FOXBOROUGH – For the first time this camp, the Pats had their second straight day of padded practice. With just one more practice on Tuesday (3:30 inside Gillette, open to the public), the focus is slowly shifting to the first preseason game on Thursday night. Let’s recap what went down on Monday…


-For once it was Jalen Mills hitting the field first, it was receivers coach Troy Brown who sprinted out at about 3:10.

-Offensive lineman Marcus Martin was the first player on the field, while Cam (once again) was one of the last guys out.

-With Joe Cardona getting injured on Bran Khoury was added to the roster (No. 46) as a new long snapper.

-A fire alarm or “emergency” alarm was constantly going off today and it started early in the practice, perhaps foreshadowing the season? Let’s hope not.

-In early individual drills Cam was brutal, missing throws low and high. He ended up having a decent day, as did Mac, but missing guys against air is a tough look.

-Christian Barmore has been dealing with a blister on his foot and had to get looked at after early 1v1 work before returning to practice.

-During the 1v1’s Cam threw a beautiful wheel route ball to Sony Michel down the sideline, White adjusted nicely to make the catch. In the same drill Mac had a similar throw to JJ Taylor.

-I probably say this daily but I think Taylor could be such a weapon for this team. He is so quick – particularly on punt returns – and can really make people miss.

-Matt Judon continues to impress, just ripping linen apart in 1v1’s.

-In the first bit of 11-on-11 Cam hit Jonnu Smith deep and then hit Myers over the middle on two nice throws. Mac had a few nice throws to Matt LaCosse, Harry and Meyers.

-In the first true bit of goal line work this camp the pads were really popping and despite both Harris and Sony running hard, the defense was stout. A couple thunderous stuffs behind the line of scrimmage could be heard everywhere on tackles from Joejuan Williams and DL Nick Thurman.

-After some punt work (Jake Bailey still murders the ball incase you’ve missed any of these recaps), Nirvana and Green Day were a few bands of choice to blast the music in the nest period of 11-on-11 work.

-Van Noy batted down an early Cam pass (stop me if you’ve heard that before) and he missed Harry on a deep ball.

-Cam bounced back with a beautiful toss to White on a wheel, but was later picked off by Adrian Philips on a throw behind Jonnu over the middle.

-Cam ended his reps with two TD’s, one on a slant to Meyers and another in the back right corner to Jonnu after working through his progressions.

-Mac put together an impressive period himself, closing out his “drive” with a quick TD to Kristian Wilkerson on a slant.

-Bill Belichick obviously loves situational football and had a fun little scenario for the two-minute offense. “52 seconds, ball’s at midfield, no timeouts and need a touchdown,” he told Cam and Mac. Mac started and cruised down the field, showing complete command and eventually finishing with a touchdown to Marvin Hall where Hall left over a defender for a Moss-like catch.

-Cam’s drive was horrendous. Newton missed a throw low, and one high, didn’t seem to command the huddle or the pace nearly as well as Mac did. Bill ended giving him an extra 10 yards on his drive, but Philips broke up a pass in the end zone so Newton’s drive ended with a field goal.

-Each of the last few practices the Pats have worked on field goal blocks with either a coach kicking or Bailey kicking. I have to think they’re one of the few times that spends as much time on the blocking aspect.

Overall it was another day where we still have no real answers on the QB competition. The defensive front is going to be a problem this year for a lot of teams, the secondary is still shaky and the wide receiver depth chart is WIDE open.