Bill Belichick praises TE Jacob Hollister

FOXBORO – Lost in the middle of the conversation surrounding the disappearance of Malcolm Butler's Super Bowl, the Patriots' defense was also absent in action. They were tapped by the Eagles for 164 yards on the ground in this 41-33 loss.

This served as an imperfect bookends for how the 2017-18 season began: a loss for the Chiefs who saw Kareem Hunt & Co. beat 185 yards. With a coach who wants to engage less body to stop the rush and more attack to eliminate the big games of pbad, Bill Belichick and his team could never find the right formula or the right players.

So, what did the organization do? debacles? Work on redoing the four before. They added veteran Adrian Clayborn through the free agency and made an exchange for former first-rounder Danny Shelton. Although it was early in the camp, both had an impact and should help solidify what was previously a porous group.

Clayborn is doing well during practice exercises at the crossing and although he can always count on one goal, this should allow Trey Flowers to hit the inside in pbading situations and cause damage to offensive linemen. But up to now what has been most impressive about the old Falcon, is its ability to stand up to the race. Maybe it was too much time spent watching players like Cbadius Marsh try and fail a year ago, but most likely it's just that Clayborn is a solid pro who can potentially be a third third. Would not that be nice?

As for Shelton, the 343-pound player got regular representatives of the first team alongside Lawrence Guy and another first-round player, Malcom Brown. Considering that the Pats have refused to take the options on both Shelton and Brown, it seems that this is not just a competition for this year, but for a future contract too.

Shelton may have this early advance, displaying excellent lateral speed for a man of this size, but also showing the ability to root and be difficult to move. It's something that Alan Branch has done so well a few seasons ago. Maybe Branch had decided to run last season, maybe the Eagles would not have decided and defeated the Pats defense …

As for the other defensive line players who drew the Attention right here, DE Keionta Davis had a lot of reps with the second unit and had his moments. At 6 feet 4 inches 280, he is an athletic monster, but will he consistently translate? He missed all of last season with an injury. Defensive attacks Frank Herron and John Atkins have also been involved and even though they are probably outside looking for an alignment, they could be competing for a training squad.