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FOXBORO - The reconfiguration of the Patriots' receiving corps is finished, but the work has just begun.

"It's just competition everywhere," Kelley Washington said earlier this week. "You can't really get into all the hype. You just have to go out and play football. Once the whistle blows, it's all football, it's all what you plan and what you practice and going out and playing. Whoever executes the best is going to win football games."

Washington joins fellow newcomers Donté Stallworth, Wes Welker and Randy Moss and holdover Jabar Gaffney as the primary targets for Tom Brady as the Patriots begin their season Sunday at Giants Stadium (1 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) against the New York Jets. It's the second time in two years that Brady has had to deal with a significantly rebuilt receiving corps, and as the veteran quarterback said Monday, it's a challenge he can't afford to take lightly - especially since he had limited practice time with Moss and Stallworth during the team-building process.

"Any time you bring together a team, there are new things that happen, new things that you don't account for," Brady said. "I was trying to put together this offense with the plays we want to run. You'd love to have the players out there that are going to be running them because you can get a pretty accurate assessment of what you're trying to do.

"It really wasn't the case, and that's because it's just not the way it played out in camp with injuries and so forth, so a lot of that is going to have to be on the run," he said. "We're going to have to try to catch up as fast as we can. We'd love to have a lot of those kinks worked out in the first four weeks of training camp instead of the first four weeks of the season." Washington, who was about to start training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list but was taken off just as camp began, said he was glad he was able to go through the whole process without interruption.

"I just went out and played football," the former Cincinnati Bengal said. "I practiced hard and played in preseason and had given myself to making the best of the opportunity to make the team and help the team win."

But now that he's made the team, Washington said it's not time for him to sit on his laurels.

"It doesn't stop," he said. "It keeps on going. There's always competition. You compete for playing time and just being on the field it doesn't stop."

Brady said there will naturally be a period of adjustment as he learns everything there is to be learned about his new receivers, so that he is instinctive in understanding their capabilities and utilizing them to their fullest.

"One thing we've proven over the years is it's a long time down the road," Brady said. "But as the season progresses, we do really identify what we do well and we stick to those things. There's going to be a little bit of process to do that. As long as the guys are committed to coming out here and working hard and buying into what we're trying to do, the process goes pretty well."

Washington offered proof of his commitment level Wednesday.

"It's serious now," he said. "We're coming in at 100 percent, it's concentration and focus and determination to get the job done. There's no second chances, there's no turning back, you've just go out there and try to execute it. That's what we're doing that's what we've been doing, but it's for real this week as far as practice and preparation."

This is Washington's first experience with the so-called "Border War" between the Jets and Patriots, and he was quick to note that the intensity of the rivalry seems to eclipse anything he experienced in Cincinnati.

"We've been through the minicamp, then the training camp and the preseason, now it's time to go get the Jets," he said. "Everybody's talking about the game not just here in the locker room, but also in the media and around town. So this is going to be an exciting game. I'll be interested to play in it because I haven't really played against the Jets in this type of rivalry." There was a time in training camp when Washington was thought to be "on the bubble," in jeopardy of not making the final roster. But he strung together a couple of strong performances at the end of the preseason schedule and showed his willingness to participate on special teams, which increased his value to the coaching staff.

He said it felt good to be part of a team that has the track record of the Patriots since the beginning of the decade.

"It does," he said. "It's being a part of this organization as well as being a part of this receiving corps we have here. There were a lot of talented players and there was a lot of competition in training camp. It just came down to numbers and how you fit in with the system that we're running here.

"I'm thrilled to be a part of the receiving corps as well as the team. I'm going to go out, continue to work hard, and gel with Tom and get this thing going," he said.

The work for the entire receiving corps and tight ends will continue through today's practice and Saturday morning's walk-through, Brady said - which means that the pressure's on to get things right before the games count in earnest.

"It puts pressure on those guys because now there's really no room for error," Brady said. "There's not much time I mean, we're pressed now. We know when we're playing and we've got a limited amount of time before that day comes. We'd like to make as many mistakes as we can in practice so the mistakes don't come up during the game."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com