Joe Vellano:

Here’s a look at this morning’s top Patriots stories for Thursday September 8, 2016.

On a night where both offenses looked sloppy and wilting in the heat, it was the play of the defense that carried the day.

They added Terrance Knighton, Frank Kearse, and Markus Kuhn in FA, Vincent Valentine in the draft and Chris Long, this season’s reclamation project.

Hargrave has the first step explosion to get off the line quickly and get after the quarterback with excellent snap anticipation.

Siliga is one of those big bodied guys who are invaluable as run stuffers. One of the indelible moments of training camp was his crunching hit of Tyler Gaffney on August 1, shooting across the gap and leveling the runner as he was trying to get to the second level