FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Derrick Burgess spent another day away from practice. For a change, no one seemed upset.

Not even the linebacker whose chance for a starting job faded when the New England Patriots obtained Burgess, a strong pass rusher and two-time Pro Bowl player, from the Oakland Raiders.

“You can’t worry,” Pierre Woods said Friday. “It’s good that the guy’s on the team. He’s coming in to help and that’s all that matters. We’re trying to work together. We’re trying to win games, and that’s it.”

Coach Bill Belichick had been trying to fill the outside linebacker spot left vacant when he traded Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs in February. Burgess held out of Oakland’s training camp in hopes of forcing a trade.

On Thursday, about four months after Belichick first talked to Raiders owner Al Davis about a deal for Burgess, the Patriots and the player joined forces. New England gave up undisclosed draft considerations that Belichick said should be determined in a few weeks.

Burgess played left defensive end in Oakland’s 4-3 alignment but figures to play linebacker in New England’s 3-4.

He was traveling to Foxborough while the Patriots practiced Friday morning, their last session before Sunday afternoon. The team held double sessions for the first eight days of camp and would have had nine until Belichick canceled the Friday afternoon workout after a light morning walkthrough in which players wore shorts and T-shirts.

Some players will use the time off to rest and be with their families. Some will study their playbooks. Some will work out on their own.

“For me, it’s a day off but it’s also a work day,” Woods said. “You come in. You try to watch more film. You try to perfect your technique, things like that.”

Burgess, entering the final year of a five-year contract, is expected to practice for the first time with his new team Sunday.

“It’s a huge pickup for us,” nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. “I can’t wait for him to get in here and start playing around with him.”

Burgess has 47 sacks in seven seasons, three with Philadelphia and four with Oakland. His last game with the Eagles was the 2005 Super Bowl.

The Patriots won that game 24-21, but Burgess had the Eagles’ only sack, tackling Tom Brady on third down for an 8-yard loss on the first play of the second quarter. That forced a punt and the Eagles took a 7-0 lead on the next series.

Burgess is “a player that I coached in the Pro Bowl a couple of years ago, certainly competed against when he was at Philadelphia and also in Oakland,” Belichick said. The coach described Burgess as a “very athletic guy, competitive, tough, hardworking guy.”

Burgess had 8 1/2 sacks with the Eagles, who drafted him with the first pick of the third round in 2001 out of Mississippi. He missed the 2003 season after tearing his Achilles’ tendon, then signed with Oakland as a free agent before the 2005 season.

That year he led the NFL with a team-record 16 sacks and followed that with an 11-sack season. He made the Pro Bowl both years. He had 8 sacks in 14 games in 2007 and just 3 1/2 in 10 games in 2008. Injuries kept him out of a total of eight games in those two seasons.

Woods is entering his fourth season with the Patriots, who signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Michigan. He got his first three pro starts last year because of injuries, then missed the last four games with a broken jaw.

“Pierre is a player that’s improved steadily through the course of his career,” Belichick said. “He’s improved in every area of his game. He’s still a young player that’s continuing to get better.”

Still, Belichick wanted help at outside linebacker so he got Burgess. That likely will reduce Woods’ playing time, but the coach didn’t seem worried about hurting any feelings.

“He said, ‘We got a new teammate. Let’s get it on,'” Woods said.

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