New England just concluded the 22nd workout of training camp 2009 under hot, sunny conditions on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium. The action took place in helmets, shells, jerseys and shorts/sweats. It was the seventh workout of camp to take place in anything other than full pads, the second straight after the morning’s walk-through. It was the third training camp practice in shells.

–Music legend and longtime Bill Belichick friend Jon Bon Jovi was on the practice field for the afternoon work. He chatted with Patriots owner Robert Kraft for quite a while during the session. Bon Jovi’s music was played over the loud speakers during pre-practice stretching.

–Those not on the field for the afternoon included Shawn Springs, Paris Lenon, Nathan Hodel, Tedy Bruschi, George “Bus” Bussey, Wes Welker, Benjamin Watson and Mike Wright. Brandon Tate remains on NFI, Mark LeVoir on PUP and Tyrone McKenzie injured/unsigned.

Welker has now missed the last two practices as he was not on the field Monday night. Hodel is also an interesting absence as it’s not too often that a long snapper would be given a day off.

–The practice focused on a lot of passing work on both offense and defense. Mixed into the passing game action was plenty of situational work prepping for game action Thursday night in Philly.

–Randy Moss enjoyed all the passing action. Rookie free agent defensive back Jamar Love did not. Moss had seemingly endless receptions on the day from Brady, almost all of them seemingly coming against Love. That included a deep ball down the right side for a long touchdown that was immediately followed by another short touchdown beating Love in the front left corner of the end zone. Love has looked OK in some practice work in camp, but he struggled against Moss all afternoon on Tuesday. No shame in that.

–David Thomas and all the other tight ends continue to be used in a wide variety of ways and in various positional groupings. Thomas took a number of reps lined up as a fullback in an I-formation on running plays in today’s workout. Thomas has done a lot of blocking for the running backs in camp practice action. Not known as a powerful road-grader type, it’ll be interesting to see how successful he is in such roles in game action beginning this Thursday night.

–Tom Brady and Moss pulled Julian Edelman to the side after a rep in team action. While another group ran plays the All-Pro QB/WR combo gave the rookie a few precise pointers on his route running. Edelman has had a lot thrown on his plate early in camp as he converts from college quarterback to pro wide receiver. He’s shown a lot of improvement in a short time and continues to get more chances. Getting a few pointers from guys like Moss and Brady, even getting extra attention from such proven stars, could be a strong sign for the youngsters future with the team.

–Edelman and Kevin Faulk alternated reps in some punt return work. Then rookie safety Pat Chung took a shot back deep. He looked pretty comfortable hauling in what was, as far as I can remember, his first punt return shot of camp to date. He did some return work in college and special teams coach Scott O’Brien mentioned Chung as a punt return option when chatting with the media last week.

–With Hodel out of action Jake Ingram took the bulk of the reps in the long snapping, including Stephen Gostkowski’s first five field goal attempts late in practice. Russ Hochstein, New England’s long time backup long snapper took the final three reps in the drill. Newcomer Rob Ninkovich also took some long snapping reps in drills during one point in practice. For the record Gostkowski was a perfect eight for eight on his short (25-yard-ish) field goal attempts.

–During one point in team work on defensive the four-man front line included from left to right Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, Myron Pryor and Richard Seymour. Pryor was lined up over the ball. While fellow rookie Ron Brace has gotten a number of reps with the returning veterans, this is a good sign for another defensive line draft pick to be rubbing elbows with the top group. Le Kevin Smith also rotated in for Warren at one point in the segment.

–During another portion of team work a different spin on the four-man front included from left to right, Derrick Burgess, Jarvis Green, Richard Seymour and Tully Banta-Cain. At trend seems to be developing with the team fielding a variety of four-man looks including some of the heavier variety and some on the lighter side with a likely eye on rushing the passer.

–Eyeing his first game action in nearly a year, Brady threw the ball very well on Tuesday afternoon. He connected almost endlessly with Moss.

–During one fourth-and-goal rep on the 1, Brady once again showed good mobility by rolling out right to buy time before hitting a crossing Joey Galloway just inside the right sideline for the score.

–While Brady, Moss and Co. looked good for most of the day the next team offense didn’t look so hot. Brian Hoyer had one pass hit Tyson DeVree in the back while another sailed way over the top of Shun White. The group clearly didn’t have the crisp look of the Brady-led unit.

–They say that Bill Belichick always has his team prepared for every situation. It’s true. He really does have them practice everything. On Tuesday he had his double-team vice guys working on staying with gunners going down the sideline out of bounds, using the bench players as a screen and trying to pop back onto the field to get to the kick. The vice guys had to weed through the traffic to stay with their man. I’ve never seen the team practice this drill before so it could be a Scott O’Brien addition. Regardless, it’s one of those small things that only comes up every once in a while but Belichick’s Patriots will be ready for it.

–Greg Lewis made a nice catch on a deep ball from Brady down the left side, fighting for and taking the ball away from Mike Richardson.

–Practice once again closed out on a high note. As he’s done in the past Belichick set up a sitaiton where a lineman was back deep trying to catch a punt with a prize on the line for the team as a whole. In the past the linemen in question included Matt Light and Vince Wilfork, both of whom successfully caught the punt to earn the night off from meetings for the entire squad. This year’s punt returner was rookie tackle Sebastian “Sean Bass” Vollmer. Dante Scarnecchia and Gostkowski helped him line up and get his proper return depth. Chris Hanson got off a high, curving kick but the 6-8 behemoth out of Houston coolly planted under it and hauled it in. The entire field erupted in cheer. Vollmer ran and jumped in celebration with David Thomas. The exact reward for the team was unknown, but it’s likely that the team once again earned some Tuesday night time off. Bill Belichick even walked over to his rookie tackle to give him a congratulatory handshake before Vollmer made his way toward the bleachers to sign autographs.

–The Patriots will travel to Philadelphia Wednesday afternoon. The team is not scheduled to return to the practice fields in Foxborough until Sunday. As usual be sure to check Patriots.com for any changes to the practice schedule moving forward as training camp 2009 begins to wind down.