Quiet time in Foxborough after rookie mini-camp and this week's mailbag features a variety of offseason questions. Roster depth and numerical issues are featured in this installment of Ask PFW.

I would love to drive to Gillette Stadium and watch a practice. How do you go about doing this? Do you have to buy tickets? Also what are the chances of getting autographs from the players?
Joseph West

Training camp dates have yet to be made public but it usually gets underway sometime in late July and runs for about three weeks. Your best bet will be to check with Patriots.com for updated practice times once the summer hits. As for getting there, it’s as simple as driving to the stadium and walking to the practice fields. There is no admission charge or tickets. Autographs are always available either by waiting around the ropes as practice ends or by going to a designated area where players sign by position. You should be able to get at least a few on any given day.
Paul Perillo

Are the Patriots ever going to come to an agreement with Asante Samuel?
John Sullivan

Obviously this question is impossible for anyone other than the parties involved to answer. My guess is Samuel either signs his tender and plays out the season (most likely) or he signs a long-term extension and is here for several more years. I don’t see Samuel holding out like Deion Branch did last year because he would be sacrificing much more than in salary ($7.79 million) than Branch did last year. But I honestly can’t answer this definitively since neither party is letting PFW in on their plans.
Paul Perillo

Outside of Bobby Orr and actually ahead of Larry Bird I completely idolize Tom Brady. I have never been to Boston and can only watch the Pats, Bruins, Celtics or Red Sox when they come to either Buffalo or Toronto. That said I truly believe I know the psyche of real New Englanders. Tom Brady and his Yankee hat photo may not seem like much to him but I encourage the other sports heroes of New England to wear Jets.
Ed Simkin

I found it somewhat amusing how much of a stir Brady caused by wearing a Yankees hat one day. I will first admit up front that as a lifelong Bostonian I despise the Yankees. But that doesn’t mean I expect everyone else to share my feelings. Brady grew up in northern California. Why should he be prohibited from wearing whatever baseball hat he wants? Just because he plays for the Patriots doesn’t mean he has to be a Red Sox fan. In fact, I remember when Tom first came here back in 2000 and he was wearing a Yankees hat. Of course he was an obscure fourth-string rookie at the time so nobody cared. I’m a real New Englander, Ed, and I couldn’t care less what baseball team Tom roots for as long as he keeps tossing touchdowns for the Patriots every Sunday in football season. Now, if he starts wearing a Jets hat …
Paul Perillo

Do you agree the Patriots did not receive top value with some of their trades? For example, trading this year’s third to Oakland for a third next year plus a seventh. The seventh has little value and I realize that Oakland will likely have a poor record this year it is still a pick in the same round. The trade of a first for a first and a fourth was also far below what Dallas received from Cleveland. I also thought even though they traded out of this year’s draft with their third-round pick, they could have picked up a punter or Michael Bush from Louisville with the third rounder or by trading down into the early part of the fourth.
John Heisman

I don’t really agree with you on this one. In my opinion, they got more than they gave up in both trades and in my book that makes both good deals. They got a third and a seventh for a third – not to mention that the third they get next year will almost certainly be more valuable than the 91st pick they gave up. On top of that, the Patriots obviously didn’t feel there were a ton of players worth drafting so they opted instead to garner picks for next season. Time will tell if that assessment was accurate. As for the other trade, you’re comparing the Dallas-Cleveland deal with the Patriots and I don’t think that’s fair. The Cowboys pick was No. 23 and the Patriots was 28. That’s a fairly significant difference, not to mention that Cleveland increased the value of the 23rd pick by targeting a potential franchise quarterback. Five spots difference at that stage of the first round is quite meaningful. You’re not likely to get a team willing to offer as much for the pick with the first round just about done at that point. As I understand it, several teams were interested in making a deal with New England for that pick, and San Francisco’s offer was the most lucrative. So evidently the other teams don’t share your belief that the pick was worth more than the Patriots got. As for what they could have done in the third round, as a matter of opinion I'd wonder why they would have wanted a punter? They just gave Josh Miller a bonus and they have two young guys around for competition. Why would they want to invest a third-round pick in another one. And Michael Bush in my mind is nothing special. He's a big guy who runs like he's a scatback. The leg injury still isn't healed and he won't have a huge impact anytime soon.