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FOXBORO - Even though it was Tom Brady's 32nd birthday Monday, the Patriots' quarterback was in a giving mood.

His "present" to tight end Chris Baker was extra work after the morning practice at the Gillette Stadium complex - a few extra throws to help the free-agent signee and the veteran quarterback get on the same page with their timing.

Baker, a veteran of seven prior NFL seasons (all with the New York Jets) said the work was a necessary thing.

"We're trying to get on the same page," Baker said. "He's worked with a lot of guys over the years, and there are things we need to know. I've got to know what he's thinking and he's got to know what I'm thinking. That's really where we're trying to get to right now."

Baker said he had the same sort of relationship with Chad Pennington until last year, when the current QB of the Dolphins was shipped out of Gotham to make room for Brett Favre. "I was there for so long, and most of the other guys like Chad were there my whole career until last year," he said. "So we knew what each other was thinking, and things like that. But with me being a new guy here, it's important to get on the same page with the quarterbacks.

"Right now I'm really focusing on learning the offense. It's a process, obviously and at the same time, just getting better and working on things I can do," he said.

Baker readily admitted that the complexity of the Patriots' playbook requires the extra work on his part.

"It definitely is a complex offense," he said. "I think that's why the offense has been so good in the past, it presents a lot of different things, a lot of different looks and challenges to a defense. It's on us to pick it up and know what's expected of us, and that's what we're working at every day. It's going pretty good."

Baker is joined by former Buccaneer Alex Smith in what has amounted to a retooling of the tight end position. And from appearances early in training camp, the Patriots are looking to re-introduce their tight ends as vital parts of the passing offense, as opposed to a more recent heavier reliance upon their blocking skills.

"Everybody has different strengths, but we're all working on being well-rounded tight ends, helping the passing game and helping the running game," Baker said. "We want to present as many problems to the defense as possible. So we're really working at it. I'm obviously trying to get better at the running game and also the passing game."

Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said it should come as no surprise that Brady is looking to develop better timing with players new to the system.

"That's training camp," he said. "You have a lot of different guys throwing, different guys running routes and catching them. It's all of them getting acclimated to each other and all the receivers getting adjusted and used to the quarterbacks, and the quarterbacks getting used to the receivers, reading their body language and their acceleration out of breaks, all those different type of things.

"I know that we aren't going to have the timing now that we would have later in the year just because of the number of people that we're working together," he continued, "but that's part of it. You get used to working with other people and then at some point that will boil down to a smaller group and hopefully the execution level will improve. At this point, you want to keep your options alive and let everybody work with everybody and let the competition unfold and see how that takes place."

Quarterback roulette Late Monday night, the team announced the signing of veteran quarterback Andrew Walter Monday. Terms of the agreement were not announced. Additionally, the Patriots released backup QB Matt Gutierrez.

Walter (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) spent the last four seasons with Oakland after joining the Raiders as a third round pick out of Arizona State in 2005. Walter has started nine of 15 games and completed 174 of 333 passes for 1,919 yards and three touchdowns. After spending his rookie season as the third quarterback in 2005, Walter saw significant action in 2006.

Gutierrez (6-4, 230 pounds) originally joined the Patriots as a rookie free agent out of Idaho State in 2007.

Birthday boo-boo

Brady may have been celebrating his birthday, but that didn't absolve him from having to run a punitive "lap" after he and center Dan Koppen botched a snap during goal-line offense drills in the morning practice.

Brady and Koppen cut the run short, however. They ran the length of the southernmost football field and turned at the far goalpost for the second field, but upon reaching that, they ran around it and cut diagonally across the second gridiron instead of running around the sidelines as most other penalized players would have.

Sometimes, it's definitely nice to be Tom Brady.

Quick kicks

The Patriots' practice schedule changes Thursday when they play host to the annual closed practice for season-ticket holders and Foxboro residents under the lights inside Gillette Stadium Troy Brown was a welcome guest at the evening practice on Sunday ... The Patriots lightened up a little in the afternoon practice for the second straight day, wearing shorts and light "shell" pads More fans are beginning to show up at practice wearing the early-'60s throwback jerseys that the Patriots will be wearing in four games this year, part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American Football League While the new tight ends have been working hard to get on the same page with Brady, Benjamin Watson has been absent from practice for unspoken reasons. Not a surprise there, nor will it be a surprise if he gets released unless something changes soon.