No Drake Maye? No Daniel Jones?

Really, what did you expect?

It’s the new NFL, people. Stars simply don’t play much in the preseason anymore, and that’ll be the case Thursday night when the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots tangle for nothing at Gillette Stadium. Maybe the main guys play in one of the three games.

The rest of the time is for those fighting to make the roster, or a backup hoping to unseat a starter. If a starter ever plays in the final preseason game, he’s got that laser dot on his chest, because he was given time to display his talents for the rest of the league when he gets cut the next day.

And when they have joint practices, with the other team that week, teams rarely ever play the big guns. They would have gotten the same experience during the practices with possibly even more time.

And as Vrabel said before yesterday’s practice, “Some of the guys that maybe will not get as much work today will get extensive work in the game on Thursday.”

There you go. Plus the installation of new field turf to replace the soccer grass from the World Cup – that’s been a story in itself – will keep some key players off the field until it settles. And thus you can guarantee that Christian Gonzalez, he of the big contract issue, won’t be playing.

Tuesday was a fun look at the Patriots front liners actually playing somebody else.

“Yeah, I think it’s great because you don’t really scout,” Maye said. “You take a mini look at them, and kind of an idea of what the defensive coordinator does, but really it’s just going out there, feeling what I see and trying to make some plays. So, I think that’s one of the coolest things about a joint practice. You get to see somebody else, and you don’t really scout on a game plan really hard. So, it’s good for you to see, react and try to get your guys going.”

“It’s going against somebody else, and it’s competing against somebody else,” Pats defensive lineman Milton Williams said. “I think we did OK. It wasn’t perfect. Whatever we didn’t do right, we’ll talk about it and correct it and not make the same mistake twice. …

“Just the competition aspect.”

We saw Tommy Devito zing a 61-yard pass, and ooos and ahhhs from the crowd every time A.J. Brown caught a pass. There was some good competition, but it was minus Christian Gonzalez, said to be a little dinged up after Monday’s practice. But one wonders if he would’ve played anyway, given it would be against another team, etc. with the contract thing. Gonzalez left a telling social media message that included the words “Should’ve been done by now.” Uh-oh.

One who did was receiver Romeo Doubs, who caught a TD in the back of the end zone and celebrated, much to the delight of the fans who were above him.The Patriot receivers were the stars of the show – which is good because it won’t be the case Thursday for some.

We may see at lot of Efton Chism III, or Pop Douglas, who made a couple of catches yesterday, but that may be it for recognizable names.

“I think our skill position room’s great,” Maye said, “and we have a lot of depth and a lot of guys that really want to get in there and make plays….It’s my job to get them the ball, and they’re better runners than I am, so get them the football and let them do their thing.”

Training camp is getting long. It’ll be three weeks old this Saturday. There will be players who you never heard of playing Thursday, then the Eagles come to town next week, which should be interesting.

We love summer. But we hate the preseason.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com