Patriots minicamp: Patriots wrap up week with strong Brady showing

FOXBORO – The Patriots wrapped up their final day of minicamp on Thursday.

If one thing is certain, it’s that Tom Brady is still the best player on the field.

In a lighter practice than we’ve seen this week, the quarterback once again showed that age is just a number. Brady finished 9/13 on the day in 11-on-11s. One of those incomplete passes should’ve been a 60-yard touchdown, but receiver Jordan Matthews let the pass fall through his hands. [...]

FOXBORO – The Patriots wrapped up their final day of minicamp on Thursday.

If one thing is certain, it’s that Tom Brady is still the best player on the field.

In a lighter practice than we’ve seen this week, the quarterback once again showed that age is just a number. Brady finished 9/13 on the day in 11-on-11s. One of those incomplete passes should’ve been a 60-yard touchdown, but receiver Jordan Matthews let the pass fall through his hands. Overall, Brady wrapped up his first week of practice looking sharp.

Jacob Hollister finished up minicamp as one of the week’s stars. The backup tight end caught five passes from Brady and looked sure-handed all week. His development could beef up the Patriots tight end depth chart behind Rob Gronkowski.

Of course, there were some setbacks. At one point, in 11-on-11s, the offense was whistled for illegal substitution. After making the entire offense run a lap around the field, Bill Belichick huddled up his offensive players and ripped into them. The potential flag came on a third-down and Belichick let his group know that penalties like that were unacceptable.

Undrafted rookie corner JC Jackson also wrapped up a nice week as he continued to play opposite of Stephon Gilmore at cornerback. He finished the practice with two deflections on Brian Hoyer, who finished the day going 2/8 in 11-on-11s. Hoyer also had a pass deflected by Ja’Whaun Bentley.

Danny Etling received more time in full-team drills today. The rookie went 5/7 using seventh round tight end Ryan Izzo as his security blanket. Damarius Travis had a deflection on Etling.

Ryan Lewis had a deflection on Brady while covering Chris Hogan.

The Patriots spent extra time in Thursday’s session working on special teams. That included kickoff and punt returns as well as field goals. Cordarrelle Patterson continues to look like the top kickoff returner.

Malcolm Mitchell returned to the field on Thursday. The receiver spent the entire practice on the lower field with other rehabbing players – Jonathan Jones, Cyrus Jones, Nate Ebner, Marcus Cannon, Malcom Brown, Braxton Berrios and Keion Crossen.

The Patriots were missing Kenny Britt, Brandon Bolden, Joe Thuney and David Jones on Thursday.

Here’s a new one – a helicopter landed on the lower practice field during Thursday’s session. The chopper had team president Jonathan Kraft inside.