FOXBOROUGH — "Practice" No. 12 is in the books. A look at what happened:
THREE THINGS THING YOU NEED TO KNOW
Patriots continue to take things slow: It was no surprise, with the Panthers in town for two practices starting Tuesday, that the Patriots went at a slower pace in shells and shorts in today's practice. Tuesday's session figures to be heavy, with Wednesday a little lighter and in pads. But it's fair to question whether the Patriots are getting enough contact, especially with the players who sat out Thursday against the Giants. Those players last had a fully competitive, padded practice on Aug. 8 — the only one in the last 11 days. This is why players usually play some in the preseason opener, watch film on Friday, are off on Saturday and are back on the field Sunday. The Patriots, instead, were given Saturday and Sunday off for the second-straight weekend. The Patriots' starters workload over the past week-plus:
8/5 Stadium jogthrough
8/6 OFF
8/7 OFF
8/8 Full pads, competitive
8/9 Full pads, 75 percent
8/10 OFF
8/11 OFF (game, starters didn't play)
8/12 OFF
8/13 OFF
8/14 OFF
8/15 Shells
Belichick said the reps, in all forms, have been good.
"Well, the players that played a lot in the game did less in some of the practices leading up to the game, and the players that played less in the game or didn’t play at all in the game, did a lot more. So, I think when you look cumulatively, over, call it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, which actually we have – the volumes are pretty close," Belichick said. "So, some guys played a lot in the game, but really didn’t get a whole lot of practice reps. Now, they did in the stadium practice, where everybody got a lot of reps in, so those were split up pretty evenly. But from that point on, I would say the overall number is sort of the same, but some of the numbers were a lot higher in the game, some of the other numbers were a lot higher in practice. Both in terms of number of plays and actual volume of what the player did, I think it balanced out. Not perfectly, but it balanced out."
Cuts coming: NFL teams have to be down to 85 players on their roster by 4 p.m. Tuesday. It's believed the Patriots are at 87 players after re-signing DB Devin Hafford. Still, you have to watch who is and isn't on the field ahead of cutdowns, as the teams typically don't want someone they are considering releasing (they have to pay them fully on IR). Could be totally unrelated, but CBs Joejuan Williams, who struggled vs. the Giants, was not on the field, and Malcolm Butler was not on the field. Cody Davis and Bill Murray (injured vs. Giants) were also not seen. On a related note to Butler and Williams...
Jonathan Jones stays at outside corner: The Patriots' top cornerbacks were once again Jalen Mills, Jonathan Jones and Myles Bryant in the slot. This is the third consecutive practice that Jones, solely a slot corner for NE until last week, has been on the outside. Again, it leads you to think the Patriots don't love what they have at boundary corner in Terrance Mitchell, Butler, Williams and Shaun Wade. You don't take a look at shifting a player like Jones if you're satisfied with your corner play.
TAKING ATTENDANCE
Out: OT Isaiah Wynn (unknown), TE Dalton Keene (unknown), OT Justin Herron (unknown).
Limited: OL Chasen Hines.
New injury: OG Bill Murray.
Returned to practice: DE Deatrich Wise (unknown), S Jabrill Peppers, TE Devin Asiasi (unknown).
Physically unable to perform list: None.
Non-football injury list: OL Andrew Stueber.
Red non-contact jerseys: QBs.
DRESS CODE
Shells and shorts.
LENGTH OF PRACTICE
Over 2 hours in sunny conditions.
QB STATS
None. Not competitive.
THREE UP
WR Nelson Agholor: Despite the half-speed practice, Agholor was consistently making plays and made two one-handed catches.
OT Yodny Cajuste: Continued to get top RT reps with Isaiah Wynn out again.
CB Jack Jones: Got his hands on two balls.
QUICK HITS
- Belichick went off on the chain gang a few times. Tough job.
- Belichick on the joint practices: "The individual matchups are good. We’ve been working against each other for a long time, so new individual matchups, schemes are different. We’ll see some different x’s and o’s, but also maybe techniques on the way guys pass-rush or route-running or things like that. And, I would say, less predictability of practice. We kind of know what’s on the other side of the ball and what we can and can’t do. Some things we aren’t going to see from the opposite side of the ball. With a new team, everything’s kind of new, so it keeps you on your toes and forces more communication and more awareness, and we need that."
- Belichick said Matt Patricia and Joe Judge calling plays is not a competitive situation. "No, that doesn’t have anything to do with it."
SCHEDULE
Tuesday: Joint practice with Panthers, 9:30 a.m.
Wednesday: Joint practice with Panthers, 9:30 a.m. - Last open practice at Gillette.
Thursday: OFF
Friday: vs. Panthers, 7 p.m. at Gillette