Patriots News:

Patriots running back Tyler Gaffney finally got to play in an NFL game on Thursday night after waiting 2 ½ years for the opportunity.

Patriots Cheerleaders support Tom Brady with pregame formation.

With the two team scrimmages last week, followed by some strong work against the Saints in joint practices, Flowers is kicking his game into high gear.

The Patriots opened the preseason with a 34-22 victory over the New Orleans Saints as the defense stepped up with three turnovers and played well overall.

The Patriots are no strangers to injuries and while the hope was to avoid a repeat of the problems they had in 2015, they suffered a tough loss on Thursday night in their first preseason game against the Saints.

Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and Martellus Bennett will likely not play. So what things will Bill Belichick and the coaching look to accomplish tonight?

According to NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo, it looks like Bill Belichick will sit veteran quarterback Tom Brady for their first exhibition game of the year, giving more reps to Garoppolo as he continues preparing to start the first four games of 2016.

Injuries were a problem in 2015 and after a relatively quiet start to training camp, the Patriots suffered their first significant loss of the preseason.

The Patriots already know how tough it is for their offense without receiver Julian Edelman, and Tuesday should have everyone in New England breathing a sigh of relief.

The Patriots, however, weren’t at their best offensively and were rather sloppy with dropped passes across the board by multiple players.

This will mark the fourth time that the Patriots and Saints will conduct joint practices, the third time in Foxboro. 2010, 2012 were here and 2015 in WV.

The Patriots returned to practice on Sunday afternoon, in full pads and conducted another intra-squad scrimmage for the entire duration of the session

The Patriots got a great bit of news on Sunday afternoon when wide receiver Julian Edelman was removed from the PUP list and returned to practice

In the Patriots intra-squad scrimmage, Brady was surgical, carving up the opposing (White) defense while leading a blowout victory.

Bill Belichick ratcheted up the intensity level by running an old fashioned blue vs white scrimmage during the Patriots eighth practice.