Jacoby Brissett leads a promising day for Patriots offense and other Day 8 Patriots camp takeaways

The Patriots defense had the upper hand at the beginning of practice on Friday, when the offense took a run-heavy approach.

They were able to blow things up in the backfield consistently and put pressure on Drake Maye and Jacoby Brissett as they worked on their play-action game.

But, the offense gradually began to air the ball out and that’s when Maye and Brissett were able to shine. They each went 4-5 in red zone sessions, and had an overall strong showing in team scrimmages.

Demario Douglas was making catches all over the field. He was in a red non-contact jersey as he continues to recover from a hand injury, but his speed and playmaking ability were on full display. KJ Osborn also had a pair of impressive catches, including a leaping one in the endzone with a pair of defenders around him.

Here are five takeaways from the action.

Defense stuffed the run early

The Patriots weren’t able to do much with the run game on Friday, a sign that the offensive line has some work to do.

The defensive line won generally the battles up front and were able to make a mess of things, whether it was dealing with simple handoffs up the middle or more complicated plays such as fake end arounds.

There wasn’t much tackling, so this was mostly about the lines pushing each other around.

Antonio Gibson and Rhamondre Stevenson got most of the carries.

Strong day for Brissett and Maye

Brissett closed out practice with a successful two minute drill that ended with a touchdown pass to Douglas.

“A big emphasis on two minute today. You hope you don’t have to go 11 plays but guys just battled through adversity and pushed through the elements. It was a long day of practice and guys were just making plays at the end.

“Those are things I know we’re going to need throughout the seasons. A lot of guys on that drive stepped up. I think we had a center change on that drive and things like that. It was a good drive for us.”

Maye’s strongest sequence of the day came during red-zone 7-on-7s. He hit Javon Baker in the back of the endzone for a TD catch. He put some zip on a pass to Kayshon Boutte near the front corner of the endzone. Then he hit tight-end LaMichael Pettway with a well-placed pass in the back of the endzone with another TD to close out the session.

Full workload for Judon

Matthew Judon was a full participant in Friday’s padded practice. He was a full participant on Thursday too, but the practice was in shorts and shells.

Seeing Judon on the field during a fully padded practice is something that hadn’t happened for a while before today.

Coach Jerod Mayo said earlier in the week that both sides were moving forward as they attempt to work towards a solution in their contract dispute.

There’s no word of a new deal yet, but Judon’s level of participation was different than it was just a few days ago.

Marcus Jones out, Calvin Anderson gets banged up

The Patriots were without cornerback Marcus Jones, who was on the sidelines wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

Deshaun Fenwick and Tyrone Wheatley were also among the absences. The Patriots announced after the practice that they had been cut.

Practice paused for several minutes after offensive tackle Calvin Anderson stayed on the ground with what appeared to be a lower-body injury.

He was eventually able to get up after trainers examined him and later took more reps during the scrimmage portion of practice.

No reps for Zappe

Brissett and Maye got the vast majority of the quarterback reps on Friday.

Joe Milton didn’t get in until the very end. Zappe didn’t get any reps during team drills at all.

Zappe was asked whether he felt he was given a fair opportunity to compete and responded by saying that’s a question for the coaches to answer.

He started out talking about how he entered camp with a “quality over quantity” approach to his reps, but acknowledged that he’s now in a tough spot with such a small number of reps when he was pressed about it.

“It is hard,” Zappe said. “You look back, you started eight games in a year, obviously you have that on your resume whether that’s here or whether that’s wherever. Obviously I want to be here, I want to play here, I want to do everything I can to help this organization win.

“It is hard, but I am trying to be the best teammate that I can,” Zappe added. “Because that’s what’s best for this team and that’s how we can win games. Whether I’m out on the field or on the sideline I’m going to do whatever I can to help the guys.”