Patriots Training Camp Notes: Day 1, Morning Session

• Attendance
  • The Patriots kicked off day one of training camp in the Gillette Stadium practice fields.  The place was packed to the point that tardy fans were forced to stand.
• Absent Players
  • Brandon Meriweather (contract issues, no longer a problem)
  • Donte Stallworth
  • Asante Samuel (holdout)
  • Kareem Brown
  • Rest of PUP
• Players who donned red non-contact jerseys
  • Junior Seau
  • Eric Alexander
  • Laurence Maroney
• Randy Moss
  • Received big ovations at times, center of attention at practice
  • Looked good sometimes, shaky at others
  • Caught a nice deep bomb from Brady during 11 on 11 drills
• Jabar Gaffney
  • With Stallworth out, Gaffney was able to step up, and he looked very impressive in doing so
• Adalius Thomas
  • Overall, is looking very solid
  • made some nice plays in pass coverage
  • played inside and outside linebacker
• Danny Baugher
  • Was very impressive.  Played very well in Europe, and now he’s translating that to training camp.  Once again, outplayed Tom Malone.
• Sammy Morris
  • Was not wearing a non-contact jersey (as he did during mini camp)
  • Once again, was good receiving passes out of the backfield
• Ellis Hobbs
  • 3rd year, and he may be set to break out, especially if Asante doesn’t show up until week 10.  He made several nice plays in pass coverage during practice.
• Steve Gostkowski
  • Looked very good.  Did not miss during field goal practice.  Leg wise, in my opinion, Gostkowski is better than Vinatieri.  However, we still need to see how that will translate in pressure situations (although he didn’t miss one pressure kick last year).