Training camp: Patriots secondary shines during in-stadium practice

FOXBORO – The Patriots held their annual in-stadium practice for season ticket holders and Foxboro residents on Monday night. This marked the first and only time the Pats would practice in their stadium before their first preseason game against the Washington Redskins on August 9.

Although the Patriots were in shells and not pads, this experience gave Bill Belichick and his players an opportunity to get a game-like feel before games start.

"We've got new lights. [...]

FOXBORO – The Patriots held their annual in-stadium practice for season ticket holders and Foxboro residents on Monday night. This marked the first and only time the Pats would practice in their stadium before their first preseason game against the Washington Redskins on August 9.

Although the Patriots were in shells and not pads, this experience gave Bill Belichick and his players an opportunity to get a game-like feel before games start.

“We've got new lights. We've got really our only time on the field,” Belichick said. “This will be kind of an opportunity for us to clean up a few things here from the last couple of days that we feel like we need to get to. The players will be off tomorrow, so it'll be a good chance for us to recover and get ready to finish off and have a good week here the rest of this week… We’ll take care of a few loose ends and get a good experience in the stadium.”

The practice started slow with the team going through a walkthrough. After that, the group focused on positional drills where they worked individual techniques. The offense and defense then split up and worked on situational drills involving the run game.

When 11-on-11 drills started, the Patriots practiced goal-line plays. Tom Brady went 2-of-4 in this session. His two incompletes were both to Rob Gronkowski. The first was deflected by Eric Rowe, who continues to have a nice training camp.

Cornerback Ryan Lewis had a nice night on Monday. He intercepted Brady in the final 11-on-11 period. The cornerback jumped in front of Cordarrelle Patterson on a deep ball in front of the goal line. Next, he deflected a Brian Hoyer pass intended for Julian Edelman.

Overall, Brady went 14/17 with an interception in 11-on-11s. Hoyer was 9/10 in the full-team drills. Danny Etling went 4/8. The rookie had a beautiful 50-yard touchdown pass to Devin Lucien in double coverage over Jordan Richards and JC Jackson. Etling, however, ended his day with an interception from Eddie Pleasant.

There’s still plenty of shuffling when it comes to the depth chart, but it was noticeable that Deatrich Wise was with the defensive starters lining up with Trey Flowers, Lawrence Guy and Danny Shelton.

During the walkthrough, safety Pleasant took reps with the starters. The recently signed six-year veteran appeared in 116 games in his career with the Houston Texans. He could potentially push someone like Jordan Richards for a backup role as well as special teams contributor.

Absent during Monday night’s practice was Mike Gillislee, Jordan Matthews, Malcolm Mitchell, Jonathan Jones, Cyrus Jones, Nate Ebner, Keion Crossen, Matthew Slater and Shane Wimann. Kenny Britt was present, but not practicing.

When asked if Mitchell has progressed at all to the point where he could return soon, Belichick said the receiver was, “day-to-day.”