Bill Belichick, Tom Brady chat before practice. (AP)

FOXBOROUGH — Just finished up Day 4 of the Sunday morning session down here at Gillette Stadium, and here are a few notes worth passing along:

•It was a crisp and clear day — great weather for football. Not too hot, not too humid. And the showers held off, which sent everyone home happy. A good crowd in the bleachers — it looked a little smaller than it was a day or two ago, but pretty vocal nonetheless.

•Just before practice, the Patriots made a few moves, cutting linebacker Vince Redd and re-signing defensive back Jamar Love and adding outside linebacker/defensive end Rob Ninkovich. Ninkovich, a 25-year-old out of Purdue, has played for the Saints and Dolphins.

•By our count, the following players were not at practice this morning: wide receiver Brandon Tate, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite, linebacker Tyrone McKenzie, linebacker Tedy Bruschi, offensive lineman Al Johnson, offensive lineman Rich Ohrnbeger, offensive lineman Mark LeVoir, offensive lineman Ryan O’Callaghan, defensive lineman Darryl Richard, tight end Ben Watson, defensive lineman Myron Pryor, defensive lineman Richard Seymour, defensive lineman Ty Warren, linebacker Shawn Crable.

•After practice, linebacker Pierre Woods, defensive lineman Jarvis Green and kicker Stephen Gostkowski all drew big media crowds. There was an initial thought that wide receiver Randy Moss was going to speak, but he decided to pass.

•The highlight of the morning session was the annual “Pig Drill” at the start of practice. That’s where rookies are forced to slop through the mud in pursuit of the pigskin. Quarterback Tom Brady was on the hose, and someone would roll a ball into the much where the rookie was forced to scoop it up. (We also spotted Wes Welker with a bucket, tossing water on a few rookies.) All the rookies out there ran the gauntlet — including new special teams coach Scott O’Brien, who seemed to revel in it.

•Tight end Tyson DeVree had a noteworthy morning. He made arguably the sweetest catch of the morning, laying out for a ball from Matt Gutierrez in the corner of the end zone in an early drill. Later in the day on one-on-one drills (some of my favorite moments of camp), he was taken down by linebacker Tully Banta-Cain.

•The Patriots were deep into punt returns again this morning, with Welker, Kevin Faulk, Joey Galloway and Julian Edelman all seeing time as punt returners. Galloway struggled the most out of the group this morning, as one ball went right through his hands.

•This could be nothing, it could be something — I’m not sure. I’ve gotten e-mails from people wondering about the No. 3 quarterback job, and who might have the early lead. At this moment, I’d go with Matt Gutierrez for several reasons, not the least of which is when the quarterbacks go off and do their own drills, quite frequently, rookie Brian Hoyer is left behind as part of some scout team somewhere. Happened a few times today — you’d see the three quarterbacks off on their own, and Hoyer would be serving as a safety on the scout team or some such activity. Bodes well for “Gutz” at this point, I’d think, but there’s plenty of football left in camp.

•In those one-on-one drills we referenced before — again, some of our favorite scenes in camp — there were some other noteworthy moments. Tight end Dave Thomas got past linebacker Jerod Mayo, running back Kevin Faulk (who is AWESOME in this drill) easily got past linebacker Eric Alexander, wide receiver Randy Moss beat linebacker Adalius Thomas and running back Fred Taylor put on a nice move to beat new guy Rob Ninkovich.

•Other notes from the morning session: running back Laurence Maroney had a nice cutback move to get into the open field on 11 on 11 drills on a play where Russ Hochstein absolutely crushed rookie safety Pat Chung with a block. Also in the 11 on 11’s, cornerback Leigh Bodden had a nice pass breakup in the end zone on a Brady-to-Greg Lewis pass and rookie safety Pat Chung had a nice open-field takedown on Welker. … And it appeared rookie defensive lineman Ron Brace got plenty of reps at defensive end with the No. 1 defense — although some of that can likely be chalked up to the fact that both Seymour and Warren were not on the field this morning.