Former absentees Damien Harris, Chase Winovich make appearance at Patriots OTAs

The New England Patriots were back on the practice fields on Tuesday to hold their fourth organized team activity. While OTAs are meant as a learning exercise and take place without full pads or live tackling, they still give players their most extensive opportunity to get used to the system and the team as a whole before mandatory minicamp takes place next month.

New England traditionally has strong attendance, and last week’s first look at the team confirmed this. While 25 players were not spotted during the Thursday session open to reporters (with five others present but not participating), the team had a healthy portion of its roster present for its first days of OTA action.

It seems as if this trend continued heading into Week 2. Based on 38 photos shared on their website, we can see that some former absentees joined the Patriots’ action on Tuesday:

DT Christian Barmore, RB Damien Harris, TE Dalton Keene, RB Rhamondre Stevenson, LB Chase Winovich

Damien Harris and Dalton Keene were both spotted on Thursday but did not participate in any drills; based on the Patriots’ photos it appears as if their status changed this week. Chase Winovich, meanwhile, was already on the field during the first OTA last Monday but not present for the open session on Thursday.

Rookies Christian Barmore and Rhamondre Stevenson, on the other hand, appear to have made their practice debuts: both are visible on photos provided by the team after not being in attendance during last Thursday’s practice.

The list of other players spotted on Tuesday’s photos is obviously not an accurate snapshot of who was actually present for the session — not every player was identifiable and it can reasonably be assumed that not every one was photographed either. However, it still gives us some impression of who was there beyond the five returnees listed above:

WR Nelson Agholor, DE Henry Anderson, C David Andrews, TE Devin Asiasi, P Jake Bailey, DE Rashod Berry, CB Justin Bethel, WR Kendrick Bourne, OT Yodny Cajuste, OT Korey Cunningham, S Kyle Dugger, RB Tyler Gaffney, TE Hunter Henry, QB Brian Hoyer, CB Michael Jackson Jr, FB Jakob Johnson, QB Mac Jones, CB Jonathan Jones, TE Matt LaCosse, G Shaq Mason, LB Raekwon McMillan, WR Jakobi Meyers, DT Bill Murray, QB Cam Newton, WR Gunner Olszewski, DE Ronnie Perkins, QB Jarrett Stidham, RB J.J. Taylor, DT Nick Thurman, LB Josh Uche, CB Dee Virgin, CB Joejuan Williams, DE Deatrich Wise Jr, WR Isaiah Zuber

The Patriots will have a day off on Wednesday before holding their next OTA practices on Thursday and Friday, the latter of which being open to the media again. The other sessions currently scheduled are slate to take place on June 7 and 8 as well as June 10 and 11.

New England will also hold its three-day mandatory minicamp soon: the first time all players will have to be present — OTAs are voluntary — will come between June 15 and June 17.