FOXBORO, Mass. — The Patriots took it easy on Monday.
With three joint practices on the docket with the Eagles, the team was going at half speed with shells and shorts. They worked on some of the more peripheral stuff like hail marys, goal line plays, safety kicks and the quarter defense.
Alfonzo Dennard, Jake Ballard and Tavon Wilson were back out on the field after missing time before Sunday’s break in action. Marcus Cannon, Ras-I Dowling, Rob Gronkowski, Jermaine Cunningham and Armond Armstead were not spotted.
Michael Jenkins and Kevin Haslam were in uniform without shells and were working on the side field with Shane Vereen, Matthew Slater, Dan Connolly, Markus Zusevics and Nate Ebner, who were all in uniform, but were limited to side work. Mark Harrison was in sweats on the side field, as well.
OFFENSE
–Aaron Dobson made a couple more highlight-reel catches. It was more a showing of his hands and leaping ability than how he can beat defenders, though.
–Zach Sudfeld struggled with drops. He dropped two passes that were wide open for the taking. He rebounded well, ending practice with a few impressive grabs.
-The Patriots are going through right guards like Spinal Tap went through drummers. Connolly, Cannon, Tyronne Green and Zusevics are all banged up now. That left Will Svitek to play right guard with the first team.
-The Patriots continue to show a combination of receivers with the first unit. Dobson, Josh Boyce, Kenbrell Thompkins, Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman and Kamar Aiken were all getting work with the 1s.
-Tight end is another position that doesn’t have a clear cut starter. Daniel Fells, Michael Hoomanawanui, Sudfeld and Ballard all got equal time with Tom Brady.
–Ryan Mallett has underthrown quite a few balls this summer. We’ll see if he performs better in game action on Friday.
DEFENSE
-It looked early on as if Duron Harmon had leapfrogged Tavon Wilson on the depth chart, but they were getting equal reps with the second team.
-Harmon was in when the Patriots were showing dime and quarter looks with two deep high safeties. It was Harmon and  Devin McCourty in those instances.
-McCourty was back at safety full time.
–Logan Ryan picked off Tim Tebow on what appeared to be a screen pass.
-The Patriots showed a look with Adrian Wilson playing up near the line in a linebacker role in the nickel defense. There’s only so many snaps at linebacker to go around with Wilson, Jerod Mayo, Dont’a Hightower, Brandon Spikes, Jamie Collins and Dane Fletcher.
-In punter battle news, Ryan Allen was spending some time holding for Stephen Gostkowski. Zoltan Mesko has some competition there at punter.
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