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.

FOXBOROUGH — Here are a few quick notes about the Tuesday afternoon practice, held outside in full pads:

•By our count, the following players were not present: wide receiver Brandon Tate, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite, cornerback Shawn Springs, linebacker Tyrone McKenzie, linebacker Tedy Bruschi, offensive lineman Al Johnson, offensive lineman Stephen Neal, offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger, offensive lineman Mark LeVoir, offensive lineman George Bussey, offensive lineman Ryan O’Callaghan, defensive lineman Darryl Richard, tight end Benjamin Watson, defensive lineman Le Kevin Smith, defensive lineman Myron Pryor, defensive lineman Richard Seymour, defensive lineman Ty Warren, linebacker Tully Banta-Cain and linebacker Shawn Crable.

•Running backs worked on blitz pickup for part of the session — Fred Taylor got a nice hit in on linebacker Jerod Mayo, but Mayo bounced back with a vengeance, flattening Sammy Morris and then BenJarvus Green-Ellis on back-to-back attempts.

•Taylor looked really sharp, catching some sweet passes out of the backfield in another drill and eluding linebacker Vinny Ciurciu on another play in the same drill.

•Wide receiver Terrence Nunn made a nice connection with Tom Brady, hauling in a sweet grab along the sideline. Nunn continues to impress — he has done nothing to draw negative attention to himself throughout the early stages of camp.

•The punt team was forced to take a lap for an unknown infraction. Later in practice, the offense and the field goal team was forced to do the same.

•Leigh Bodden had a nice pass breakup of a pass meant for Joey Galloway.

•As he was in the morning, former Broncos and Raiders coach Mike Shanahan was a practice observer.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick didn’t address the media today, but new special teams coach Scott O’Brien took some questions. Here’s how the quick Q&A went down.

Read the rest of this entry »

FOXBOROUGH – It’s tough enough for a rookie to learn his plays in training camp. Asking him to play two different positions takes it to another level.

But Bill Belichick and the Patriots personnel staff saw something special in 6-foot-8 offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer around the time of the draft and figured if any first-year player is capable of learning, it’s the second round pick out of the University of Houston.

Vollmer is capable of playing left and right tackle, and has been playing both in mini-camp and this training camp for the Patriots.

“Sebastian looks like a very flexible player,” Belichick said this week. “He played mostly left tackle in college at Houston and when he went to the All Star games he played right tackle. We’ve worked him on both sides. In the spring workouts, he worked out at both sides and looked equally comfortable. So I would say from a technique standpoint and from a talent standpoint, it’s rare that you have guys that are big enough and physical enough, which you need to play on the right side, that are then athletic enough and can handle some of the pass rushers that are over there on the left side. Read the rest of this entry »

FOXBOROUGH — Tuesday morning practice just wrapped up down here at Gillette Stadium, and here are a few notes worth passing along:

•Practice was held outside under partly cloudy skies. It was slightly humid, with highs probably in the low 70s. Not the steam bath it was yesterday, but not bad, either.

Belichick and Shanahan shake hands at the end of last year's Pats-Broncos game at Gillette. The two have been close friends for many years. (AP)

•Former Broncos and Raiders coach Mike Shanahan was in attendance. A close friend of Bill Belichick, Shanahan spoke with him before practice, addressed the team early on and walked off the field with Belichick afterward. In addition, Pats owner Robert Kraft watched most of practice from the sideline, and spoke with Shanahan at length throughout the morning.

•New quarterback Andrew Walter — who did not talk to the media after practice — is wearing No. 16. Wide receiver Shun White, who had been wearing 16, switched to No. 15.

•By my count, the following players were not in attendance: wide receiver Brandon Tate, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite, cornerback Shawn Springs, linebacker Tyrone McKenzie, linebacker Tedy Bruschi, offensive lineman Al Johnson, offensive lineman Rich Ohrnberger, offensive lineman Mark LeVoir, offensive lineman George Bussey, offensive lineman Ryan O’Callaghan, defensive lineman Darryl Richard, tight end Benjamin Watson, defensive lineman Le Kevin Smith, defensive lineman Myron Pryor, defensive lineman Richard Seymour, defensive lineman Ty Warren, defensive lineman Jarvis Green and linebacker Shawn Crable.

•The unquestioned highlight of the morning came at the end of practice when the offense — led by backup quarterback Brian Hoyer — was going for a two-point conversion. If the defense gave up the points, they had to run a lap, and if the offense couldn’t punch it in, they had to run a lap. Hoyer found Joey Galloway to complete the conversion, sending the offense into a frenzy. (Tom Brady seemed to take great relish in taunting the defense, particularly Vince Wilfork, about the fact that they had to run. And Brady and Randy Moss continued to taunt them gleefully as they rounded the field.)

•There were more of my favorite drills — the one-on-ones — relatively early in the practice session. Some of the highlights from that included Ray Ventrone delivering a great hit on Terrence Wheatley, which caused a fumble; Laurence Maroney absolutely blowing past Jerod Mayo with ease; Fred Taylor putting a terrific juke on Vinny Ciurciu (and later in the same drill, Gary Guyton); Tank Williams tackling down Dave Thomas; and Darius Butler absolutely blowing past Eric Alexander.

•Kevin O’Connell appeared to be getting fewer reps Tuesday morning — we’re not sure what that’s all about. (A few reporters spoke with him after practice — we’ll have those notes along for you later today.) He had a deep ball down the middle for Shun White knocked away by Wheatley. As for the other QBs, it looked to us like Brady was resting his arm — there weren’t a whole lot of pass attempts for No. 12 this morning. Hoyer did get some chances, including the successful two-point conversion to end practice we talked about before. (However, he and Russ Hochstein did botch a snap — they were forced to run a lap.) And Walter took his fair share of reps, with perhaps his finest moment coming late in practice when he found Dave Thomas for a big gain.

•Rookie Julian Edelman worked A LOT as part of the punt return group — I could be incorrect, but I believe he was the only guy to return punts all morning. Edelman was part of a larger group of kick returners, a collection that included Maroney, Wheatley, Kevin Faulk, Welker and Matthew Slater.

Ready for another day of double sessions down here at Gillette Stadium. The Pats have two practice scsheduled, one for 9:30 a.m. and the second for 3:45 p.m. We’ll have a blog update for you around noon — Coach Belichick is NOT scheduled to address the media today.

Gutierrez has one pass for 15 yards in his Patriots' career. (AP)

Via their Twitter page, the Patriots have just announced they have cut quarterback Matt Gutierrez and signed quarterback Andrew Walter.

Walter is a 27-year-old out of Arizona State has spent four years in the league, all of them with Oakland. His best season came in 2006 with the Raiders, when he started eight games and had a 53 percent completion percentage, to go along with 1,677 passing yards, three touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

The 25-year-old Gutierrez had been with New England since 2007. The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder was released by the Patriots at the end of 2008 training camp, but returned to the club after the first week of the season. He’s completed one pass for 15 yards in his professional career.