Bill Belichick says it every year. Spring workouts are a teaching camp. Training camp, on the other hand, is a competitive camp. Jobs are on the line. Officially.
That makes Wednesday -- the first day of Patriots training camp practice -- a good time to take stock of what we perceive to be some of the more hotly contested positional battles this summer.
Keep in mind, the first few practices of camp will resemble what we saw in the spring. Shorts. T-shirts. But eventually the pads will come on and the competitive reps will be ratcheted up and we'll have a chance to score these matchups from one practice to the next.