Postcard from Camp, Day Seven: Lighter workout, birthday goats for the GOAT

FOXBORO - The Patriots had a bit of an odd day of practice on Thursday as just about every player who might be considered a starter did a light workout on the lower practice field at Gillette Stadium once positional drills were finished. Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett and the rest of the roster took the upper fields and practiced normally, although the session did end sooner than usual. 

The lower field is typically reserved for players rehabbing an injury. It's mostly out of sight from the spot where media members are perched, making it difficult to detail the activity there. 

All players involved in practice, on either field, were in full pads.

Two theories on why the starters would have been treated the way they were Thursday: 1) After four padded practice in five days, they simply needed a bit of a breather. 2) Because the receiver position is a bit of a mess, it would have been hard for the top offensive and defensive units to get a decent look in 1-on-1, 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 periods. 

Chris Hogan, Matthew Slater, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell and Cody Hollister missed all of or portions of practice on Wednesday. Julian Edelman also appeared to be a little banged up by the end of Wednesday's practice. Instead of running the remaining healthy receivers ragged by taking reps with all three quarterbacks, the Patriots coaching staff basically cut the team down to two units with the top unit getting a lighter workload on the lower field. 

"That’s part of training camp and part of just practice, in general, is managing your team, trying to keep everybody moving along," Belichick said before Thursday's workout. "But sometimes...if a certain group is lower in numbers, that affects what either that side of the ball can do or maybe what the other side of the ball can do against it. 

"Occasionally, we have to make some kind of modifications. Hopefully, the train doesn’t come to a complete halt and we’re able to maybe do a little more of something else in order to manage the reps of a particular player or a particular group...It’s not an uncommon thing. We talk about that every night when we go through our practice schedule. We go through the overall where our team is, where our individual position groups are, where the individual players are and put it all together."

Here are some notes from the session. 
 
ATTENDANCE
* Nate Solder, Matthew Slater and Cody Hollister were not spotted at Thursday's practice -- on either field. 

* Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell, Duron Harmon, Mike Gillislee, James O'Shaughnessy and David Jones worked out on the lower field. All six of those players were on the lower field Wednesday for conditioning. 

* Dont'a Hightower, Alan Branch (PUP) and Andrew Jelks (NFI) did not participate. They have yet to practice during camp. 

NOTEWORTHY MOMENTS
* Tom Brady took the field to loud cheers from the fans in attendance. The crowd later screamed "Happy Birthday" for the 40-year-old quarterback. Fans had the opportunity to take a "GOAT" photo (live goats included... seriously), and they could write a birthday message to Brady on poster board. The posters were attached to the chain-link fence near where Brady exited for the locker room.

* While Josh McDaniels headed for the lower field with the majority of his best players -- including Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Chris Hogan, James White and top-end offensive linemen -- receivers coach Chad O'Shea had the opportunity to call plays for Garoppolo and Brissett. 

* Both the defensive and offensive groupings on the upper fields were asked to run laps early in the team periods. Belichick specifically spoke to the offensive group for an extended period of time. It would come as no surprise if he was encouraging crisp periods despite the fact that a third of the team was elsewhere. 

* Eric Rowe's interception of Jacoby Brissett was one of the standout plays of the day. It was a short route that Rowe read clearly and jumped without issue. In a true game situation, it likely would've gone for six. He's pushing Jonathan Jones as the third-most impressive corner in camp. 

* After Rowe and Jones, Kenny Moore II is up there as one of the defensive backs who seems to make a play every day. He was beaten over the middle easily by KJ Maye, but later in the practice, he had an impressive breakup of a Garoppolo throw. 

* Deatrich Wise showed up again with a rep against Brissett's offensive group in 11-on-11s that would've given him a sack. 

1-ON-1

* Tony Washington made what might've been the catch of the day down the right sideline on a Brissett throw. Devin Lucien followed up later with an acrobatic grab on another Brissett throw. After each, Brissett enthusiastically clapped, clearly appreciating the effort. 

* Rex Burkhead continues to flash his impressive quickness on a daily basis. He sunk his hips to get out of a break on Brandon King that created about two yards of separation almost instantly. One of the most impressive one-on-one reps in seven days of camp for any running back. 

* Ted Karras continues to show up with some solid work in the one-on-one periods, as he beat Vincent Valentine during one rep. Power versus power there. Kony Ealy had a good rep when matched up on Cameron Fleming. He also ran a lap when he jumped offsides on one rep. LaAdrian Waddle held his own in his matchup with Trey Flowers. Adam Butler, the undrafted rookie tackle from Vanderbilt, got the best of Cole Croston to continue his solid run in 1-on-1 work this week. Deatrich Wise got by fellow rookie Conor McDermott. 

* Rookie Tony Garcia has shown a little bit of an edge in the 1-on-1 periods. He got into it with Kyle Van Noy earlier in the week and on Thursday he did a little shoving back and forth with fellow rookie Caleb Kidder. 

11-ON-11

* Jimmy Garoppolo went 6-for-12 with a pick to Nate Ebner in the end zone. His interception was an odd attempt as he seemed to know it was a bad throw as soon as it left his hand. It's unclear what the situation was on that particular rep, but it seemed almost as if it was an end-of-game play. The pass was forced and there was no receiver in the area. Garoppolo had an impressive connection with tight end Jacob Hollister, who seems to continue to run efficient use his body effectively as a receiver. 

* Jacoby Brissett went 8-for-12 with a pick of his own. Eric Rowe did well to fight through his receiver and into the throwing lane to make his third interception in seven practices. Brissett made beautiful touch passes during one-on-ones both to Tony Washington and Devin Lucien.