FanHouse Rosevelt Colvin

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).

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: In Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels, the Texans have two quarterbacks who could start in this QB starved league. Schaub needs to show he can hold up over a full season, and have better decision making in the red zone. Even so, he could end up having a breakout season assuming he and his supporting cast stay relatively healthy. Heat Index: 7

Running Backs: The Texans have been busy fixing so many other parts of their team that they have had little interest in drafting running back with a high pick. The running back group consists of Ahman Green (old and oft injured), Chris Brown (oft injured), Chris Taylor (inexperienced and coming off of injury), Darius Walker (inexperienced), Steve Slaton (3rd round pick rookie and more of a third down back). Coach Gary Kubiak won't want to have to rely on a young player because of concerns about blitz pickup. The best hope for this group is if offensive line guru Alex Gibbs shows some magic in his run blocking teaching that makes this group look good. Heat Index: 4

Unlike last off-season, when the Patriots were as active as any team in signing/trading for big-name players, this spring has been relatively slow. Cornerback Asante Samuel (signed with the Eagles), and linebackers Rosevelt Colvin (injured his foot) and Junior Seau (turned to dust) are gone, and New England's biggest needs are on defense.

And while there's not much left to sift through in the free-agency grab bag, that doesn't mean Bill Belichick is done looking. Linebackers Takeo Spikes and Victor Hobson are still available, and Adam Seward's also a possibility. At this point, it's hardly surprising the Patriots would be interested in aged linebackers. Every year detractors point to the position as one of the defense's major weaknesses, and every year New England still manages to win at least 12 games.

The point: you can win without having the best group of linebackers in the league. Same holds for the secondary too. And Belichick understands as much.

With each pick of the FanHouse mock draft, we get into the head of an NFL general manager and let you know who he'll pick and why.

Thanks to some 2007 draft-day wheeling and dealing, the Patriots have the seventh-overall pick in 2008. The most glaring needs on the roster reside on the defensive side of the ball, specifically in the secondary (which is why the team, in typically unpredictable fashion, could look to fill any number of positions).

Asante Samuel, one of the top-5 cornerbacks in the NFL, signed with the Eagles early in free agency, and backup Randall Gay is now with the Saints. New England has signed four warm bodies but are without a legitimate big-play cornerback. Which is why it seems logical that they would take Leodis McKelvin or Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.

Except that the Patriots also have concerns at linebacker. In FanHouse's mock draft, if the Jets hadn't selected Vernon Gholston with the sixth pick, he'd be coming to New England. Even with Gholston off the board, the Patriots could still take a linebacker, and one that's more versatile than Gholston.

USC's Keith Rivers can play either inside or outside linebacker, and with Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel on the downside of solid careers, and Rosevelt Colvin no longer with the team, New England could use an athletic playmaker. And more than the athleticism, Rivers offers flexibility, something head coach Bill Belichick values.

The cynical observer might think the Patriots are at the end of their salary-cap-era dynasty, a run that started with their improbable 2001 Super Bowl victory over the Rams. With Asante Samuel now in Philly, Junior Seau and Tedy Bruschi at the end of their careers (even though both might be back in '08), Rosie Colvin released, Randy Moss's future with the organization up in the air, and the circus that has become Patriotgate, it's only natural to conclude that next season will be very different than last.

In theory, maybe, but Bill Belichick has an annoying habit of fielding competitive teams, even if the talent might suggest otherwise. Whatever, 2008 could be his biggest challenge. While we wait for the Moss situation to resolve itself, the Boston Globe is reporting that New England is going about the business of replacing Samuel.

The obvious choice is backup Randall Gay, but he too could sign elsewhere. Gay isn't a game-changer like Samuel, but he's been a solid contributor during his four-year career. And if the Pats don't re-sign him, their secondary goes from not bad to very, very bad in the span of a few weeks.

Enter candidate No. 1, Jason Webster.

Usually, losing a dominating rush linebacker would be a concern for a team preparing for the postseason. But we're talking about the New England Patriots, an outfit that somehow managed to win its first seven games without the services of one of the league's best defensive linemen, Richard Seymour.

Whatever, Rosevelt Colvin has been placed on injured reserve, which means he's done for 2007. Colvin left Sunday night's game against the Eagles with a foot injury and never returned. Unlike the defensive line, though, the Patriots will have to do some rearranging to compensate for Colvin's absence:

Colvin's injury figures to have a significant trickle-down effect on the linebacking corps. At outside linebacker in the 3-4 alignment opposite Mike Vrabel, Colvin was responsible for rushing the passer and setting a sturdy edge to limit running plays from getting to the outside. After he was hurt, the Patriots moved Adalius Thomas from inside to outside linebacker, and inserted Junior Seau next to Tedy Bruschi inside.

As the Boston Globe's Mike Reiss notes, Seau is 38 and Bruschi is 34, and it's not clear if either is a full-time player at this stage in their careers. Chad Brown was re-signed to replace Colvin and he, along with Pierre Woods and Eric Alexander, could also figure in the mix.

Or now that Troy Brown has been named to the 53-man roster, maybe he'll see some time too. At this point, it wouldn't surprise me.

Joseph Addai might not be afraid of the New England Patriots, but he forgot to tell Peyton Manning the news. On a third-and-9 with just over two minutes to go, and trailing by four points, Manning gets sacked by Jarvis Green, fumbles in the process, and the ball finds Rosevelt Colvin.



The Pats scored 14 points in the final eight minutes to take the lead. Before this game, New England had only trailed eight minutes all season. Today, they trailed for 28 minutes. Unfortunately for the Colts, they still left Tom Brady enough time to work his magic.

Also, classy move by Colvin after the fumble recovery (the last few seconds of the YouTubage above). He was called for a delay-of-game penalty for spiking the ball. No biggie ... except he went out of his way to make sure he spiked the ball on Indy's helmet at midfield.

Nice touch, that (and to think, Rosie Colvin sold Sno Cones at the RCA dome as a kid). It looks like this bunch learned a very valuable lesson after Ellis Hobbs mocked the Chargers following last year's playoff game. (By the way, Mr. Referee, Rodney Harrison is very disrespected by you flagging him for the delay of game. VERY DISRESPECTED.)