Patriots camp stock watch: Gesicki emerging as a red zone mismatch

FOXBORO -- Training camp progress is not always linear. Particularly for young players or veterans who are new to a given system. There are good days and bad. Slow days and active ones.

Mike Gesicki is one of the best and most recent examples of that phenomenon at Patriots camp. Good spring. Then not much in the way of stand-out moments early in camp. Now? In two of the last three practices behind Gillette Stadium, he's made arguably the two most impressive catches of the summer. 

On Sunday, it was a one-handed grab on the sidelines with Jabrill Peppers in coverage. The team reviewed the film later and found that he somehow got both his feet inbounds.

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On Tuesday, it was more of the same. Peppers was in good position again. There were two more Patriots defenders in the vicinity. But no one could stop Gesicki as he reached up with his right hand, snagged Mac Jones' pass in the back of the end zone and tapped both feet inbounds before hitting the deck. The closest official from Land Clark's crew immediately gave the touchdown signal. 

It was the kind of play that forced you to look around, check with anyone close by to see if they saw it the same way, to make sure your eyes weren't playing tricks on you. 

"That's who he is," Hunter Henry said. "That's what he does. That's what he's done in this league. It was a big-time play."

Gesicki kicks off our latest Stock Watch piece following Tuesday's practice...

Stock Up

Mike Gesicki

If Gesicki can be the kind of red zone threat he appeared to be on Tuesday -- if he can bail out Mac Jones in tight situations when things are condensed and sped up inside the 20 -- he'll be more than worthy of the $4.5 million he signed for this offseason. 

David Andrews

Rock solid. Hard to find a blemish from Andrews in camp to this point, and he had one of the most impressive one-on-one reps in the trenches Tuesday when he stonewalled the typically-hard-to-handle Christian Barmore.

While the defense won most of those battles in the last practice of the week before Thursday's preseason game, Kody Russey (against Lawrence Guy), James Ferentz (against Daniel Ekuale) and Chasen Hines (against Keion White) all won reps as well.

Keion White

From my vantage point on the hill about 100 yards away, White went 2-1 in his one-on-one reps. He first got by fellow rookie Jake Andrews with an inside move. Later he went inside on Conor McDermott and it looked like McDermott might've gotten a handful of jersey. I also credited White with a "sack" on Bailey Zappe during a red-zone period at the end of practice.

The rookie looks to me like he's deserving of a rotational gig up front for the Patriots. Have watched him closely during these practices, understanding that the Patriots viewed him as a first-round type of talent, and his combination of power and quickness is impressive.

Trent Brown

Let's get the big left tackle in here for the second straight day, because for the second straight day his participation rate increased. For the first time since the pads came on, Brown participated in 11-on-11 periods and handled some contact.

He did not participate in one-on-ones. And he did not take every 11-on-11 rep -- he was out there primarily as a scout-team left tackle, playing in front of Mac Jones and other regulars to get the Patriots defense ready for Thursday night. And he looked rusty, getting all he could handle from second-year defensive lineman Sam Roberts (two sacks off Brown's side). But Tuesday represented progress for Brown. 

Stock Down

Conor McDermott

It looked like McDermott had a couple of tough snaps against White and Josh Uche. When Uche bends down to get low and eliminates the vast majority of the surface area a lineman has to strike in pass protection, that's a hard thing for any tall tackle to deal with. It looks like that move has given McDermott (6-foot-8, 310 pounds) difficulty.

Uche got around McDermott again in the two-minute period during what was essentially the last rep of the practice.

Atonio Mafi

Getting back to the point about non-linear training camp progression? Mafi fits that conversation. He's been solid over the last week as he's been asked to step in and play a lot of snaps with Cole Strange and Mike Onwenu (PUP) out. But there is no shortage of teaching moments for the rookie fifth-rounder in these practices.

On Tuesday, he appeared to give up ground in a tough matchup with Davon Godchaux. Later it was Justus Tavai who battled him to a stalemate. Tavai also seemed to coax Mafi into getting his weight out over his feet on another rep, forcing Mafi to lunge forward and lose his positioning. 

Screen blocking

This may seem like a small thing, but Bill Belichick wants his players to avoid being error repeaters. With the officials watching 11-on-11 action closely, the Patriots were called for an illegal player downfield penalty on a screen. It was the second time in as many days that the Patriots have been flagged for that particular infraction on a screen. Either the linemen involved need to be more patient in getting out to make their blocks or the ball needs to come out faster.

Either way, there is still some tweaking in the screen game that apparently needs to occur. They've worked extensively on those types of plays throughout camp and are probably hoping they can get the necessary details down in short order.