2) Specializing: There was a lot of work on special teams in the first session, and even more in the afternoon work. It seemed like every other period was special teams -- group, punt, 7-on-7, punt return ... and so on. Not a bad thing for the lower-round draft picks and free agents, since this area's likely where they'll make the team.

3) Gronkowski battling: You can most certainly see Rob Gronkowski's effort out there, but it seems like all that time off from football might've caught up to him a little bit. He had some trouble tracking balls lumbering down the middle, and had a few drops. He said this morning that getting his conditioning right was the key for him, and this is probably a sign of that.

4) Letting the coaches coach: More than any NFL coach I've observed, Bill Belichick gets involved in position drills. And so it was interesting to see what happened when the offensive skill guys and defensive back seven went into passing skeleton. Instead of going with either of those groups, Belichick went to work with the offensive line on the far end of the field. He seems to be letting Bill O'Brien have some rope to run the offense, and Matt Patricia and Pepper Johnson some leeway to run the defense. Which was interesting to see.