Pats' offense will be hard to stop with new WR depth

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FOXBORO, Mass. -- We interrupt this offseason to bring you football. Real, live football from the practice fields of the New England Patriots.

Tom Brady's sending Randy Moss in motion in one direction and Wes Welker the other way and calling signals -- "White! Twenty! White-twenty!! setHUT!!!'' -- and suddenly a group of wretched scribes begin to see what all the March and April fuss was about. And after Pacman Jones, Tank Johnson, the pit bull stuff and the overdone coverage of the draft, I have to say it felt pretty good to be watching the real thing on a chilly morning out on real grass.

It's obvious the Patriots have a lot of options in the passing game now, and they put them on display in the final mini-camp last week. There were the usual formations (Moss and Donte' Stallworth split wide, Welker in the slot, Ben Watson in the formation at tight end), but there were some interesting ones too, including Moss in the slot, running underneath. On one play, Brady could choose from Stallworth doing a 12-yard in-cut, Moss (from the slot) doing a short curl, Jabar Gaffney running a deep out (from the right slot), and Welker motioning from the slot, running a post. You'd think Moss would be running the deep post, not Welker, and you'd think Welker would be running the short curl, not Moss.

"I think we're going to be really versatile,'' Brady said. "I think this is a group of guys who can be different and do different things and who I think are going to fit in because they're unselfish. That's what we've developed here. Ask Troy Brown what his favorite season was, and he won't answer, 'It's when I caught 101 balls.' He'll say, 'It's when we won our Super Bowls.'"

I'd like to have asked Troy Brown that, but he wasn't in Pats-land last week. He may never be again -- though I'm guessing if he signs (which is no lock), he'll make the team somehow, some way. But he's 36 and coming off knee surgery, so his path to the roster is pockmarked because of the new receiver depth. I haven't even mentioned a decent fourth or fifth guy, Kelley Washington, signed as a free agent from Cincinnati. He might not even make the team.

Early thoughts on the Patriots:

1. There is no question that, if he stays healthy, Laurence Maroney is going to be one of the 10 biggest offensive forces in the NFL this year. Think when the Pats use a formation with Stallworth and Moss as bookend wideouts, with Welker in the slot and Watson at tight end. Let's say you're in the nickel, and your strong safety comes down for Watson. Let's say you hand Stallworth to your second corner (risky in itself) and man-cover Welker with your third corner. That leaves Moss with a corner, maybe trying to bump him, with a safety over the top. That's five defenders accounting for four receivers. So that leaves six in the box to account for the shifty and powerful Maroney. With one caveat: Maroney's right shoulder, a source of concern early in the offseason with the ultra-secretive Patriots, still seems to bother him. He favored the right arm in practice last week, seven weeks from the start of training camp.

2. I wrote about Moss in Sports Illustrated this week, and I came away from here thinking it's going to work -- so long as he stays healthy and Brady gives him enough chances to score touchdowns. Those are big ifs, but not monumental ones. I asked Rodney Harrison if he thought Moss was still Moss. "Are you kidding me, Peter?'' he said. "Are you kidding me? He runs the same as I've seen him. You watch him this year. Watch any team that tries to put its best cornerback on him one-on-one. I can't wait to see that. He will eat you alive. Ain't no way he's lost his legs.''