FOXBORO — After almost a week of losing ground to Drake Maye in their nominal position competition, Jacoby Brissett kept his distance Monday.

Brissett led a scoring drive to end practice, handed 1:04 on the clock and a full field ahead to go. Brissett took his first snap and launched a deep ball down the left sideline for Tyquan Thornton. The speedy receiver did his part, beating Christian Gonzalez over a 45-yard dead sprint to make the catch in stride.

Just like that, Brissett was in striking distance. Two run plays followed, allowing the field goal unit to best position itself in a theoretical end-of-game situation where the Patriots only needed a field goal to win or tie. The kick was good. Brissett won.

With training camp set to close Friday, this is where Brissett seems to find himself in his head-to-head battle with Maye: waiting to run the clock out before claiming victory.

He’s taken every first-team rep in 17 practices. He out-performed Maye in most of those workouts. Despite Jerod Mayo’s insistence that Maye could still win the job, it’s hard to envision the rookie climbing back in such a short amount of time.

That said, Maye has saved his best for last. His last three practices have been some of, if not the best, of his entire summer. Maye also out-played Brissett in the team’s last preseason game against the Eagles.

As for Monday, he went 1-of-3 with a sack on his final series, which resulted in a turnover on downs. But overall, Maye finished a sharp 8-of-11 in competitive team drills with one sack, compared to the two Brissett took. Maye also received protection from some projected starters on the offensive line, who rotated into the second-team offense.

Elsewhere at Patriots practice, a veteran corner reclaimed his spot, a rookie receiver keeps going in reverse, two other rookies saw starting reps on offense and the kicking competition took another turn.

Here are the Herald’s complete practice observations:

Returned: TE Austin Hooper, DL Armon Watts

Absent: TE Hunter Henry, OLB Joshua Uche, OT Calvin Anderson, C/G Nick Leverett, TE Mitchell Wilcox, OLB Oshane Ximines, S/LB Marte Mapu, WR JaQuae Jackson, DL Christian Barmore

Limited: Hooper

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

Notes: Hooper and Watts both returned after missing Sunday’s practice. Jerod Mayo said he expects Henry to be available for Week 1, but left the door open to a potentially longer absence. Uche, Leverett and Mapu were spotted watching drills up close, but did not don pads.

Brissett’s bomb to Thornton

Aside from the completion itself (detailed above), this play highlighted two positives.

No. 1 Brissett put enough air under this deep ball, an inconsistent area in his game thus far in training camp.

No. 2 Thornton continues to track deep throws better than he’s ever shown. The 2022 second-round pick may finally be tapping into his potential, even if it’s unclear whether he will ever develop into an every-down starter.

DL Deatrich Wise

Without Matthew Judon, the Patriots must replace a significant source of edge pass rush and occasional edge-setting against the run. Wise did both on Monday.

The 30-year-old defensive lineman tallied a sack and one run stuff on a day with few team periods. Wise tallied both working against the first-team offense, besting left tackle Vederian Lowe for a sack and later stopping running back Rhamondre Stevenson in his tracks.

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: 5-of-6, 2 sacks (161-of-246 — 65.4%, 6 INTs, 28 sacks)

Drake Maye: 8-of-11, sack (143-of-229 — 62.4%, 5 INTs, 21 sacks)

Notes: Quick work for the quarterbacks.

After initial stretching and a special teams walkthrough, the Patriots conducted an extensive 11-on-11 walkthrough period. The starting offense and defense ran several plays on opposite fields, while their backups acted as a scout-team buffer that organized itself based on play cards.

Once competitive drills began, Brissett, Maye and Joe Milton saw three snaps apiece in an 11-on-11 drill. Each took two dropbacks and handed the ball off once. Brissett found DeMario Douglas on a shallow cross after taking a Davon Godchaux sack, then Maye hit Antonio Gibson on a swing screen and a checkdown against pressure.

Jacoby Brissett still considers himself Patriots starting QB despite Jerod Mayo’s message

Next, in 7-on-7s, Brissett went 2-of-3 with a couple short completions over the middle, while Maye hit all three passes on deeper routes: a curl, deep corner and comeback. Another brief 11-on-11 period followed, where Brissett made one hand-off, found K.J. Osborn in the flat and got "sacked" by Deatrich Wise. With his three reps, Maye executed a trick run play, whipped a short completion to rookie tight end Jaheim Bell and missed Jalen Reagor on a downfield, back-shoulder throw versus tight coverage.

At the end, each running a 1-minute drill, Brissett made the Play of the Day, while Maye took a sack on an unblocked safety blitz, ripped an outside pass to Kayshon Boutte on a comeback route, had an incompletion due to an apparent miscommunication with either backup tight end La'Michael Pettway or Javon Baker, completed a flat throw to Pettway and chucked an incomplete Hail Mary.

DL Keion White

White dominated 1-on-1 pass rush, including a win over Mike Onwenu, then tallied a near sack in team periods. Missed in his production is the fact White has played virtually every position along the Patriots' defensive front -- and successfully so.

WR K.J. Osborn

The veteran wideout caught three passes on a team-high four targets in team drills, with the lone incompletion being thrown too far ahead of him in 7-on-7s. Osborn caught passes from Maye on a comeback route and a deep corner, making it back-to-back practices the two have connected on long throws.

K Joey Slye

A day after earning Player of the Day in this space, Slye missed two field goals at the end of practice to tilt the kicking competition back to even. He finished 3-of-5 overall, making a kick that capped Brissett's 1-minute drill and later missed from 45 and 53 yards out. His makes were from 41 and 49 yards away.

WR Javon Baker

Another tough day in a rough two-week stretch for the rookie. Baker went catchless, dropped his first target in team drills, and primarily ran with the third-stringers.

Drake Maye ‘absolutely getting better’ in final stretch of Patriots training camp