It’s no secret that the Patriots secondary wasn’t exactly reminiscent of the old Pittsburgh Steelers last year. The group finished near the bottom of the league in a number of categories including third downs, touchdown passes allowed and red zone defense.

With that in mind Bill Belichick set out to make some changes, and the overhaul has been intriguing thus far in camp. It’s obviously very early but Belichick has used a number of players in a variety of roles, and with few exceptions they’ve looked solid.

Friday afternoon’s practice was a prime example. At the tail end of the workout, just before we were forced to scurry off the field like scared schoolgirls for the second straight day, the team worked on some two-minute drills. The defense lined up in a nickel package and there was an almost entirely different look to the group than last year.

Rookie Darius Butler and free agent pickup Leigh Bodden lined up outside with Shawn Springs, another newcomer, working in the slot in front of safeties Brandon Meriweather and rookie Patrick Chung. Meriweather was the only member of the group who was part of the struggling secondary in 2008.

When that drill ended and another unit came on, Butler remained on the field but moved inside while Terrence Wheatley and Mike Richardson handled the duties outside. Brandon McGowan and James Sanders were the safeties. Again, only Sanders was part of the group a year ago as Wheatley spent most of the year on IR while Richardson didn’t see too much action on defense. (It should be mentioned that Jonathan Wilhite, who saw plenty of action in the slot a year ago, was not dressed for the afternoon workout.)

The results were OK, particularly for Butler, who was matched up quite often with Randy Moss. At times Moss treated the rookie as one might expect, toying with him on one deep ball (although the receiver appeared to push off as the ball came down). But others Butler was more than competitive, sticking his nose in there against the most dangerous receiver in the game. And the fact that Belichick has him operating in different spots likely means the rookie is adapting reasonably well in his early days of camp.

“I think some of the things we are asking him to do as a corner are different than what he did in college, so in all honesty, this is the first time we’ve seen him do some of the things that he’s doing,” Belichick said after the morning practice. “Darius is a smart kid. He works hard. He’s got good talent. He’s fast. He’s quick. He picks up coaching points quickly. You tell him something and he understands it. I think he has a good feel for concepts and for the passing game, where receivers are, what’s threatening, what’s dangerous and what isn’t. He’s coming along. He’s made a lot of progress, but he’s got a long way to go.”

One play that illustrated this point came when Butler left his man on the outside and came underneath to help snuff out a short pass to Sammy Morris. Butler had Shun White covered on an out but recognized where the ball was going and helped Adalius Thomas make the tackle.

Bodden has looked sharp during all four practices thus far, showing a physical style coupled with solid ball skills. He’s also had some opportunities to take on Moss and hasn’t looked out of place. Bodden looks like a player who could really solidify the cornerback position.

Again, it’s quite early and a few camp reps aren’t going to completely turn the secondary into a team strength. But it’s been a promising start.

The Patriots just wrapped up the fourth practice of training camp, the second of the day Friday afternoon. Much like the initial camp practice, this session was once again closed out by torrential downpours, heavy wind and a thunderstorm hitting the area of Gillette Stadium. This time, though, Bill Belichick seemed to see the foul weather approaching and called his team together and got them off the field before the heavy stuff hit.

–Those players not on the field for the afternoon, full-pads workout were: Joey Galloway, Jonathan Wilhite, Tedy Bruschi, Al Johnson, Ryan O’Callaghan, Myron Pryor, Richard Seymour, Jarvis Green along with the PUP guys (Rich Ohrnberger, Mark LeVoir, Darryl Richard, Ty Warren and Shawn Crable); NFI rookie receiver Brandon Tate; and injured unsigned rookie Tyrone McKenzie.

Wilhite missed his first practice of camp, after getting a lot of quality reps in the first three workouts. While some of the veterans are seemingly being managed at this point (Moss, Galloway and others) Al Johnson, Ryan O’Callaghan and Richard Seymour have all now missed three straight workouts.

–Returning for the afternoon workout were Matt Light, Stephen Neal and Randy Moss.

–For the first time in camp music was played loudly over the practice fields during pre-practice work and stretching. The loud music has been a staple of past training camps. Friday afternoon’s play list included some AC/DC, the band that performed live at Gillette earlier in the week.

–Terrence Nunn, Darius Butler, Mike Richardson and Matthew Slater continued to work together in gunner drills in pre-practice work.

–Kevin Faulk made a nice, one-handed catch in positional drills early in practice. Faulk beat 1-on-1 coverage on a short out to the right to haul in the pass with his outstretched left hand. Faulk has looked sharp over the first two days displaying his usual impressive hands as well as much quickness as ever.

–Sam Aiken seems to take the initial reps at personal protector in front of Chris Hanson in most punt drills. That critical spot in terms of setting the protections was formerly held down by now-Jet Larry Izzo.

–Rookie Darius Butler seemed to take advantage of Wilhite’s absences by getting even more reps in the afternoon. The second-round pick seemed to be across from Moss in press coverage in many of those reps. On one play in particular the rookie was seemingly running stride for stride with the future Hall of Famer when No. 81 pushed off every so slightly, faded to the outside and caught the perfectly thrown ball over the top from Tom Brady. I’m sure Butler will continue to see more of Moss throughout camp and will learn from this early rep that very much showed the experience of the veteran and the work to be done for the rookie. Butler has been pretty impressive during team work of late, a good sign that he might be able to contribute as a rookie, maybe even early on in the season.

–While backup quarterback Kevin O’Connell continues to struggle with his consistency – something that’s played all three backups to this point – he made a nice throw to Julian Edelman into tight coverage to beat Patrick Chung and Shawn Springs.

–Having returned from a reported illness and the NFI list for the morning session, Springs seemed to run out of gas during a two-minute drill late in the afternoon workout. After the drill concluded the 13-year veteran jogged to the sideline, dropped to one knee and held his head in his hand looking down at the ground. Springs also seemed to let the fatigue hinder his mental state at points, looking confused during the two-minute drill. But considering his reported illness and that it was his first day back, that’s to be expected.

–Ray Ventrone has struggled early in camp as the versatile returning veteran has had a lot of drops from the wide receiver position. A defensive back by trade – and according to the Patriots roster – Ventrone just doesn’t look natural or comfortable running routes and catching the ball.

–After Bill Belichick talked about Adalius Thomas’ history playing cornerback with the Ravens, and the possibly that he might line up there in certain packages for the Patriots, the linebacker was out wide covering Kevin Faulk on one play in a team segment.

–Chung got reps with a nickel package of defensive backs alongside, Butler, Brandon Meriweather, Springs and Leigh Bodden. James Sanders took his reps with the next group to hit the field. The Patriots have used a lot of different combinations in the secondary in camp, matching up with a variety of looks from the offense. This position was billed as one of the most competitive heading into camp and there is no reason to believe anything else at this point. Bodden has been a staple at right corner, but the rest of the reps in the group have gone to a variety of players. As long as health doesn’t rear its ugly head, this is going to be a spot to watch in the coming weeks. I also think the secondary is going to be much stronger in 2009, especially at the corner position. It’s competitive top to bottom.

–O’Connell made another bid for a nice completion on a deep ball down the left sideline late in practice. Nunn was behind Sanders on the play and had the ball in his hands as he extended in a dive, but it popped loose as he hit the turf.

–The Patriots will return to the field Saturday morning at 9:30. Considering the crazy, variable, intense weather that we’ve had for the first two days be sure to check Patriots.com for any last-minute practice schedule updates or cancellations.

Another reader asked about how Brady looks out there. To me, he looks fine, like the knee injury never happened. He’s wearing a brace, but I haven’t detected any ill effects in terms of his mobility. He even said today that he doesn’t think about it when he’s out there. Which is a good sign.

Several readers have been asking about rookie WR Terrence Nunn from Nebraska and his chances of having an impact on this team this year. While it’s still way too early to make any predictions about who will or won’t make the roster, Nunn has gotten off to a good start. And nearly every year, at least one undrafted rookie free agent makes the squad, so Nunn, at least to this point, is someone to keep an eye on, especially since there isn’t a whole lot of depth at that position.

Speaking of receivers, rookie Julian Edelman also has been seeing a lot of action early on. I see him as more of a slot receiver, though, and not an outside threat, so I wouldn’t expect him to be able to compete for the #4 slot, which looks to be Greg Lewis’ to lose at this point. But there’s a long way to go. I’d like to see Sam Aiken give Lewis a run for that job, because he has proven he has decent hands and has excellent size.

As for RB Laurence Maroney, he’s out there working hard, like all the other backs. None of them has done anything to stand out so far, but, again, it’s only Day 2.

Oh, and Shawn Crable … we still have no word on why he’s been PUP-ed. Whatever the reason, it’s disappointing not to see him out there.

We’re up in the press box, listening to Coach Belichick’s press conference, but wanted to get the morning notes up for you as quickly as possible. So, here they are …

* First, some good news. CB Shawn Springs was back at practice after missing both sessions on Thursday. He had been on the Non-Football-Injury List. However, several players were not there for the second-straight practice, including OLs Al Johnson, Stephen Neal, Ryan O’Callaghan, and Matt Light and DLs Richard Seymour and Myron Pryor. And for the second consecutive day, WR Randy Moss was not on the field for the morning workout.

* The remaining missing players were the same ones who remain on the PUP list: WR Brandon Tate, OLs Rich Ohrnberger and Mark LeVoir, DLs Ty Warren and Darryl Richard, and LB Shawn Crable.

* There’s a fun drill to watch, which takes place every summer at Belichick’s training camps. An offensive player with a football tries to get past a defensive player in an open-field tackling drill. There were some great individual performances today. CB Terrence Wheatley, one of the smallest players on the team, went up against one of the biggest, 6-6 TE Tyson DeVree. Wheatley made a great tackle, diving for DeVree’s legs and wrapping up with both hands, taking down his giant opponent. WR Wes Welker made a nice juke move against newcomer Herana-Daze Jones, whose diving attempt proved futile. TE David Thomas simply overpowered DB Matthew Slater, running right over the second-year defender. But the most impressive play was made by the versatile Ray Ventrone. Going up against rookie CB Darius Butler, Ventrone faked Butler so well that he was able to run right past Butler, who never came close to laying a hand on him.

* Special teams was a focus of today’s practice, with the punt, punt coverage, and field goal teams getting a lot of work. First-year punter Tom Malone continues to crush most of his kicks, giving veteran Chris Hanson a serious run for his money. All-Pro kicker Stephen Gostkowski, meanwhile, made 7 of his 8 field goal attempts, all from the 30-40-yard range. His lone miss came on the last attempt, which struck the right upright.

* Spoke with long snapper Nathan Hodel afterwards and he seems like a very good guy. He’ll be the focus of one of our Getting to Know segments in next week’s PFW. Vinny Ciurciu will be the other, and Andy got some good material from him, too.

* Belichick was just asked about Michael Vick and whether or not he’s considering signing the free agent QB. Bill’s response was (and I’m paraphrasing a bit here because I’m typing on the fly), “I don’t know that it’s ruled in or ruled out. We would consider … is there a potential that someone who’s not here could be here? Yeah, but at the moment, we’re coaching the players who are here.”

* QB Tom Brady was a little off today. A number of his passes were off-target, and there appeared to be some miscommunication between him and his receivers during team sessions against the defense.

* Rookie Sebastian Vollmer took Matt Light’s place along the o-line for much of the 11-on-11 action.

* Play of the day was made by rookie receiver Terrence Nunn. Rookie QB Brian Hoyer fired a pass to him in double-coverage, but Nunn leaped between the two defenders, made the catch, absorbed the hit from both players, but held on to the ball as he hit the ground.

* A close second came from WR Greg Lewis and LB Adalius Thomas. On a perfectly executed screen play, Lewis took a pass from Brady and snuck between his convoy of o-linemen, untouched by any defenders. As he continued to race downfield to the end zone, from the opposite side of the field came Thomas, who hustled to make the tackle and came just a yard short of doing so as Lewis crossed the goal line. Great play by the offense and an equally impressive effort by Thomas, who’s had a phenomenal start to camp.

* Not a good move by DL Steve Williams. He made contact with a red-shirted Brady during group play, knocked Brady’s pass attempt to the ground. But his infraction cost Williams a lap around the field.

Gotta go … lunch is served! We’ll be back for the afternoon session, which starts at 3:45.