Well, well, well…the offense has arrived.

While it hasn’t been as ugly as the first few days last season, the first week or so of training camp so far had been “meh” offensively as the defense had little trouble making its presence known. That all changed on Wednesday.

Both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe were great and the offense was successful in various situations that we hadn’t yet seen them really be successful in. Here’s everything from high up on the hill on another beautiful day…

-Full house again. No overflow, but stands were completely full and there was much more energy. Mike “Sarge” Reilly from 98.5 The Sports Hub and the Pats’ cheerleaders do a great job once the gates open engaging fans and getting folks pumped up for the day, but until you get some stuff to “ooh” and “ahh” about, it’s tough to bring the juice in the heat. With perfect weather and the offense looking the way it looked, it was a great day to be out there if you’re a fan.

-Scott Pioli was on hand as a part of the NFL Network team. It’s clear how seemingly everyone still enjoys his company that was around the team when he was here. Just seeing a few interactions with other media members and team employees, everyone lit up when they see him. Ivan Fears was also hanging around again, he’s never going to technically leave, definition of a lifer.

-Trent Brown was in pads but didn’t participate, heading back down to the lower field. Rhamondre Stevenson was also down there, but acknowledged during his post practice media availability it’s more so just managing his workload this early on. Stevenson also echoed his confidence in Kevin Harris, Pierre Strong and JJ Taylor with all the Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook and Eziekel Elliott talk swirling. Matt Judon was in just the red hoodie without pads and was also down low. Ty Montgomery, Tyquan Thornton, Mike Onwenu (PUP) and Brad Hawkins didn’t practice. Cole Strange was there, but in shorts.

-Bryce Baringer and Chad Ryland were out first again, but it was Mac and not Zappe who was the first position player out.

-Lots of “indy” and kick off stuff early on today before stretching for each position. Down in front of the media, Joe Judge could be heard loud and clear with instruction before some fans even had their iced coffee. Must be one hell of a way for the special teamer’s to get going. Marcus Jones, Kyle Dugger and Jabrill Peppers were back there as they’ve been throughout camp. Demario Douglas has also shown an ability as a returner (albeit at half speed) as he continues to make his case for the 53-man roster.

-First bit of action was walkthrough speed 11-on-11. Nothing crazy here. Zappe did get a few reps with the 1’s and Folk hit a couple kicks. Can’t take anything out of the Zappe reps since it was so slow, there weren’t that many of them either. DaMarcus Mitchell got banged up at one point on a run play and had to leave, but he walked off and seemed ok. I didn’t notice if he returned unfortunately.

-About 20 minutes later for the first time all camp, we got 1-on-1’s. The only problem here is that with Zappe on one end and Mac on the other, it was tough to keep track of everything. I mostly paid attention to Jones, but here’s what John and I caught: Douglas had a ‘Mossing’ of Marcus Jones on a ball from Mac. Kayshon Boutte – who’s been relatively quiet so far – grabbed a slant from Mac against Christian Gonzalez, getting some separation quickly. Zappe had a nice throw to Pierre Strong on a wheel against Mack Wilson. Malik Cunningham had a nice catch against Isaiah Bolden (Mac throw) and Zappe threw a great seam to Hunter Henry on his end. Raleigh Webb hauled in a Mac deep ball over Bolden and Douglas put on a route-running clinic against Shaun Wade, planting his foot and separating with ease on a ball from Mac. Mac hit DeVante Parker on a nice slant at the same time as Kendrick Bourne beating Jack Jones clean for a grab on a ball from Zappe. JuJu grabbed an out route from Mac towards the end and Peppers had a pretty PBU against Bourne on an out route (ball from Zappe). Parker beat Gonzalez in a bit of a showdown and then caught a deep ball over him, but the coverage was much tighter. Parker and assistant Mike Pellegrino even chirped each other a bit, getting other guys going as the team headed to some kick off work.

-During that kickoff work, Mac ad the QB’s worked with JuJu, Parker, Bourne and Henry.

-At about quarter of 11, we got some real 11-on-11, which we actually ended up getting for pretty much the rest of the day with Jones and Zappe alternating and McSorely grabbing some reps too. Mac: Quick out to Henry. Would-be sack for Barmore. Quick out to Bourne. Dump off to Strong with no pass rush from left side. Zappe: Short throw to Taylor, absolute dime to Tre Nixon vs. Jack Jones for 40 yards down the right sideline. (This was the throw of the day and maybe of camp for either quarterback. Just fantastic touch). Back-to-back short passes to Taylor.

-Five minutes of KOR work with Douglas returning before it was right back to 11-on-11 at 11:00. Mac: Screen to Harris, slant to Gesicki, Harris handoff, would-be sack for Barmore, incomplete deep post to Parker (overthrow), would-be sack for Barmore. Zappe: Quick pass to Sokol, mini-wheel completed to Taylor, handoff Taylor, great PBU by Marte Mapu against Taylor over the middle (Zappe tried to drop in a bucket and Mapu leapt to get a hand on it).

-Mac came back for another set of reps in the same period: Quick to Henry, out to Henry at the sideline, handoff to Harris, would-be sack for Josh Uche. Zappe also got another set of reps here: screen to Strong, quick pass to Douglas – who was hit pretty good by Terez Hall – handoff to Douglas (you read that right), short hitch to Anthony Firkser.

-Sensing a theme there with Barmore? Absolute was a menace all day, albeit against the banged up offensive line. But, overall, the protection was better today, which is why the QB’s had a chance to show off a bit.

-Red zone time. Mac: TD to Parker – who Moss’d Gonzalez in the back left corner – quick out to JuJu, nice TD run by Harris. Zappe: Screen to Strong (Mapu would have murdered him if it was live, read it perfectly), would-be sack for Ronnie Perkins, quick out to Sokol that went for a TD, incomplete to Firkser with Mapu in coverage in the end zone.

-Nick Folk took all the team kicks today whether it was field goals or “PAT’s.” Not sure why either. Ryland clearly has the stronger leg at this point. Folk has been accurate (although he missed one late), but the ball sort of struggles to get there, just crossing over the bar at times. Meanwhile, every single field goal Ryland kicks clears by a TON of room.

-Belichick placed the ball at the 7-yard line for the next few minutes, but McSorely got most of the reps as it was just some light run game work. Nixon had a TD on a slant before the team switched over to a goal line period.

-The defense absolutely dominated these few minutes with backs unable to even gain a yard. Barmore and Sam Roberts were both stifling up front. Strong did score on a short plunge on the final snap.

-After each touchdown on offense, the guys – particularly Mac – were extremely demonstrative when celebrating. Mac danced and dapped guys up constantly and it finally looked like the offense was having some fun. Practice ended with a little bit of two-minute work for a very brief amount of time before the guys stretched and then broke it down as a team.

As I wrote after the first day, we’ve got ourselves a real training camp folks. The offense and defense are now going back and forth and that’s only going to make everyone better. Tomorrow is another morning practice before the in-stadium practice on Friday night. We’re now just one week away from some real game action when Houston comes to town.