Last season the Patriots went 11-5-0 and finished in second in the AFC East, missing the playoffs.

Offense: In the first quarter of Week One, Tom Brady went down with a season ending knee injury that forced seventh round pick Matt Cassel into the starting lineup. Cassel had not started a game since his senior year of high school and now was the starting quarterback of the defending AFC Champions that went undefeated in the regular season last year. Even without Brady, the Patriots still finished in the top ten in total yards, rushing yards, and points scored last season and finished in 12th in passing yards. Now Brady is back and the Patriots have added some weapons around him including running back Fred Taylor and tight end Alex Smith was acquired from Tampa Bay.

Defense: The heart and soul of the Patriots defense, safety Rodney Harrison, retired this summer. New England used their first pick in the NFL Draft on safety Patrick Chung from Oregon to battle for the vacant safety position. The Patriots also added two new cornerbacks to the roster in former Detroit Lion Leigh Bodden and former Washington Redskin Shawn Springs. Bodden is expected to start along side second year corner Jonathan Wilhite but Springs could push either player for a starting spot or be used as a nickel back.

Star Power: Fred Taylor signed with the Patriots after 11 seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Taylor has rushed for over 11,000 yards so far in his career and should add some depth to the running back position. Starter Laurence Maroney only played in three games last season, and back up Sammy Morris missed three games as well. Taylor has appeared in all 16 games only twice in his career, but the four headed monster of Taylor, Maroney, Morris and Kevin Faulk will give the Patriots a solid running attack no matter who is in the lineup.

Biggest Addition: Cornerback Leigh Bodden was not in his element in Detroit and his production suffered because of it. Bodden was not meant to be playing in a Tampa 2 defense, he is more of a jamming at the line type cornerback. Due to this Bodden had only one interception last season and seemed overmatched playing against any wide receiver. Coming to the Patriots who have a solid front seven and great players in the secondary already will help Bodden recover from a down season in Detroit.

Biggest Loss: The Patriots had to do something with quarterback Matt Cassel. They chose to give him the franchise tag and were going to have almost $25 million in cap space to Cassel and Tom Brady so one of them had to go. Cassel was a little known backup before the season started so trading him over Brady was an easy decision, but it leaves the Patriots without a solid quarterback behind Tom Brady in case something does happen again to him this season. Cassel the player will be missed, but for the salary they would have had to pay he had to go.

Biggest Game: Sunday November 15th on Sunday Night Football the Patriots head to Indianapolis to face the Colts. Anytime Peyton Manning and Tom Brady play against one another it is always a high scoring game and this one should be no different. This game is also squeezed between home games with division rivals Miami and the New York Jets so this should be a tough stretch for the Patriots.