Nate Washington gets the ball early and often during team drills
The receiver finished the day with five catches.
Jimmy Garoppolo and Tom Brady fed Nate Washington the ball during team drills on Sunday.
The two quarterbacks targeted Washington eight times for five receptions, two of which would have gone for big gains. He got a deep pass from Brady on the first toss of 11-on-11 drills. And Garoppolo delivered another deep ball to Washington in his second series of 11-on-11’s. On an errant deep ball from Brady, Washington did well to come back to the ball, and quasi-tackle Logan Ryan to be sure Ryan didn’t get the interception. The only spoiler for Washington was a false start penalty, which earned him a lap around the field.
Washington has been limited or absent for much of the beginning of training camp. But when he was on the field, he seemed to be catching as many balls from Brady as possible.
“Very important, any of these quarterbacks,” Washington said on August 9. “Any opportunity I have to get some extra routes or extra catches in to get a sense of what the quarterback is thinking is vital right now. It’s very important for me. We’re in preseason right now so you might be in a position with any of these quarterbacks right now. Obviously, I’ve been around Tom because he’s the one whose known the playbook the longest, but all these guys are a valuable person to work with.”
If Sunday is any representation of the work he did in those 1-on-1 sessions, Washington’s time was well-spent.
Attendance:
Notable Absences: Jabaal Sheard, Malcolm Mitchell, Dion Lewis, Sebastian Vollmer, Jonathan Cooper, Nate Ebner. Kyler Kerbyson was also absent — the Patriots cut him to make room for Nate Ebner, who is returning from the 2016 Rio Games.
Limited: Julian Edelman, Rob Ninkovich, Donald Brown, D.J. Foster, Keshawn Martin.
Present but not in pads: Danny Amendola.
Red non-contact jerseys: Logan Ryan, and quarterbacks Brady, Garoppolo, and Jacoby Brissett.
Observations
- Sunday’s starting offensive line was as follows: LT Nate Solder, LG Joe Thuney, C Bryan Stork, RG Shaq Mason, RT Marcus Canon.
- Chris Hogan and Jonathan Freeny have shed their red non-contact jerseys.
- Former special teams coach Scott O’Brien chatted with Bill Belichick during warmups, and later walked over to put his arm over Edelman.
- Matthew Slater worked with Brandon King and Kamu Grugier-Hill on special teams drills. Belichick said on Sunday morning that special teams can be 90 to 100 percent of why a player can make the team.
- Edelman made a jumping grab during a drill. He appeared confident on the foot, which was reportedly surgically repaired this offseason. However, he did not partake in team drills.
- Chris Long and Trey Flowers were the starting defensive ends with Sheard and Ninkovich not participating in 11-on-11 drills.
- Brandon Bolden came up limping during a punting drill, but continued to practice, and took a high volume of carries during 11-on-11 drills.
- Ryan Allen had a number of well-placed directional punts along the sideline during drills.
- Malcolm Butler displayed strong coverage in 11-on-11 drills, and was in coverage on three incompletions to Martellus Bennett, Aaron Dobson, and A.J. Derby. Washington beat Butler on a deep pass, but there wasn’t much he could do — Garoppolo delivered a beautiful pass.
- During 11-on-11 drills, Jonathan Jones had a pass breakup in coverage on Chris Harper. He also drew 1-on-1 coverage against Rob Gronkowski, and Brady didn’t target their matchup.
- During 11-on-11 drills, Gronkowski had a pair of drops. Brandon Bolden and Clay Harbor had back-to-back drops.
- Jordan Richards intercepted Garoppolo. Though, he held the ball too long on the play, and it likely would have been a sack instead of an interception.
- During 11-on-11 drills, Brady was sacked two times in the span of three snaps. The sacks came from Cyrus Jones and Dont’a Hightower.
- Brissett got zero reps in 11-on-11 drills.
11-on-11 drills
Brady was 13 of 23.
Garoppolo was 16 of 28 with an interception.
One note: Both quarterbacks were given one opportunity in the 2-minute drill. Garoppolo’s drive ended with a field goal. Brady’s drive stalled, but Belichick allowed him to continue anyway. With that extra down from Belichick, the drive finished with a field goal.
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