FOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts. – Quick thoughts and notes about the New England Patriots and the NFL:
1. Premium Hire: When Princeton head football coach Bob Sorace received a call from Patriots head coach Matt Groh about a week before the 2023 draft, he thought it was a last-minute check-in on wide receiver Andre Yosefas (sixth round, Cincinnati Bengals).
To his surprise, this was not Groh’s primary intention.
Instead, Grou was seeking information on one of Surace’s elite employees behind the scenes: director of football operations Maya Anna Callender, who had emerged as a prime candidate for the assistant scouting job for rookies in New England.
Over the next 45 minutes, Surace cheered Groh about her “phenomenal” performance, which contributed to her groundbreaking hire a few weeks later — Callender, a 2016 graduate of Utica College, is believed to be the first full-time female scout in the Patriots’ 64-year history. .
Surace points to Callender’s 2021 coaching fellowship with the Philadelphia Eagles, which was part of a broader NFL initiative aimed at providing more opportunities for women, as a major turning point.
“Her background was all operations and she was really good at it, but they delivered [fellows] The various areas of work of the organization, one of which is the Scouting piece. She called me from Philadelphia, and I could hear the joy in her voice,” Surace recalls.
It’s almost like, ‘You really like this [operations side]And that’s where you saw your career go, but you didn’t know that this other possibility existed.”
When Callender returned to Princeton for the 2021 season, she made growth in scouting a priority, in addition to her core operational job that covered everything from booking team travel and hotel accommodations to coordinating coaches’ meeting times and on-field schedules.
“She was able to set aside time almost every day to practice the craft of evaluation. She would look at NFL games, rate players and learn discovery speech—the lingo of talking about someone’s reach, height, production, and how they use their hands,” Sorace said… She had a pad at our clinic, taking notes.
“She became the pro/NFL liaison, so every time a scout came—which was probably 50 last year, every team came at least once—she set them up. She talked about the players, their injury histories, and how she rated their performance. Then, by the time Scouts got to me, they didn’t have a lot of questions. I was so irrelevant, and that was something new to me. It was amazing.”
Sorace has been Princeton’s head coach since 2010, and has compiled a career record of 91-50. Prior to that, he was an assistant offensive line coach with the Cincinnati Bengals from 2002 to 2009.
As a young assistant for the Bengals, Sorace said he studied the Patriots and noted their approach to hiring “very smart” candidates who “didn’t always come from the highest level of football” but had this hunger to succeed and learn and grow.
He tried to do the same thing at Princeton, which was how Callender was initially hired, on the recommendation of Princeton alum and former NFL executive Marc Ross.
“We’re not the NFL. We have a small staff, so they’re given a lot of duties. For some of them like Maya, they rise to the top,” Suras said. “To her credit, she started from the ground up and really put herself in a position. Great for taking this next step.”
There have been 33 full-time scouts hired by teams in 2022, according to the NFL.
2. Preview OTAs: The Patriots enter the third and final phase of their volunteer offseason program this week, as organized team activities begin. Members of the media will be in attendance for OTA on Thursday, which is usually when the midfielders address the press.
Receiver Tre Nixon was one of the standout OTA performers last year, and considering he didn’t appear in a regular season game in 2022, it’s a reminder to keep his off-the-cuff spring practices in perspective. The Patriots’ goal generally is to create a learning environment and foundation for their players, so when they return to start training camp in late July, they’re in the best position to compete.
3. Status of Owner: Right guard Mike Onwino is not expected to be on the field during OTA volunteer operations after he underwent off-season surgery for an ankle injury from last season, according to a source familiar with his condition.
Onwenu was on course to play every game last season until the last quarter of the final game when Bills’ 317-pound defensive line DaQuan Jones landed on the back of his legs. Unwino, who was already playing through an ankle injury, crashed to the ground in a heap. This resulted in him missing his only six shots of the season and eventually went on to start the season.
4. Boutte = Diggs? NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell, an analyst on ESPN’s “NFL Matchup,” told “inside the birdsThe podcast got him interested by Patriots sixth-round draft pick Kayshon Boutte, wide receiver from LSU.
While acknowledging that the 187th overall pick in the draft isn’t just a lock to make the 53-man roster, Cosell studied Putt and said, “If he hits his roof and can play… [his physical] Attributes throughout, I thought there was a Stefon Diggs comparison to be made. Keep in mind that Diggs came out of Maryland as a fifth-round pick and the 146th overall pick. That’s what I’ve been comparing him to, not Stefon Diggs in recent years, arguably the top five receiver in the NFL. No one thought Diggs when he was picked in the fifth round and selected player #146. Butt is a great player.”
5. Boutte at the premiere: Boutte was the only Patriots draftee to be invited to the NFL Rookie Association’s 29th annual premiere in Los Angeles from Thursday through Sunday. There have been 45 draft picks across the NFL who have accepted invitations, which are based on factors such as college performance, draft status, location, and marketability. Butt, who as a freshman at LSU was seen as a top talent but saw his stock drop the last two seasons, was the second-lowest draft pick to receive an invitation, behind Cowboys running back Deuce Vaughn (6th round, #212).
6. Don’t Forget Ty: Retired Patriots head coach Evan Fiers said veteran running back Ty Montgomery, who is limited to one game in 2022 due to a shoulder injury, is a Patriots player he’s watching closely. Concerns still exist regularly about the team and she said of Montgomery in “6 rings and soccer stuffPodcast: “I think he has a great chance of being third and taking some of the burden off Ramunder [Stevenson]So [Rhamondre] He can be fresh when we really need him on first and second down and he carries the ball as our signature player. We need some help for Rhamondre, and I think Ty is looking really good right now. He’s in good health.”
7. Wynn Deal: The 2018 Patriots’ first-round pick, Isaiah Wynn, arrived with the Dolphins last week, on a modest one-year deal with a base value of $2.3 million and a maximum value of $2.7 million. The Patriots had paid him $10.4 million in 2022 after picking up the fifth-year option from his rookie deal, which, as the math indicates, was a gift to a player who didn’t live up to expectations. On a related note, N’Keal Harry, a first-round draft pick by the 2019 Patriots, remains unsigned after spending last season with the Bears. The Patriots did not have a player from the 10-member class of the 2019 draft on the roster after offensive tackle Yodny Cajuste was waived on Thursday.
8. Covington acceleration: The NFL Spring Meeting is scheduled for Sunday through Tuesday in Minneapolis, and Patriots defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington will attend as part of the league’s Coach Accelerator program. This gives Covington, who is entering his seventh season with the Patriots and after interviewing for the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator job in the offseason, an opportunity to connect with owners and executives with future career growth in mind. “It’s the integrity he has — in the boardroom and out,” said Josh O’Shea (11.5 sacks in 2022) of Covington. [Me] To be able to play with more freedom, to have more confidence, it definitely stems from it.”
9. The Brotherly Bond: The Patriots’ signing of San Diego State gave illegal defensive tackle Justus Tavees — brother of New England linebacker Galani Tavees — Tavees an opportunity to become the fifth set of brothers to play together in New England. The others are De Witt Kanal/or Justin Kanal (1968); WR Clarence Weathers / RB Robert Weathers (1983-84); TEs Rob Gronkowski / Dan Gronkowski (2011); and DBs Devin McCourty / Jason McCourty (2018-20). “It would be great if we could wear each other together,” Jahlani said at the start of the April draft.
10. Did you know?: The Patriots and Giants have met in 17 consecutive seasons prior to this year, marking the first time the two teams have not faced off against each other since 2004 (there was no prior date in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The Giants remain the team’s most preseason opponents in franchise history (31), behind the Eagles (24) and the Chiefs (23). The Patriots’ preseason roster will consist of the Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers, and Tennessee Titans.