The Patriots opened training camp 2010 on the outdoor practice fields behind Gillette Stadium Thursday morning despite rain that fell on portions of the workout. During his morning press conference Bill Belichick said it was, “Time to get to work. Good to get on the field … hopefully we’ll get some heat going forward.”

Not surprisingly Logan Mankins was not on the field for the practice. “Logan’s not under contract,” Belichick said while saying that the players that are in Foxborough are the one’s who are under contract. The restricted free agent guard has not signed his RFA tender and voiced his desire to be traded earlier this offseason.

–Beyond Mankins the only other player not on the field for the morning session was veteran linebacker Derrick Burgess. A group of players including Wes Welker, Darnell Jenkins, Sam Aiken and Ron Brace were in attendance wearing shorts or sweats. They took part in stretching before moving to the side to work with the trainers and conditioning staff.

–Welker was very active in his work with the medical staff. He did some running on the side with the other players who weren’t practicing before moving onto the field for some running work. He ran routes under the watchful eye, and sometimes tethered resistance, of director of rehabilitation Joe Van Allen. At times Welker was doing his work in between other drills taking place during the practice. It was the most aggressive, on-field rehab work I can remember seeing during any training camp practice. Welker put on knee brace after stretching and throughout his various running drills.

–Tom Brady, to no one’s surprise, was on the field for the opening practice. No. 12 has not cut his hair, as it continues to shaggily show itself from under his helmet. Brady did not wear a brace on his formerly repaired left knee, going with what looked to be a black, soft sleeve. Brady did not speak to the media afterwards, but is expected to do so sometime in the next couple days.

–A large crowd of fans took in the morning workout, despite the rain. The practice action took place in full pads, including some pretty good hitting during a few drills.

–At various points in drills both Matthew Slater and Brandon Tate struggled catching the ball, possibly thanks to some slick hands. Tate failed to haul in a Brady pass in some goal line work, a throw that while not perfect was certainly catchable.

–Mike Wright saw a lot of action during the workout at right defensive end in a group with Ty Warren and Vince Wilfork. Wright also threw Matt Light to the turf in a one-on-one pass blocking drill. Tully Banta-Cain and Wilfork both had to run penalty laps during that drill.

–At one point early in practice Belichick took a lot of time working with the defense, and the linebackers in particular. Belichick was discussing/showing some specific technique stuff with both Jerod Mayo and Gary Guyton.

–Kickoff return was the special teams area of focus for the morning. Tate and Slater (off returner), followed by Julian Edelman and Sammy Morris (off) and then Taylor Price and Devin McCourty (off). McCourty actually got the return job with Price on the next turn through the rotation.

–While the kickoff return work was going on, Randy Moss was on the opposite field as the only receiver with the quarterbacks – Brady, Brian Hoyer and Zac Robinson.

–The rest of the kickoff return unit had a front line of Bret Lockett, Pierre Woods, Eric Alexander, Patrick Chung, Tyrone McKenzie and James Sanders. Rob Gronkowski, Dan Connolly and Aaron Hernandez.

–When they went to team work on defense the linebacker group behind Wilfork, Warren and Wright included Rob Ninkovich on the left side, Guyton and Mayo in the middle and Banta-Cain on the right side.

–Nick Kaczur took plenty of reps at left guard in Mankins’ absence, including plenty or work with the offense running behind his side on the goal line.

–In that goal line drill the defense seemed to get the better of the action. Woods had a couple nice hits, knocking down Laurence Maroney. Wilfork also made a nice play in the drill.

–Morris got plenty of early reps in drills at running back, although he did get stuffed a couple times in the goal line drill.

–Fred Taylor had a fumble during a team segment, forcing the veteran to take a penalty lap.

–The play of the day came when Brady hit Moss deep down the middle of the field in team work, beating….Sanders. Moss made a beautiful hands-only grab. Not sure exactly what happened to the defense, but it seems hard to believe that having Sanders one-on-one with Moss deep was the plan.

–Brandon Meriweather and Patrick Chung took the early reps at safety. Sanders and McGowan rotated through, as did Lockett at times.

–Owner Robert Kraft was in attendance to take the latter portions of the practice.

–Hoyer had a nice completion in team work to a crossing Slater, beating Chung’s coverage in the intermediate area between the hashes. The ball was slightly behind Slater, who slowed down to make the catch. Chung pounded the ground in disgust after the play.

–Though Darius Butler continues to get the bulk of the reps at corner opposite Leigh Bodden, McCourty did get some action in that spot in his first pro practice.

–Linebacker Thomas Williams, who actually was a full-time fullback in college at USC, continued to take some reps at the position. He lined up in front of the running backs on the goal line, including the play that Wilfork blew up as Morris was stopped short of the goal line.

–Stephen Gostkowski went six-for-seven on his field goal attempts to close out practice. He started around at around 27 yards and worked back to around 44. He missed on his attempt from about 44 yards from the right hash, going slightly wide left. It was tough to see from the media tent if he indeed miss, but thankfully defensive lineman Kyle Love signaled it no-good from his spot beneath the uprights.

–Many players drew large crowds after the workout including Kaczur, Stephen Neal, Light, Sebastian Vollmer, Kevin Faulk, Butler, Ty Warren and others.

–Former Belichick Cleveland Browns underlying and Raiders personnel man Michael Lombardi was in attendance in his new job working for NFL Network and NFL.com. Lombardi shared hugs and chats with both Belichick and Moss.

–Neal took note of the fact that the media cannot cross the sideline on the practice fields, even after practice to speak with players. “It’s like Field of Dreams. You can’t cross the line,” Neal said with a smile. Despite considering retirement last winter, Neal said he’s “5,000-percent committed” at this point.

–Some of the big topics the media discussed with the players included Mankins’ absence and the removal of the pictures of past players/success from the football offices in Gillette Stadium.

–New England will return to the field for its second workout of training camp at 3:45 p.m. That practice is also open to the public. As always, be sure to check Patriots.com for any schedule changes or updates.