All aboard

ANALYSIS

Patriots coaches will be wrapping up their work and hitting the road for a long-awaited vacation, taking advantage of the "dead" period on the NFL calendar over the next 4-5 weeks. There is no combine, no free agency period to prepare for, no draft, no more mini-camps, or organized team activities.

From a coaching perspective, one objective over the past two months was to build momentum into the start of training camp. The hope is that certain elements have been installed to the point that the work can be done at a competitive pace when players return in mid-to-late July.

Along those lines, this has been a winning offseason for the Patriots.

In a point that was made at the start of this week's Patriots mailbag on Boston.com, every player on the roster was present for the three weeks of voluntary organized team activities in May and June.

Look around the league and consider the uniqueness of that. Seemingly every team has at least one or two players angling for a new contract, and thus is holding out of even mandatory mini-camps.

The Patriots had their share of those situations in past years, most recently with cornerback Asante Samuel. But this year has brought no such contract turbulence in New England; the main bumps on the road have come in the form of off-field issues (e.g. Nick Kaczur).

In speaking with a former NFL scout recently, I was attempting to put more context around the fact that every player on the roster was present for voluntary organized team activities.

Is that rare? Am I making too much of that?

The answer was that it was rare, and that -- while some luck and good timing contributed to the full attendance -- it is a point that still should be highlighted.

It speaks to the leadership in the locker room, and the commitment of a veteran group of players.