The New England Patriots have the unique challenge of preparing their new starting quarterback without any preseason action. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of minicamp, offseason team activities and the preseason. So when Cam Newton, the likely starter, takes the field in Week 1, he’ll have zero game experiences with his new team.
But the Patriots are doing their best to create substitutes for the preseason.
“I think one of the things you try to do is you try to make practice harder than a game, that’s kind of the mindset you take,” Patriots quarterbacks coach Jedd Fisch told reporters on Wednesday. “You change scenarios, you don’t necessarily have the same amount of breaks you do in a normal game. You might have to go one player, after the other, after the other without much break in the action. You’re able to do certain drills that are specific for ball security, that are specific for different scenarios that occur in a game.”
But there are elements of the game action that coaches can’t replicate.
“The speed of the game is always going to be the biggest challenge in terms of Sunday versus every other day, and we are all aware of that,” Fisch said. “But I think if we can continue to make it challenging, see a ton of different looks, see a ton of different opportunities, see a ton of different things that occur defensively, and then use that time we have to do individual drill work to work on specific fundamentals to the quarterback position, you can do your best to simulate a game.”
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