Welcome to the Friday Five!
Each week during the NFL regular season, I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.
Ready, set, football.
#### 1\. Season-opening surprise
Four years ago, Tony Dews stared across the field during a season opener in complete surprise.
Dews, then a Titans assistant and now the Patriots’ running backs coach, had prepared his players for the Cardinals’ defense for weeks. He knew it front to back. But the defense before him had taken a shape he never expected.
That day, en route to a 38-13 win, Arizona completely shifted its identity as a defense, forming a 6-1 front across from Tennessee’s run game. It throttled their preferred outside zone scheme in the same way the Patriots had shut down Sean McVay’s Rams in Super Bowl LIII with the same game plan.
“It was a really rough outing,” Dews said. “They were doing some things that we hadn’t quite prepared for, and you learn. Yeah, you learn.”
Come Sunday, it might be time to learn all over again. Because, aside from a few fireworks, what can we possibly expect from this game?
The Patriots have a new head coach, a new (but familiar) offensive coordinator and a first-time defensive coordinator. The Raiders have a new head coach, quarterback and offensive coordinator, who spent the last seven years in college. The schemes have changed, the rosters have been overhauled. If this isn’t the most unpredictable Patriots’ season opener, what was?
All of which is to say every result is on the table Sunday, and adjustments will be paramount. The Patriots could pull away or get dropped by 20. From the sidelines to the stands, it’s time to buckle up.
#### 2\. Rhamondre Stevenson, healing
This Sunday, Rhamondre Stevenson will have 13 family members in the stands for the Patriots’ season opener. A year ago, it would have been 14.
Last spring, Stevenson lost his father, Robert, and remained away from the team for weeks after his passing. Dews flew out to visit him in his hometown Las Vegas. Stevenson stayed in regular contact with Vrabel via text as the Patriots began their offseason program. Stevenson eventually returned for spring practices and briefly spoke about his loss with reporters.
In a recent sitdown with WBZ’s Dan Roche, he revealed a bit more. This season, Stevenson will be carrying some of his father’s ashes in a bracelet he plans to wear throughout the season, starting Sunday against his hometown Raiders.
“Me and my dad (Robert) were best friends,” Stevenson said, as transcribed by ESPN. “Every time I come out here, I hear his voice talking to me … I know he is still with me and carrying that love with me and my family.”
#### 3\. Belichick bans Pats scouts
North Carolina coach Bill Belichick watches his team during NCAA college football practice, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
From the petty department: Bill Belichick has banned Patriots scouts from attending University of North Carolina practices to evaluate his players, sources confirmed to the Herald.
NFL scouts visiting college practices has been commonplace for decades. It allows teams to visit with young prospects before they emerge as college stars and gather information unavailable in settings like the scouting combine and Pro Days. Belichick knows all of this, having spent plenty of time scouting on the road himself.
To be frank, what a baby.
Belichick obviously has ample reason to be upset with Robert Kraft, who blew the cover on their “mutual parting of ways” in January 2024 when, on a podcast less than a year later, he admitted he’d actually fired Belichick. But this doesn’t punish Kraft. It hinders poorly paid scouts who are on the road for 300-plus days a year, and dims the spotlight on college players who came to play for Belichick so they could make the NFL.
Instead, all those kids been handed so far is a 34-point ass-whooping on national television, and limited time with scouts, including those from other teams who have reportedly had trouble on campus, too.
This is the 33rd NFL team?
This is Belichick acting in the best interest of his players?
This is ignoring the noise?
No, Bill, this is a circus. And you are its ringmaster.
#### 4\. Dugger rebounding?
At Monday’s practice, Kyle Dugger swapped out his No. 23 jersey for a fresh No. 11.
The reason?
He had been tasked with simulating Raiders safety Jeremy Chinn, a fellow hard-hitting safety, on the Patriots’ scout-team defense. Scout-team duties often fall to players lowest on the depth chart, who run opponents’ plays against the starting units to prepare them for game days.
On Wednesday, however, Dugger took the field in his old No. 23 jersey. And he did so again Thursday, perhaps reflecting a change in mindset from the coaching staff who handed the No. 11 jersey to new defensive back Charles Woods. Is Dugger rising back up the depth chart?
Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams didn’t say when asked Thursday afternoon, but he did praise the 29-year-old safety for the progress he’s shown after a disappointing summer that put him on the trade block.
“Dugger has done a good job of doing the things that we’re asking him to do,” Williams said, “and I feel good about where he is right now.”
#### 5\. Vrabel’s changeup
Convinced the Patriots must win the second half Sunday to beat the Raiders, Vrabel changed his practice script this week to simulate halftime adjustments.
Allow him to explain.
“We actually put a break in there midway through practice where we have two team periods left,” Vrabel began Wednesday, “and I said, ‘You guys are going to think this is some gimmick, but it’s going to be me saying, Hey, coaches, get together, tell them, this is how practice started, whatever’s going on, let’s be conscious here to finish strong, win the second half. Win the second half.’
“And I think it’s just a good reminder, and working on our conditioning.”
On Monday, Vrabel claimed 12 of the 16 teams who were victorious in Week 1 last year outscored their opponents in the second half.
The Patriots, oddly enough, were one of the four exceptions, holding on to a 16-10 victory in Cincinnati despite being outscored by four after halftime.