Snap judgments from 1 preseason game...
Pats' defensive backups looked absolutely awful, especially the secondary. New England routinely got beat deep by backup Jags receivers, including two long TDs over beleaguered CB Cyrus Jones. New England may have one of the best one-two CB punches in the league this season in Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore, but if either of them has to miss extended time for some reason, we're going to be in trouble.
The competition at wide receiver got a little more interesting with really good games from Austin Carr and Jacob Hollister. Chances of either beating out Amendola for the last WR spot is slim at best, but I have to wonder if Belichick might be willing to bring a 7th WR onto the team. Carr especially looks like a solid option if someone gets injured.
Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett both looked decent, though they both had to deal with suboptimal OL play. Garoppolo got a surprising amount of play time. Normally, I'd say that this was an attempt by Belichick to demonstrate that Garoppolo can still play well despite a disappointing training camp, but since his contract is up at the end of the year, that seems counter intuitive. Maybe Belichick feels there's a genuine possibility of Brady falling off this year.
Barely any players who played significant time last season played at all in this game, so unfortunately didn't get a chance to see the newer high profile FAs in action. Hopefully I'll get the chance to complain about them like the spoiled fan I am next week.
