Training Camp Central: Welker gets hit, Brady gets mad, and more notes
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By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com
FOXBORO -- Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Wednesday morning that the "real" evaluation during training camp starts at the end of this week. That said, Thursday morning's practice session saw an increase in physicality.
That was no more evident than when linebacker Jerod Mayo knocked wide receiver Wes Welker on his backside twice during 11-on-11 drills.
Welker -- whose return from offseason knee and shoulder surgery has come a lot quicker than expected -- took two big hits from Mayo after receptions over the middle.
The first came early on in the team's two-hour morning practice, as Mayo gave the veteran receiver a good pop on a short pass underneath. The second came later on in the session, but was more of Welker running into Mayo after catching a pass over the middle on a two-minute drill set, rather than Mayo clobbering Welker.
Tom Brady forgot to yell "earmuffs" to the hundreds of kids watching him as he approached the line of scrimmage before running a play in the red zone. The Patriots' quarterback was visibly and vocally upset at his offensive line, and yelled, "Let's [expletive] go!" before the ball was snapped.
After the disappointing offensive set was complete, the top offensive unit's offensive line was huddled around Brady, giving him their full attention, as Brady looked down the line and gave them each a piece of his mind.
"Tom's just doing a good job, being a great leader, and trying to get everybody motivated," said Ryan Wendell, who was playing some left guard during Thursday morning's practice in the absence of both Logan Mankins and Nick Kaczur.
Perhaps what sparked Brady's anger was a dropped pass by veteran running back Fred Taylor the play prior. Taylor dropped an pass over the middle that would have led to six points. It should have been caught, and nobody was happy afterwards.
"I'm pissed too," said Taylor after the morning practice. "You want to be as close to perfect as you can. I hate dropping a pass, but I work on it. I work at it, and doing what I need to do to get better in that area. I always have. But you want to be hard on yourself. Not to the point where it carries over to the next play or the next practice, but it's not the end of the world. But you do want to try and practice consistency in those areas that aren't necessarily your strong points."
In an interesting turn of events, receiver Julian Edelman was brought down to one end of the field on Thursday morning in order to take part in 1-on-1, running back vs. defensive back drills.
As running backs worked on their pass-rush blocking, and defensive backs worked on their blitzing, Edelman filled in for one set as a running back. He took on safety Brandon Meriweather.
And Meriweather didn't attempt to be fancy. Instead, he ran full speed, right at Edelman, in an attempt to just run him over. But Edelman held his ground and didn't let Meriweather move him much during the head-on collision.
"I'm just going out there, and going wherever the coaches ask me to go,"
said Edelman after the morning session. "I just go out there, and work hard, and do what the tell
me to do.
"If they ask me to do something, if they ask me to jump, I'll say, 'How high?'"
After back-to-back days of disappointing showings at training camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, running back Laurence Maroney took most of his reps with the team's second offensive unit on Thursday. Taylor was running with the top unit.
Inside linebacker Gary Guyton was also absent again in Thursday's morning session. Filling in on the top offensive unit was Brandon Spikes and Eric Alexander.
Second unit wide receiver Torry Holt wasn't wearing gloves during Thursday's morning session. Instead, he had his fingers taped. He's probably wishing he had the extra stick 'em from the gloves after letting a Brian Hoyer pass over the middle slip right through his hands in the red zone.
As crazy as it sounds, the one drill that gets everyone's full attention (fans and media, that is) involves the quarterbacks throwing deep passes at an empty garbage barrel on the side practice field, in an attempt to sink their throws inside.
Hoyer was the only quarterback to sink a throw during Thursday's morning session. he did so from 25 yards out. They eventually moved back to a 40-yard throw, but the closest anyone came to putting it in the barrel was when Brady hit the front of it.
In case you're keeping tabs, kicker Stephen Gostkowski was a perfect 7-for-7 on field goals in the morning practice.
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DannyPicard
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