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Is this too much for Bill Belichick to handle?

That was the first question that came to mind after digesting today's news that the Patriots won't name a defensive coordinator in 2010, that the defensive staff is set, and that Belichick himself plans to be more involved with the defense.

"This is the best course for us to move forward in 2010," Belichick said.

Belichick already has a lot on his plate as a head coach, such as meeting with quarterback Tom Brady every Tuesday, or spending one on one time with running back Laurence Maroney breaking down each of his runs. Putting more on his already crowded weekly calendar seems like a risk, especially when the Patriots already have one of the smallest coaching staffs in the NFL.

While no official defensive coordinator has been named, it doesn't mean those responsibilities disappear. So the next domino to fall -- and what surely will be one of the first questions asked to Belichick -- is who will be the coach standing in front of the defense when it meets each day?

Clearly defining that chain of command will be important for players so there are no mixed messages.

As for the offense, where there is also no coordinator, Belichick's comments today were decisive in one regard -- quarterbacks coach Bill O'Brien is the leader of that part of the staff, title or not.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick does not plan to name a defensive coordinator in 2010 and instead will be more involved on defense to share the workload with his assistants, according to the team's official website.

"Titles are fine, nothing wrong with them,” Belichick said on Patriots.com, “but the most important thing is each person’s role, that we do everything we can to help the players succeed – everyone collectively getting the job done."

The Patriots and Dean Pees, who served as defensive coordinator the last four seasons, parted ways in January.

The Patriots have since hired former Patriot Corwin Brown to work with the defense. Brown will coach defensive backs along with last year's defensive backs coach, Josh Boyer. The rest of the defensive staff has remained intact.

“Corwin Brown is one of the high-class people in football," Belichick said on Patriots.com. "He was a tough, smart leader who was great to coach and those are the traits he brings to our staff. He has stepped in well with Josh Boyer, [linebackers coach] Matt Patricia, [defensive line coach] Pepper Johnson, [coaching assistant] Pat Graham and myself, and as a group we are committed to putting a competitive defense on the field. This is the best course for us to move forward in 2010.”

While there will be no official coordinator, some of those duties will still have to be split up among the defensive coaches. So that remains an important aspect to consider going forward.

On the other side of the ball, every offensive coach except for Shane Waldron (tight ends) is returning. The Patriots have yet to name a new tight ends coach at this time.

Also, the Patriots have not named an offensive coordinator at this point. If they do in the future, it would almost certainly be quarterbacks coach Bill O'Brien, who handled much of the play-calling duties in 2009 when the team went without an official coordinator. Belichick's comments today clearly positioned O'Brien as the leader of the offensive staff.

“Bill O’Brien has demonstrated excellent leadership and organizational skills in our offense,” Belichick said on Patriots.com. “He is a sharp and passionate coach."

The rest of the offensive staff for 2010 will include assistant head coach/offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, running backs coach Ivan Fears, receivers coach Chad O'Shea and coaching assistant Brian Ferentz. It is possible that Ferentz could be promoted to tight ends coach.

"It is a good mix on that side of the ball, with Bill working with some extremely experienced coaches in Dante Scarnecchia and Ivan Fears, who have been here my entire time in New England, and some more recent additions to the staff in Chad O’Shea and Brian Ferentz," Belichick said on Patriots.com.

Special teams coach Scott O'Brien and coaching assistant Brian Flores also return.

Linebacker Eric Alexander may not be a household name to Patriots fans, but he’s been with the team in a reserve role since 2004. Because of his history with the team, Alexander has more experiences to recount when the question is asked: “What happened to the 2009 New England Patriots?

Like others, Alexander pointed to a lack of a leadership on defense.

Alexander was asked the question while visiting Radio Row at Super Bowl XLIV, where he stopped by to chat with Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti of Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub.

“I think when you lose guys like Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel, you lose a lot of years of leadership, a lot of years of guys who have been there and done everything you can possibly do in this game,” Alexander told Felger and Massarotti. “So I think we were lacking a bit leadership-wise on the defense.”

Alexander was asked how that lack of leadership affected the team on the field.

“There is going to come a point in every game where a team is faced with adversity, and I think in the past, the way we’ve been able to handle that adversity has put us at the top of this league,” Alexander responded.

“I don’t think this year was much different than any other year, except we didn’t handle adversity. When that fourth quarter came, when they were a few points away, or when they were in the red zone about to score, we couldn’t [answer] the bell. I think in past years we’ve been able to do that with ease. We've been able to play with the lead. We've been able to come from behind. We've been able to score when we've needed to score. Or stop a team when we needed to stop them. We just couldn't do that this year."

Patriots owner Robert Kraft is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida today and is in attendance for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's annual Super Bowl press conference. Kraft is heavily involved in league issues and Goodell's press conference, which began at 11:30 a.m., comes at an important time in the history of labor relations in the NFL.

With owners and players currently far apart in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement, talk is heating up about a possible lockout in 2011.

Kraft is considered one of the NFL's "power brokers" among owners and thus figures to be involved, from a league perspective, in how things unfold in the months to come.

As each day is checked off the NFL calendar, it looks more and more like Bill Belichick won't make any major additions to the Patriots coaching staff at top-level positions.

Most other teams with openings have already filled them.

A sampling of some, not all, of the recent coaching movement in top-level positions: Miami pounced on Mike Nolan as its defensive coordinator. Buffalo named George Edwards its defensive coordinator. Chicago hired Mike Martz as its offensive coordinator. The New York Giants hired Perry Fewell as defensive coordinator. Denver promoted Don Martindale to defensive coordinator. Philadelphia added former Bills head coach Dick Jauron as a senior assistant/defensive backs coach.

Meanwhile, all has been quiet in Foxboro.

The lack of a big announcement can be looked at in two different ways: 1) Belichick still hasn't found his man; 2) Belichick has decided to stay in-house and because he isn't big on titles, he might feel there is nothing to say at this time.

The feeling here is that No. 2 best explains what is happening. At this point, my opinion is that it would be a surprise if there will be a major announcement of a staff addition.

The Patriots have a vacancy at tight ends coach, and no official offensive or defensive coordinators. Yet in terms of total coaches on staff, they currently have one fewer than they did in 2009.

Projecting where this situation heads, there are a few thoughts that come to mind:

1) Belichick could treat the defensive coordinator vacancy like he has the offensive coordinator spot in recent years, and not name one. The key in that scenario, then, would be clearly delegating responsibilities on staff so there is no confusion or mixed message on who is running the show.

2) The Patriots went through the 2009 season without an official offensive coordinator, although quarterbacks coach Bill O'Brien had most of those responsibilities. If this follows a similar path as Josh McDaniels' rise from 2005 to 2006, O'Brien is the most likely candidate to land that title in 2010.

3) The tight ends coach, who will be the third in three years at that spot, is likely to come from within. Because that role is tied to the running game, someone with a background in blocking schemes is an ideal fit, which might give coaching assistant Brian Ferentz the inside track.

At the end of the day, if this is the direction things head, the question will be "Is this good enough?"

There was plenty of media-driven chatter at the end of the season about introducing new ideas and outside perspectives to the staff. One line of thinking is that those new ideas can be implemented by studying other teams and adopting schemes studied on film. A different line of thinking is that it helps to hire a coach from a different program to implement some of those ideas, because that coach will have the most intimate knowledge of how those ideas are adopted.

It looks more and more like the Patriots are going the in-house route.

Every Thursday on ESPNBoston.com, there is a Patriots chat in the noontime hour. This week's chat can be recapped here and includes some of the following topics:

1. Thoughts on the possible usage of the transition tag in free agency.

2. Highlighting one weakness of the 2009 Patriots -- kickoff returns.

3. Will the Patriots add a veteran quarterback this offseason?

4. Coaching staff changes and if it will be good enough to stay in-house.

5. Looking at the Patriots drafts from 2005-2008.

Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas said Thursday that his falling out with head coach Bill Belichick started after the first week of the 2009 season.

“After the Buffalo game, the first game of the year, something happened and I was like ‘I really don’t understand this,’" Thomas said on the "Felger and Massarotti Show" on Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub while visiting Radio Row at Super Bowl XLIV.

“I really don’t want to go into it, because I still don’t understand it. I had a meeting and I just really didn’t understand some of the stuff I was being told. So I knew at that point it was bigger than what was on the surface. It was something bigger than that. You guys watch the games. I was used totally differently this year than I was last year before I broke my arm. Even before I came back, I was told that I was going to be used differently.”

Thomas was pitching a marinade at the Super Bowl, but during this interview he was mostly grilled about where things went wrong in New England.

Asked more about the meeting after the Bills game, Thomas said it wasn’t about a specific play but more his overall performance and “whether or not it was sufficient.”

“It’s the first game back and the way some stuff went down, I just really didn’t understand it,” he said. “It was a confusing meeting to me. I understood some of it, but a lot of it was just confusing and it even got more confusing as the year went on.”

Thomas, who is scheduled to earn $4.9 million in 2010, said he is not sure where he will playing next season. Asked if he wants to come back to the Patriots, he responded: “I want to come somewhere where I’m wanted and where I’m going to have fun. That’s where I want to be.”

He couldn’t say he didn’t feel wanted in New England, but said, “I definitely didn’t have fun. It was definitely a frustrating year as far as that goes.”

Thomas called his three years in New England a "roller coaster", and this year was a low point that included him being a healthy scratch for a game against the Tennessee Titans and being sent home with three others for showing up late for an early December morning meeting in snowy, icy conditions. He called the situation this year "mind-boggling."

One theme that came up a few times in the interview -- and seemed to be at the root of Thomas' frustration -- was Thomas pointing out that the coaches critiquing his play weren’t on the field themselves. It sounded like Thomas felt that he was being overcoached.

“The way they coach things and do things may be totally different than how I see it,” he said. “There is a checks-and-balance system that really is not going to marry up because regardless of what you see as a player on that play, it really doesn’t matter if someone else sees it differently. Unless you’re on the field, there are a million things going on at one time. So when you see something and you go, you don’t have time to sit back and think or whatever.

“Monday through Saturday is for coaches. Sunday has to be for the player. You do adjustments and everything like that, which is great, but at the same time you can’t coach every single thing during the game. It’s just impossible to do because there are so many things going on. A player can’t tell you every single thing that happens in front of him because it happens so fast and there is the next play. You’re trying to go to the sidelines trying to recap everything and it’s kind of hard to do that.”

(The full interview can be heard here.)

Following up on Canadian Football League pass rusher Ricky Foley:

After workouts with the Jets on Tuesday and the Rams on Wednesday, Foley was re-routed and worked out for the Eagles today. No deal is imminent at this point and Foley is expected to visit a few other teams next week.

As for where this leaves the Patriots, it is unclear.

Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly has put together his first mock draft and while many draftniks have the Patriots picking a defender with their first-round choice, he goes against the grain by tabbing Notre Dame receiver Golden Tate.

"Losing No. 3 WR Jabar Gaffney affected the Patriots' offense more than expected, and Tate would have an accelerated learning curve, coming from Charlie Weis' offense," Nawrocki writes.

The Pro Football Weekly mock draft places a higher premium on matching the value of talent to the approximate range at this point in time, as team needs are still coming into focus.

ANALYSIS: Randy Moss returns in 2010 and Julian Edelman projects to fill in until Wes Welker returns. How highly the Patriots rate the need for a receiver could also tie into Brandon Tate's rehab. A 2009 third-round draft choice, Tate would probably be third on the non-Welker depth chart at this time, assuming he is healthy from last season's knee injury. The Patriots will likely be targeting a receiver this offseason -- in the draft or free agency -- especially considering that Moss is in the final year of his contract. The first round might be a bit rich for receiver, but if they feel like Golden Tate could be a future No. 1 -- and defensive needs could be addressed later in the draft or free agency -- it isn't a far-fetched thought. The Patriots, for what it's worth, have not selected a receiver in the first round under Bill Belichick.

In catching up with Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski for a piece on playoff pressure and the struggles of kickers in this year's postseason, one leftover question from the 2009 season was his performance on touchbacks.

Gostkowski finished with 21 touchbacks, tying for sixth in the NFL. He had been near the league lead until December and January, but he totaled just two over the final five games.

“Once it gets below 40 degrees, touchbacks are pretty much impossible to get as hard as that ball gets and with the wind," Gostkowski said. "You're not going to get any touchbacks in Buffalo on a day like that [in December], but one thing I'd say is that I don't try to kick touchbacks. I pride myself on getting good hang time and giving my guys a chance to get down there and I feel like my hang time has gotten better each year.

"Touchbacks are kind of like home runs -- if you're trying to hit them, you're not going to. You just want to swing easy and make good contact, then they happen. As a kicker, you realize how your teammates appreciate touchbacks when they're running down there, busting up the wedge and getting yelled at when we cross the 30. When you can have [21] opportunities to save us from possibly giving up a long play, that's something I take a lot of pride in. I want to be a quality kicker and a quality kickoff guy."

Every Thursday on ESPNBoston.com, there is a Patriots chat in the noontime hour. Some of the main topics at this time of year are coaching decisions, free-agent chatter, and scouting draft prospects.

Questions can be submitted in advance.

When Patriots players listened to Bill Belichick in their final team meeting Jan. 11, one of the things he said was that those with expiring contracts could expect a call from the team in early February.

That process has begun. Patriots senior football advisor Floyd Reese, the point man for negotiations who returns for a second season with the club, has started working the phones this week.

Here is a list of players scheduled for unrestricted free agency and a quick-hit thought on their situation:

Tully Banta-Cain -- All things being equal, the outside linebacker/nickel rusher should be back. This is a case where the fit between team and player is a good one.

Leigh Bodden -- Eight-year veteran would be open to a return with a long-term contract, and after a season in which he was the team's most consistent cornerback, it would seem that the interest is mutual.

Derrick Burgess -- Veteran nickel rusher could return based on the uncertainty at the position, but it's hard to imagine the team extending itself too far to do so.

Kevin Faulk -- Running back's agent said that it his intention to return to the Patriots. The interest would appear to be mutual.

Jarvis Green -- Defensive lineman plans to test the free-agent market. The Patriots will likely stay in contact with him through the process, but it wouldn't be surprising if both sides move on.

Chris Hanson -- Punter the last three seasons is at the point of his career where if he returns it would be on a modest one-year deal.

Stephen Neal -- Starting right guard said after the team's playoff loss that he was considering retirement. With young interior linemen coming up the pipeline, it looks like both sides could move on.

Benjamin Watson -- Tight end has hired agent Drew Rosenhaus and the signs point to him at least wanting to explore the open market, which is often an indication that a player won't be back.

Vince Wilfork -- The sides could take one more stab at a long-term extension this month. The next domino to fall will be from Feb. 11-25 when teams can place the franchise tag on players, which is a certainty if an extension can't be reached.

ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen touched on Patriots receiver Wes Welker during today's "NFL Live" show, looking into his football crystal ball to project when Welker might return to the field again.

"It's normally about a 9-12 month recovery," Mortensen said on the set with host Trey Wingo. "Nine months puts you one month into the 2010 season, so I think that's probably realistically what you are looking at. But everybody is different. They do have Julian Edelman to hold them over until Wes comes back, and they do think he'll be back this year."

Each week leading up to April’s NFL Draft, New England native Steve Muench of ESPN’s Scouts Inc. will identify a few prospects he feels could be a good fit for the Patriots.

Today, the focus is on the No. 2 receiver spot and the prospects are Dezmon Briscoe (Kansas) and Riley Cooper (Florida).

“I think they are both tailor-made for the No. 2 spot. Briscoe is a little more of an athlete than Cooper and that’s why he could be a late first-round, early second-round guy. So he’d be someone that if the Patriots were targeting, they would probably trade back and get with their first-round pick or they’d run the risk that he might not be there once they pick again in the second round. Cooper had a really good Senior Bowl and he’s probably more in the late second-round, early third-round range.

“One of the things I like when looking at these two is how they could complement what the Patriots already have. Neither of them will stretch the field like Randy Moss, and they also aren’t explosive slot receivers. But they are both strong, catch the ball well, and are good enough route runners and physical enough in one-on-one situations that they will make you pay if left in one-on-one situations consistently.

“So if defenses take away Moss and [Wes] Welker, they can post defenders up, using their frame to shield defenders, and could develop into good route runners. They could be the missing piece to the passing game.”

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said Tuesday that a contract extension for quarterback Peyton Manning is “going to get done” and also noted that he will "watch closely" how the Patriots’ negotiations go with Tom Brady on an extension.

Both Manning and Brady enter the final year of their contracts, and Irsay said Manning’s deal will “be the biggest [contract] in history; there's not much doubt about that.”

With Irsay’s comments as the jumping-off point, the question was asked to ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski this morning on SportsCenter: Who should be the highest-paid quarterback – Manning or Brady?

“Me personally, I’m about the jewelry,” Jaworski said. “And the jewelry that Tom Brady has is three World Championship rings on his finger. Peyton Manning has one. He has a chance to get two. When all is said and done, maybe he’ll have more than that. But right now, I think the jewelry [says] Tom Brady should be the highest-paid guy in the National Football League.”

ANALYSIS: Whether Brady winds up as the highest paid player or not, he figures to at least be in the top five with his next contract. Quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Eli Manning currently have two of the richest deals at the position, in the $15-16 million per season range. That is the neighborhood that Brady will almost certainly find himself and it’s why his contract figures to be one of the Patriots’ top priorities as they go through the team-building process this offseason. Brady is scheduled to earn $3.5 million in 2010 with another $3 milion in bonuses.