After kicking off full-team practices last week, and working exclusively on conditioning and fundamentals before that, the New England Patriots will return to the practice fields on Monday wearing full pads for the first time since their playoff exit in January: the team and the rest of the league enter the third and final phase of training camp under the new structure agreed upon in the NFL-NFLPA Coronavirus deal.
This so-called “contact integration period” will cover the rest of camp and include a total of 14 padded practices — starting at 90 minutes with a 15-minute daily increase.