FanHouse TedyBruschi

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.

With Tedy Bruschi aging rapidly, New England badly wanted to find a player that could split time with him at one of its inside linebacker spots next season. The Patriots thought they had found their man in South Florida's Tyrone McKenzie, whom they made the 97th-overall selection in April's draft.

McKenzie's going to have to wait until at least 2010 to make an impact, though, after suffering a torn ACL during last weekend's team minicamp. According to the Boston Globe, McKenzie got tangled up with a running back during a non-contact drill and went down in a heap.

I'm one of the 10 people in the world that has yet to make a purchase on eBay, mainly because I have no use for a potato chip that looks like Jesus (that's what people sell on eBay, right?). However, if I had an extra $50,000 burning a hole in pocket, I probably would have jumped at the chance to own a piece of NFL history, as a member of the Super Bowl XXXVI champion New England Patriots recently auctioned his ring on eBay. It received no bids.

According to USA Today's NFL blog, The Huddle, the ring belonged to a player who was on all three Super Bowl-winning Patriots teams.

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.

I mentioned this in passing yesterday, but it's sure to be something we hear more about as the season progresses, especially if the Patriots suddenly become ordinary: is Bill Belichick a heartless, calculating, big-brained ROBO-COACH, or just some dude who sold his soul for the chance to watch arguably the NFL's best quarterback do all the heavy lifting on the way to three Super Bowl titles?

Sports fans casually throw around the "genius" label, when in reality, such lofty titles should be reserved for guys like Richard Feynman or Bertrand Russell, or the creators of Frisky Dingo. It's seldom the case that grown men who make their livings running around in funny outfits -- or coach those who do -- should be classified as such.

Right or wrong, Belichick, the proud owner of three hugongous rings, is often referred to as a genius. But that could change in the time it takes Matt Cassel to remind us why his unofficial nickname is "Rusher McFumbles." In today's Boston Herald, Gerry Callahan made an observation that undoubtedly went over well with a fan base already on mass suicide watch:

The Patriots used the 10th-overall pick in April's draft to infuse some much-needed youth into the linebacker corps. Adalius Thomas, Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi are all 30-plus, and 39-year-old Junior Seau's NFL career could be coming to a close (we'll know more in August).

Despite almost a century's worth of experience among the three cited above, Bruschi, 35, tells the other Boston Herald beat reporter that although he contemplated retirement shortly after the Super Bowl, he's glad to be back for season No. 13:

"I just signed up for a two-year contract, so I'm looking forward to being around," Bruschi said. "It took me a couple of days (to decide). Do I still feel good? Yes. Do I still have the fire? Of course I do after that last game. So I still feel great. In the offseason program, the training, is my body responding? Yes it is.

Although Bruschi may have lost a step (or four), he's still invaluable because of his on-field presence, and perhaps more importantly, he can help Mayo make the difficult transition from college to the NFL.

Mayo, like most rookies, is having a tough time picking up the Pats' complex scheme:

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.

For all the talk about players leaving New England in droves, the over-30 set not only apparently love playing for Bill Belichick, but they refuse to retire. Ever. Linebacker Tedy Bruschi is coming back for at least one more season, and Junior Seau might do the same.

And Troy Brown, originally taken in the eighth round of the 1993 NFL draft -- 197 picks after Drew Bledsoe -- wants to return in 2008 too.

Troy Brown's playing days may not be over just yet. A source close to the veteran wide receiver said Brown hasn't made a decision about whether he'll try to return for a 16th season, and that an announcement is not expected soon.

"He feels great. He feels he can still play and still contribute," said the source. "Obviously, he would have liked to have played more than that one game he played. I don't think he's decided whether he's playing or not playing. A lot depends on what the Patriots do."

I suppose that's one way to prolong your career: play in one game a season. Brown was coming off knee surgery last off-season, missed all of training and was on the PUP list through Week 12. He saw action in the Dec. 23 win over the Dolphins where he returned six punts for 55 yards. The highlight (according to the Boston Globe's Chris Gasper, anyway): Brown, who turns 37 in July, misjudged a punt in that game and it hit off his facemask for a turnover.

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.