Live Coverage: Practice No. 10

FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots and Jags are on the field in full pads for the first joint practices of the summer. We’ll have all the details — let’s get to it.



• Lots of big names here at the start of practice, including Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas and Jags executive vice president Tom Coughlin. It's a full house -- the crowd is fired up for the first joint practice of the summer.

• Special teams ace Matthew Slater is the only regular missing at the start of practice. He's been banged up the last few days.

• Nate Solder, Mike Gillislee, Cody Hollister, David Jones, James O’Shaughnessy were part of a group that went down to the lower fields after practice began. Malcolm Mitchell joined them soon after.

• Lots of action on the field this morning with multiple things to keep an eye on. Interesting to see Stephon Gilmore working with one of the Patriots' kickoff units. Not sure if that means anything or they needed an extra body. Worth noting, nonetheless.

• Patriots owner Robert Kraft walked out just before 10:30.

• One thing we might all be sleeping on is Brandon Cooks' short-area quickness. On two different occasions in a red-zone passing drill, he was able to shake a defender and get open. We know he's going to be all about the chunk plays this year, but that quickness will be interesting to watch.

• It's looking more and more like Dion Lewis is going to get as many chances as possible to be the kick returner. He's back out there again this morning getting the majority of reps as the return man.

• The officials are in attendance, and will be doing their annual rules review for the media on Tuesday. Source says Pete Morelli will be in attendance and working the preseason opener on Thursday.

• It's clear there are still questions at linebacker for this team, as in which combination might work best in which situations. The questions are compounded by the fact that we haven't seen Dont'a Hightower on the field this summer. David Harris, Shea McClellin, Kyle Van Noy and others continue to work in as part of a rotation at the spot this morning against the Jags. It's clear they're also all trying to find what some of those guys do best within the framework of the defense. These aren't problems -- just questions.

• To kick off 11-on-11s, Tom Brady's first two passes were drops, one to Rob Gronkowski and another to Cooks. For Gronk, it was his second drop of the morning.

• With Solder on the lower fields, Cameron Fleming has been getting the majority of reps at left tackle with the Patriots' starting offense, and he's struggled to this point in the morning. Right now, La Adrian Waddle has the edge in the race for swing tackle.

• Malcolm Butler just came away with a really impressive pick of Blake Bortles in traffic. One of the sharpest defensive plays of the summer.

• Brady and Cooks just connected for one of the best pass plays of the summer, a deep ball where Cooks appeared to split the safeties and haul it in for a big completion. Terrific play. Brady followed that up with another deep ball, this one down the sidelines to Chris Hogan for a score.

• And again, more short-area excellence involving Brady and Cooks. In 11-on-11 work, the two just connected on multiple occasions in short-field situations on sharp looking pass plays.