so far. Players want to work and play hard for their new coach.

At the end of the day, that's what matters right now.

Peyton Manning makes Spygate "joke" during the opening weekend of the Olympics

The controversies that occurred during the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady era in Foxboro may have happened many years ago, but that doesn't mean bitter fans (and rivals) are done mentioning them whenever they get the chance.

That's what happened over the weekend when the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Paris kicked off, with Mike Tirico leading a cast of Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning on NBC.

In covering all things surrounding the historic event, Tirico discussed the allegations made toward Canada's women's soccer team, who allegedly sent drones into competitors' practices dating before the Olympics began. Given the opportunity, Manning couldn't pass up the chance to throw shade at the Patriots by mentioning "Spygate" live on air.

It's all fun and games, and maybe, as Patriots fans, we shouldn't get too worked up over false allegations made about the team nearly two decades ago. But when is it finally going to be considered old news to mention one of the "gates" when discussing the Patriots, because this feels like it should qualify for that sentiment.

Bailey Zappe is not worried about his reps decreasing at training camp

The quarterback competition this summer and into the preseason is expected to be one of the main focuses of the roster battles for the Patriots. It was expected to primarily revolve around Jacoby Brissett and Drake Maye, the top signal callers seemingly competing for the starting role this fall.

However, during training camp last week, things became interesting when a noticeable and significant change was made that seemed to be a strong indicator of Bailey Zappe's future in New England.

All throughout OTAs and minicamp this spring, the third-year quarterback was third on the depth chart, leaving rookie Joe Milton III behind him. It made sense, given Zappe's experience, but that changed last week when Milton moved up and received QB3 reps ahead of the veteran.

Although that doesn't look to be a good sign for his status with the team moving forward, Zappe told reporters he isn't concerned about his reps changing or what it might mean for him as a Patriot.

"The quality is what you make of it. The quantity is all the same. I don’t really get into — ‘Oh, he got one more than I did’ or anything like that. That’s left to the coaches. It’s based off the quality of those reps.

You just do what you can do with the reps that you can get. Like Mayo said, it’s a competition, reps are going to be switched back and forth. The days that you do get less reps means you have to put more emphasis on the reps that you do get. Every day is a new day. You just have to come out and attack it.”

He has a good head on his shoulders to feel this way, which he was known for during the toxicity behind the scenes with Mac Jones and the starting quarterback role last year. Zappe's experience might play a big factor in Mayo's decision to keep him on the roster, but he will have to outperform Milton at least a bit to avoid being relegated to the practice squad.

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