FOXBORO -- Cornerback Eric Warfield found out quickly that the Patriots defense isn't one a player can just waltz in and start playing. After spending eight seasons in Kansas City, he came to New England this offseason.

"You would think a guy coming in with eight years under his belt, who played under three head coaches, three or four defensive coordinators, five or six position coaches, you'd think I'd have seen all the defenses that could be thrown at you in an NFL program, but I came in here and this defense is totally different," he acknowledged.

In what way?

"What they expect of personnel, your position on the field, your position on a certain route, the way you leverage receivers," Warfield explained. "I thought coming in, the only thing that would change was the terminology. But some things are different here with, like I said, positioning."

Making things even harder for Warfield was the fact that the Pats guard their playbooks very tightly.

"Usually when you come into the program usually you're given a small version of the playbook," he said. "They don't do that here. If a playbook is lost, that's pretty much your season because that gives away your whole defense or offense. So we had 15- or 20-minute basic things we did on the field (during the offseason) but as far as how we did our defense, we didn't do much of it.

"In mini-camp, I got the playbook," he said. "You learned part of it then went out and performed what you learned. Coming out the first couple of days of mini-camp, I was a little lost. I gave up some big plays in mini-camp. I'm sure a lot of people thought I wasn't going to make the team. But now I've taken full advantage of my playbook. When I get out of here, I go straight to my room and get in the playbook. I want to learn the system, I want to learn what I need to do. I want to make myself a starter with this defense."

Warfield, 30, played in 11 games for the Chiefs last year after being suspended by the NFL for four games because of drunken-driving convictions (Warfield has since quit drinking alcohol). Before that, he played in 63 of 64 games for the Chiefs and intercepted four passes every season from 2001 to 2004. He's down the depth chart at corner behind players such as Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs and, apparently, converted safety Eugene Wilson. But his effort has been diligent and he's leaning on Tebucky Jones, who played safety and corner in his first go-round with the Pats, to show him the ropes.

Jones "knows the system well, and being a safety you have to learn a lot more than most of the players because you place the corners and linebackers in position," said Warfield. "Tebucky has helped me out a lot and helped me with adjustments. And the young guys, I watch how they play it. I'm not ashamed to say I'll sit back and watch a young guy. Anyone considered to be better than me, I'm going to watch."

More time in the field

After holding two practices each of the first two days, the Patriots scaled back to one afternoon practice yesterday. They'll return to two-a-days today (9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.).

"I feel like we're moving along and it's a good time for us to start stringing together some good practices and consistent improvement to really build our team, and not keep slipping back and having to repave the same road and that type of thing," said Pats head coach Bill Belichick .

The Pats alternated between two-a-days and one practice the past two seasons but are going to go a bit harder this summer.

The team is spending "a little bit more time on the field and a little less time in the meeting rooms at this point," said Belichick. "You have so much time and you just try to figure out what the best way is to be most productive. I think fundamentally we can use the time on the field to work on our fundamentals and basics, and that is really where the emphasis is."

Belichick added, "One of the things that I think is important for us this year is just to become a better fundamental football team, to do the little things better and more consistently than maybe what we did them certainly at times last year and in the past."

Kicker competition

Belichick believes that the day-in, day-out pressure of trying to win the kicking job helps show how the Patriots' two candidates -- Martin Gramatica and rookie Steve Gostkowski -- will respond in clutch situations.

"There is definitely pressure at a position like that, where there are only so many you can keep," said the coach. "It's not like offensive linemen where you can keep 10 guys or 9 guys . . . It's a little bit different at positions like punter, kicker, long snapper, quarterback."

Belichick says he's never kept two kickers but is not philosophically opposed to it.

"When the Giants had Brad Daluiso, they led the league in kickoff coverage. When Dan [Reeves ] did that, I thought it was a great move," he said. "When you were playing them, you certainly weren't happy that they were kicking off into the end zone every time and still making their field goals. Yeah, it cost them somewhere along the line (on the 53-man roster), another player they could've had doing something, but they were pretty good at that. I don't know how many teams did that last year, but I'm sure there is a decent number, four or five anyway, that had a couple of kickers."

In conjunction with that, Belichick said he has no problem keeping two quarterbacks, either, if it shakes out that way.

"Look, I'm not opposed to anything," he said. "I'm for doing what's best for the football team. If it's carry four quarterbacks like we did in 2000, then we'll carry four quarterbacks. If it's carry seven offensive linemen, which we did at one point last year, then we'll carry seven offensive linemen. In one game, we had 11 linebackers active for a game. That might be an NFL record. I'm for doing whatever is best for our football team."

Shaping up badly

Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi were both given the afternoon practice off yesterday. No players were activated from the physically unable to perform list. That includes defensive lineman Johnathan Sullivan, who came to the team with a reputation for being out of shape and has done nothing to dispel that. A report on ProFootballTalk.com, since confirmed by the Boston Herald, said that Sullivan failed the team conditioning run. Miserably. "I think it's hard for any player to really help himself until he gets out on the field and starts performing," Belichick said when asked about Sullivan, who was traded to the Pats by New Orleans in exchange for Bethel Johnson. "That's no secret. That goes for everybody. If they're not ready to play, or whatever their situation is, if they're not ready to play then they can't play."

tcurran@projo.com / (401) 277-7340