FOXBORO - Sunday’s Patriots practice was less a training camp session than a slow-motion walkthrough, with the team working in front of an empty set of stands and never really pushing past what looked like half speed.
There wasn’t much live action to sort through. At one point, the starting offense and defense basically waited around on the sideline while a special teams period played out, which tells you plenty about the pace of the day.
Even so, a few details stood out - mostly on the injury front, where some familiar names were missing again.
Wide receiver Kyle Dixon, center Ben Brown, defensive tackle Christian Barmore, edge rusher Xavier Holmes and cornerback Christian Gonzalez were all absent. Brown is expected to be out for a few weeks after a lower-body injury. Edge rusher Harold Landry, who is on PUP, and safety Brenden Schooler, who is on NFI, still weren’t cleared to go either.
There was at least some good news mixed in. Wide receiver Kobe Prentice, linebacker Chad Muma and safety Eric Butler were back after sitting out Saturday’s padded practice. Cornerback Charles Woods came out in a red, non-contact jersey, then later switched into blue, which fit the slower tempo of the day.
Because everything was run at walking speed, there was no meaningful quarterback stat line to update for Drake Maye, Tommy DeVito or Behren Morton. The ball was never really coming out at full throttle.
Morton did have one notable moment with the third-string group. On a play-action rep, he nearly botched an exchange with Lan Larison, but kept the ball secured and rolled left to find his target in the flat. In a real game, or even a full-speed practice, that one could have gone sideways fast.
Barmore remains the biggest absence to watch. He’s been missing consistently this summer, especially lately.
Since Aug. 7, he has been out four times and limited once. He also wasn’t seen at Thursday’s preseason opener, and Mike Vrabel has said part of the reason is that Barmore has played a lot of football.
Still, it’s clear something is keeping him off the field.
After Thursday’s game, Vrabel mentioned Barmore among a group that wasn’t physically able to go.
With Barmore out, Joshua Farmer, Eric Gregory and Leonard Taylor III have been getting more chances, but the Patriots’ defensive front clearly isn’t the same without him. At this point, it doesn’t look likely that he’ll be an active part of the joint practices with the Eagles.
Up front on offense, Brown and Andrew Rupcich, who was placed on season-ending IR yesterday, were both out again. That opened the door for more work from their replacements on the second unit: undrafted rookie Jacob Rizy at center and Mehki Butler at left guard. Those are the same players who entered the game, and the trend suggests they’re moving into the top interior backup roles there.
One of the quieter success stories of camp keeps building, too. Saunders didn’t snag an interception Sunday - he’s already picked off three passes this summer - but he did get another boost on the safety depth chart.
He started the spring as the fifth safety, and after a strong camp, he’s now moved ahead of Mike Brown to work as the third safety with the top unit alongside Dell Pettus. The Ole Miss product has become one of the more interesting developments on this defense.
"Mentally he's kept working, and it's been great to see him show up and get into that competition," Vrabel said Saturday.
Late in practice, with about 20 minutes left, most of the offensive starters and scout team defenders headed into the WIN Waste Innovations Field House next door. What followed was a blast of crowd noise - Mötley Crüe, Fall Out Boy and other bands booming so loudly that reporters a field away could hear it. The point was obvious: prepare for noise and silent counts, the kind of thing that will matter in Week 1 at Seattle.
"Any time that we can work towards something that's going to help us in the future, I think it's a good opportunity to do that," offensive tackle Will Campbell said after practice.
"That was good work. It's good to compete against somebody else other than your own team.
Just see a couple things on how people move and stuff like that, and how you can play it. We learned a lot from the joint practice." - safety Craig Woodson on what the Patriots learned from their joint practice with the Indianapolis Colts.
The Patriots will put the pads back on Monday morning as they begin their week with the Philadelphia Eagles. Vrabel is scheduled to speak before the team’s 17th training camp practice.
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