The Patriots are a team full of veterans, most of whom are well-entrenched. But come training camp next week, there are a few spots that remain up in the air. Here’s a look at five position battles we’ll be watching when camp opens next Thursday in Foxborough.

NO. 3 WIDE RECEIVER: Joey Galloway vs. Greg Lewis. With Jabar Gaffney in Denver, these two veterans are the best options for the third receiver spot. Galloway appears to have had a better spring, and is likely a step or two ahead of Lewis on the depth chart -- there were times this spring where the former Philadelphia receiver looked like he was struggling a bit to pick up some of the nuances of the New England passing game.

Lewis does have a fan in Tom Brady -- the quarterback praised him during OTA’s for a “ridiculous” catch -- but his re-education hasn’t gone as smoothly as he had hoped.

“Everything is new to me,” Lewis said. “I was in Philadelphia for six years, so I’m used to how everything went about there. Now, coming here, everything has changed. I just have to get used to different things and that nature. But everything is a surprise for me. Everything is new.”

Both have experience in the return game, but for whatever reason, only Galloway saw time there in spring practices, working with Kevin Faulk and Wes Welker as a punt returner. That may be a sign that even though Galloway is older -- he’s 37, while Lewis is 29 -- he could have a bigger overall role than Lewis. Plus, he can still fly.

RIGHT TACKLE: Nick Kaczur vs. Sebastian Vollmer. Call it The Big Canadian vs. The Big German. Kaczur is the incumbent, having started 29 regular-season games at right tackle the last two seasons. But the 6-foot-4, 315-pounder out of Brantford, Ontario could be pushed this year by the 6-foot-8, 315-pound Vollmer, who grew up in Germany and blossomed into an All-Conference USA tackle while at Houston.

I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating -- the best way to gauge the abilities of a young offensive lineman and how he is adapting to the Patriots system is to watch for two things: One, you keep an eye out for how often he’s verbally undressed by veteran offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia. Two, watch how many laps he is forced to run after a mistake. Throughout the spring practices, I never saw Vollmer get called out by Scarnecchia or have to run a single penalty lap.

At rookie minicamp, organized team activities and full-squad workouts, Vollmer saw time at both tackle positions. Barring injury, he will likely enter training camp as a backup at both positions. But if Kaczur struggles or left tackle Matt Light go down, Vollmer will be the first one off the bench. (Expect Ryan O’Callaghan to figure into the mix at the right tackle spot somewhere down the road as well.)

OUTSIDE LINEBACKER: Pierre Woods vs. The Field. Woods is competing against several players for the bulk of reps at the outside linebacker spot that opened up when the Patriots traded Mike Vrabel to Kansas City. The 6-foot-5, 255-pound Woods saw the bulk of time when Adalius Thomas went down midway through the 2008 season. Not overly impressive, he was nonetheless a solid replacement who looked like he was improving as he saw more time. But two weeks after he registered a career-high nine tackles in a 34-31 overtime loss to the Jets on Nov. 13, Woods busted his jaw in a blowout loss against the Steelers, sidelining him for the rest of the season.

Shawn Crable, Tully Banta-Cain and (to a lesser extent) Vince Redd all remain as other options. If New England fails to go out and get another outside linebacker before the start of the season (Oakland’s disgruntled Derrick Burgess still remains a trade possibility), the 27-year-old Woods figures to see most of the reps opposite Thomas, with Crable spelling him on passing downs.

NO. 3 QUARTERBACK: Matt Gutierrez vs. Brian Hoyer. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that barring a veteran free-agent signing (Brian Griese being the most likely candidate), Kevin O’Connell has a pretty good shot at the No. 2 quarterbacking job. That leaves the No. 3 spot up for grabs between Gutierrez and Hoyer.

Gutierrez is the classy veteran who has done everything the Patriots have asked of him since he showed up as an undrafted free agent in May 2007. Disarmingly pleasant with the media, he’s usually the first one on the practice field and the last one off. In the last two-plus years, New England has invested more time and energy in Gutierrez than almost any other player.

But if Hoyer does turn out to impress in camp, it could mean the end of the Gutierrez era. An undrafted free agent out of Michigan State, Hoyer performed well enough during rookie minicamp to earn an invite to the organized team activities and full-squad workouts, and he apparently showed enough in those sessions to warrant an invite to training camp.

LONG SNAPPER: Nathan Hodel vs. Jake Ingram. Call it the battle to replace Lonie Paxton. In one corner, you have the steady veteran in Hodel, someone who has been around a long time, has a track record with new special teams coach Scott O’Brien and has worked on the biggest stage (he was the long snapper last season with the Arizona Cardinals). In the other corner, there’s Ingram, one of the best long collegiate long snappers in the country last year while at Hawaii, so good he was one of only two long snappers invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.

While both appeared to have successful spring practices, kicker Stephen Gostkowski certainly isn’t playing favorites -- not yet, anyway.

“I think it’s going smooth so far. You can’t expect too much in minicamps,” Gostkowski said. “They’re working hard. It always takes a couple of weeks to get the timing down, whenever you have a new guy -- no matter how good they are.

“But I think (holder) Chris (Hanson) has done a real good job of holding and doing a good job of getting in tune with Nate and Jake. They’re working hard -- only time will tell who comes out and who is more consistent.”