FOXBORO — Jerod Mayo insists there’s a quarterback competition in Foxboro.

Jacoby Brissett remains the clear leader, having started both of the Patriots’ preseason games and taken every first-team rep through 16 practices. Brissett also out-performed Drake Maye in at least a dozen of those workouts. But lately, it appears, he’s losing ground.

Maye has out-played Brissett in three straight practices, dating back to a joint session with the Eagles last Tuesday. On Sunday, the second of two padded practices during this stretch, Maye went 5-of-6 in full-team drills and finished 10-of-15 overall. He tossed multiple touchdown passes in a tight red-zone period, and later found K.J. Osborn deep; growing signs of his comfort in an offense that earlier this summer had him operating like a Checkdown Charlie.

Meanwhile, Brissett rallied from a 1-of-6 start in team periods to finish 10-of-19 overall after running the day’s only two-minute drill. He completed half of his passes on that drive, setting up a 44-yard Chad Ryland field goal. Brissett shared his starting offensive linemen with Maye for a second straight practice, which may have contributed to four would-be sacks he took in team periods.

But even before Sunday’s practice, Brissett owned a marginally higher sack rate. Meaning even before Maye began receiving comparable protection in practice, he was better at escaping pressure than Brissett, who otherwise had been passing more accurately and aggressively in team drills. But if that’s changed, as seen lately, perhaps the competition will, too.

Elsewhere at practice, the Patriots are running low on tight ends, an unknown receiver made the best catch of camp, the kicking competition has a new favorite and the offensive line’s shuffling continued.

Here are the Herald’s complete practice observations:

Absent: TE Hunter Henry, TE Austin Hooper, OT Calvin Anderson, C/G Nick Leverett, OLB Oshane Ximines, DL Armon Watts, WR JaQuae Jackson, S Marte Mapu, DL Christian Barmore

Limited: DL Davon Godchaux, TE Mitchell Wilcox, CB Shaun Wade, CB Azizi Hearn

PUP: WR Kendrick Bourne, LB Sione Takitaki, OL Cole Strange

Notes: All of the players who missed Saturday’s non-padded workout also sat out Sunday. Defensive tackle Armon Watts was newly absent.

All together, these absences left the Patriots notably short at tight end, offensive tackle, defensive tackle, edge rusher and cornerback. Third-string tight end Mitchell Wilcox came up gimpy with an apparent right-leg injury during an early 7-on-7 drill and did not return. Godchaux stood watching the final team periods, possibly after a small dust-up with center David Andrews. Either way, he was limited.

Of note: Jerod Mayo recently said he does not expect Henry’s injury to keep him out long-term.

Baker’s helmet catch

Rare is a Joe Milton deep ball underthrown. Even rarer is the type of catch little-known wideout Kawaan Baker used to reel in such a throw on Sunday.

Working 1-on-1 against rookie corner Marcellas Dial, Baker sped downfield and stopped roughly 30 yards down the left sideline as Milton’s pass descended. He leapt, caught the ball with both hands behind Dial’s helmet and pinned to his teammate as the two crashed to the ground. Then Baker immediately wrestled it away to complete his miraculous catch, as all of his offensive teammates rushed to him in celebration.

K Joey Slye

A kicker? Yep.

With music blaring and the entire team circled around him, Slye went a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts at the end of practice and likely pushed ahead in his position competition with Chad Ryland. Slye hit from 45, 49, 52 and 55 yards out, while Ryland missed his 49- and 55-yard attempts.

Slye has also made field goals from 42, 45 and 51 yards in the preseason. Including those kicks, he is now 33-of-39 overall this summer compared to Ryland’s 31-of-36.

Note: The passing stats below were tallied during competitive 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 periods only. The stats in parentheses represent the quarterbacks’ camp-long performance.

Jacoby Brissett: 10-of-19, 4 sacks (156-of-240 — 65.0%, 6 INTs, 26 sacks)

Drake Maye: 10-of-15, sack (135-of-218 — 61.9%, 5 INTs, 20 sacks)

Notes: The Patriots opened with a 7-on-7 drill in the tight red zone (snapping at the 2-yard line), then moved to 11-on-11 work in the same area, backed out for full-field 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s before closing with Brissett’s two-minute drill.

Maye enjoyed an even day throughout, while Brissett couldn’t complete a single pass at the start. He went 0-of-4 in the tight red zone 7-on-7s, with misfires high, low and out of bounds. Open receivers were hard to spot, though Brissett seemed to miss a couple brief windows with DeMario Douglas springing free over the middle.

Maye followed with a 3-of-5 showing, finding Tyquan Thornton for an out-route touchdown, K.J. Osborn on the move in the end zone and Javon Baker over the middle on his final rep. The Osborn and Baker completions sandwiched misses intended for Baker on a well-defended fade and tight end Mitchell Wilcox on a possible throwaway.

Patriots rookie QB Drake Maye continues to ascend in final days of training camp

In the ensuing 11-on-11 red-zone drill, both quarterbacks made a few hand-offs and found rookie tight end Jaheim Bell for touchdowns. Maye failed to connect with Baker again, but hit Ja'Lynn Polk over the short middle.

Next, it was Brissett's time to find Polk, who won a jump ball over cornerback Marco Wilson during a 7-on-7 period. Brissett completed all four passes there, while Maye had two throws batted away, courtesy of young corners Alex Austin and Marcellas Dial. Maye took a sack on his only dropback of the ensuing, run-heavy 11-on-11 period, when Brissett struck downfield to Douglas, took a few sacks of his own on unblocked pressure and connected on a screen.

Maye's last snaps featured a deep throw to Osborn over Marcus Jones, Kayshon Boutte slant completion against Austin and Douglas out-route connection versus Jones again. Brissett's hurry-up series went as follows: checkdown to Rhamondre Stevenson, incompletion for Douglas against Christian Gonzalez, two hand-offs, a curl-route completion to Polk, hand-off, throwaway, slant pass to Thornton, timeout with 37 seconds left, incompletion for Polk, a wide receiver screen to Polk and incompletion over Polk and Bell that appeared to involve a miscommunication.

OLB William Bradley-King

It's likely too little, too late for the former practice-squad member to make the 53-man roster, but Bradley-King was one of the best defenders on the field Sunday. He tallied a sack of Maye, pressured Milton into a scramble and beat rookie tackle Caedan Wallace badly in 1-on-1 pass rush.

CB Christian Gonzalez

Now that's more like it. Gonzalez, the Patriots' No. 1 corner, didn't allow a catch on three targets. He also blanketed DeMario Douglas down the stretch, shadowing him during Brissett's two-minute drill to end practice.

TE Jaheim Bell

The seventh-round rookie saw his greatest workload in a practice to date, running with the first, second and third-team offenses. He caught touchdowns from Brissett, Maye and Milton during an initial red-zone period.

WR Javon Baker

It's safe to say Baker has been slumping of late. After a tough preseason game Thursday, he saw a single target Saturday and kept running with the third-team offense Sunday. Baker also saw some second-team reps, but catching one of five targets, including two that were broken up, won't inspire the coaches to give him a promotion any time soon.

OG Sidy Sow

It's been curious to watch Sow, who appeared to be tracking for a Year 2 leap early in camp, rotate out of the team's starting offensive line after three snaps in 11-on-11 periods. Not only that, but he took a bad loss to backup defensive tackle Trysten Hill in 1-on-1 pass rush and may be dealing with a hand injury.

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