The third of the four rookie mini-camp practices open to the media just concluded and I’m left with a few more reactions and notes.  Saturday’s morning session again took place outside on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. The weather was warmer and less windy, with cloudy skies. Players wore shorts, helmets and jerseys. There were the same 29 players in jerseys, while first-year tight end Brad Listorti watched from the sidelines.

–Things seem to take place at a quicker pace on Saturday. Neither side of the ball had to take a punishment lap, which is good. I thought individual and group drills had a better timing to them. That’s not to say their weren’t mistakes — probably both physical and mental — but things just got done with a little more energy and sense of urgency.

–Brian Hoyer had another solid workout. He doesn’t have the strongest arm in the world and, as with any young QB, his accuracy is an issue at times. But he looks to me like he’s going to be in the mix moving forward toward training camp. Put it this way, I didn’t see anything that made me think he doesn’t deserve to stay with the team for a little while longer.

–New special teams coach Scott O’Brien is more vocal than Brad Seely was. O’Brien, who worked with Bill Belichick way back when in Cleveland, also brings some different drills to the special teams practice work. Yesterday he had players falling to the ground and then getting themselves up before running down to cover a kick. Today he had coverage units working through two levels of players holding pads to work on their coverage lanes and converging on a returner. He’s vocal, energetic (he was running down the field with his coverage guys!) and has a lot of a experience. I really liked Brad Seely, but I’m also getting a very positive impression of O’Brien at this early stage. It will be fun to see exactly what sort of stamp he put on the special teams units when we get to training camp, preseason and the regular season.

–While Tyrone McKenzie limping off was the biggest note of the mornign workout (see previous post for more info), a few other players looked to get a little tweaked up during the workout. Unknown RB No. 32 actually also got banged up on the same play that McKenzie did. No. 32 stayed down and was looked at by the trainers but returned to drills a little while later. Unknown WR No. 9 also got tended to by trainers at one point and missed some practice reps. On the flip side Myron Pryor took part fulling in the workout after grabbing at his calf late in Friday’s afternoon practice.

–Wrestler-turned-OL Jermail Porter once agian took post-practice individual reps with OL coach Dante Scarnecchia and the one-man blockign sled. Not suprsingly he’s clearly getting schooled on the very basics, starting with his stance and moving on from there.

–WR Julian Edelman took reps after the close of practice at running back. The Kent State quarterback took handoffs from Hoyer and some one-on-one coaching from RB coach Ivan Fears. After practice Edelman said the last time he had was asked to get his inside elbow up and make a pocket to take handoffs was in Pop Warner football. Edelman had an up-and-down day in his regular reps at WR. He fell down on a comeback early in the workout, but made a couple nice catches later.

–Belichick was jokingly asked about Player Personnel Director Nick Caserio’s arm strength as the former college QB once again took some throws during group work. Belichick smiled and joked that maybe Caserio could compete for the third QB job in New England.

–Belichick also joked early in his meeting with the media about asking the Dalai Lama, who was inside Gillette Stadium addressing a large crowd while the Patriots were on the practice fields working out, to give the team a motivational speach. (”We’ll get some words of wisdom from Dalai Lama here,” said witha smirk.) A reporter then jokingly compared the idea of having the Dalai Lama talk to the team with the time Celtics legend Bill Russell talk to the Patriots. Bill joked that the Dalai Lama, “this guy might be comingg from a little different direction.”

–Patrick Chung continued to stand out. His energy is unmistakable. He had a nice pass breakup in coverage. He runs all over the field. I just can’t wait to see him with pads on because I think he’s a guy who will look even better in pads.

–Speaking of guys who’ll look good in pads — McKenzie. His injury later in practice aside, McKenzie likes to throw his body around even in a non-contact camp. He’s clearly the type of player who’ll look better with pads on. Running around in shorts he looks OK, but my guess is he’ll look all that much better in training camp and preseason action.