Running back James White was the other rookie getting in some special teams practice on Tuesday. White has also been turning a lot of heads this summer. With Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen both in contract years, White is in the perfect position to become a force. Originally pegged to be a third down back, he is showing that he has the skills to play every down. Overall he is the most well-rounded of the group. It is worth noting that he split time in high school with Giovani Bernard (695 yards and 5 touchdowns last year for Bengals) and spent most of his college seasons splitting time with Montee Ball (559 yards and 4 touchdowns last year for the Broncos). Throughout practice White was getting the majority of reps at running back with the first team.
When it came to quarterbacks, as usual Tom Brady looked great regardless of the drill. While he didn't go deep very often, he did make some quality passes during 7 on 7 drills. Making his first appearance at practice this week, Ryan Mallett didn't look so great. This is unfortunate as I am still hoping we can make a trade with the Texans for TE Ryan Griffin. After his play last week, that seems like a bit of a pipe-dream now. Hopefully something happens with Mallett before the roster gets to 53 because we need the roster spot and already have a suitable backup in Jimmy Garoppolo. If nothing happens on the Mallett front before final roster cuts, I wouldn't be surprised to see him out of a job. Although Garoppolo supposedly wasn't having very good practices last week, he looked pretty good to me on Tuesday.
- After catching a Stephen Gostkowski field goal, a young fan juked in and out of the other fans before finally giving the ball back to security.
- At the end of the joint activities most of the Patriots were doing some cardio on the hill in the far corner (running hills, doing planks and lifting what looked like PVC pipe) while a few players were fielding punts on the main field.
- While the entire Patriots organization was participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, most of the Eagles players made their way to the fans to sign autographs.