FOXBOROUGH — We are back at Gillette Stadum, ready for another day of traning camp. The Patriots have one morning workout scheduled, which is set to get underway at 9:30 a.m. At 6:30 p.m., there will be an annual training camp tradition when they practice inside stadium, an event exclusively for season ticket holders. We should have our first blog post of the day up around noon.

FOXBOROUGH — On Tuesday, before morning practice, Mike Shanahan addressed Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. On Wednesday, following morning practice, Belichick paid him back with praise.

“As everybody knows, I have great respect for Mike,” Belichick told reporters at his briefing in the Gillette Stadium press box. “It was good to be able to talk to Mike in not a competitive situation where we’re trying to beat each other’s brains out, but talk football and talk about some team situations and things like that. I think Mike’s a tremendous coach.”

Belichick’s first win as the Patriots head coach came against Shanahan’s Broncos in Denver on Oct. 1, 2000, 28-19.

For the record, Belichick was 3-5 against Shanahan in their Patriots-Broncos meetings, including the playoffs. Shanahan was fired after the Broncos blew the AFC West in the final three weeks, leading San Diego by three games with an 8-5 record, only to finish 8-8.

“He’s a great football mind,” Belichick said. “He’s a good motivator. He’s run an excellent organization from top to bottom: coaching, scouting, player acquisition, all that stuff. Mike’s done it all. He’s done it very well. He’s one of the top coaches in this league, even though he’s not in it currently. I would still consider him one of the top NFL coaches — certainly over my career — that I’ve competed with. We go back a long way when we were both coordinators. Mike and I have competed for a long time. It’s good not to have to do that this year.”

Thanks to the Patriots’ PR staff, here’s the full transcript of Bill Belichick’s Q&A with the media today at Gillette Stadium:
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FOXBOROUGH — The rule that penalizes the act that took out Tom Brady’s left knee last September can technically be defined as roughing the passer.

This season, the National Football League wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again.  And because all rules amendments/changes/points of emphasis in the NFL have names, it’s only natural that penalizing any hit to a QB’s knees or lower will be called “The Brady Rule.”

Terry McAulay, the referee who officiated Super Bowl XLIII last February in Tampa, was on hand to outline the rules’ changes and points of emphasis this year for the men in stripes.

In an 11-minute video shown to the players and coaches, the new rules were explained by showing a series of legal and illegal plays. Bernard Pollard’s hit on Brady last September at Gillette Stadium was shown as an example of an illegal lunge into a quarterback’s knee.

The NFL is making it an official “point of emphasis” this season for referees to be on the lookout for such illegal hits.

“We’re looking for forceable contact, basically forearm, shoulder, helmet right into his knee or below,” McAulay said following the video presentation to reporters. “A normal tackle by a defender is rarely a roughing the passer foul. It’s that dangerous hit right at the knee where he lunges in that we’re looking for.

“Obviously, a player thrown into the quarterback or something like that would not be a foul. A lung or forceable contact right at the knee or below, we’re going to be pretty tight on,” McAulay said.

McAulay added that tackling or grabbing in the knee area to make a tackle on a quarterback with the ball is still permitted.

The major rule change designed to protect players is outlawing the “wedge” return, where three or more players on a kick return team join hands or are shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the returner. Kamikaze-type special teams players have suffered serious injuries on similar plays, as was the case with Buffalo’s Kevin Everett two years ago, when he had surgery to repair his spinal chord after a collision with the Denver Broncos.

FOXBOROUGH – Last week Tom Brady gave us insight on what he expects this season, forgetting about 2008 quickly and of course the status of the most famous left knee in New England sports history.

This week, the three quarterbacks backing up No. 12 got their chance at the mic and below is an audio sample of what they said.

Andrew Walter on coming to New England to be Tom Brady’s back-up.

Walter on his relationship with Randy Moss.

Rookie Brian Hoyer on the competition with O’Connell and Walter.

Hoyer on what he can learn from Brady.

Hoyer said it may take a while to be like Brady.

Kevin O’Connell on the adjustments this camp from rookie year.

O’Connell on the competition at quarterback.

FOXBOROUGH — The Patriots took defensive lineman Darryl Richard off the physically unable to perform list today, and he attended his first practice this morning.

Richard’s presence helped fill the void left by the absence of three regulars. Richard Seymour and Vince Wilfork, both out healthy, and Ty Warren (PUP) were not at the morning session.

Also missing Wednesday morning was Tedy Bruschi.

Randy Moss did participate, as did Tom Brady and the three other quarterbacks in camp, including Andrew Walter, who spoke to the media for the first time. Walter said he’s talked with Moss, a teammate on the 2006 Oakland Raiders, but has spent most of his time in quarterback meetings, trying to get up to speed since being signed on Sunday by the Patriots.

Walter and Moss were the subject of controversy in Oakland when it was reported the two had a falling out over the way Moss was running routes for the then-Raiders quarterback.

Morning practice was run by Bill Belichick but officiated by Super Bowl XLIII referee Terry McAulay. McAulay was there along with three other officials to help point out to players rule changes and points of emphasis this season league-wide.

Carter played in Tampa Bay last season.

According to a league source, free agent defensive end Kevin Carter was in Foxborough for a visit with the Patriots on Tuesday. However, the 6-foot-6, 305-pound product of Florida still has “many options to choose from” when it comes to making a final decision about where he’ll ultimately play this season.

Carter, a 14-year veteran who was the a first-round pick of St. Louis in 1995, had four sacks last season for Tampa Bay. The 35-year-old is considered one of the more durable defensive linemen in recent memory — he started all 16 games for the Bucs in 2008, notching 49 tackles and four sacks, and has played in every career game. In addition, he has missed only three starts in his career while registering 104.5 career sacks.

He would likely project as a backup in New England’s 3-4 defensive scheme. However, if the Patriots do decide to offer multiple looks along their front, Carter would likely see more snaps.