The Pats were back on the field at Boston College on Thursday and the media was there too. Well, they were outside the stadium with long-lens cameras and binoculars trying to discern just what the hell was going on as you can see below…
Here are the nuggets and observations that we’ve gathered thus far from the various media outlets.
Kevin Faulk was out there and looked by all accounts like he was well on his way to being fully recovered from the ACL injury he suffered against the Jets in week two.
Ryan Mallett delivered what some would call a “highlight” when he connected with WR Matthew Slater for a 65-yard bomb into the corner of the endzone and out of the reach of the safety covering. No, it wasn’t with pads or anything. But it was a pretty impressive throw.
Rapsheet also reports Darius Butler worked a lot in the slot. It’s really his best chance to make the team at this point. He looked just as out of place as an outside corner at the end of the season as he did at the start. Personally I think he’s a longshot to make the team at this point assuming Wilhite comes back okay.
Rob Ninkovich told Mike Reiss: “It’s huge for us to just come together. Whenever this lockout is over with, if you don’t get together, that’s months of not being with your teammates. So it’s good to just kind of get a little jump-start on some things, especially for the younger guys it’s going to help them.”
Rapsheet also reports that Tom Brady looked great after his off-season foot surgery: He was planting and throwing just like normal, which was really a positive sign. There was no limp and no sign of anything. Sounds like it worked well rushing into surgery right after the season ended.
Chris Price summed the session up as such:
The whole affair — which wrapped up in about 90 minutes — had the feel of a June T-shirt and shorts affair held behind Gillette Stadium. Not quite as slow as a walkthrough and not quite a haf-speed practice, we’ll call it almost quarter-speed. The players had a chance to work up a bit of a sweat (mostly during the 7-on-7s and two-minute sessions toward the end of practice), but in truth, it was more a chance to get back to football-related activity.
We’re still expecting some more posts from the beat crew, including a Mike Wright interview with Tom E. Curran that should be good. More to come on what could possibly be the last day of real Patriots news until August or even September…
