Wes Welker (83) runs a pass route while being guarded by Director of Player Personnel Nick Caserio during an OTA session Tuesday in Foxborough. (AP)

Tuesday morning’s organized team activity (OTA) has just finished up down here at Gillette Stadium, and here are a few notes worth passing along.

•Under gray, relatively humid skies, there were 78 players in attendance for the session that lasted close to two hours. In contrast to last week’s appearance from Tom Brady, the media crowd was considerably smaller than it was for last week’s OTA.While Brady was a part of the workout, the following players were not on the field: WR Tyree Barnes, WR Shun White, WR Brandon Tate, DB Brandon Meriweather, RB Sammy Morris, CB Mike Richardson, DB Ray Ventrone, LB Jerod Mayo, LB Tyrone McKenzie, T Mark LeVoir, NT Vince Wilfork, DL Ty Warren and DL Jarvis Green.

•Wrestler-turned-football-player Jermail Porter continued to work with the offensive lineman, and jumped into the right tackle spot on a handful of drills. As was the case last week, he didn’t do anything to call attention to himself in a negative fashion, and looked nimble and confident for much of the session. (While the starting offense was on the field, Nick Kaczur appeared to take most of the snaps at the right tackle spot.)

•Director of Player Personnel Nick Caserio continues to have a sizable role in workouts. He was on the field for the duration of the practice, and had several one-on-one sessions with players, including Julian Edelman. In addition, Caserio worked with a few receivers in a passing drill, serving as a safety in coverage against Randy Moss on a couple of occasions.

•Not a huge surprise, but quarterbacks coach Bill O’Brien appears to be taking more of a leadership role in the offense. He was calling out plays for much of the day for the offense, including a series where the offense was working on red-zone play.

•In punt return drills, the three return men — Kevin Faulk, Joey Galloway and Wes Welker — were all asked to hold on to at least ball (and occasionally two) while they were fielding another punt. (If you watched “Hard Knocks” with the Cowboys last year, think of the punt-catching drill the Cowboys used with Pacman Jones.) It’s a unique drill I can’t remember the Patriots using before — I’m thinking it was likely it was brought to New England by new special teams coach Scott O’Brien.

•Team owner Robert Kraft watched roughly the last half-hour of practice, and stopped by for a quick hello with the media on his way off the field.

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