This year’s new role player is Welker, whom Belichick spotted on Oct. 10, 2004, after he signed with Miami following his release by San Diego. A pregame injury to kicker Olindo Mare forced Welker into service against the Patriots in Foxborough and he ended up kicking a 29-yard field goal and an extra point in a 21-10 loss.

He also returned five kickoffs in that game, exhibiting the kind of versatility Belichick likes. After Welker caught 67 passes to lead the Dolphins last season, Belichick signed him as a restricted free agent and ended up giving up second- and seventh-round draft picks after Miami hinted it would match the offer.

Green, Sanders, Gay, Neal and other Patriots are the products of a personnel policy that ranks prospects less on raw talent and more on how they fit New England. The team also gets rid of disappointments as soon as they demonstrate they can’t play. Most other teams keep draft picks, especially high ones, because they don’t want to acknowledge publicly that they made a mistake.

All of this has been obscured by the $500,000 fine on Belichick and the $250,000 on the team for using a videocamera to tape the New York Jets’ signals from the field during the season-opening game at the Meadowlands.

That’s set off rumbling from teams the Patriots beat in Super Bowls and championship games that somehow New England got its rings from cheating — a bunch of players suggesting that somehow the Patriots knew their offensive plays and defensive schemes.

Hey, every coach looks for any advantage he can get. Jimmy Johnson recounted during the Fox pregame show last week how he used to have interns go through the garbage in the press box booths used by opposing coaches. His assumption: tossed-out game plans and scouting notes could prove useful at some point.

NFL games to watch Must-see TV Cowboys-Packers, Pats-Steelers just a few ’07 schedule highlights Getty Images

Belichick’s mistake, an uncharacteristic one, was to do what he did so openly against a team coached by a former assistant, who then broke an unwritten NFL coaching rule: “Thou shall not rat out the opposition.”

The truth: Belichick’s team is good enough that he doesn’t need to spy.

At the current pace, that could mean 16 wins. All 38-14.

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