FOXBORO -- It's hard not to notice the need the Patriots had at the receiver position during their first mandatory minicamp practice of the week.
DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne trotted out with Mac Jones and the rest of the first-team offense. Two capable NFL receivers. But last year's second-round pick (Tyquan Thornton) and this year's pricey offseason acquisition at the position (JuJu Smith-Schuster) were nowhere to be found.
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On the second-team offense that ran with Bailey Zappe in a competitive 7-on-7 period, Raleigh Webb and Tre Nixon were the wideouts. Sixth-round receiver Demario "Pop" Douglas saw work with Jones on Monday while fellow sixth-rounder Kayshon Boutte missed the session. Undrafted rookie quarterback Malik Cunningham -- who admitted after the workout that he's functioning at receiver "off pure athleticism" -- has seen valuable reps at wideout, as has fellow undrafted free-agent signee Ed Lee.
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The Patriots' NFL-caliber wide receiver talent on the field this spring has been sparse. Which is why it should come as no surprise that even Bill Belichick was willing to acknowledge his team's interest in free-agent wideout DeAndre Hopkins.
"We're working through it," Belichick said after confirming that the team had been in touch with Hopkins.
Belichick said he wasn't sure about the timing of Hopkins' planned visit, which is reportedly set for Tuesday.
"I'm not a travel agent," Belichick said. "I'm not going to say it's gonna happen here, not gonna happen. There's a lot of other stuff going on that I'm not directly involved in, so I'm not going to say anything and then you could turn around and say I misled you in some way because that's not what I'm going to do."
Jones was effusive in his praise of Hopkins after Monday's work, but careful to acknowledge that he was happy with the weapons at his disposal currently on the roster.
"That's definitely a hypothetical," Jones said of a Hopkins signing. "But I think DeAndre's a great player. You watch his film from college all the way through the NFL, he's done a great job. Obviously we'd love to have him. But we do have a great group of guys. We just know that we want to win. I know that all the guys feel the same way.
"But I'm really pleased with the playmakers we have on our team. We've come out here and really bought into the system. That'll really show in training camp and preseason. It's sometimes hard to show it out here, but I've been really pleased with the tight ends, running backs and all the receivers. The young guys, the old guys, [Parker] and everybody. We have a good group. We're going to keep coming together and whoever's in that room, we're going to keep trying to dominate together."
While Jones has appeared to find early chemistry with tight ends Mike Gesicki and Hunter Henry, he has leaned heavily on that pair. Of his first 18 competitive passes Monday, 11 went to Gesicki and Henry. Two went to receivers.
After practice, Jones described the challenge presented to him and his offensive teammates by the players (and schemes) coming at them from the Patriots' defensive side.
"Right now it's about trying to stick to your rules," Jones said. "It's hard because they throw the kitchen sink at you. They're doing whatever they want. But they do a great job. It's kind of fun, too. You learn something every day because you might not have seen it. (Defensive play-caller) Steve (Belichick) is in there all night drawing something up that looks like something we saw. But then it's something else. Shout out to those guys for just doing a great job."
Jones did find both Parker and Bourne against blitz looks late in the practice; Bourne's went for a touchdown against an all-out blitz call. But getting healthy at that position and adding another talented body would go a long way in elevating the group new offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien has at his disposal.
No wonder they're intrigued by the prospects of landing Hopkins.
