NOTEWORTHY

Bill Belichick gave the veterans a virtual day off. After positional drills, the starters all departed for the lower practice fields for about 45 minutes. Brady and the offensive skill players ran some plays under Josh McDaniels' watch. The offensive line and various members of the defense kept together with positional work, but it was all light speed stuff. In the past, Belichick had given the veterans a day off, but they remained on the field and stood around doing nothing. This way, at least they accomplished something while the backups were the focal point of practice.

Matt Patricia called the defensive plays for the backups, while Chad O'Shea served as the offensive coordinator/play caller.

The backup defense had to run two laps during the first period of team drills.

Eric Rowe made a nice play to pick off Garoppolo, his team-best third interception of camp. Garoppolo was intercepted by Nate Ebner on a fair catch in the end zone, and this was a play after Rowe broke up a pass in the same area. However, it appeared to be a situational drill where Belichick instructed Garoppolo to force the ball to the end zone based on the time and score of the game. With that the likely case, the pick shouldn't be viewed as a bad one for Garoppolo.

Garoppolo made a terrific throw to Jacob Hollister for a touchdown up the left seam. Hollister's routes are improving daily.

Tom Brady and Robert Kraft had conversation on the adjacent field while the backups were finishing practice.