FOXBOROUGH - After roughly a dozen on-field organized team activity and minicamp practices, Thursday was supposed to be the last session before the pseudo-summer break for Patriots players.

Helmets in hand, some of them with taped ankles or wrists, they walked up the stairs to the grass fields behind Gillette Stadium just after noon.

Once they got there, Bill Belichick had a welcome surprise: They would be starting their time off early. No practice, just a team meeting, and they were free to go.

“It was a shocker,’’ said Deion Branch. “But Coach keeps us on our toes.’’

Branch said the Patriots had a great offseason, though he followed up by saying there’s a lot of work still to be done.

Belichick must have agreed with Branch’s assessment; this is believed to be the first time in his tenure with New England that he has canceled a minicamp practice.

In his press conference, Belichick said he felt the team had gotten a lot done, and on Wednesday, Tom Brady had said Belichick really challenged players mentally and the team had responded well.

Now there is a break of nearly six weeks until players have to report for training camp (the Patriots have not announced the schedule, but they will likely report July 25), and while there won’t be much opportunity for football-related work, they have plenty of expectations on how to spend this time.

First and foremost: maintain or improve their conditioning.

“I think overall these guys are in pretty good shape, but I don’t think they’re in training camp shape, real football shape,’’ Belichick said. “That’ll come again over the next few weeks, getting back to their offseason training, lifting and conditioning and doing things to really get them prepared for the bulk of the football season from the conditioning standpoint.