Day 1 Patriots Training Camp: Afternoon Session

Click here to read about the morning session!

Here's a bullet list of what occurred in the afternoon session:

• Those players who sat out the morning session (Ron Brace, Sam Aiken, Darnell Jenkins) all sat out the afternoon session as well. All three players are on the roster bubble and this is a terrible sign for all three players.
• Matthew Slater and Bret Lockett were both taken off the practice field due to injuries. Not a good sign for either player.
• Brandon Tate made a great one handed catch in the end zone, which has been dubbed as the play of the day by most sources. This is a great show of maturation by Tate and hopefully he's ready to make the leap as the #3 receiver of the team.
• Ian Rapoport has said that Myron Pryor and the two Warrens (Ty Warren and Gerard Warren) were excellent in one on one pass rushing drills, while Damione Lewis, Pierre Woods and Mike Wright had trouble beating their opposition. On the offensive side, Matt Light, Sebastian Vollmer and Stephen Neal did a great job of staving off their pass rushers.
• Jerod Mayo and Kevin Faulk, two of the leaders of the team, brought the energy in a drill. Mayo had the job of covering Faulk and blanketed him (enough to draw a penalty, according to some). Faulk ramped up his enthusiasm and challenged Mayo to the same drill again, where Faulk pulled a move and beat Mayo. Great vocal leadership on both sides that the team sorely needs.
  
• In red zone drills, Gary Guyton made a great interception of Tom Brady that could have been returned for a touchdown. On an offensively positive side, Brady made two nice connections to the new tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Both of the players used their size (which the offense missed) to wrest the ball away from defenders. Unfortunately, one of those players was safety Pat Chung, who has a lot of pressure on him to step up and perform as a starter. Hopefully Chung can learn how to be more physical to not be abused by opposing tight ends (read: Dallas Clark and Dustin Keller).
• On a positive note for Pat Chung, he did a good job of always being the right place as a defender. He was never out of position (a la Brandon Meriweather against the New Orleans Saints) and seems to have a grasp of his role on the defense. Hopefully, he can take another jump this preseason and take advantage of being in the correct position to create turnovers and prevent touchdowns.
• 7th round pick QB Zac Robinson and returning player C Ryan Wendell had to run penalty laps in both the morning and afternoon session due to bad snaps. I don't think Wendell will make the cut, but Robinson needs to show a hand for the ball if he wants to grab a practice squad spot.
• Brandon Tate, Julian Edelman and Taylor Price all worked as kick returners.

I look forward to the rest of Training Camp!

Rap Sheet Link

WEEI.com Link

ESPN.com Link