Stephen Gostkowski closed practice by converting six of eight field goal attempts. After Gostkowski was finished, the team ran wind sprints, putting an end to Tuesday’s mini-camp.

The Patriots are working on their silent count in the red zone. Tom Brady is taking snaps at quarterback, while all the players standing on the sidelines are yelling trying to distract him. The noise did disrupt Logan Mankins who jumped early, much to the pleasure of Mike Vrabel. Mankins had to run a lap to make up for his mistake. Shaking Brady proved to be more difficult, as he stood in and drilled a scoring strike to Randy Moss.

Eugene Wilson looks to be a little rusty in coverage. He’s been beaten on a lot on deep routes down the field and doesn’t look to have his speed back yet after suffering a hamstring injury last year.

During a 2-minute drill, Tom Brady lofted a pass down the field over the outstretched arm of Chad Scott, right into the waiting hands of Reche Caldwell. Caldwell made the tough reception while also getting both feet down in bounds, despite safety Rashad Baker bearing down on him. Caldwell is having a very solid mini-camp so far.

During a goal line passing drill, Garrett Mills outmuscled Chad Scott to haul in a touchdown reception, despite Scott having excellent coverage. On the next play, Scott and Mills again both went up and fought for this ball, only this time it was the veteran cornerback who came down with the football. After the exchange, the two players slapped hands and ran back to the huddle.

One negative with the receivers so far has been the hands of Kelley Washington. A physical specimen with great leaping ability, Washington is having some trouble hanging onto the football. One problem he has is at times, Washington jumps too early and tends to fight the ball while it’s in the air. This is something to keep an eye on when training camp rolls around.

Adalius Thomas ran stride-for-stride with rookie Justise Hairston on a 15-yard wheel route. Vinny Testaverde floated a pass to Hairston but Thomas was all over the young running back, forcing Testaverde to misfire. It was an impressive show of speed from the bigger Thomas to stay with Hairston down the field.

Rodney Harrison is returning to his old form. He’s moving well on the field and during one deep pass from Tom Brady to Donte’ Stallworth, the veteran safety drifted over and picked the ball off. It’s a good sign for the Patriots to see Harrison already being this active.

Oscar Lua is getting a lot of run at inside linebacker, even calling out the defensive signals at one point. Granted, the team is thin at that position with Eric Alexander missing practice but after two days, Lua is one of the young players that’s stood out in mini-camp.

The Patriots are working on punt returns, with Wes Welker, Kevin Faulk, Jonathan Smith and Bam Childress back returning kicks. Just like yesterday with kickoffs, Welker is displaying good quickness in the open field.