The Patriots announced on Tuesday that the team will start training camp practices on July 27th. Players are scheduled to report to camp on July 26th. The first four days of practice are scheduled to be open to the public, but times for those practices are still to be determined.
The Patriots held mandatory minicamp last week, with Bill Belichick canceling the final practice due to a forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms. The team also canceled their final OTAs of the offseason, opting to schedule voluntary workouts for the players.
The Patriots will hold joint practices with the Carolina Panthers on August 16th and August 17th. They will face off against the Giants on August 11th, the Panthers on August 19th, and the Raiders on August 26th. This will be the 17th consecutive season the Patriots and Giants will be scheduled to play in the preseason, though the game in 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19. The Patriots are 5-11 in those games since 2005.
As a reminder, this is the second season since the NFL changed the number of preseason games to three instead of four. This was part of the agreement with the NFLPA to increase the regular season to 17 games. The Patriots went 3-0 in the preseason last year.
Photo: (Stew Milne – AP Photo)