Training Camp Observations for Monday - CB Mike Richardson released, RB Chris Taylor signed

Bill Belichick Post-practice Presser.  (19.00 min. video)  Full transcript to follow later.

Over the weekend, Shun White returned to active duty in the Navy, so he's on Military Reserve. We released Mike Richardson and signed running back Chris Taylor, and this morning consummated a trade with the Broncos for Le Kevin Smith to Denver.

Back out on the field yesterday afternoon and again this morning.  A lot of situational work, start getting ready for Cincinnati. As I said, this is a very important week for us in terms of building on the base that we started from the first two weeks of training camp. A lot of the things that we're working on now are building blocks in order to get to the higher plateau that we need to be at. It's important that we continue to escalate our game here. Every opportunity we get out there on the practice field, in all honesty, there aren't that many left until the start of the season. We're well past the halfway point. That's where we're at here for today."

Mike Reiss notes players were in full pads for the morning practice.  Mankins was back on the field, Ohrnberger was not as a precautionary measure.

Terrence Nunn dazzles on long pass. It might have been out of bounds, but regardless, rookie wide receiver Terrence Nunn turned in the best catch that I’ve seen to this point in training camp. It came in 11 on 11 drills, with Nunn sprinting down the left sideline, with Leigh Bodden in coverage and safety James Sanders providing help. Quarterback Brian Hoyer lofted a beautiful pass and Nunn went into a full-out dive to catch it right before it hit the ground. Regardless of whether it was out of bounds, the catch showed tremendous concentration and athletic ability.

Paul Perillo updates us on the oppressive first practice of the day and a couple of roster moves.

The team signed running back Chris Taylor, who spent parts of two seasons with Houston but has been out of football since last October. The 5-11, 220-pound former Indiana Hoosier has played in seven career games and carried the ball 42 times for 160 yards and a touchdown. With Sammy Morris missing practice the last two days, perhaps Belichick felt Taylor could add some depth in practice. The coach said he’d like to have six running backs in camp and has gotten by with five thus far. Taylor took part in the morning workout.

To make room for Taylor, the Patriots released cornerback Mike Richardson and also placed wide receiver Shun White on the reserve/military list, where he joined his former Navy teammates Tyree Barnes and Eric Kettani, both of whom participated in spring drills with the Patriots.

The running game once again was in focus for the morning workout as the team did quite a bit of hitting in 9-on-7 drills and again during the team periods. The practice even closed out with some goal-line work. The defense featured both 4-3 and 3-4 looks with Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork and Jarvis Green manning the front three in the latter. When the Patriots switched to four-man fronts, Myron Pryor was inserted next to Wilfork inside. The drills were also noteworthy because they featured starters against starters, which isn’t always the case during training camp.

Christopher Price wraps up morning camp from a sweltering Foxborough.

There was some extensive work done on kick returns — the Patriots went back to special teams over and over again.

In passing drills, Kevin O’Connell spent a lot of time working with Tom Brady, while veteran Andrew Walter was working with rookie Brian Hoyer. Hoyer had a nice moment when he rolled out and found Terrence Nunn on a nice connection. Later on in the morning, Walter hit Julian Edelman on a nice crossing pattern over the middle. And my new camp binky Sam Aiken made a nice grab of a Brady pass. (Brady and Joey Galloway later just missed on a deep ball down the middle later on when Brady overshot the veteran wide receiver.)