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Jacoby Brissett continues to impress with Patriots

DeAndre Carter celebrated his 12-yard touchdown hookup with Jacoby Brissett in Friday’s win.Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo have been the topics of so much discussion that it would be easy to forget that the Patriots, in fact, employ three quarterbacks, but Jacoby Brissett provided a reminder with his 9-for-9 performance against the Carolina Panthers on Friday night.

After Brissett’s performance, coach Bill Belichick said that he would give “good consideration” to starting Brissett in the team’s final preseason game against the New York Giants on Thursday.

Brissett, who threw for 85 yards and a touchdown in the 19-17 win over the Panthers, was flattered, but said the compliment wouldn’t change his preparation.

“You prepare every week as if you’re starting and go out there and you know, try to make sure that you’re on the same level as the guys that’s out on the field,” Brissett said Sunday.

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The 23-year-old rookie has felt more and more comfortable with each snap he plays, even though he said he’s “still learning” the playbook.

“I think every day until I leave here I’ll still be learning something about it,” Brissett said.

Even though Brady, Belichick, and Josh McDaniels have had years together to develop a hefty playbook, Brissett said he doesn’t let himself acknowledge that there is no way he could be on the same page as players who have had years to learn the Patriots system.

“I think that’s the most important thing for any young player, to continue to improve, continue to make progress, to correct some of the things from the week before, or maybe from things that come up in practice,” Belichick said on a conference call Saturday. “They’re going to experience new things; they’re not all going to go right.”

Most things did go right for Brissett on Friday, though. Even though he found plenty to nitpick — he felt good about his mechanics but was focusing on doing “the little things” like making quicker reads at game speed — Brissett said that the game helped him feel like he belongs in the NFL.

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“Definitely,” Brissett said. “But you see some of the things that you messed up on and could have done better. That’s the main thing you really take away from that situation.”

Awaiting word

With cut day fast approaching — the roster must be trimmed to 75 by Tuesday — even a veteran like Chris Long notices when players come and go or nameplates get taken down in the locker room.

“I mean, you try to keep tunnel vision during camp, but certainly there’s the element of it is you have teammates coming and going so it just drives home the reality that this is a great opportunity,” Long said.

“It makes you appreciate, you know, this my ninth year and I’ve seen people come and go, it just makes you appreciate things and anytime you come to work and come in the building you should cherish that.”

Defensive end Trey Flowers also doesn’t have to worry about his spot, but, as just a second-year player, he easily remembers the uncertainty.

“It can be on your mind,” Flowers said. “It can be nerve-wracking, but for me I just took it upon that you can control what you can control.”

Lenkaitis dead at 70

Bill Lenkaitis, a former offensive lineman and team dentist for the Patriots, died Saturday at 70.

Lenkaitis came to the Patriots in 1971 after the team acquired him off waivers from the Chargers. He played 11 seasons in New England, starting 119 of 151 games from 1971-81 and was part of the 1978 team that went 11-5 and won the Patriots’ first division title. That team set an NFL rushing record with 3,165 yards, which still stands.

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“Bill centered one of the greatest offensive lines, not just in franchise history, but in NFL history,” Patriots chairman and CEO Robert Kraft said in a release.

“As a season-ticket holder during his playing days, I was a fan of the player he was on the field. But, in my 22 years of ownership, I became an even bigger fan of the person he was off the field. He was a big man with an even bigger personality and a huge heart.”

Lenkaitis earned a dental degree from the University of Tennessee and became the team dentist while he was still an active player, a position he continued to hold after his retirement from playing.

Visiting hours will be held at the Dockray & Thomas Funeral Home in Canton on Wednesday from 4-8 p.m. A funeral mass will be held at St. Gerard Majella Church in Canton on Thursday at 10 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Lenkaitis’s memory to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.


Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @NoraPrinciotti.