Patriots Training Camp News, Notes, Updates: Day 5

The New England Patriots got back to work in the early afternoon Tuesday after their annual season ticket holder in-stadium practice session on Monday night. Here are five notes from around the web on the practice session:

1. Field Yates of ESPN Boston lauded the performance of undrafted rookie receiver Kenbrell Thompkins. Yates said that Thompkins was "arguably the best player on the field" during today's session. Earlier today, I published a 53 man roster projection and left Thompkins off. Perhaps that was a mistake. While it would be quite unusual for the Patriots to keep three rookie receivers on their active roster, it is looking more and more like those three rookie receivers could be three of the best four or five players the Patriots have at the position. If that's the case, there's no reason why the Patriots shouldn't carve out a spot for Thompkins, despite his status as an undrafted free agent.

2. Of the absences at today's session, perhaps the most notable was that of another rookie receiver, second round selection Aaron Dobson. Dobson didn't appear in today's session for unknown reasons. I wouldn't make anything of it yet, but as a rookie, every practice rep he can get counts.

3. It appears as if Tim Tebow had a bounce back day today, as Paul Perillo of PFW pointed out. Perillo also noted how Tebow spent some 1 on 1 time with offensive assistant Brian Daboll. It was a rough start to camp for Tebow, and it sounds like he made a positive step towards improving with today's performance.

4. Perillo also discussed a player at a position that we haven't heard much about to this point: fullback James Develin. Perillo noted that Develin had multiple red zone touchdown passes from quarterback Tom Brady and has also shown up in the blocking game. I think that he's probably still a longshot to make the roster, but it's certainly an intriguing nugget to pass along.

5. Ben Volin of the Boston Globe wrote on a skirmish that broke out between Stevan Ridley and Kyle Arrington towards the end of practice in which the two had to be separated. Not a big deal, but it's the first such occurrence in camp. If anything, it shows a little competitive fire. Speaking of Ridley, he fumbled today again during a ball security drill.

Look ahead: The Patriots are on a scheduled day off tomorrow before returning to the practice field at 2:20 PM on Thursday.