FOXBORO –– Even though he made the 53-man roster last season as an undrafted free agent, Matt Gutierrez still practices as though he’s fighting for his roster spot.

Which he is.

When the New England Patriots drafted Kevin O’Connell in the third round of this year’s draft, speculation began over which of the two quarterbacking Matts –– Gutierrez or Cassel –– would be losing his job, since it’s hard to think that the Pats would keep four QBs on the 53-man roster.

So just as he was last year, Gutierrez is still the first player on the field at nearly every practice and is always the last off.

“The motivation is that I think this is a great opportunity to be here and I think that to acknowledge that by working hard is the only way to do it,” Gutierrez said.

Bill Belichick has noticed the effort the California native is putting forth.

“[Gutierrez] is probably as hard a working player as we have on this team. He’s worked hard to get better and build off of last year,” Belichick said. “It will be interesting to see him play with a year under his belt. He played last year at this time; he was obviously a rookie but had very few snaps, very little experience and won a spot on the team.”

Though Gutierrez played in only five games last season, completing his only pass attempt, he was a practice star for the Patriots, winning a practice player of the week award and the accompanying black jersey on several occasions.

He’s looking forward to getting into preseason games and getting an idea of how he’s progressed.

“I guess it’s sort of a test. You’re going up against an opponent that you try to prepare for, but they might throw something different at you,” Gutierrez said. “All the work that we’ve done out here on the practice field hopefully will translate, but it’s something you have to adjust to and that’s part of the game.”

Though he could be on the chopping block come Aug. 30, when teams have to set their 53-man rosters, Gutierrez is taking the New England-honored tack of not sweating it.

“I don’t think it’s something that we can worry about. We just come out here and try to get better every day and whatever is supposed to happen will happen,” he said.

Thomas hits practice field

Tight end David Thomas returned to the practice field yesterday for the first time since leaving with a trainer last Monday. His most recent injury was unspecified, but the third-year player lost most of last season due to a foot injury.

“I’m excited to be back out there practicing,” he said. “Injuries are something everyone goes through at some point; I can’t worry about what happened in the past.”

With one catch in two games last season, the lasting memory of Thomas’ performance in New England’s Christmas Eve 2006 game against Jacksonville, when he had five catches for 83 yards and one impressive belly-to-the-turf touchdown, has left team observers and fans wanting to see more.

Birthday boy Brady

Celebrating his 31st birthday yesterday, Tom Brady was serenaded by the overflow crowd of fans on hand for the lone afternoon practice session, and he acknowledged their wishes with a wave. After appearing to tweak his lower left leg in practice on Saturday, Brady participated fully yesterday as New England continued its situational work.

Other session notes

•Missing were: CB Jason Webster, S Rodney Harrison, S James Sanders, T Ryan O’Callaghan and T Matt Light. LB Vince Redd shed the red no-contact jersey he wore on Saturday and rookie Matthew Slater was in a blue (defense) jersey for the second straight day; he had been wearing a white (offense) jersey and putting a blue pinnie over it when he worked with the defense.

•After yesterday’s pushing between Shawn Crable and Stephen Spach, another rookie linebacker, this time Jerod Mayo, had a little shoving match with a teammate. It wasn’t clear who Mayo was originally involved with. Mayo continued to work alongside Tedy Bruschi in the base 3-4 defense.

•It was not the best day for Cassel. He was picked off three times: the first on a pass to Heath Evans that was a bit behind the fullback; Evans tipped the ball up and Adalius Thomas plucked it out of the air and then lateraled it to Spann when Evans wrapped up Thomas.

Later, Cassel looked deep for Randy Moss and the ball came down short; Terrence Wheatley was able to rein in the interception.

And on a third-and-1 with seconds to play scenario, a pass for Kelley Washington wound up in Mike Richardson’s hands.

On the docket

New England has two camp sessions planned for today. The first, from 8:45-10:30 a.m., is open to the public. The second, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., will be held in Gillette Stadium and is a special event for season-ticket holders only.

smanza@projo.com