FanHouse Pierre Woods

Bad news for anyone who enjoyed watching Tom Brady-less New England miss out on the playoffs last year -- the Patriots are the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl XLIV. And those numbers came out before Thursday's trade that brought them Derrick Burgess from Oakland.

A disgruntled Burgess, in the final year of his current contract, had been holding out of Raiders training camp in search of the pay raise and extension that he's wanted for years. Oakland refused to budge, though, and Burgess became much more expendable after Greg Ellis landed with the silver and black.

New England saw the obvious opportunity. Burgess, 30 and owed $2 million this season, should fit in perfectly as the Patriots' outside linebacker/rush end spot, currently held by Pierre Woods. Whether New England opts to use a 3-4 or a 4-3, Burgess is still capable of making sure someone's gets in the quarterback's face.

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.

After a paid holiday in DC last year, Jason Taylor is back in Miami, where he spent the first 10 years of his career. But at 34, his role has changed. Taylor is no longer the focus of the defense, the pass-rushing specialist who averaged nearly 12 sacks a season during his time with the Dolphins.

Instead, he'll be used sparingly, in an effort to keep him fresh, healthy, and productive. Via the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero:

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.

With the Patriots linebackers dropping like flies in recent weeks, the news that veteran Tedy Bruschi could be done for the season probably isn't what New England fans want to hear as the team fights through the three-way battle at the top of the AFC East.

According to Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald, Bruschi suffered a knee injury in Sunday's win over Seattle that would likely keep him out of the lineup for three to four weeks. Since, as Guregian writes, the Patriots need every healthy body they can get in the final three games, it's likely they'll just place the 34-year-old Bruschi on injured reserve to free up his roster spot.

What they'll do with that roster spot, however, is unknown. A week ago, the Patriots brought in soon-to-be 40-year-old Junior Seau to replace Pierre Woods, after bringing in Rosevelt Colvin a few days earlier. If those recent moves are any indicators to the inner-workings of the Patriots front office, they'll likely take a look at anyone from Kevin Greene to Andre Tippett.

Bruschi has 75 tackles, no sacks and one pass defense for the Patriots this season.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Earlier this week, New England welcomed back an old friend in linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, presumably to help fill the void left by outside linebackers Adalius Thomas and Pierre Woods who have been lost to injury. Thomas, if you'll recall, suffered a broken arm a few weeks ago, while Woods had an early exit from Sunday's game against Pittsburgh.

Still feeling like they're shorthanded at the linebacker position, the Patriots have another old friend (emphasis on old) in Foxborough today, as soon-to-be-40-year old Junior Seau is in the house, possibly to sign a deal to suit back up for New England. Awesome. I guess Jack Lambert or Dick Butkus weren't available?

From Christopher L. Gasper of the Boston Globe:

"I don't think the contract will be an issue," said Demoff. "If Junior is there and nothing is different from what they thought last night, I would suspect they'd do a contract, and he'd be a Patriot tomorrow. I don't think any promises were made to Junior or by Junior to them before he got on the plane."

Earlier in the evening, Mike Reiss reported that Seau was only interested in playing for New England this season to "finish what we didn't finish last year." That's all well and good, but he's going to be 40! If nothing else, the Patriots are at least well on their way to reassembling the oldest linebacker unit ever.

The Patriots today brought back linebacker Rosevelt Colvin to offer some assistance to a depleted linebacker unit, as reported by Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe. Colvin, if you'll recall, was a rather large free agent signing by the Patriots back in 2003, and collected 26.5 sacks in five seasons with New England. He hasn't played a down this season after being cut in training camp by the Houston Texans. He recorded four sacks, three forced fumbles and an interception a season ago with the Patriots.

New England's linebacker corps has taken quite a hit recently, especially on the outside, as Adalius Thomas was lost to a broken arm a month ago, and on Sunday, Pierre Woods was lost when he was on the wrong end of a collision with Steelers tight end Heath Miller.

I'm not sure how much he'll help at this point, but the Patriots are in need of something, anything, terms of a pass rush from the outside. As a team, New England is 20th in the NFL with 23 sacks, and with Thomas out of the lineup, only has four sacks from its current outside linebackers (three for Vrabel, one for Woods-- Thomas has five, but he's out of the lineup for the foreseeable future).

The New England Patriots were victorious on the field Sunday afternoon, pulling out a 20-10 victory in a rather large AFC East showdown - a division that will now be a weekly four-way battle for first place. Unfortunately for New England, it was a rather costly victory as outside linebacker Adalius Thomas suffered a broken arm, as reported by ESPN's Michael Smith.

The injury is serious enough that, according to "a source," Thomas could miss the remainder of the season.

Linebacker Adalius Thomas, who has started all nine games for the Patriots and is tied for the team lead with five sacks, suffered a broken left forearm in the first half of the Patriots 20-10 win, according to sources. The sources believe the injury is likely season ending. "It's not good. He's probably done [for the season]," said one source.

The Patriots team that will be taking the field now is vastly different from the one that opened the season in Foxboro. Instead of relying on Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Laurence Maroney, and Adalius Thomas, the defending conference champions are now relying on Matt Cassel, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, and Brandon Meriweather, among others. And they're still winning.