According to the Patriots’ Twitter feed, the team had three receivers in for workouts on Wednesday. New England currently has eight on the roster, by my count: veterans Sam Aiken, Joey Galloway, Greg Lewis, Randy Moss, Matthew Slater, Wes Welker, as well as rookie draftees Brandon Tate and Julian Edelman. (However, Aiken is used primarily on special teams, while Edelman has some positional versatility and Tate is rehabbing from a knee injury he suffered midway through the 2008 season with the University of North Carolina.)

While New England wasn’t going to lean heavily on his services this year, the season-ending injury to rookie linebacker Tyrone McKenzie thins the inside linebacker position for the Patriots.

The third-round pick, who reportedly suffered a torn ACL at last weekend’s minicamp, is now believed to be lost for the season. McKenzie has some positional versatility, but would have provided depth at the inside spot in New England’s 3-4 defensive scheme. Now, the Patriots will likely be forced to lean on a variety of linebackers to provide relief to Tedy Bruschi and Jerod Mayo on the side, a group that includes Gary Guyton (who replaced Bruschi on passing downs last year) and Eric Alexander, as well recent free agent signee Vinny Ciurciu and rookie free agent Antonio Appelby.

There also remains a wild card in all of this: Jason Taylor. If New England does indeed sign Taylor, they could plug him in on the outside and move Adalius Thomas — who has positional versatility — to inside linebacker. But at this moment, that all remains conjecture.

One more note: Before the extent of McKenzie’s injury was fully-known, an e-mailer asked me about the possibility of Appelby making the team. I responded that, just by looking at the numbers, Appelby faced a difficult climb in making the 53-man roster, even though he has experience in a 3-4 Belichick-style defense with Al Groh in Virginia. Now, the opportunity certainly exists for Appelby to not only make the 53-man roster, but make an impact as a rookie.

However, in the end, if there’s one player who can deal with adversity, it’s McKenzie. His long road to the NFL is detailed here. It was a jourmey that drew the admiration of Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

“I would just say of all the players that I’ve talked to and we’ve interviewed this year and even through the years, that Tyrone is amongst the most impressive,” Belichick said. “Maturity, intelligence, what he’s done with the opportunities that he’s had or that he’s had to overcome, how he’s approached them, how he’s dealt with them, how he’s made the most of them. … It hasn’t been easy.

“Yet, he’s continued to excel, jump over hurdles and overcome obstacles that I think would have derailed a lot of other people and/or football players. I think he’s a very impressive, mature, humble young man.”

The Patriots have just sent out this announcement about 2009 tickets:

Patriots fans who wish to purchase tickets to individual games in 2009 will have the opportunity on Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 10 a.m. The New England Patriots annually cap their season ticket sales, leaving a limited number in reserve for Patriots fans who wish to attend just a couple of games each season. Those tickets will be released for sale through Ticketmaster. Visa, a proud sponsor of the National Football League and the New England Patriots, will once again be the only form of payment accepted.

All ticket orders will be processed through Ticketmaster. Tickets will NOT be sold at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. Ticket orders can be completed online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone by calling 800-745-3000. Once again, all phone and online orders must be made exclusively with a Visa credit or debit card.

If recent years are any indication, fans can expect all regular season games to sell out within minutes. If that occurs again this year, 2009 will be the 16th consecutive season that the Patriots have announced a complete sellout prior to the start of the regular season. The Patriots’ streak of consecutive sellouts is currently 159 games and began in 1994, the year that Robert Kraft purchased the franchise. The streak includes all preseason, regular season and postseason games since Sept. 4, 1994. If the Patriots sell out every game again this season, the streak will extend to 169 consecutive games by the end of the regular season. The Patriots’ season ticket waiting list remains in excess of 50,000 fans.

Following up on a report from ESPN earlier Tuesday, the Patriots announced late this afternoon they have signed safety Brandon McGowan. Additionally, the Patriots released first-year punter Tom Malone. Here’s a portion of the release from the team:
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The Patriots have reached a two-year agreement with former Bears safety Brandon McGowan, according to ESPN.

A 5-foot-11, 205-pound undrafted free agent out of Maine, the 25-year-old McGowan has spent his entire four-year career to this point in Chicago. His finest season came in 2007, when he played in a career-best 14 games (starting nine of them), coming away with 68 tackles and two interceptions.

He was hobbled by an ankle injury last year, which limited him to just two games.

Former Georgia Tech defensive tackle Darryl Richard was taken in the seventh round of the draft late last month by the Patriots, and was a part of the recently concluded rookie minicamp in Foxborough. He shared a quick behind-the-scenes snippet of what took place in this story for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 6-foot-4, 290-pound Richard was asked about the “best moment” of his weekend:

“We watched a video presentation put on by [Patriots owner] Mr. [Robert] Kraft at the Patriots’ Hall of Fame. At the end of the video was a show called ‘The Patriot Way.’ It showed me what it meant to be a New England Patriot. It got me going.”

The NFL announced Tuesday the 16 AFL “Legacy Games” that will be played during the 2009 NFL season. The Patriots will play in four of those games — Sept. 14 at home against the Bills, Oct. 11 at Denver, Oct. 18 at home against the Titans/Oilers, and Dec. 6 at Miami. In each of those games, the team will wear the old red jerseys with the classic “Pat Patriot” logo.

Here’s a portion of the announcement issued by the league.

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