Tommy DeVito didn’t arrive in New England until Aug. 27, when the Patriots claimed him off waivers from the Giants. A year ago at this time, he was still in New York. Last season in Foxborough, he spent the whole year as the third quarterback behind Drake Maye and Joshua Dobbs, learning the offense from the classroom and doing most of his practice work in scout-team settings.
This summer has looked very different. DeVito is now the Patriots’ primary backup in Year 2, and that promotion has given him something he didn’t have before: real reps in the offense. He says that’s been the biggest reason for the jump he’s made since spring.
“It’s a different world,” DeVito said. “It’s one thing to be in the classroom and be in it and learn and everything, but it’s another thing to get reps in it.
Because last year, I didn’t get reps in the offense. My first reps were during OTAs (this year).
So to be able to actually take everything from the classroom and bring it to the field and physically feel mistakes, that’s personally how I learn my best.”
The payoff has shown up all over the practice field during camp. DeVito has looked sharp running the second unit, and the deep ball has been the calling card.
He hit DeMario Douglas for a 40-plus-yard gain in Friday’s intra-squad scrimmage. Over the last two days, he connected twice with Kyle Williams.
Then in a one-minute drill against the Indianapolis Colts, he needed only one snap to finish the job, dropping a long touchdown to Mack Hollins down the right sideline.
Safety Dell Pettus sees a quarterback who looks locked in.
“The talent always been there but he’s just in a flow state right now,” Pettus said of DeVito. “Like, he looks fantastic.
I love practicing against him. When you practice against like two great quarterbacks, two quarterbacks who are very talented, it makes you better and makes the defense better because you know you have to be at the top of your game.”
The Patriots obviously would rather not have to lean on DeVito this season. But his value is clear: if something happens to Maye, New England has a backup who has already lived through a sudden climb.
DeVito knows that feeling well. As a rookie, he had to prepare like a starter and eventually won three straight games after being pushed up the depth chart.
“That whole prepare like a starter thing was very real to me my rookie year when I was young,” DeVito said. “So I treated that as such whether you’re the two or the three, because even two years ago when I was in New York, I was the three one week, and then the next week, I was starting.
You’ve always got to stay ready. So I just keep that mindset.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel has liked what he’s seen through the offseason program and 14 training camp practices from the quarterback who wears two gold chains.
“2 Chains is doing a nice job,” Vrabel said Tuesday morning. “He continues to learn, and with it being a new system, I think it got his attention a little bit better, as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, I know what this is,’ and kind of taking it for granted. I think he’s really done a nice job.”
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