Monday's New England Patriots Links 9/5

As we ease into the first week, here are this morning's headlines:

Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald writes that obviously Bill Belichick must have a plan in place now that Brandon Meriweather is no longer a Patriot.

Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston points out some interesting numbers showing Meriweather's decline on the field over the past couple of seasons.

Nick Underhill of MassLive.com also looks at the safety position, and wonders if Patrick Chung is ready for the starring role for New England.

Adam Oestmann of the Chicago Tribune wonders if Meriweather is going to be a long-term replacement for Chris Harris.

Guregian also has a good article on the newly acquired Brian Waters, and quotes former Kansas City Chiefs coach Herm Edwards, who feel he's a good, physical player and will do a good job protecting Tom Brady.

"If you're talking about a physical player, he is a physical player. No doubt about that," said Edwards, who coached Waters from 2006 through 2008. "And he'll like that offense. Obviously, they need help inside. You can't let a team like Detroit come up the middle and bother (Tom) Brady. One thing about Brady, he's very good at stepping up in the pocket. Against Detroit, they were coming inside. He had no chance to step up."

Monique Walker also has an article on Waters, including details of his contract - which is reportedly worth $5.5 million over two years.

Monique Walker of the Boston Globe has an interesting article on the amount of effort it requires to grasp the offense as a wide receiver, and goes back to what Torry Holt went through before he ended up not being able to make the team a couple years ago.

Tom Curran of CSNNE has an article on several lost gambles for the Patriots, and goes back to a bad play by Meriweather in the Super Bowl loss to New York, and also talks about Brandon Tate, who New England spent a 3rd round pick to acquire him back in the 2009 draft. He also talks about tight ends Lee Smith and Will Yeatman, both of which were drafted this year and are now gone.

Speaking of Tate, Cincinnati.com reports that he was claimed by Chad Ochocinco's old team, the Bengals, yesterday.

There's also some news on another former Patriot, with defensive back Jonathan Wilhite landing in Denver yesterday.

Buffalo also grabbed TE Smith after claiming him off waivers from New England yesterday.

ESPN is running a poll on the week one match-up between the Patriots andDolphins, and so far Miami has a commanding lead in this one. Needless to say get over there and vote.

The West Virginia Metro News reports that should New England end up in a bind this season at the wide receiver position, Randy Moss says he would unretire to come back to New England.

Greg Bedard of the Boston Globe has a fascinating entry on the number of waiver claims made on Patriots players who were waived, along with some other interesting notes. It's a great read, so be sure and check it out.

And finally, Mike Reiss has some interesting notes that he posted at the end of last night, including the fact that Yeatman was apparently on Miami's radar for a while, and head coach Tony Sparano was glad they were able to get him.

"He's a guy we had on our radar for quite some time, actually before the draft. He's a smart guy, he's a big guy, he's a strong guy and a little different than some of the guys that we have right now at the position. I think he brings a few different things to the table that way."

That's it for this morning. Beginning tomorrow this entry will be rolled back where you should see it somewhere between 7:30am - 8:00am during the week now that the regular season is here. We'll also have some more entries coming later today, including a couple of really good ones from Steve Balestrieri and Ron Marshall - so keep an eye on the front page of PatsFans.com for when they're available. You can also follow us @patsfans, as well as my account - @ianlogue - on Twitter.