The New England Patriots have not yet been permitted to practice in pads this offseason, per NFL rules. That needs to be said for context, as there’s only so much a football team can accomplish wearing shorts and helmets.
But through OTAs, mandatory minicamp, and now the first two practices of training camp, prized free agent signing Romeo Doubs isn’t exactly off to a roaring start.
If anything, it’s been a crawl.
Greg Bedard of Boston Sports Journal covered some of Doubs’ struggles during spring workouts, and the trend seems to have carried over into the start of camp. It’s still early, and practices should ramp up once the pads come on later this week, but Doubs was among Bedard’s “3 down” from the weekend and doesn’t yet seem to be comfortable in Josh McDaniels’ offense or with quarterback Drake Maye.
Per Bedard, DeMario Douglas has been leading the team in slot snaps, and Kayshon Boutte appears to be well ahead of Doubs on the boundary after a buzzworthy start to camp.
In terms of areas of concern for Doubs, Bedard put it bluntly for BSJ:
“I have a lot, starting with the ability to assimilate into this offense. He's coming from a West Coast scheme, where you pretty much run what's on the paper. Snap after snap, you see Doubs only looking at the ball for the snap, never the coverage to see if he might need to adjust his route. In the slot, in this offense, it's all about adjustments and reading the defense. ... He's more of a robotic route runner than loose-hipped with some shake. In this scheme, you want your slot to be a jazz player, able to riff at a moment's notice. Doubs, at least in Green Bay, played in a symphony off sheet music. ... He makes some spectacular catches, but also can have the drops because of his inconsistent hand placement.”
Romeo Doubs' slow adjustment to Josh McDaniels' offense is becoming a concern
Again, it's still way too early to hit the panic button on Doubs. But with the calendar about to flip to August, the clock is now ticking. It would be far less concerning if Doubs was making the kind of highlight-reel plays as Boutte over these first two practices of camp.
The hope was that Doubs would catch on quickly, similar to Stefon Diggs last summer. Diggs wound up seeing a major uptick in slot snaps with the Patriots — 305 total, per Pro Football Focus. Doubs projects to fill a sizable portion of that void this season. The fact that he’s struggling with the option-based nuances of the offense, as Bedard noted, is definitely concerning.
Still, it’s July, and head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters on Friday that these first couple of practices would be scaled back a bit offensively due to the lack of pads. There was a focus this weekend, for example, on zone runs to better mimic real football without the physicality of double teams and typical gap-filling responsibilities.
According to Bedard, Maye only threw 12 competitive passes during Sunday’s session, and his accuracy was reportedly all over the place. Safety Craig Woodson intercepted one of Maye’s passes that was intended for Brown. And in fairness to Doubs, Patriots fans in attendance over the weekend didn’t see much of the anticipated Maye-to-Brown connection, either.
It’s possible that Doubs is the type of player who performs better in real football settings than glorified passing camps and walkthroughs. The Patriots are still in the NFL’s acclimation period, with a progression to fully-padded workouts coming over the next few days.
Doubs deserves some grace, but his progress does bear watching as the Patriots start gearing up for their first preseason game on Aug. 13.
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