Notes from the Patriots practice fields on this Saturday:

• The receivers kicked things off with some route running drills.  Julian Edelman showcased his quickness, but also showed how fast he was.  Wes Welker looks back to his normal self, and can really stop, start, and cut on a dime.  Taylor Price and Darnell Jenkins were also impressive running routes.
• In the tight end/running back/linebacker drills, Gary Guyton got beat down the field multiple times.  The first time was by Rob Gronkowski and the second by Carson Butler.  In that same drill, Stevan Ridley made a nice one handed grab in the flat.
• There were a couple of would-be sacks in full-team drills.  Jerod Mayo timed a blitz up the middle that would have decimated Bryan Hoyer.  Mark Anderson also beat the tackle for a would-be sack (and later had another good rush in team work).
• In an open-field tackling drill, Will Yeatman absolutely trucked Matt Slater on one rep.  Slater was slow getting up, but got back out there and made a nice form tackle on Yeatman the next time around.
• On the day, Ryan Mallett looked much more accurate.  He hit a string of passes, and didn't really let much get away from him.
• The play of the day was once again a Brady-Ochocinco connection.  Brady dropped back and threw a bomb down the left sideline.  With Sergio Brown and Malcolm Williams draped all over him in coverage, Ochocinco managed to jump up and grab the pass while falling to the turf backwards.  Impressive play, and it had the crowd issuing the loudest cheer of the day.
• Near the end of the session, the Patriots went back to goal line work.  Brady hit Aaron Hernandez on a fade to the corner of the endzone on back-to-back beauties.  Hernandez then caught a pair of touchdowns from Bryan Hoyer, one of which was a beautiful one handed grab.
• Sergio Brown made the most impressive hit of the day in goal line work.  Stevan Ridley, who had a good day overall, caught a pass in the flat.  As he turned up field, he was met by Brown who lowered his shoulder and set Ridley straight to the turf.
• At the conclusion of the practice, Nate Solder caught a punt that relieved the players of sprints.  It was met by a loud cheer from both his teammates and the crowd.

Tomorrow will be our last day covering training camp.  However, we have some more post-practice interviews that we will be posting later today and throughout the weekend (and early into next week).

Sorry for the delay on the notes, the internet connection went down at my hotel (as well as the cable, what am I supposed to do to entertain myself?), but better late than never, right?

• Julian Edelman impressed yesterday, especially in a fun "over the head" catch drill, where receivers essentially ran blindly and had to locate the ball without turning around.
• In a drill focused on off-man coverage, and defensive back blitzing, Devin McCourty stood out in both coverage and as a blitzer.  Kyle Arrington also managed a couple of good blitzes, while Edelman showed good blocking.
• At one point, Deion Branch had a pretty bad drop in a drill that had no defenders - it resulted in him doing push-ups.
• While the offense improved at times yesterday, the defense had a lot of would be "coverage sacks" in a LB/TE/RB/S drill.  At one point, a team of Jerod Mayo, Rob Ninkovich, Gary Guyton, Brandon Meriweather, and Pat Chung played such good coverage that Mallett didn't even attempt to throw it.
• Gary Guyton had a particularly nice pass breakup on Will Yeatman.  Yeatman seemingly had secured a Ryan Mallett throw in the flat, before Guyton stepped in and stripped the ball away.
• Stevan Ridley has had a nice start to camp.  In a pass protection drill, he blew up a blitzing Jeff Tarpinian.  Although at one point, Ridley had a pretty bad drop.
• Rob Gronkowski dominated red zone drills.  It seems that he and Tom Brady have picked up where they left off last year.
• Ryan Mallett has one hell of an arm.  At one point, he connected on a beautiful bomb for a touchdown to Jeremy Ross.  Still, Mallett needs to work on his consistency, as he overthrew/misfired on several passes.

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The Patriots just wrapped up their seventh day of training camp, a "special" practice of sorts, taking place in Gillette Stadium with season ticket holders in attendance.  Here's what happened:

• There was a particular emphasis on rules changes and player safety, with referees taking in and officiating the practice.
• With players in shorts and shells, Much of the practice focused on individual match-ups and situational football, without live tackling.  In wide receiver/defensive back and running back/linebacker receiver drills, Rob Gronkowski stepped up making some nice catches, beating Dane Fletcher and Sergio Brown on two different plays.  In goal line work, Gronkowski had a nice "post up" on Patrick Chung.
• While the offense struggled at times with many passes off the mark, Taylor Price came up with one nice deep catch.
• Taylor Price actually had two deep grabs on the day, coming up with another one later that had two in coverage, including James Sanders.
• Defensively, rookie free agent linebacker Aaron Lavarias had a great break-up on a Gronkowski intended pass.
• The play of the day once again went to Chad Ochocinco, who made a terrific catch over a perfectly positioned Jonathan Wilhite on a deep pass from Tom Brady down the left sideline.
• When the team broke into a "hurry up" drill, Tom Brady found some success early.  He found Rob Gronkowski on consecutive plays, including one deep one down the seam.  Brady also found Ochocinco on that drive.
• Brian Hoyer's drive wasn't as successful, ending with a deep attempt to Taylor Price, who got his hands on the ball, but failed to make what would have been a miraculous catch.
• Brady continued his success on the next drive.  He found a wide open Wes Welker across the middle, and later found Chad Ochocinco on an out, with Devin McCourty in blanket coverage.
• In a return to seven on sevens, the defense got the better of the offense. Leigh Bodden nearly came up with an interception on a pass intended for Chad Ochocinco.  I said it yesterday, but Bodden has had a very impressive start to camp.
• Pat Chung had a couple of nice breakups.  At one point, he ripped a pass from Buddy Farnham's hands.  At another point, he swatted away a pass intended for Deion Branch over the middle.
• Ryan Mallett had an up-and-down day.  On some throws, he really showcased his powerful arm.  In an opportunity session at the end of practice, he found Darnell Jenkins in the end zone on two beautifully thrown bombs.  At other times, he let the ball get away from him.  One example came in the 7 vs. 7 work.  The coaches thew a "bag" at him.  He was hit, then stepped up to avoid the pressure.  While scrambling, he forced the ball into coverage and it was nearly intercepted by Sergio Brown.  Overall, none of the quarterbacks looked too accurate today, although they had their moments.
• Although Ryan Mallett had one bad throw while scrambling, Tom Brady, surprisingly, made a good one in red zone 7 vs. 7 work.  Brady got himself time, scrambled to the left, and threaded the needle to Rob Gronkowski.
• Brandon Spikes has impressed a lot of people with his elevated play thus far in training camp.  He's now impressed me with his autograph signing patience.  Spikes, helmet still donned, just signed autographs for an hour following practice.  No joke, an hour (at least).  Impressive stuff.

The Patriots will be practicing again tomorrow at 4:30 PM (if CBA is ratified, that time could be moved up).  Of course, we'll have it covered here at Pats Pulpit so keep checking back!

As announced previously in this space, XFINITY from Comcast has generously agreed to support the best NFL community around -- us!  As part of that effort, XFINITY will be sponsoring our Patriots’ training camp coverage as well as a variety of special editorial and interactive features on our site between now and the end of the 2011 NFL season.

Today through Sunday, I will be attending Patriots training camp, sponsored by Comcast.  Actually, I first arrived on Sunday night, only to find out that the Patriots' practice session was cancelled for Monday.  Oh well.  In addition, if you would like me to focus on any particular aspect of practice or player or if you want the "notes" in any particular format, just let me know in the comments section (although I can't reveal anything bout schemes / strategy). Here are my notes from today's practice:

• Sitting in the corner of the bleacher's, I was close-up on mostly receiver and defensive back drills today, as well as team and special team scrimmages.
• Off the bat, the two defensive backs that really stood out to me were Leigh Bodden and the freshly signed rookie second round draft choice Ras-I Dowling.  Dowling was big, and was strong in press coverage in position drills.  
• The only time Dowling was beat was in team drills.  Dowling was in position, but Taylor Price came down with a beautiful toe-tapping sideline grab.  Speaking of Price, he had a decent day.  He certainly looks like one of the Patriots most physical receivers, and impressed me with his route running as well.
• I mentioned that Leigh Bodden looked really good out there.  He was the one guy that no receiver could beat in press, he stayed with them every step of the way.  While Ty Warren, who missed all of 2010 like Bodden, and Tully Banta-Cain, who received a big contract like Bodden before 2010, have fallen by the wayside, it looks like Leigh has really shown up to play.
• Chad Ochocinco, aside from Aaron Hernandez, is the best Patriots receiver when it comes to beating press coverage.  He can still burn down the sideline.
• In a backs/tight ends/linebackers/safeties drill, Rob Gronkowski made a nice catch down the seam.  Shane Vereen looked solid in pass protection.  Meanwhile, Stevan Ridley struggled a bit in pass protection.  
• In that same drill, tight end Lee Smith proved he could be more than just a blocking tight end.  On an out route, he used a double-fake that literally caused Gary Guyton to fall over.  Speaking of linebackers, the most solid in coverage on the day was certainly Rob Ninkovich.  No matter what defensive scheme the Patriots are in, Ninkovich will seemingly be up and on his feet.
• The rookie running backs looked pretty solid today.  Ridley comes as advertised.  He's big, strong, and looks like he will be tough to bring down.  Shane Vereen, looks solid and bigger than I would have expected.  During team work, he made a ton of catches and considering this was his first practice, I'm certainly impressed.
• Tight end Carson Butler looks like a solid receiving tight end, although he had one pretty bad drop in team work.
• Chad Ochocinco looks like he's becoming more comfortable in the Patriots offense.  He had the play of the day, hauling in a long sideline catch from Tom Brady.  He jumped in the air, wrestled the ball from Brandon Meriweather who nearly had the interception, and fell to the ground while securing the catch.  A few plays later, Ochocinco had back-to-back catches with Devin McCourty in coverage.  The first was on an out, where Ochocinco made a nice toe-tap to secure the catch.  The next play was on a crossing route over the middle.  You can definitely feel the excitement with the Brady-Chad connection, with the crowd cheering each time he makes a grab.

More practice notes after the jump!

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