FOXBORO — The Patriots held a quick walkthrough on Tuesday morning ahead of their departure for Tennessee, scheduled for 3 p.m. It was their final open practice of training camp at Gillette Stadium. They’ll take on the Titans in joint practices Wednesday and Thursday and then play their second preseason game of the summer on Saturday.
ROLL CALL
N’Keal Harry and Matt LaCosse were missing from the second straight day of on-the-field work for the Patriots. Julian Edelman and Yodny Cajuste, both on the non-football injury list, didn’t participate.
New Patriots tight end Eric Saubert, acquired in a trade with the Falcons, was on the field and wearing No. 48. The Patriots released Danny Etling in order to make room for Saubert.
Neither Patrick Chung nor Lance Kendricks were wearing red non-contact jerseys, but there was no contact during the shorts-and-t-shirts session.
CHILL START
New England Patriots
It was a slip-and-slide start to practice. Before the Patriots stretched, they all gathered on a corner of the practice fields and coaxed first-year players and coaches into diving through turf that was being hosed down by Tom Brady. Quarterback Jarrett Stidham was among the first to go. Later new inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo took a couple of turns, getting a loud reaction from players. Once it was over, they got to work with their normal warm-up period.
OBSERVATIONS OF NOTE
It was interesting to see Saubert get thrown right into the mix. He caught passes from Brian Hoyer (down the seam) and Tom Brady (in the corner of the end zone during a red-zone period). He also was out there briefly with Jarrett Stidham. Stidham’s last attempt of the day went deep down the middle to Saubert, but it was thrown a little high and it glanced off Saubert’s hands.
Even though it was a walkthrough, there were a couple of opportunities for players on both sides of the ball to make plays on the football and they couldn’t. Again, everything was half-speed, but both Elandon Roberts (with an opportunity to pick off a short pass), receiver Ryan Davis, and Andrew Beck had drops.
Hoyer floated a nice pass to the corner of the end zone for Damoun Patterson during one snap. It’ll be interesting to see if he can continue to stay hot in Tennessee after putting together a rock solid preseason opener in Detroit.
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