Roberts does know swat
Ball-hawking corner ready to show stuff
FOXBORO — Cornerback Darryl Roberts’ résumé suggests he’ll be around the ball quite often tonight when the Patriots host the Packers in the preseason opener at Gillette Stadium.
The seventh-round pick will get plenty of playing time, so his penchant for swatting down passes surely will be in effect on the big stage. Roberts has a team-best 10 pass breakups in 11 training camp practices, including a camp-high four during Tuesday’s session against backup quarterbacks Jimmy Garoppolo and Ryan Lindley.
“I just try to go hard,” Roberts said. “When you go hard and take coaching, good things will happen.”
Roberts’ performance isn’t a fluke. He broke up 18 passes last season at Marshall and showed up plenty of times during organized team activities and minicamp. He was especially strong Tuesday when he batted down back-to-back passes from Garoppolo to Josh Boyce and knocked aside a Lindley bid that was intercepted by safety Tavon Wilson. Roberts also had a highlight-reel diving breakup against Danny Amendola on Friday.
It’s hardly been perfect for Roberts, who was beat his fair share of times, too. Boyce scorched him Monday for a 50-yard touchdown from Tom Brady for Roberts’ worst offense.
“Every receiver that you face is going to be pretty good,” Roberts said. “It’s just a competition of who wants to win.”
Roberts has earned some rotations with the starters, but he still hasn’t caught Malcolm Butler or Logan Ryan. The rookie could unseat veteran additions Tarell Brown, Robert McClain and Bradley Fletcher down the line, and if he keeps up his performance, there’s little doubt Roberts will be on the 53-man roster to start the season.
In a way, Roberts is this year’s Butler, as a cornerback who has been around the ball enough to force the coaches’ hand but may not yet have the consistency to crack the game-day lineup on a consistent basis in the regular season.
There’s still plenty of time for that to be determined, and Roberts’ first opportunity to show his stuff against an opposing NFL offense is tonight.
“I’m just ready to play, go out and help the team and show what I can do,” he said. “It’s a pretty exciting feeling. I’m just ready to go out there and compete, have fun and fly around with my teammates.”
More Moore
Defensive lineman Zach Moore added about 15 pounds this offseason to get up to 290 in time for camp. The Patriots wanted Moore to fill out so he could take on more of a role inside than on the edge, and that could increase his chances of making the team.
Moore improved his diet and worked out at a pair of facilities, Performance Enhancement Professionals in Arizona and Englebert Training Systems in Minnesota, to follow the team’s offseason plan.
“It was basically a combination of everything — good dieting, working out as hard as I can, getting stronger in the weight room,” Moore said. “But at the same time, keeping my quickness and furthering my strength. You don’t want to gain weight and then lose the things that you had before.”
Moore, who sometimes stays after practice to work on his technique against right tackle Sebastian Vollmer, said he has felt the difference in a positive way on the field, so he sounded pretty excited to test out the new frame tonight against the Packers.
“Any playing time I get, I’m going 100 percent at whatever I need to do to show that I can play in this league once again,” Moore said.
Because of all this, the 2014 sixth-round pick has upped his chances of sticking around for another season. Defensive ends Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich and Jabaal Sheard are roster locks, and the same can be said for mid-round picks Geneo Grissom and Trey Flowers. At defensive tackle, the Pats have Malcom Brown, Dominique Easley, Sealver Siliga, Alan Branch and Chris Jones.
It won’t be an easy line to crack, but Moore figures to be next up if anyone goes down. Or if he plays his way onto the team, Belichick will be perfectly happy with overloading a position.
“The more competition there is around here, the better it will make me,” Moore said. “That will just raise my standards of how I need to go about my business.”
The survey said . . .
ESPN polled more than 100 players on the Deflategate issue and 72 percent of respondents believe the Patriots were responsible for lowering air pressure of the footballs, while 68 percent said they think other teams do the same thing. Also, 60 percent said the Pats aren’t cheaters.
As for Brady’s four-game suspension, nearly 80 percent of the players said it was too long. . . .
The Patriots waived/injured running back Tyler Gaffney, which means he’ll be placed on injured reserve today at 4 p.m. if he isn’t claimed.
Gaffney hasn’t practiced since Aug. 1 due to an unknown injury.