Following two straight training camp practices in full pads, the Patriots wore shells for their workout Tuesday evening inside Gillette Stadium in front of a decent crowd that filled out portions of both sidelines of the lower bowl seating.
Overall the practice was at a much lighter intensity and included plenty of work in the kicking game. The 12th practice of the summer, it was the last open to the media and fans prior to Thursday night’s preseason opener against Washington in Foxborough.
Earlier in the day, Bill Belichick talked about the way his team has prepared for its first taste of game action and facing competition in a different uniform.
“This is a good week for us to start to introduce some scouting report and preparation, methods for players to start to get into a routine on preparing for an opponent as opposed to going through our training camp or OTA practices that we've done up to this point,” Belichick said. “A lot of good learning experiences and opportunities for us this week. Try to take advantage of them and make the most of them and build off that.”
The exhibition battle with The Football Team is the first of three preseason games under the NFL’s new 17-game regular season schedule format. New England will also hold joint practices over the next two weeks with the Eagles and then Giants. So there are certainly a lot of moving parts to the Patriots preparation and competition on the horizon.
“Of course you have to see the whole picture, but I think what we have to look at right now is just what's best for our team, what's best for each individual and how's that fit together as a team so that there's a level of continuity and so forth in what we're doing,” Belichick said of handling reps and playing time in Thursday night’s preseason opener. “So, we'll just take a look at this and then re-evaluate where we are after this game as we head into Philadelphia and Giants week. Right now we're really just focused on how to get the most out of this opportunity to prepare our team, to evaluate our team, and to see where we are after spending a lot of time by ourselves, where we are relative to looking at another opponent. Really just take it one day at a time here, and we'll wait and worry about Philadelphia when we get to Philadelphia.”
Beyond the low-key tempo of the practice paving the way for actual preseason action, here are one man’s observations of the workout from the Gillette Stadium press box:
--Those players not on the field for the workout in shells included Nick Folk, Stephon Gilmore, Tyler Gaffney, Joe Cardona, Chase Winovich, Christian Barmore, Cameron McGrone, David Andrews, Joshuah Bledsoe, Hunter Henry and Byron Cowart. The new absentees were Gaffney and Barmore.
--Jarrett Stidham was once again on the field in street clothes watching the practice while wearing a mask as he continues to recover from reported back surgery.
--Veteran safety Adrian Colbert returned to the practice field wearing a red, non-contact jersey for the workout. He jogged up and down both sidelines before practice trying to engage and excite the crowd in the stands.
--Not only is Andrews reportedly dealing with a minor injury, but the veteran center welcomed a new child into the world on Monday after nearly a week of waiting that he detailed via his social media accounts.
--Though Agholor was on the field for the start of practice, the hasn’t done much over the last couple days. He leaves the field when the action picks up and gets past early positional drills and installation periods. He clearly still isn’t at full health after missing time previously.
--Punter Jake Bailey and newly-signed long snapper Brian Khoury were the first players on the field.
--For whatever it’s worth, the offensive players did stretching on one half of the Gillette visitor’s sideline, while the defense utilized the full length of the home sideline. For most of the practice the offense used the visitor’s sideline, while the defense utilized the home sideline.
--There was a new player on the field on defense wearing a blue No. 19 jersey. That’s reportedly former Patriots offseason roster player Malik Gant. Gant reportedly worked out for the team and has now apparently joined the roster. The defensive back out of Marshal was on IR with New England in 2019 and spent time with team last offseason.
--As has been the case so often during camp, Belichick spent a lot of time chatting with Matt Patricia during the early portions of practice and remained alongside his former defensive coordinator-turned-senior football adviser often during the workout.
--During kickoff return work J.J. Taylor, Marvin Hall, Bolden and Isaiah Zuber were back deep to work on returns. Quinn Nordin handled the first couple kicking reps for the scout kickoff unit and put the ball just past the goal line. Bailey had a couple of the reps as well, seemingly working on putting the ball high and short of the goal line.
--In what looked like a high-level kickoff unit at the end of the kickoff drill the group consisted from left sideline to right, of Adrian Phillips, Brandon King, Justin Bethel, Harvey Langi, Cody Davis, Matthew Slater, Kyle Dugger, Gunner Olszewski, Joejuan Williams and Jonathan Jones.
Without doing any real research, it’s hard to imagine that another team has a better, more experienced corps of special teams talent than the Patriots.
Whether all those players can or will end up on the final roster remains to be seen, but the kicking units are loaded with talent beyond just the specialists.
--Robert Kraft was on the field watching the workout.
--Former Packers GM and legendary personnel man Ron Wolf was in attendance for the practice. Wolf watched from the sideline with Eliot Wolf, his son and current Patriots scouting consultant.
--During a punt return segment, Taylor was also back deep along with Olszewski, Hall and Jakobi Meyers.
--Powerful NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus watched the practice from the Optum Club at the end of the field. Prior to practice he chatted with a couple of his Patriots clients in Jonnu Smith and Colbert.
--Though there was very little that was overly productive during the session, Harvey Langi did have a nice interception of a Brian Hoyer pass down the hash in one 11-on-11 segment.
--Nordin – which for the record is pronounced Nor-dean – closed out the practice with field goals from varying distances. He hit his first attempt from 48 yards but then followed that up with an apparent miss from 33 that went wide left. He then closed out successfully with kicks from 43 and 46 yards.
--After Belichick got his team together for the conclusion of practice, players acknowledged the fans in attendance, drawing a cheer from the small crowd.
--Those players meeting with the media for on-field press conferences after the short, uneventful workout included Trent Brown, Davon Godchaux, Matt Judon, Meyers and Jalen Mills.