Patriots Practice Report 05.23.19: Without Tom Brady, Patriots run through brisk OTA session

FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots just wrapped up their first open practice of the spring, a session that ran for just under two hours under cloudy skies on the practice fields in back of Gillette Stadium.


Tom Brady, Michael Bennett, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Sony Michel, Patrick Chung, Nate Ebner, Deatrich Wise, and Ryan Allen were among the notables not present.

No one has Patriots’ logos on their helmets — perhaps an indication of each player having to earn their way when it comes to the start of the new year. The one logo we saw more than the Patriots? The Bruins, as most of the New England coach staff could be seen wearing B’s caps.

Brian Hoyer took the bulk of the starting quarterback reps. One thing that was interesting — when the team needed an extra arm to throw for drills involving the wide receivers and backs early in practice, it was Danny Etling who was pulled out of the drills to throw for them. Jarrett Stidham stuck with Hoyer and threw as part of the passing drills. (Etling was second behind Hoyer when they went to 11-on-11 drills with the defense working off cards.)

Stidham throws a nice ball — I mean, he’s not Dan Marino, but I can see what they saw in him. He and Matt Lacosse had a few nice connections in the early going. He heard the wrath of one coach when he was under center for one play in 11-on-11s (again, with the defense working off cards). Rookie tight end Andrew Beck also committed a gaffe in he same series of drills that drew the ire of the coaches.

In the first real 11-on-11 sessions — with music blaring and things ramped up a bit — Hoyer got the first set of reps, and went 4-for-5, with the one incomplete being a drop by Julian Edelman. Etling got the next series of reps, and went 2-for-3, including a pair of completed passes to N’Keal Harry. (Harry got a lot of work today, for what it's worth.) Stidham was third, and went 2-for-4 with completed passes to Harry and Braxton Berrios.

The second set of 11-on-11s saw the defensive highlight of the day as Adam Butler leaped to grab a Hoyer pass. (Hoyer went 0-for-2 with the pick.) He was followed by Etling, who hit Lacosse on a nifty pass play over the middle. He followed the with a floater over the middle for Rex Burkhead, and ended his second set of reps 2-for-3. Stidham wrapped up the second series with a 1-for-3 performance.

The third series of 11-on-11s was the sharpest for Hoyer, who went 3-for-4. Etling looked a little ragged, going 0-for-4 and nearly converting on a back-shoulder throw to Harry that was off the mark. Things wrapped up with Stidham getting picked off by JoeJuan Williams and going 2-for-4.

During the 11-on-11s, Derek Rivers had to run a penalty lap for an unknown infraction.

Lots of different players working as punt returners, a group that includes newcomer Maurice Harris, as well as Phillip Dorsett (something new) and Berrios. Troy Brown and Kevin Faulk were offering some advice to the punt return group, and when the running backs broke off for position drills, Faulk followed them and could be seen working with some of them, including rookie Damien Harris. Same thing happened with Brown and the receivers.

Maurice Harris has got some surprisingly good size.

Not sure if this means anything or was a simple typo, but the Patriots identified Damien Harris as a wide receiver. He practiced with the running backs.

Guns ’N Roses, Dropkick Murphys, AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne, U2 and The Who were on the practice playlist.