Brady allowed to skip NY
Clear to join team for practice in W.Va.
FOXBORO — Quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots caught a break from Judge Richard Berman.
Berman said Brady and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell don’t have to attend Wednesday’s appeal meeting in New York. This means Brady can attend the Patriots’ first practice with the Saints in West Virginia. The Pats and Saints will also practice together Thursday before next Saturday’s preseason game in New Orleans.
Berman does reserve the right to change his mind and order both Brady and Goodell to attend the meeting, but for now, Brady is off the hook. Of course, Brady could still decide to go to the meeting anyway.
These joint practices serve as a valuable tuneup, so it’s a win for Brady and the Patriots that he’ll be able to participate, especially after he missed Tuesday’s practice to prepare for Wednesday’s first round of meetings in New York.
Brady returned to Gillette Stadium yesterday morning and started for the Pats last night in their 22-11 loss to the Packers.
Boyce struggles
Third-year receiver Josh Boyce had a brutally difficult night against the Packers. He only managed to haul in two of the 11 passes thrown his way and couldn’t corral a ball that was intercepted by cornerback Ladarius Gunter.
Boyce dropped Brady’s first pass of the night and struggled to get in sync with Jimmy Garoppolo, who was 2-of-9 for 19 yards when looking his way. Garoppolo underthrew two deep balls up the right sideline and overthrew two others, including one that was negated by a defensive penalty.
“JB is a good player out there,” Garoppolo said. “He’s very athletic, quick, fast. He’s got a lot of tools in his tool belt. I missed him on a couple of those deep balls. I was a little upset about those. You’ve got to take advantage of those.”
Boyce has shown improvement during camp, but the inconsistency has been an issue, particularly with drops. It wasn’t a great night considering Brandon Gibson and undrafted rookie Chris Harper were far more efficient.
Bill Belichick didn’t get into specifics when identifying players’ performances last night.
“I don’t think we did anything well enough on offense, defense or special teams really to the level that we need to be at,” Belichick said. “We’ll work on everything and try to keep improving.”
In QB’s corner
Patriots president Jonathan Kraft told 98.5 The Sports Hub that Brady has the team’s full support regardless of what happens in the coming month, whether he accepted a deal or kept up the fight.
Kraft was also like many who believed Brady got off to a good start Wednesday with the first appeal meeting with Berman.
“Having read what transpired (Wednesday) and obviously being on the side of the situation that you know we’re on, it looked good,” Kraft said. “But having been in court a number of times on lots of things, you never really know what’s going on until something ends. I’m not sure I should say all that much more beyond that because I believe the judge has made it clear, and even though we’re not a party to the case, I think we should let the thing play itself out a little.”
Early injuries
A pair of rookies went down in the first quarter. Starting cornerback Darryl Roberts exited after injuring his wrist, and defensive end Trey Flowers suffered an unknown injury shortly after sacking Aaron Rodgers. Both immediately went to the locker room.
Defensive end Rufus Johnson, who had a sack and broke up a screen pass, suffered a leg injury in the fourth quarter, but said he’d be fine.
“My confidence is slowly coming around, but I can’t get too ahead of myself,” Johnson said. “I’m still in the process, still learning. I’m just going to keep working every day.” . . .
Running back Tyler Gaffney, who was released Wednesday, cleared waivers and was placed on injured reserve. Gaffney only practiced three times in training camp before going down with a season-ending injury for the second consecutive year.