Monday's New England Patriots Links 8/15
TRAINING CAMP RECAPS:
Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com has a video recap from yesterday's action down in Foxboro.
Andy Hart of Patriots.com files his practice notes from yesterday, and reports that the defense did work in a 3-4 alignment for the middle portion of practice.
Mike Petraglia of WEEI.com has his report from yesterday, which still saw Albert Haynesworth not on the field.
Mike Rodak of ESPNBoston.com has 17 Observations from yesterday.
Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe Files his practice report as well, and writes that Jermaine Cunningham was the only uniformed player that didn't participate in the sprints at the end of New England's practice yesterday.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES:
Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald reports that former Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, five-time Pro Bowl safety Darren Sharper, and veteran safety Renaldo Hill are scheduled to visit Foxboro and receive a workout today.
Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com has an article on the Patriots current competition at the wide receiver position, and talks about the fact that while New England is bringing in Houshmandzadeh for a visit, he's not sure where he'll fit in and thinks the Pats are just doing their "due diligence".
Tom Curran of CSNNE writes that this is "tire kicking time" for the Patriots, and that they'll likely continue wading through the list of available players.
The Patriots did make a transaction Sunday, with CSNNE.com reporting that the team added veteran linebacker Niko Koutouvides, who had previously come in for a work out with the team last Monday.
Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald has an article on defensive line coach Pepper Johnson, who had some good things to say yesterday about Haynesworth.
Shalise Manza Young also has a notebook leading off with the same topic, with Johnson also saying yesterday he's 'expecting a lot' from the veteran.
Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle writes that the Patriots don't tell him much when it comes to personnel moves, so he just coaches whoever they give him out on the field.
Paul Kenyon of the Providence Journal writes that Johnson is one of the best in the business when it comes to coaching the D-Line.
The Patriot Ledger has the full transcript of yesterday's interview with Johnson.
Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe has a good article this morning on Mark Anderson, and writes that Anderson is looking to build on his impressive debut from last Thursday night.
Mark Daniels of the Boston Herald also writes that Johnson said that he's enjoyed coaching Anderson, and that he's a 'true professional'
Tom Brady was on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan this morning, and talked about how challenging it's been for Chad Ochocino to forget everything he knew in Cincinnati and get in sync with the Pats QB.
Brady also said in the interview that he's not over their playoff loss to the Jets back in January.
"The Jets, I'll never get over that loss," Brady said. "That's as painful as a loss as I think we've ever had here as a team."They can rush the passer. They're a good team. They pressure the quarterback, that's what we have to be prepared for with them. And they always try and find a way to confuse the quarterback, whether that's by pass rush, whether that's by coverage and often times both. We gave them a lot of credit when they won and I think we have to learn from that and understand what it takes to beat good teams under tough conditions. That's what we have to try and accomplish this year."
Brady also said during the interview that he was surprised to find out that he wouldn't be playing at all during Thursday night's game.
There's also more from the interview here.
Mark Daniels of the Boston Herald has an article on BenJarvus Green-Ellis this morning, and writes that now that he's back on the field, this is the runningback's chance to shine after coming off of an impressive performance last season.
Logan Mankins spoke to reporters yesterday and broke the silence on his new contract, and Rich Garven of the Worcester Telegram writes that Mankins said yesterday "it doesn't feel real yet".
“I just got the call when it was done,” Mankins, speaking for the first time since signing the deal, said after yesterday’s training camp session, “and I was happy about it.”“I’m happy with it,” Mankins said. “I’m ecstatic with it. It doesn’t feel real yet, so I don’t know how to take it yet, but I’m very happy to be here. Moving forward, hopefully we have a good season and I can help this team win games for the next six years, if I make it that long.”
Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald also has an article on Mankins, and writes that the veteran said yesterday he's going to make sure he earns every cent of his contract.
Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe writes that Fresno State, Mankins' alma mater, recently completed installation of a $1.2 million FieldTurf surface at its home stadium - one sideline bears the words "Mankins Family" in honor of the donation they made toward its completion.
Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle has an article on Gerard Warren who said that re-signing with the Patriots was what he wanted all along, and he's glad to be back.
"I told my agent, 'Call me after you talk to New England,'" said Gerard Warren, who was recently re-signed to the Patriots' roster through free agency. "I felt like I still have a few more years left in me and I wanted to be here in New England, and fortunately God blessed me and it worked out that way."
Jeff Howe of NESN.com writes that Danny Woodhead was excited to talk about the birth of his new little baby girl 'Gia' yesterday.
Mike Reiss also has an article on the topic, with Woodhead saying that training camp wasn't exactly the 'best time' to have a baby, since he'll be at the stadium so much over the next couple of weeks.
ESPN's John Clayton takes a look back at the first week of preseason, and writes that Ryan Mallett looked the best out of all the first year quarterbacks so far.
Christopher Price of WEEI.com takes a shot at forecasting who will make the final 53-man roster.
And finally, it appears that someone had nothing better to do than snap photos of Brady and his wife Gisele at the park last Friday. There are a couple of cute shots with them pushing their son Ben on the swings, but Brady unfortunately got caught with a photo of their little dog riding in the basket on the front of his bicycle....he's probably going to get a little grief for that.
That's it for this morning. We'll have updates later on so be sure to check back throughout the day.
