FOXBORO — The Patriots’ offense needs a lot of work after their efficiency and production cratered during the 2022 season.

Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, they’ve narrowed their focus during the first three days of training camp.

The Patriots have exclusively worked in the red zone during team drills. It was an area of major weakness for the offense last season, so it makes sense that it would be an emphasis early this summer. But those circumstances also haven’t given fans or reporters a fully accurate portrayal of how the offense or defense will look this season.

Still, there’s been plenty to learn through the first three non-contact sessions from continued offensive struggles, rookies that are most likely to contribute and the most pressing needs.

It is true that the level of difficulty for the offense has been raised because the Patriots are practicing within the confines of the red zone with a shorter field and less area to complete passes. Still, one would hope that things would look a little bit better early this summer. Quarterbacks Mac Jones (19/40, two INTs), Bailey Zappe (21/43) and Trace McSorley (13/30) all are completing less than half of their passes.

The team isn’t panicking, though, and don’t believe there’s cause for concern. One source noted that the defense is typically ahead of the offense at this time of year, and that’s especially true since there’s so much continuity and so many veteran players on the defensive side of the ball. Combine that with the red zone and a new playbook, and the offense was bound to get out to a slow start.

Of course, we did hear many of these same justifications for early struggles last year, and things didn’t improve for the offense. There’s a lot more faith for Bill O’Brien to right the ship than there was for Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, however.

There are four pass-catcher who are essentially guaranteed starting roles in the Patriots’ offense: running back Rhamondre Stevenson, wide receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeVante Parker and tight end Hunter Henry. The fifth spot – whether that’s an extra running back, wide receiver or tight end – will likely rotate based on a number of different factors, but someone will step up to lead the rest of the skill players in snaps.

Tight end Mike Gesicki is the front-runner based on personnel packages we’ve seen so far in practice. But Gesicki and wide receivers Kendrick Bourne and Tyquan Thornton have yet to catch a pass in competitive team drills so far this summer.

Gesicki led the Dolphins with 13 red zone targets last season. Bourne and Thornton finished tied for fourth on the Patriots’ roster with five red zone targets apiece last year behind running back Damien Harris, wide receiver Jakobi Meyers and Henry.

So, it’s not as if the three players have little-to-no experience being targeted in the red zone. They’re all 6-foot-1 or taller. It’s just that Jones is targeting Henry, Smith-Schuster and Parker much, much more.

Two 2023 NFL Draft picks have truly stepped up and impressed so far in training camp.

Cornerback Christian Gonzalez has been a fixture in the starting defense and has two pass breakups in three practices. Despite being targeted heavily on Day 2, he’s allowed just four catches on eight targets overall. The Patriots desperately needed a big cornerback who could match up well with big, physical wide receivers, and Gonzalez is covering Smith-Schuster and Parker, both of whom fit that mold, well.

The other rookie who has shined was viewed as more of a dark horse for a roster spot this spring, and that’s wide receiver Demario Douglas, a sixth-round pick. I asked a source earlier this summer if Smith-Schuster was viewed as more of a slot or outside option. The source said that Smith-Schuster has flexibility if Douglas isn’t ready for major minutes in the slot right away. That set off alarms that it was even viewed as a possibility that Douglas could see playing time this season as a rookie.

Fast forward to training camp, and Douglas is positioned with the top group of skill position players while the rest of the Patriots’ rookie wide receivers are relegated to scout team work. It doesn’t feel out of the realm of possibility with Bourne, Thornton and Gesicki failing to set themselves apart that Douglas could find a path to snaps.

One team source was impressed with Douglas so far and noted that he’s playing fast. Douglas has received first-team reps in competitive drills but he has yet to be targeted by Jones. He has been targeted nine times by Zappe and caught five passes. That might not seem like a high rate until you consider that Zappe is only completing 48.8 percent of his passes. A 55.6 catch percentage is pretty high given the current state of the Patriots’ offense.

“He’s a smart kid,” head coach Bill Belichick said Friday. “He picks things up well, learns quickly, so all things that work in his favor, but we’ll see how it goes when things get more competitive next week.”

Three positions stand out as an area of potential weakness for the Patriots this season. We’ll get deeper into one of them in our next section, but two are on the offensive side of the ball: running back and offensive tackle. Running back is perhaps the easiest position to find on the open market, whereas offensive tackle is among the hardest.

Even though Calvin Anderson is on the non-football illness list and Conor McDermott was seeing reps at right tackle over Riley Reiff on Friday, it still seems unlikely that the Patriots will make a major move at offensive tackle before the season. The reason: It takes two to tango. There isn’t a great option available in free agency, and teams don’t want to trade away offensive tackle depth. The Patriots made their bed at the position by signing Anderson and Reiff this offseason and waiting to draft a tackle until the fourth round when they took Sidy Sow (so far a scout-teamer). Now they likely have to lay in it.

Running back is another story. The Patriots hosted running back Ezekiel Elliott on a visit Saturday, per a source, and have already worked out Leonard Fournette and Darrell Henderson. Dalvin Cook, Kareem Hunt, Kenyan Drake and Rex Burkhead are still free agents. It is much more likely that the Patriots add at running back relatively soon since Stevenson really is their only dependable back. Ty Montgomery is day to day with a leg injury, and second-year pros Pierre Strong and Kevin Harris are unproven.

It wouldn’t be surprising if something were to come together soon with a running back.

The Patriots’ defense has looked phenomenal so far. The biggest area of concern is at free safety, however. The only starter from last year’s unit who didn’t return is retired free safety Devin McCourty. Since the red zone is so condensed, the impact of a free safety has been felt less through the first three days of practice. Once the field opens up, we’re curious to see if a player like Thornton can really take the top off of the Patriots’ defense with traditional strong safeties like Kyle Dugger, Adrian Phillips and Jabrill Peppers patrolling the back.

A source said this summer that some trial and error is expected at this position in training camp and the preseason. The Patriots have shown a lot of big nickel sets with three safeties sharing the field.