Patriots Minicamp Day 2 Observations: Joe Judge heavily involved in special teams

FOXBORO -- The Patriots were back at it on a muggy day behind Gillette Stadium on Tuesday for the second session of their mandatory minicamp program. With the offseason program on the cusp of concluding, here's what stood out.

--Trent Brown was present and on the field to start the session. The presumed starting left tackle was absent on Monday, reportedly due to a hail storm in Texas canceling his flight. Lawrence Guy, reportedly not happy with his contract, was absent. Brown, though, didn't partake in most of the practice, and we can assume he might have some conditioning to do as he works himself back into the season.

--This isn't a fashion report, but it was nevertheless noticeable that Kendrick Bourne brought a unique sense of style to the field. In a sea of white, navy and gray, Bourne was sporting red leggings and red gloves along with a red undershirt, intentionally sticking out from the rest of the pack. Nobody else on offense was wearing any notable colors. (Matthew Judon and Jabrill Peppers had some long sleeves to stand out among the defenders.) That may be a minor detail, but taken together with his press conference last week, he looks like a guy who's back to being himself.

--It was once again impossible to not notice Joe Judge working heavily with the special teams units. And what stands out so much is that ... he's good at it. He knows what he's doing, he has command and authority with the players, and he's clearly in a position of comfort. Obviously, none of that was the case last year with his ill-fated run as quarterbacks coach/cooperative voice in the offense, but he does seem to be in a position right now to help the team.

We did see Judge working with defensive backs on a drill, but more as an operator of the drill rather than a teacher.

—Bill Belichick was also front and center when the first punt unit got in some work. He was largely observing but did step in to offer some coaching points when needed.

-- Mac Jones had some wheels today.

—Julian Edelman showed up in the middle of practice to take it in. He didn't look like he's missing the offseason work too much.

—The overall tenor of the practice was definitely tamped down from Monday. There wasn't as much hooting and/or hollering, a lot of full team time was spent on running plays, and it felt like a winding down of the offseason program. There wasn't even a ton of music blaring (though the back-to-back of "Headstrong" by Trapt and "Till I Collapse" by Eminem was a solid throwback to the days of burned CDs in the early 2000s). Monday seemed like a much heavier day, which is what Belichick described as the usual process a week ago.

--The defense definitely got the better of the offense during full-team drills. The defense had all sorts of juice on the field and on the sideline and largely "dominated" the session. But without pads on, dominance can only go so far.

--In terms of offensive highlights ... DeVante Parker made a few nice grabs. One was in the end zone, another was up the left sideline. Both were jump balls. He does seem to love those, and Mac doesn't mind throwing them, as we know.