New England Patriots Training Camp: 5 Early Storylines to Watch

Training camp isn't quite the 11-on-11 type of action famished football fans are looking for, but it'll do for now.  When the New England Patriots report to Foxborough on July 29, it will begin a relentless ramping up process that won't end until the season does, which the Patriots hope will be on Feb. 7 in Santa Clara.

Before the Pats can talk Super Bowl, though, they need to answer the questions fans and observers have after an offseason marked by personnel turnover. 

Unlike last season, New England is not necessarily a championship-ready team without noticeable depth issues.  While the defending champs still employ plenty of high-end talent that should keep the repeat hopes alive, the 2015 Patriots will start out as a product that needs much more molding than the 2014 squad did.

Like the other 31 teams, New England won't have all the answers when it breaks camp.  However, depending on how these camp storylines resolve themselves, the Patriots could either be much closer or further away from their championship aspirations.

Which Undrafted Free Agents Emerge?

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In his pure meritocracy, Bill Belichick has never hesitated to grant roster spots to impressive undrafted rookies. 

On last year's championship squad, the Patriots had six players who had made the squad as a college free agent and 12 more who initially went undrafted before eventually finding their way to New England.  In total, these players initially passed over by every franchise composed over one-third of last year's championship-winning roster.

New England's undrafted class this year isn't nearly as deep because of the draft class' size, but there are already a few sleepers worth tracking after they made waves in minicamp. 

At 6'3", UAB's Jimmy Jean stands out among a mostly diminutive cornerback corps.  Playing on the roster's thinnest unit certainly boosts Jean's roster chances, and team writers such as Patriots.com's Erik Scalavino and Mass Live's Kevin Duffy have highlighted him as a threat to make the final 53.

The other particularly intriguing candidate is Georgia center David Andrews.  Though undersized at 6'2" and 295 pounds, Andrews possesses the football IQ and work ethic the Patriots love.  Moreover, having worked at guard during East-West Shrine Game practices, Andrews might be able to offer the kind of interior versatility necessary for backups on the O-line.  Given how thin the Patriots are at guard and center, Andrews could conceivably stretch Jordan Devey or Josh Kline for a reserve role.

At the very least, the Patriots are sure to draw some nice practice-squad players from the undrafted crop.  And while none are guaranteed to turn into potential starters like Malcolm Butler and Ryan Wendell have, someone will impress enough to kick a more heralded player off the roster.

Who's the Surprise Cap Casualty?

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Every year, Belichick has a penchant for unveiling a couple of surprise cuts and/or trades at the end of training camp.  From Lawyer Milloy to Logan Mankins, these ostensibly harmful short-term moves have almost always been aimed at maintaining long-term cap health.

The list of potential cap casualties this summer is much shorter, as the Patriots have done an excellent job of cap management in recent seasons. 

Top players like Jamie Collins and Chandler Jones are under cheap rookie deals, while foundational stars like Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are playing under below-market deals.  According to Spotrac, Brady is the only player with a 2015 cap hit over $10 million, while only four players have a cap hit over $7 million.

But with a cadre of players who will need extensions in the near future, the Patriots could look to let go of someone with a bloated long-term cap number.  Given how deep New England is at tackle, maybe Sebastian Vollmer becomes a trade candidate.  While still performing at a high level, Vollmer is entering his age-31 season and has a checkered injury history.  With Nate Solder likely to receive a fairly lucrative extension, the Pats would be committing lots of money to the tackle spot (remember that Marcus Cannon is well-paid for a backup).

The Patriots might also opt to save a couple of million if younger players outperform fringe starters like Bradley Fletcher and Ryan Wendell, though neither has a particularly burdensome deal.  Jerod Mayo and Danny Amendola restructured their deals to stay on the roster, and while both will see bloated cap numbers in 2016, that could send them to the chopping block, the Pats wouldn't actually save any money by cutting either this summer.

Letting go of someone like Vollmer would be shocking on its own, and to be clear, it's entirely speculation on this end.  But given Belichick's track record with personnel, nothing can be ruled out.

Who Takes Control of the Backfield?

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The Patriots have typically made due with unspectacular backfield talent, but this year's crop might stretch that tendency to its limit.  NFL.com's Marc Sessler recently ranked New England's backfield 29th overall, while his colleague Gregg Rosenthal labeled it the league's weakest group of running backs.

I recently stumped for LeGarrette Blount earning the lion's share of the backfield carries, but that's also partially an indictment of the unit's inexperience.  Based on snap counts, per Football Outsiders, the Patriots are losing roughly 53 percent of their running back snaps from last season, and apart from Blount, the rest of the halfbacks on the Patriots roster have combined for a grand total of 284 career carries. 

Roughly half of those belong to Brandon Bolden, who's moved into more of a special teams role the past two seasons.  Jonas Gray and Tyler Gaffney will probably provide the top challenges to Blount for the early-down snaps, but apart from Gray's 201-yard romp against Indianapolis, neither has the pedigree that would suggest anything besides a replacement-level back.

Not to be downplayed is the competition at passing back, a position that has always played an integral role in the Brady-led offense. 

While everyone likes to talk about the speed and receiving potential of Travaris Cadet and James White, the reality is that neither will see the field unless they turn into capable run-blockers.  With training camp providing the first opportunity for contact drills, the player who improves most as a blocker will likely be the one who gets the chance to catch passes. 

How Are Quarterback Reps Divided?

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According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, Tom Brady's camp is expecting an appeal ruling from Roger Goodell this week.  Florio also notes that Brady is preparing for litigation to "promptly follow" Goodell's ruling, which is not expected to be favorable to the quarterback.  It's been assumed that Brady will file for an injunction, temporarily lifting the suspension pending the court decision, which would allow him to start the season on the field.

But that doesn't mean Brady won't miss time later on, so even if the Patriots find out his Week 1 status during training camp, they will still need to prepare as though Jimmy Garoppolo will start games this season.  Per NESN's Doug Kyed, New England began that process during OTAs and minicamp by splitting reps between the two quarterbacks.

The question now is how close to 50-50 that split will remain.  Whereas the spring practices are more about playbook installation, training camp provides the repetitions necessary for the bread-and-butter concepts New England will rely on throughout the season.  Combined with the wide variety of situational drills, reps during training camp are more vital to creating offensive cohesion than many realize.

The Patriots could certainly gamble that the torpid-paced American legal system will allow Brady to play the entire season.  But an unprepared quarterback can sabotage the work of 52 other players, and knowing how Belichick views insurance at the position, he'll likely sacrifice some early-season rhythm for Brady in order to give Garoppolo the reps he'll need for a possible midseason cameo.

Any Keepers at Cornerback?

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We've done plenty of hand-wringing about the cornerback position this offseason (like here and here), and you can be sure team writers will dissect the starting battles ad nausem as we get a more definitive sample to analyze.  But considering that the strongest unit on last year's defense is now the roster's biggest liability, there's certainly good reason for that coverage.

The lack of proven talent should keep the competition fluid, but for now, it seems as though three distinct tiers have emerged:

1. The trio of Bradley Fletcher, Malcolm Butler and Logan Ryan have the most recent track record of extended snaps, and look like the current favorites to start.
2. Robert McClain, Darryl Roberts and Jimmy Jean loom as bubble players who could move their way up the depth chart.  Roberts and Jean in particular possess intriguing athleticism and length that give both more of a physical resemblance to Butler than any other corners on the roster.
3. Roster long shots such as Justin Green, Dax Swanson, Brandon King and Derek Cox.

You can certainly excuse Patriots fans if they're having flashbacks to the dark days of Antwaun Molden and Shawn Springs.  Apart from Fletcher, who was seen as a rising player in St. Louis before two subpar seasons in Philadelphia, no player on the roster has ever started more than seven games in a season, which Ryan did in 2013.

Unfortunately, the vanilla schemes that predominate the preseason won't really illuminate much about the schemes the Patriots will want to play or how the cornerbacks will work in conjunction with the rest of the defense.  The winners of the training-camp competition will get the first crack at stabilizing the position, but the biggest pre-camp storyline is also the one that will go unanswered until the regular season begins.