The New England Patriots have been competing hard during a lot of days on the practice field behind Gillette Stadium during their first two weeks of training camp.
Now, they're preparing for their first preseason contest under head coach Jerod Mayo.
Over the first 11 camp sessions, there have been a number of training camp battles that have been playing out. Who's winning those competitions so far?
Quarterback
New England entered training camp with four quarterbacks, but everyone knew that it would be Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett competing for the starting job and Bailey Zappe and Joe Milton III competing for the third spot.
So far, however, it hasn't been much of a competition. Maye has been getting consistent reps with the backups while Brissett has practiced with the starters. And, with that being said, the veteran has looked better.
Maye hasn't looked bad, but the lack of talent around him hasn't helped.
Zappe has looked better than Milton throughout camp, but with the team just drafting the latter in the sixth round, it's hard to imagine them moving on from him completely already.
Wide Receiver
The Patriots have a few players who are locks to make the roster at wide receiver in 2024, including DeMario Douglas, Ja'Lynn Polk, K.J. Osborn and Javon Baker.
Kendrick Bourne is currently on active/PUP as he returns from a torn ACL, but he's also been involved in trade conversations for Brandon Aiyuk. If he isn't traded he's also guaranteed a spot.
That means JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Reagor and Kayshon Boutte are fighting for one or two spots.
So far, Smith-Schuster hasn't looked great, and he's battled drops. Thornton has had a strong camp, but he's dealt with injuries again, which has been the story of his young career. Reagor has been pretty good, making plays and working on special teams. Boutte is solid, but he still has work to do.
If cuts were tomorrow, Thornton or Reagor would probably be the picks over the other two.
Offensive tackle(s)
New England signed Chukwuma Okorafor and drafted Caedan Wallace with the expectation that one of them would win the starting left tackle job. Many also believed that Michael Onwenu would start on the right side.
However, Onwenu has only repped at guard so far. Okorafor and Wallace have gotten opportunities at both right and left, but neither has looked overly impressive.
Recently, the Patriots have given a lot of starting tackle opportunities to Vederian Lowe on the left side and Calvin Anderson on the right.
That would be a pretty big failure for the offseason plan.
Kicker
Chad Ryland was the worst kicker in football last year, making just 64% of his field goals. With that, they signed Joey Slye to compete with him.
Through 11 camp sessions, Ryland has made 24 of his 27 field goal attempts in full-team drills. Slye has made 22 of his 27.
Ryland has talked about the work he's put in this offseason, and it looks like it's working.
