FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots held their second of two joint practices with the Giants on Thursday on the upper grass fields behind Gillette Stadium.
The session lasted close to two hours, a little shorter than Wednesday, and was definitely less intense. For a second straight day temperatures were close to 90 degrees and it was very humid.
There were multiple players missing, including Jarrett Stidham (PUP), Stephon Gilmore (PUP), Terez Hall (PUP), Bryon Cowart (PUP), Joshuah Bledsoe (NFI), Cameron McGrone (NFI), Kahale Warring, N’Keal Harry, Matt LaCosse, Nick Thurman and Justin Bethel.
With that being said, several players returned, including Cam Newton, Tre Nixon, Josh Uche, Isaiah Wynn and Nelson Agholor.
Once again, Hunter Henry, Myles Bryant and Brandon Bolden wore red non-contact jerseys. David Andrews and Jonathan Jones left the practice and did not return. It was hard to tell what Andrews’ issue was, but Jones seemed to have something wrong with his left leg/foot.
Here some observations from the session.
— Newton returned and it was if he didn’t miss the last five days to do a COVID-19 testing “misunderstanding.” The veteran led all of the quarterback reps in individual work and team drills. It was a lighter day in terms of 11-on-11 work, as Newton only got one series where he went 4-for-7. It was similar to what we’ve seen to this point in the summer.
— Jones got the second offensive series with the first-team and it didn’t go as well. It was a long, long drive (close to 20 plays) and that wasn’t by design. There were several drops and penalties along the way. The practice was set up to simulate game situations, so it was not a normal drive by any means.
The rookie wasn’t as good as he was on Wednesday. Jones has a bad interception with Logan Ryan being the recipient, as he easily undercut Jonnu Smith on an over route. He did have a perfect deep ball to Gunner Olszewski that the wide receiver dove for, but couldn’t hold on. Another one of his better throws was to Kendrick Bourne in the back of the end zone, as he gave his receiver a chance to make a great play by with getting both feet in bounds.
Jones got another series with the backup offensive line, but it was a strange one. There were two running plays and then a pass to Jakobi Meyers over the middle and that was it.
— Based on what we saw Thursday, Newton remains the starter and nothing seemed to change with him missing the last five days. One other notable thing was at the end of practice the entire offense gathered in a circle and Newton was in the middle of it. It’s unclear what was said, but it shows he’s taking command of the unit.
— Uche was easily the best player on defense. After missing Wednesday, he came back in a big way. The outside linebacker had four-ish would-be sacks and drew a couple of holding penalties. If there was any concern at all with him missing Wednesday, that was put to bed a day later.
— Meyers continues to be the Patriots’ most dependable wide receiver. He was consistent once again with several catches over the middle. Bourne did have a solid two days against the Giants.
— Overall, there were lots of penalties by both teams (officials were on site) and there wasn’t as much flow as there was on Thursday. Part of it was it was more of a situational practice.
— Once again there was plenty of special teams work.
— Tedy Bruschi was present on the field, which has been a regular occurance, and Robert Kraft made an appearance as well.
— This was the final training camp practice of the summer and the last time the media will be able to watch the entire practice. Regular-season rules begin Friday.
