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.