Roster reboot

The Patriots roster is in a constant state of motion. For a team that usually finishes near the top of the standings, it is always evolving. During the bye week the Pats made one of the few trading-deadline deals, acquiring super-talented and super-tainted cornerback Aqib Talib. The team also dumped Bobby Carpenter (again) and Sterling Moore while adding Visanthe Shiancoe and Jarred Fayson (who?). Never a dull moment with Bill Belichick.

The Pats started the season with several questions. How's the offensive line going to do without Matt Light and Brian Waters? How's the running game going to look without Bennie? How will Brandon Lloyd and Brady work together? How will all the rookies do? Who will rush the passer and who will defend the passes? Just to name a few. Considering there were all those questions coming into the season, maybe a 5-3 start with the three losses by a combined four points is pretty darn good. Even for the defending AFC champs.

A position-by-position breakdown of the roster heading into the second-half shows many of those questions have been answered already. Of course, the roster could change at any moment.

QB

Tom Brady (Ryan Mallette): There were no questions here before the season started. Brady has taken some shots in the Blabosphere for showing signs of hitting the downside of his career. What the hell are these people watching? 16 touchdowns, 3 picks. Does he make mistakes? Of course. He made them in '01, '03, and '04 too. All quarterbacks do. It's the nature of the position. But Brady makes plays week after week that not too many other quarterbacks can make.

RB

Stevan Ridley (Shane Vereen, Brandon Bolden, Danny Woodhead): How's the Pats running game going to look without Bennie? How about fifth best in the league. Ridley is lead the AFC in rushing. Before he hurt his knee, Bolden was just as good. Vereen is back from injury and made some big plays against the Jets and followed that up with another solid game against the Rams. Woody has completely taken over the Kevin Faulk role and he's doing a pretty good impersonation.

WR

Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, (Deion Branch, Julian Edelman, Matthew Slater): Would Brady and Lloyd click? That's a very big yes. Lloyd has dropped a few easy ones, but he has caught way more tough ones and he and Brady are as one on the quick out. Welkergate -- thankfully -- is over. The toughest player on the team is on pace for another amazing year. Give him a 3-year deal at 12 million a year right now. Welker is the heart and soul of that offense. It's great to have Deion back and you get the sense that he will play a bigger role in the second half. Edelman and Slater are doing their thing.

TE

Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez (Daniel Fells, Michael Hoomanuwanui): The only problem this position has faced is injury. Significant injury. Hernandez -- who just about everyone felt was going to have a breakout year -- suffered an ankle sprain in Week 2 and has been hobbled since, missing four games. The bye week should really help him. It won't hurt Gronk either. He's been pretty banged up but looked like his unstoppable self in London. A healthy Hernandez and Gronk in the second half will make the best offense in the league better. It may make the last 10 minutes of games a lot more fun, too. Fells and the guy whose name I can't pronounce are the backups at the moment, but the way Belichick likes to collect tight ends that could change three or four more times.

O LINE

Nate Solder, Logan Mankins, Ryan Wendell, Dan Connolly, Sebastian Vollmer (Donald Thomas, Marcus Cannon, Nick McDonald): One of the biggest preseason questions -- can the offensive line keep Brady safe and warm? -- has been answered the same way it always is. Yes it can. The O line had a miserable preseason. The Blabosphere was warning that not even Dante Scarnecchia could get blood from these massive stones. They were wrong. Either Scarnecchia is one of the greatest line coaches in history or the Pats have some real talent on the line. Probably some of both. Not only has Brady been kept mostly clean, but the line is doing some nasty run blocking. And with Mankins being hurt a few games. Belichick has a rep as a not-so-great drafter. But Solder and Vollmer are proof positive that he has his moments. And if you are going to have your moments maybe it's best that you have them when you are picking guys to protect your hall-of-fame quarterback.

D LINE

Vince Wilfork, Kyle Love, Rob Ninkovich, Chandler Jones (Jermaine Cunningham, Brandon Deaderick, Ron Brace, Justin Francis, Trevor Scott, Jeff Bequette): Can the Pats get a pass rush with the loss of Andre Carter and Mark Anderson? That was a very big question entering the season. So far, the answer is sometimes yes, mostly no. Chandler Jones is having a rookie-of-the-year season. And Ninko is building off his great 2011 production. Big Vince continues to build a case as the best nose tackle of his generation and Kyle Love is proving a very good protege. Cunningham and Deaderick are good situational pass rushers. The depth of the line hasn't really been tested yet. The D line has been one of the best against the run so far and it is starting to get some pressure on the QB. But it need to get more.

LB

Jerod Mayo, Brandon Spikes, D'onta Hightower (Jeff Tarpinian, Tracy White, Mike Rivera, Niko Koutouvides): It was all about Mayo and Spike staying healthy. So far, so good. Mayo has been a tackling machine. Spikes has been a hitting machine. When they are both seeing everything in front of them they are as a good a linebacker duo as there is. Rookie Hightower finishes the answer to the question how would the rookies do. He's missed some time with injury but when he's been on the field he's made an impact. Not as big as the one Chandler Jones has made but there's still time for him to catch up. 

S

Patrick Chung, Steve Gregory, Devin McCourty (Tavon Wilson, Nate Ebner, Derrick Martin, Malcolm Williams): Who's going to stop the passes? Two big parts of that answer were supposed to be veterans Chung and Gregory. And for two weeks it looked great as they held both the Titans and Cardinals well below 300 yards passing. Then Chung -- as he always does -- and Gregory got hurt. And rookies Wilson and Ebner went from role players to starters. Then Belichick and Patricia decided to slide McCourty from corner to safety like they did near the end of last season. And like last year, McCourty looks better there. When Chung and Gregory get back it will be interesting to see what happens with McCourty. If the two veterans can play like they did at the start of the season then this could become a very solid and deep position. That's the second biggest "if" heading into the second half of the season.

CB

Aqib Talib, Kyle Arrington (McCourty, Alfonzo Dennard, Marquice Cole): The biggest "if" is if new cornerback Aqib Talib can get his act together and play like a top draft pick. If he does ... then the weakest position on the team could become one of the strongest. If McCourty stays at safety, then the question is does Arrington hold onto his starting spot or does rookie Dennard continue to push him. Talib is the key, but Dennard could be the surprise.

K

Stephen Gostkowski, Zoltan Mesko: These guys are among the best kicker duos in the league .. but with room to improve. Gosty missed the game-winner in the home opener against the Cardinals, but he has settled down since then. And his kickoffs are still rockets. Zoltan doesn't have one of the best averages in the league, but he's one of the best at dropping the ball inside the 15-yard line. When you have the best offense in the league, that kind of field position is key.

Five of the final eight games are at Gillette. Including a Monday night game against Houston and a Sunday night game against the Niners. Oh, and there's that Thanskgiving night game against the Jets in New York. What a second half it should be.