These last few weeks of freedom before training camp are the weeks coaches worry about most.
But Patriots quarterback Tom Brady told his teammates before the break not to think of it as a break.
Via Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal, Brady made sure to send word to his teammates not to show up out of shape when they report to camp July 23.
“I think we really had our vacation. I think that part’s over,” Brady said. “Not that you shouldn’t enjoy time with your family and stuff like that. For those seven months we’re pretty busy every day. I think you really focus on being prepared for camp. It’s really a time to start accelerating your preparation because you’ve got a lot of time to basically know what you need to improve on.
“Maybe it’s conditioning or any particular aspect of your game that you really need to work on that showed up in this particular camp, and you’ve got five weeks to work on it, make it better so you come into camp at the most important time, really at your best.”
The Patriots are again going to be working in new offensive parts, and won’t know when they’ll see tight end Rob Gronkowski, so being ready to go from the start of camp will be crucial for them.