FOXBOROUGH – Well, that was something.

It was a busy, newsworthy 24 hours surrounding the Patriots and that was before anything on the field took place Monday morning.

The pads came on for the first time, but the real stories were off the field. Here’s everything that stood out during quite an interesting three-ish hours at gloomy Gillette Stadium…

-Surprisingly pretty big crowd given the rain. There were plenty of seats left, but about a half hour before practice began it was practically empty before filling in nicely.

-Spotted a few UMass guys and members of the Renegades on the VIP hill. Minuetmen get going this weekend.

-Kay Adams – the former Quick Slants star with Tome E. Curran turned national star – was on hand for her ‘Up and Adams’ camp visit. She kindly got donuts for the entire media hill and stopped for a bunch of pictures with kids in the VIP section. She’s gotta be the best female NFL personality there is right now, no?

-After Jerod Mayo spoke at about 10:30, we all began taking our usual spots to grab some early video of player arrivals. But, attention quickly turned to the Family and Friends area where Drew Rosenhaus and Matt Groh were spotted chatting. Robyn Glaser later joined the conversation which lasted quite a while. After practice, Mayo, Godchaux and Rosenhaus all had a 5-10 minute talk as well in the same area near the players’ entrance/exit.

-Matt Judon then had everyone talking. As his teammates came out with pads on, Judon did his usual thing in a red hoodie and black pants, playing some catch with fans. But, when stretching and indy periods began, he was seen sitting off on the far sideline on giant mats next to some tackling dummies. He moped around for a bit, seemingly throwing a silent temper tantrum before sitting down again. Mayo eventually walked over to him, said a few words with Judon saying some back fairly adamantly. Mayo seemingly told Judon to leave. He did, walking out the back exit on the far field.

-Things only got weirder as Jabrill Peppers appeared to suffer a lower body injury during special teams work, walking to the back shed/medial tent. He briefly came back out and tried to go again, but soon took his helmet off and walked to the back again and we did not see him again.

-Once 7-on-7’s began, Brissett started his good day with a 40-ish yard drop-in-the-bucket to Tyquan Thornton down the left sideline. He also had completions to Hunter Henry and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Javon Baker nearly had a great diving catch on a long ball but it fell incomplete.

-Maye struggled on Monday and in this period he had a ball behind Pettway, a check down to Henry and then threw a pick-six to Kyle Dugger on a tipped ball looking for Mitchell Wilcox. Two more incompletions and a green to Boutte followed.

-First team period at noon. Brissett only had two short completions (didn’t see them, quick bathroom break) and Maye had two handoffs and a sack by Oshane Ximines. Joe Milton took the third reps here, handing off to Kevin Harris – who had a good run – and then fumbled a snap. Also had a dump off to Harris. The RB’s and O-line had a good day overall. Harris was smoked (late) by Azizi Hearn on the final run play of the period.

-Ball security drill and a little kick off work was up next. Marcus Jones, Ja’Lynn Polk, KJ Osborn and Antonio Gibson returned. This new kickoff format is going to provide some sneaky creases for one of these guys to possibly break one. The team didn’t get into the full, exact arrangement they’ll be in for the opening kickoff in Cincinnati – the league still hasn’t finalized exact regulations on it – but there’s glimpses there of what could be in the return game.

-Back to another team period. Short completions for Brissett to Hooper and Henry. There was a mini scrum after a run with Okorafor and Uche. Uche was booted from practice for (presumably) taking a swing. Okorafor remained at practice. Just another addition to the list of weird things that happened on Monday.

-Brissett added a deep-ish ball to Polk and a late scramble in his drive. Maye handed off to Stevenson, hit Baker short and threw three straight incompletions. Maye has had a tendency to pump fake two or three times and throw side arm quite a bit. He’s really decisive when taking off for a run. Not that I’m a QB coach or anything, but he just seems sped up or antsy, probably just NFL growing pains.

-Zappe took the third reps here but didn’t do much, hitting David Wallis on an intermediate throw and finding Wilcox for a short completion. Couple incompletions in there as well.

-Re-set of another team period around 12:30. Baker had the Play of the Day for the second consecutive practice, leaping up and grabbing a deep throw from Brissett with Alex Austin and Jaylinn Hawkins in coverage. Run for Stevenson, Okorafor and Wallace both take a lap for a false start, Polk drops a crosser. Tyquan Thornton then reeled in a dime on a deep corner from Brissett down the right side, with Brissett perfectly laying it over his shoulder over Austin. It may have been Brissett’s best throw of camp so far.

-Maye had a pass broken up by Christian Ellis, over the middle, JaMycal Hasty was stuffed on a toss and Harris had another nice run. Maye also had a scramble, but otherwise he was very quiet throughout the practice. Joe Milton had an incompletion before a dart to the sideline for Jalen Reagor. Baker also had a drop and there was a dump off to Kevin Harris. The offense then had to run a bit, seemingly ‘losing’ the period.

-There was a weird half speed two-minute walk through type period to end the session. Like, it wasn’t a two-minute drill, but there was 2:00 on the clock, but there was only a couple snaps each for the QB’s and it was half speed.

Overall, it was a very underwhelming day given the fact that we still haven’t seen the team work in the red zone and Monday was the first day in pads. The oddness of the scene pre-practice seemed to add an odd tension or feel to the whole day that was pretty palpable. It’ll be interesting to see if the team is more locked in and more physical on Tuesday.

Practice is once again open to the public at 11:00, gates open at 10:00.