58-year old Bill Belichick has been named the NFL’s Coach of the Year for the third time (2003, 2007) in his tenure with New England.  Belichick somehow coaxed a 14-2 record out of a team with a very young defense that gave up a lot of yards.  He did so by playing a little more ball control than usual.  The season ended with a thud against the Jets in the playoffs but Belichick and his troops still had an outstanding year.  The Patriots are now 126-50 (71.6%) in Belichick’s first 11 years with the team during the regular season.  The Patriots are also 14-5 (73.7%) during the post-season in Belichick’s tenure.  The Patriots won the Super Bowl  in 2001, 2003 and 2004 under Belichick and they lost to the Giants in 2007 to finish the season with an 18-1 record.

33-year old QB Tom Brady has been named the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press.  Brady played in 16 games for the Patriots last season and he completed 324 of 492 passes (65.9%) for 3,900 yards with 36 TD passes and 4 INTs (111.0 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 31 times for 30 yards (1.0 ypc) with a TD run last season.  Brady finished last season with 11 straight regular season games without an interception, which is pretty amazing!  He also finished the season with 8 consecutive games in which he had a QB Rating of 100+.  Brady had a QB rating of 100+ 12 times in 2010 and the Patriots were 12-0 in those games!  Brady threw at least 2 TD passes in 9 consecutive games to end the 2010 season and he did it 12 times over the year.  Brady seems to keep getting better which is amazing, especially due to the fact that he never had a clear cut #1 WR in 2010.

UPDATE:  Tom Brady has also been named the MVP of the NFL.

33-year old QB Tom Brady is showing no signs of slowing down as he has been incredible this year.  Brady played in all 16 games for the Patriots and he completed 342 of 492 (65.9%) for 3,900 yards with 36 TD passes and 4 INTs (111.0 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 31 times for 30 yards (1.0 ypc) with 1 TD run.  Brady has now played in 145 games in his first 11 years with the Patriots and he completed 2,996 of 4,710 passes (63.6%) for 34,744 yards with 261 TD passes and 103 INTs (95.2 QB Rating).  Brady has also carried the ball 336 times for 607 yards (1.8 ypc) with 7 TD runs in his career.  He is on the way to the Hall of Fame five years after he retires.  The goal for Brady now is winning the Super Bowl.

25-year old Brian Hoyer was decent in limited playing time.  Hoyer played in 5 games for the Patriots this season and he completed 7 of 15 passes (46.7%) for 122 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 INT (69.3 QB Rating).  Hoyer also carried the ball 10 times for -8 yards (-0.8 ypc) this season.  Hoyer has now played in 10 games in his first two years with the Patriots and he has completed 26 of 42 passes (61.9%) for 264 yards with 1 TD pass and 1 INT (77.9 QB Rating).  Hoyer has also carried the ball 20 times for 17 yards (0.9 ypc) with 1 TD run so far in his career. 

VERDICT:  Tom Brady is still awesome.  The Patriots might draft a QB late in the draft next April to compete with Hoyer for the backup job in 2011 or maybe they won’t if they are comfortable with him.

The New York Jets probably already regret cutting 25-year old RB Danny Woodhead.  Woodhead has played in 13 games for the Patriots so far this year and he has carried the ball 95 times for 528 yards (5.6 ypc) with 5 TD runs.  He has also caught 34 passes for 379 yards (11.1 avg) with 1 TD grab so far this year.  The Jets thought Woodhead was too small at 5’8″, 195 pounds but they were wrong.  That’s because they didn’t measure his heart and toughness.  I looks like he has found a home in the NFL and the Patriots are happy to have him.

33-year old QB Tom Brady set another NFL record yesterday in Buffalo.  He has thrown 319 straight passes without an interception going back to week #6 to set a new record that stood since 1991.  Bernie Kosar threw 308 passes in a row without a pickoff during the 1990 + 1991 seasons with the Cleveland Browns.  Brady has thrown 24 TD passes and 0 INTs over the last 10 weeks of the year for the Patriots.  Brady has now played in 15 games for the Patriots so far this year and he has completed 314 of 476 passes (66%) for 3,701 yards with 34 TD passes and only 4 INTs (109.8 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 31 times for 30 yards (1.0 ypc) with 1 TD run so far this year.  Brady continues to amaze for the New England Patriots!

33-year old QB Tom Brady looks like he’s came from a different planet since the Patriots lost to the Cleveland Browns.  In the Patriots recent 4-game winning streak they have put up 160 points mostly to the play of Tom Brady.  In his last four games, Brady has completed 91 of 124 passes (73.4%) for 1,203 yards with 13 TD passes and 0 INTs!  He has now played in 12 games for the Patriots this year and he has completed 257 of 385 passes (66.8%) for 3,029 yards with 27 TD passes and only 4 INTs (109.5 QB Rating).  Brady has also carried the ball 28 times for 17 yards (0.6 ypc) with 1 TD run but in his defense a lot of those are kneel downs.  The Patriots now have the best record in the AFC as Brady has helped them overcome defensive deficiencies.

58-year old head coach Bill Belichick looked pretty upset when the Browns crushed his team 34-14 in Cleveland two weeks ago.  Instead of sulk, he got his team ready for the Steelers and they punished them all night long.  The Patriots are now 7-2 on the season which has them tied with the Jets atop of the AFC East.  The Patriots are now 119-50 (70.4%) during the regular season in Belichick’s 11 years with the team.  It’s quite amazing to watch Belichick work as he’s probably doing his best coaching job with the Patriots this year as he has them 7-2 despite giving up 390.8 yards per game.

23-year old rookie WR/KR Brandon Tate has really been solid in his second season for the Patriots.  He had a lost year as a rookie in 2009 when he played in 2 games without catching any passes.  He carried the ball 1 time for 11 yards in 2009 and he returned 4 kickoffs for 106 yards (26.5 avg).  But this year Tate it stepping up.  Tate has played in 5 games so far this year for the Patriots in which he has caught 11 passes for 135 yards (12.3 avg) and he has carried the ball 2 times for 27 yards (13.5 ypc).  Tate has also returned 19 kickoffs for 620 yards (32.6 avg) with 2 TD returns including one that went for 103 yards.  He also has returned 1 punt for 4 yards this year.  Tate has touched the ball 33 times for 786 total yards (157.2 total yards per game) which averages out to 23.8 yards every time he touches the football.  The Patriots hope he can stay healthy and productive the whole season.

I’m beginning to think that Tom Brady could pull five guys off the street to play TE and WR and win with them.  I don’t think losing Randy Moss will hurt Tom Brady’s performance one bit as he will just make a star out of someone like Brandon Tate.  Brady has completed 85 of 122 passes (69.7%) for 911 yards with 9 TD passes and 2 INTs (109.0 QB Rating) so far this year.  Brady is even more deadly now that the Patriots have a running game.  The Patriots are averaging 122.3 yards rushing per game and 4.3 yards per carry so teams can’t just put a lot of extra DBs in the game to deal with Brady and his receivers.

In his first two years with the Patriots, 25-year old running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis got a few scrap carries.  He played in 21 games in his first two years with the Patriots and he carried the ball 100 times for 389 yards (3.9 ypc) with 5 TD runs.  Green-Ellis also caught 5 passes for 48 yards (9.6 avg) in his first two years.  But, with injuries to Fred Taylor, Kevin Faulk and Laurence Maroney’s trade to Denver….playing time is opening up for Green-Ellis and he’s doing something with it.  BenJarvus Green-Ellis has carried the ball 31 times for 139 yards (4.5 ypc) with 1 TD carry and he has also caught 1 pass in three games this year for the Patriots.  It will be interesting to see how Green-Ellis handles his new role as the likely primary ballcarrier moving forward.