Patriots Training Camp Blog: Ellis, Haynesworth At Practice
FOXBORO (CBS) – Here are a few notable items from Patriots camp Saturday, which is the last open session to the public:
ELLIS, HAYNESWORTH SIGHTINGS
Shaun Ellis is at practice.
He's not hitting or running plays but he's got a number - 94 if you are keeping track at home.
It seems that a lot of guys are getting healthy for the all-important third preseason game.
Brandon Tate is also out there as well as Julian Edelman.
Albert Haynesworth walked out on to the field too.
He looks trim.
The rest of the Pats are just in shells and helmets.
Albert is not taking part in any of the drills but he is talking to defensive coach Pepper Johnson and Vince Wilfork.
RICKY BROWN SIGNED
The Patriots announced Saturday they have signed former Raiders and Boston College linebacker Ricky Brown.
Brown is 6-2, 235 pounds. He played five seasons with Oakland after signing with them as a rookie free agent out of B.C. in 2006.
He's played in 55 career games with 13 starts as a reserve linebacker and special teams player.
He has 102 total tackles, four passes defensed and three forced fumbles.
Last season with Oakland, Brown played in 14 games, started one of them, and finished with 13 total tackles and one pass defensed.
BELICHICK TRANSCRIPT
Here is a transcript of Bill Belihick's meeting with reporters Saturday, provided by the Patriots.
BB: A little running today. We're off tomorrow and we'll be back at it on Monday. [We have a] big week coming up. It's a long week before Detroit, so hopefully we can get a lot of things done and make a lot of improvement. We certainly need that.
Q: Can you talk about the additions of James Ihedigbo and Ricky Brown?
BB: Both guys have experience in the league and we felt like they could come in and help our team.
Q: Does this count as an official practice for Shaun Ellis? Is he now off PUP?
BB: Yes. He's off PUP, yes.
Q: What can he give you?
BB: We'll see. We'll put him out there and find out.
Q: Do you think he might play on Saturday night?
BB: I don't now. We haven't made that decision yet.
Q: We saw Albert Haynesworth out there today. Is that a sign that he'll be ready to go the next time you're out on the field?
BB: He's day-to-day; we'll judge it every day.
Q: So him being out there doesn't mean anything in terms of his progress?
BB: He's been day-to-day; he's still day-to-day. When he's ready, he'll be out there.
Q: Is James Ihedigbo a special teams addition or is he more like a safety?
BB: He's played defense, he's played safety, he's played there for the Jets – he played some of the nickel and dime type responsibilities on defense, and he's been good in the kicking game. We'll see what he can do.
Q: You mentioned more installation recently. Is that what you guys are going to be doing in the next few days – setting out what you're going to install?
BB: Yeah, what we're going to install, what we're going to work on, things we need to start…we've got games coming up here pretty soon. In training camp, you're just kind of trying to evaluate your team and figure out who you're going to be dealing with and where you're going to give everybody a chance to perform. Now I think we need to start making some decisions about who is going to do what and what we want to be and how we want to use different players and where our depth is and so forth. So, all of that is part of it.
Q: So is this a big week then with the August 30 deadline to make the first round of cuts?
BB: Yeah, of course. The further it goes into training camp, the more important it is for the competition for the players to make the roster. Absolutely.
Q: (Inaudible)
BB: We're going to look at players at a lot of different positions, like we always do so we have depth on our roster. We only take seven linemen to a game; you've got to double up.
