NEFJ Nuggets from Patriots training camp: Day 4

FOXBOROUGH – Sunday’s session was the last one before pads come on Monday.

This was easily the biggest crowd so far with the ramps being opened for a spattering of overflow crowd. Here’s everything I saw from the hill…

-Michael Jordan, Sidy Sow and Matt Judon were three of the first players out. Judon continues to do his usual routine of catch with the fans and is still drawing the biggest cheers when he makes his way out.

-Brian Hoyer was in the house on Sunday. Also saw Robyn Glaser and Eliot Wolf stroll in at the beginning of practice. I believe they’ve both been at each session.

-It was good to see Kendrick Bourne. He was out for stretching laughing and dancing with his teammates, but did not practice. Good team guy who keeps the mood upbeat and light, can never have him around too much.

-Antonio Gibson and Terrell Jennings participated for the first time while Marte Mapu and Christian Barmore were absent. Mapu showed up about 20 minutes in again (same as Friday) and the Patriots announced later on Sunday evening that Barmore is currently dealing with blood clots and there’s no timetable for his return.

-After another very long Indy period, we got our first 1-on-1 action starting at about 11:45. This was the first time the QB’s had a chance to really show off their accuracy (especially deep) and the fans got plenty of action. With two fields going on at once (Brissett/Maye & Zappe/Milton) it’s hard to track everything, here’s what I saw…

-Bomb from Brissett to Jalen Reagor. PBU for Shaun Wade against JuJu. Wade later left the field with his arm wrapped in a towel. Great toe drag catch by Kayshon Boutte deep down the left sideline on a ball from (I think) Maye. Tyquan Thornton beat Isiah Bolden clean on a slant. Brissett hits Bell on an out against Josh Bledsoe. PBU for Mikey Victor on the sideline (didn’t see the receiver). Ja’Lynn Polk burns Jonathan Jones on a crosser from Brissett. Dime from Brissett to KJ Osborn over Wade. Christian Gonzalez completely shuts down JuJu on a slant. Crosser for Thornton in front of Alex Austin. Maye dropped a dime to David Wallis against Marcus Jones, who ended up ripping Wallis’ helmet off fighting for the ball. Osborn burns Marcellas Dial on a post from Jacoby. Javon Baker makes the catch of the day, tracking a deep ball from Maye over his shoulder against Gonzalez, launched the ball into the stands and fired the crowd up.

-Quick 7-on-7 period for 10 minutes. Jabrill Peppers had a nice PBU against Boutte, Bolden had a PBU against Polk deep and then Brissett had two completions to Polk and Austin Hooper. Maye hit Polk over the middle and had a quick out to Reagor around an incompletion and a sack. Zappe took third reps, but Joe Milton got all the third reps n 11-on-11.

-Next bit of team period at 12:05. After a Stevenson run, we got our first camp scrum on a hand off to Gibson. There was a pile of pushing and shoving, but couldn’t really see who started it. Did see David Andrews with his helmet off though. No one was kicked out or had to run a lap. Brissett threw an incompletion after that, Jones had a PBU against Polk and Wise knocked a ball out of his hand as he and Godchaux both applied pressure. We got out first camp lap when rookie Layden Robinson had a false start during Maye’s possession. The rookie hit a quick out to Polk and found Baker for another nice catch and run.

-Angles/open field elusiveness work for a few minutes, then some punt work. Osborn, Polk, Pop Douglas and Marcus Jones were fielding them once again. Some great hang times for Bryce Baringer on most of the kicks, including one of over five seconds (thanks to Alex Barth for getting the stopwatch out).

-Back to 7-on-7 for about 10 minutes. Brissett hits Hooper short and then again deep while on the run to his right after the big TE got behind Kyle Dugger. Dugger got him back two plays later with a PBU after a short throw to Henry. Maye hit Osborn on a slant, threw one behind him and had a check down to La’Michael Pettway. Milton threw a pick to Joe Giles-Harris on what looked like a screen his very first snap of the rep.

-One more bit of team period around 12:40. Brissett had short completions to Hooper and Tyquan Thornton and a check down to Gibson. Maye had a quick hitter to Reagor, two incompletions (one thanks to pressure from Keion White) and a slant to Boutte.

-Joey Slye and Chad Ryland had their second ‘live’ kicking competition and both went 3-4 on kicks between 30-40 yards.

-Team headed to the conditioning hill at 12:58, officially wrapping up the first week of camp.

Monday’s practice is once again open to the public with gates opening at 10:00 and practice beginning at 11:00. We’ll see how much progress has really been made when the thudding starts.