NOTEWORTHY

Stephon Gilmore has remained impressive. He shielded Brandin Cooks from making a play on a deep bid from Tom Brady and knocked Chris Hogan off his route on another Brady misfire.

Jimmy Garoppolo’s first interception hung in the air too long to Hogan in the end zone and was undercut by Jordan Richards. The second was a nice play by Eric Rowe, who swatted the ball from Devin Lucien’s grasp and corralled it as he hit the ground in the end zone.

Rowe added a pass breakup later on a Brady throw for Julian Edelman, so Rowe has two interceptions and two breakups in the first two practices. He has easily been the Patriots’ third best corner throughout the offseason.

Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung each had a pass breakup in team drills.

The defensive backs wore padded mitts on their hands during the final period of practice. It’s a tactic to prevent holding the receivers during the play and is a bit more technologically advanced than wrapping their hands in towels, which had been the tactic in previous camps.

Cyrus Jones took exception to Hogan midway through practice. Hogan caught an out route against Jones in 3-on-3s and appeared to talk a little trash on his way back to the huddle. Jones then butted heads with Hogan and punched the ball out of his hands before walking away.

After the conditioning run toward the end of practice, some players got some extra work with various drills. Jones fielded kicks from the Juggs machine.