FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Bill Belichick won’t stop tinkering.
Judging by all of his offseason roster jiggering, you would think the Patriots boss was trying to rebuild a 4-12 disaster instead of a team coming off a Super Bowl trip that still sports a healthy Tom Brady and the most fearsome combination of pass-catching tight ends in NFL history.
When he wasn’t adding what seemed like every tight end that has ever put on a uniform (including former Giant Jake Ballard) or adding an Olympic sprinter (Jeff Demps), Belichick was juggling his backfield, receivers and offensive line while trying — yet again — to overhaul his defense.
But, as usual, there wasn’t a whiff of panic — or hangover from last February’s Super Bowl loss to the Giants — at the Patriots camp, even as their coach was making the locker-room entrance here seem more like a turnstile.
“I honestly don’t think about last year much,” Brady said last week. “This is a whole different team, and we’re in a different situation. All of us have pretty much moved on from last year.”
Belichick was the obvious exception, and the Patriots will look a lot different in a lot of places than they did in 2011.
The backfield will have a new starter after Benjarvus Green-Ellis’ free-agency departure, Brandon Lloyd was brought in to add explosiveness to a pedestrian crew of wideouts, the offensive line has been reconfigured and the team’s first two picks were spent on defenders (Syracuse end Chandler Jones and Alabama linebacker Dont’a Hightower) New England hopes can make what statistically has been a bottom-feeding unit less reliant on turnovers.
“We just try to go out and work hard and get better every day,” Belichick said in a monotone that would double as an insomnia cure. “We know that there are a lot of other great organizations and teams and players and coaches out there.”
Fortunately for Belichick, and unfortunately for the Jets and the rest of the AFC East, the Patriots still have a significant number of great players on their own roster.
The best, of course, is Brady, who shows no sign of slowing down at age 35 coming off a season in which he threw for a career-high 5,235 yards while tossing 39 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. Not only that, but Brady’s TD-interception ratio the past two years is a combined 75-16.
And Brady will have tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez and slot receiver Wes Welker as targets once again, giving the Patriots a package that — if all of its members can stay healthy — will have to make them strong favorites to repeat as AFC champions.
Then again, staying healthy could be a problem with an offensive line that lost stalwart Matt Light to retirement and has struggled with injuries all summer. Belichick was so concerned about his line, Brady played 19 snaps in the Patriots’ exhibition opener — a shocking number at his age.
But as long as the Patriots have Brady, they know they still have hope.
A lot of it.
“What can you say?” Lloyd exclaimed. “He’s the best quarterback in the world.”