Brady has rest day, but will go on Sunday
PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK
FOXBORO — After the way Tom Brady was rag-dolled by the Miami Dolphins, it would have been surprising if he didn’t take an extra day off this week.
Brady missed practice yesterday, officially due to a minor Achilles injury, for the second Wednesday in a row. His upper left arm was also heavily bandaged in the locker room because of a shot he took against the Dolphins. It can probably be assumed that his hand still hurts, too.
Brady will play this Sunday in Buffalo against the Bills, so there’s no concern in that respect, especially from his teammates.
“He always does what he needs to do to be out there,” safety Devin McCourty said. “He takes great care of his body. Mentally, he’s always prepared. I mean, you saw that last year. He missed the first four games and came back like he had been there all season. So one guy for all of us on the team that you shouldn’t spend any extra minutes worrying about is Brady. He’ll take care of himself and what he needs to do.”
In other relatively positive injury news, center David Andrews (illness) practiced for the first time in two weeks. He developed flu-like symptoms while the Patriots were in Colorado, potentially due to altitude sickness.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to get out there, keep working,” said Andrews, who was listed as a limited participant. “That’s what I’m going to try to do.”
And while wide receiver Chris Hogan (shoulder) and line- backer Trevor Reilly (concussion) didn’t participate, they worked on the conditioning field while the rest of the team practiced. Hogan hasn’t practiced since he was injured in Week 8 against the Chargers. If he doesn’t rejoin the team today, though, it might be a long shot that he’ll return to action Sunday.
Ditto for right tackle Marcus Cannon, who ag- gravated his ankle injury in Week 8. It was worth wondering if the Pats would try to hurry him back this week due to waning depth at the position, but that has yet to be the case. LaAdrian Waddle also missed practice due to a sprained ankle and isn’t expected to play Sunday, according to a source.
Defensive end Trey Flowers (ribs) and linebacker Kyle Van Noy (calf) were present after they were unable to finish the Dolphins game. Both have a chance to play on Sunday, according to sources, but it’ll depend how their respective injuries respond to the practice workload and treatment throughout the week.
Mac on the mic
McCourty addressed a series of interesting topics yesterday, including the unique environment in Buffalo where the Patriots aren’t exactly fan favorites.
Remember, last season a Bills fan threw a cylindrical object at Hogan during the game at New Era Field. The fans are closer to the field than most stadiums, which led to a question about its “intimate” environment.
“When you say ‘intimate,’ it makes it seem so friendly,” McCourty replied. “It’s not really friendly for us up there. It’s fun, though. When we pull into that stadium, there’s nobody happy to see that bus pull in there. A lot of middle fingers, a lot of mouthing words because we can’t hear them on the bus — we’ve got our headphones on — that doesn’t seem to be compliments of any sort.”
Unrelated, but McCourty was wearing his Ironman T-shirt from training camp. Coach Bill Belichick only gives those out to players with perfect attendance, and McCourty is 8-for-8. What’s his secret?
“No secret,” McCourty said. “Just trying to keep my job. Can’t make the club in the tub.”
Finally, McCourty was asked about former Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, who was apparently going to be hired for the Tennessee job before vitriolic backlash from fans caused the Volunteers to back off. McCourty said he hasn’t reached out to Schiano but joined Belichick in vouching for his character.
“I think it’s terrible, the news and what happened with that whole thing,” McCourty said. “I mean, I played under him for five years — great character, coached us the right way, huge on discipline. So to see something that kind of came out that wasn’t fair to him and was really untrue, and the time we live in where social media has such a huge impact and kind of lost a job over that. It was terrible.”
Screen day
On Monday, Belichick said opposing defenses should be excited when the Patriots call a screen pass. That’s because they’ve had a minimal success rate.
Running back Rex Burkhead and the rest of the offense got the message.
“Some little details need to be cleaned up and improved in that area,” Burkhead said. “We’ll work on that, and we’ll continue to get better, just like in all phases.”