FanHouse Jerod Mayo

After an injury-filled, $8 million season in Washington, Jason Taylor was back on the free-agent market this spring. Several teams needing a pass rusher showed interest, including the Patriots, who had previously traded veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs.

Taylor ended up in Miami, where he started his career and played for 10 seasons. It was one of the few examples of a player turning down a chance to join the Pats; head coach and evil genius Bill Belichick has an incredible knack for convincing free agents -- through Charles Manson-styled brainwashing, no doubt -- to come to Foxboro. Not this time.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Even though they lost franchise quarterback Tom Brady to a knee injury in Week 1, the Patriots managed to finish with a rather impressive 11-5 record in 2008. Impressive because they did so with a quarterback (Matt Cassel) that hadn't started a game since he was a senior in high school.

In most years, an 11-5 record is a lock for the NFL's postseason, but the Patriots became the first team since the 1985 Denver Broncos to miss the playoffs with such a mark. They already started the offseason by placing the franchise tag on Cassel, and it remains to be seen if they intend to trade him off to the highest bidder, or keep him around is a rather expensive insurance policy.

Whatever happens Sunday, the Patriots will undoubtedly be the team to beat come September -- at least according to the predictably sycophantic media who assume that, as long as Bill Belichick is breathing and Tom Brady is walking, New England is winning.

There are still concerns about Brady's reconstructed left knee, but if he's fully operational by training camp, the prognosticating bobbleheads should take great comfort in anointing the Patriots as favorites to win their fourth Super Bowl this decade. It's the same banal "analysis" that fans have been beaten about the head with since New England won its last championship four years ago.

Whatever happens Sunday, the Patriots will undoubtedly be the team to beat come September -- at least according to the predictably sycophantic media who assume that, as long as Bill Belichick is breathing and Tom Brady is walking, New England is winning.

There are still concerns about Brady's reconstructed left knee, but if he's fully operational by training camp, the prognosticating bobbleheads should take great comfort in anointing the Patriots as favorites to win their fourth Super Bowl this decade. It's the same banal "analysis" that fans have been beaten about the head with since New England won its last championship four years ago.

When the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting was tallied, it was no surprise that New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo was the runaway winner, with 49 votes on the 50-member media panel, chosen by the Associated Press.

But it was a big surprise that the one other vote went to Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Keith Rivers, who played in only seven games all season. How on earth could anyone pick Rivers over Mayo? To find out, I asked the guy who voted for Rivers, Jay Paris of the North County Times.

Via e-mail, he told me he had no excuse -- he just made a mistake and voted for Rivers even though he acknowledges that the award should have gone to Mayo.

Despite having their first-round pick taken away for their top-secret advanced scouting techniques, the New England Patriots still had a first-round pick in the 2008 NFL draft, thanks to a shrewd deal during the 2007 NFL draft that landed them San Francisco's pick in '08. And because the 49ers were pretty lousy in 2007, the Patriots ended up with the No. 10 overall selection following a 16-0 regular season, and a trip to the Super Bowl.

With the No. 10 pick, the Patriots selected linebacker Jerod Mayo from the University of Tennessee, and he became an instant star in the New England defense, starting every game for the Patriots and recording 128 tackles (five for loss), four pass defenses, and a forced fumble. For his efforts, Mayo was named the NFL's defensive rookie of the year on Wednesday, picking up 49 of a possible 50 votes.

According to Pro Football Talk, the 50th vote went to Bengals rookie linebacker Keith Rivers for the seven games he played during the season. I'm going to take a wild guess and say Rivers' vote came from someone who happens to work in Cincinnati. If you're not going to vote for Mayo, who was pretty obviously the best rookie on the defensive side of the ball, the No. 2 choice probably should have been Arizona's Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie for his 19 pass defenses, four interceptions, blocked kick and one touchdown.

As the regular season concluded, the FanHouse football writers all got together in a secret meeting in Will Brinson's mother's basement to discuss the players of the year. Who was the best coach? Which rookie stood out? Who was the most valuable player?

After much deliberation (and tons of meatloaf), here are the FanHouse NFL Award Winners. Only players/coaches who got votes were included in the final results.

Defensive Player of the Year

Justin Tuck, NY Giants -- 10 percent
Shaun Rogers, Cleveland -- 10 percent
Albert Haynesworth, Tennessee -- 15 percent
Jared Allen, Minnesota -- 20 percent
DeMarcus Ware, Dallas -- 45 percent

His last game not withstanding, can you really argue with 20 sacks? The Cowboys' linebacker was also involved in 84 tackles and six forced fumbles in 2008.

Luckily for football fans, tonight isn't just another Thursday night. It's a Thursday night with a pretty incredible football game between division rivals with the same record and the same question in their respective heads -- are we really any good?

The Patriots play host to the Jets in a game that will decide who is the better team in the AFC East, and probably who is the better career quarterback. Here are five notes before the big game tonight.

1. It's on NFL Network -- Yep, that means a lot of you won't get it. The biggest problem with the NFL Network coverage is if it was nationwide and readily available it would pretty awesome, with some decent guys in the booth and the studio. The problem is, according to the NFL Network, some networks are handcuffing you from your football coverage! Damn the man! The good news is you can watch the game here, which will only be acceptable if you have the awesome FanHouse chat open in another window. Come on, you know you wanna...

As I recall, the Patriots opened some eyes during April's draft when they used the No. 10 overall pick -- acquired from San Francisco, I hope Joe Staley was worth it -- on Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo. Not that Mayo wasn't a legitimate first-round talent, and probably the best linebacker in the draft, it just seemed like kind of a surprise to see him go that high. I figured him as more of a mid-late first-rounder, and if any team other than the Patriots had taken him that high, it probably would have been regarded as a reach.

Turns out, the selection is already paying off for New England. As Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe points out, Mayo was the only Patriots defensive player to stay on the field for every single snap in Sunday's 17-10 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

"He was out there for just about all of it," Belichick said. "Jerod has done a good job for us all the way through, and while there is always room for improvement, I thought he did a nice job against Kansas City.

"He was in all the different personnel groups - running situations, passing situations, two-minute, short-yardage, and so forth. I thought, all in all, he handled things pretty well."

The Patriots have hit with just about every first round pick they've had dating back to the 2001 draft, and if Mayo is already playing in every situation, for every play, it's a good bet that he's on his way to continuing the success.

It's hard to question the Patriots when it comes to personnel decisions since they've had a lot of success in the draft, particularly in the first round. Plus, they have a gaping need at linebacker. And just because none of the mock draft nerds had Jerod Mayo as a top-10 pick, that really won't mean much when the season starts (in fact, it doesn't mean much now, but whatever).

In any event, the addition of Mayo reduces the average age of Pats' linebackers from 47 to 34, so that's good news. And Bill Belichick and his spiffy pink ensemble just told the NFL Network crew that Mayo has experience at all three linebacker positions and can play special teams.

More impressive, though, is that New England was able to work a trade, accumulate a few picks and save some dough to get the guy they wanted. It's certainly not original to suggest that Belichick and Scott Pioli are masterful draft-day tacticians, but you if you're a Bengals fan, you have to wonder what the Patriots saw in Mayo that they didn't see in Keith Rivers.

Actually, if you're a Bengals fan, you're just glad the season hasn't been canceled yet.