The New England Patriots are currently the best team in the country. At least, that’s what the experts would have us believe at this point, without the season having begun. But a lot of the players on the team have been here before and know the system. We saw them play surprisingly well without their major force of action, Tom Brady, last year. Now you know that the Patriots hadn’t had all that many great teams beforehand. The 1985 Patriots made it into the Super Bowl against the Chicago Bears, but they weren’t an amazing team. They happened to take out the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship. Expect the 2009 version to be even better, because they have a great QB and a lot of talented players.

With the 2009 season bearing down on us, we can have a lot of interesting things to say about the New England team. There have been a lot of big changes. With Cassel gone, it all falls on Brady to lead this team back to the championship. This will probably not be such a big problem. There were some other players that got dropped to other teams and it will remain interesting on into the future. There were some changes on the coaching squad as well. Defensive coordinator McDaniels is gone and is the coach of the Broncos now. There were three other major coaching and assistant changes, which leaves the team feeling a little shorthanded, but once the team gets used to it, everything will be better.

There is a discussion going on with some people right now that Michael Vick might fit well in the New England Patriots world. Is that true? I mean, to have another good QB wouldn’t hurt. I don’t know too much about the atmosphere of the locker room and whether a man who was so controversial would be so good with the other players. Then again, it would be a good fit for him, if not for the team, because he would be able to shift back into an offensive system and work with good players again. It might be a good way to get him back into the NFL in a positive way, without being the automatic headliner of any particular team. It seems less likely that he would be taken on by the Pats, but it’s a rather good thought.

Admittedly, there is altogether too much discussion of Tom Brady when we talk about the New England Patriots. Why is this? It’s because he has a drama and an excitement that most people can’t match on the team. Randy Moss sometimes comes close, but he’s become less dramatic over the last several years too. He just predicts things to make headlines. But Tom Brady is back in the news today, because his wife, Gisele Bundchen, is pregnant. There were rumors that this might be happening, because she was seen leaving an OB’s office earlier this year, but now it is official. This might work out to match up with the Super Bowl that Brady is hoping to win this year, when he rejoins the team. Congrats to the both of them and we hope for the very best with the new baby!

The Patriots are the hands-down favorites in the NFL this year, according to many of the experts and commentators around the country. They seem to think that Brady is going to be back and just as good as ever. They say that the changes in the coaching staff and in the offensive and defensive lines will not make the team any weaker than before. It will be a few weeks into the season before we see if these things turn out to be true or not. It might well be that all the players that are coming back find a way to get in. There isn’t a lot of talk about them having an undefeated regular season like they did a couple years ago, but I’d take it. You know, don’t leave it to chance.

Patrick Pass is returning to the Patriots after a two year football hiatus. The running back was one of the lesser-known members of the team during the beginning of the glory years and is one of only 7 players who has been with the team at all of their 3 Super Bowl wins. Before the 2006-7 season, he was cut by the Patriots and went to Houston. He wasn’t really ready to do it and ended up taking some time out of the league to deal with personal issues and also got his weight back down to the level that you need to as an RB. He will be working hard to get himself up in the ranks of the Patriots and I personally think it will be great to see him back in the grey and blue!

The New York Jets say that they’re not afraid of the Pats this year. They had a rough end to the season last December and they will have to make sure that they have the personnel that they need to get the job done. The Jets have a talented coach and a good defense. But the Patriots are perhaps the best team in that division at the moment. Even though the Jets are working their way to the top of the East, they are having trouble getting their offense up to real competitive status in this side. With Brady coming back, it seems very tough to imagine that New England will be weaker than New York this season. It’s going to be a good season because these two teams always play exciting games, even if they are mismatched on paper.

When Rodney Harrison retired, it’s possible that no one was completely certain about how much of a hole he would leave in the Patriots defense. The problem is that he had such a lot of energy and pushed the other team’s offense so hard. It’s always fun to see what the defense will do and we’re hoping that they will be able to get someone with a similar intensity and a lot of excitement. Without Harrison and Mike Vrabel, it seems like the defense might have some trouble. But this team seems to have an ability to get players into the needed positions who fit just perfectly. They also get people in who seem to be past their best years and end up in just the right place. So they will have someone in his position, perhaps without 30 sacks, but someone capable anyway.

The Patriots have decided who their punter is going to be for next season. It’s not a huge surprise anyhow. Chris Hanson, the punter for the last few seasons, is going to remain in that kicking spot again this year. Aaron Perez was signed by the Pats at the beginning of May and then released this weekend. Another potential punter was also released earlier this offseason. Hanson has been reliable at punter, though not as strong as some of the other kickers in the league, he has been able to sometimes pin the opponents deep in their territory. They seem to be banking on the probability that the offense is going to be a very strong one that will have a low need for punting along the way.