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New England Patriots Links 8/13/09 - Patriots vs. Eagles

By Marima
<em>Randy Moss makes a catch during preseason action against the Eagles last year at Gillette Stadium on August 22, 2008</em>
Randy Moss makes a catch during preseason action against the Eagles last year at Gillette Stadium on August 22, 2008

Mike Reiss notes the friendship between Bill Belichick and the head coach of the Eagles Andy Reid.

"Bill Belichick and I are good friends and we like to get after each other, even in preseason, whether its ones vs. ones, twos vs. twos or threes vs. threes.  I think I'm one up on Bill in the preseason series.  Unfortunately, he's got three [Super Bowl] trophies on me."

Christopher Price offers Five Things to Watch for Thursday night.

How Tom Brady moves in the pocket. When it comes to No. 12, they’ll be plenty of stuff worth keeping an eye on -- how he reacts to rushers, his timing with his receivers (old and new) and his ability to keep up with the overall game speed.

But one thing in particular that needs to be noted Thursday is what he does while in the pocket. One of the things that make Brady a truly great quarterback is his ability to sense pressure while in the pocket, and to move subtly from side to side to buy himself that extra second or two in an attempt to find a receiver. On Thursday, after almost a year away from the game, will he still have that same sixth sense when it comes to detecting pressure while in the pocket?

Shalise Manza Young reports that outside of those still on their rookie contract and a select few veterans, there are no players signed past the 2010 season.

And there has been little movement on discussions to extend the contracts of key players Vince Wilfork, Logan Mankins, Stephen Gostkowski and Richard Seymour, all of whom have contracts expiring after this season. Tom Brady’s deal runs through 2010.

After hearing Robert Kraft speak on Wednesday it appears it may have been by design that so many contracts end in either this year or next.

"There are going to be rules in place and we don’t know what those rules are," Robert Kraft said. "And we don’t want to put ourselves in a position to be penalized when we don’t know what those rules are."

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