The veteran wideout is battling with several younger players for a place on the team.
By The Associated Press

FOXBORO, Mass. – The New England Patriots have plenty of young receivers competing for playing time. And then there’s Dedric Ward.

He’s entering his seventh NFL season, his first with the Patriots, and making a smooth adjustment to quarterback Tom Brady and an offensive system much like the one he played in with the New York Jets.

“I’ve been around long enough to understand the game, understand the nature of finding the different holes in the zones,” Ward said after practice on Tuesday.

He’s part of a receiver corps that has more experience and depth than last season.

In just the second week of training camp, Ward has already impressed coach Bill Belichick.

“He’s made a lot of plays. He’s dropped very few balls. He’s running good, crisp routes and getting open,” Belichick said. “He’s opened a lot of eyes.”

That’s a change from Ward’s past two seasons with Miami. He started just two of the 29 games in which he played and totaled only 40 catches.

In 2000, his fourth and final year with the Jets, Ward started all 16 games and had 54 catches, three for touchdowns.

“That’s an important thing, coming in here showing that you can still compete,” Ward said. “I don’t think anybody’s going to be given anything. It’s going to be shown out here on this practice field.”

Troy Brown and David Patten are the starting wide receivers. Second-year players Deion Branch and David Givens and rookie second-round draft pick Bethel Johnson have done well.

“It’s very competitive,” Belichick said. “There are a lot of guys that are having good camps at that spot.”

Ward learned the basic offensive system in his first three NFL seasons when Charlie Weis held that position with the Jets.

But Ward still had to get used to a new quarterback after playing in New York with Neil O’Donnell, Vinny Testaverde and Ray Lucas and in Miami with Jay Fiedler and Lucas.

Brady is entering his fourth NFL season but already has been MVP of the Super Bowl.

“He’s a fairly young guy in the NFL,” Ward said, but “he’s really experienced in terms of knowing where to go with the ball. He’s very good at placing the ball where it needs to be for us making the easy catch.”

That’s eased Ward’s transition and also helped other receivers who know if they run the correct route, there’s a good chance Brady will put the ball where they can catch it.

“It’s easier on us probably than it is on him trying to get adjusted to us, how we run our routes,” Ward said, “because everybody kind of runs their route a little differently.

“We talk about it in meetings,” he said. “Once we get on a page where we don’t have to communicate verbally, I think that’s when we’re going to be hitting on all cylinders.