The Patriots just wrapped up the first workout of this week’s three-day, mandatory veteran mini-camp here at Gillette Stadium. In case you haven’t heard already, after missing all the previous voluntary OTA practices Vince Wilfork was on the field with the rest of his teammates this morning. After practice Wilfork spent a few minutes with a large crowd of media and gave the very distinct impression that he’s going to fulfill all the mandatory aspects of the six-year contract he signed as a rookie. While I’m sure things could change, he clearly gave the impression that he’ll be at training camp and on the field to open the year. For full audio of Wilfork’s comments, as well as video clips from it, check back to Patriots.com later this afternoon.

As for the rest of the action on the field, here are one man’s notes from today’s workout:

–Wilfork and Adalius Thomas were two players on the field not in action for Tuesday’s OTA workout. The thirteen players absent from today’s workout were: Tyree Barnes, Shun White, Brandon Tate, Brandon Meriweather, Sammy Morris, Mike Richardson, Ray Ventrone, Brandon McGowan, Jerod Mayo, Tyrone McKenzie, Mark LeVoir, Ty Warren and Jarvis Green.

–Wilfork was in his usual front-row spot during pre-practice stretching, at which time Randy Moss came over and sat with him to chat for a while. The Pro Bowl nose tackle then took his usual defensive reps in the middle of the unit.

–With Wilfork back in action, Mike Wright took some reps at end. Wright had been seeing plenty of OTA work at the nose. As they always do, the team also worked on some four-man fronts with Wilfork and Seymour getting some inside reps and Wright and Tully Banta-Cain getting some work on the outside.

–We got a taste on Wednesday of how the team might work through the lack of Heath Evans or any sort of true fullback. At various times in group and team work Alex Smith, David Thomas, Rush Hochstein and Ryan Wendell all took reps lined up as a true fullback. Smith has said he’s comfortable in such a role thanks to his diverse use in Jon Gruden’s offense in Tampa. Obviously Hochstein filled the role in the running game last fall.

–Terrence Wheatley had a solid workout, finding his way to the ball on a couple different occasions. The second-year former second-round pick had an interception in one team drill that may have ended in a pick-six score in game action. Later in the workout he had great positioning on a deep ball and probably should have hauled in another pick but at least battle for the ball and knocked it away.

–For what it’s worth Laurence Maroney lined up behind Tom Brady when the offense worked as a group on the ground game early in practice. Fred Taylor took the following handoff.

–Paris Lenon seems to be getting more acclimated with the defense as he’s now taking the calls in the front of the defensive huddle during many of his group and team reps.

–One light-hearted play came early in practice during some red zone passing work. Brady was unable to find an open target against a group of linebacker and DBs. So he pulled the ball down, jogged into the end zone and spike the ball with authority, almost like he did way back when in the Snow Bowl against the Raiders at old Foxboro Stadium

–During another portion of the red zone work Kevin O’Connell fired a throw between a pair of defenders (one of which was Gary Guyton, I missed the other) for a touchdown to David Thomas crossing the back of the end zone.

–Based on the unofficial observations and calculations of the group of writers I was watching with, Stephen Gostkowski hit a 60-yard field goal late in the practice.

–Not for nothing, but Tom Malone was bombing his punts for most of the workout.

–During punt return work Kevin Faulk, Wes Welker and Joey Galloway continued their efforts to field the punts while holding another ball in their hand. Without calling anyone out, they struggled as a group in their efforts on Wednesday.

–During the aforementioned punt return work James Sanders, Darius Butler, Leigh Bodden, Greg Lewis, Terrence Wheatley and Jonathan Wilhite all got work as vice guys working in both single and double-team roles.

–Wilhite had a near-pick of a Brady pass when the second-year corner did a nice job of sitting and dropping his zone to get his hands on the ball. Unfortunately for him the ball deflected off his hands as he reached the zenith of his leap and the pigskin fell to the turf.

–Patriots owner Robert Kraft took in the second half of the morning workout. Kraft was on hand to discuss the morning announcement that late running back Jim Nance had been elected to the team’s Hall of Fame.

–In regards to Wilfork showing up for the first day of the mini-camp Kraft said, “Vince Wilfork is a great guy. Every year we have these business issues that have to be worked out. Hopefully Vince will be here for a long time.”

Kraft went on to say that he’d spoken with Wilfork on Monday at the Patriots Charitable Foundation Golf Tournament. “We both understand that this is not personal in any way. It’s each side doing their business.”

–While Kraft defers such football matters and contract negotiations to those in the football operations side of things he also said, “It’s complicated stuff. In the end we’ve always tried to put ourselves into the best position to win football games.”

–As he crossed paths with Gino Cappelletti, who was on hand to talk about his former teammate Nance, Kraft said, “This guy belongs in the [Pro Football] Hall of Fame.”

–The Patriots will return to the practice fields again as a team on Thursday from 11-12:30. That workout will once again be followed by post-practice interviews. As such Thursday’s edition of PFW in Progress on Patriots.com will be bumped back to 2 p.m. Tune in to Patriots.com as we stream live or download the podcast to hear all the latest Patriots related talk, including a breakdown of the first two days of mini-camp action and Wilfork’s decision to attend the practices.