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.
More practice notes after the jump!
- Landon Cohen, in a seven on seven drill, made a really nice would-be stop on BenJarvus Green-Ellis, breaking through the line and holding him up without losing any ground.
- In a hurry-up drill, Tom Brady had a pretty play action pass to Deion Branch. Brady bided his time, and eventually found a wide open Deion Branch who would have had a huge gain.
- Newcomer Mark Anderson showed some flashes as a speed rusher, and made one impressive open field tackle.
- Rookie tackle Nate Solder got in some time with the first team, and looked impressive in pass protection from what I could tell.
- Near the end of practice, the team took part in some goal line drills. The defense looked solid, holding up runners most of the time, although Green-Ellis and Stevan Ridley both found a way to the endzone. Patrick Chung made a couple of run stuffing plays, teaming up with Tarpinian on one particularly impressive stop on Ridley that resulted in a loss. Brian Hoyer also found Aaron Hernandez on consecutive touchdowns at one point in the drill.
That's it for now, we'll be back at practice this afternoon so be sure to check back soon!