FOXBORO — To a Patriots defense in transition, Tony Gonzalez presents the ultimate challenge: He is a tight end who is big, strong and smart.

But the kicker is he doesn’t play like a tight end.

“He can pretty much do it all,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “He’s really a receiver. He’s a tight end, but he’s not really a tight end; he’s a receiver — great ball skills, hands. He’s got that ability — like a basketball player — to position the defender out and use his size to box out the defender. I think the quarterbacks, obviously, that he’s played with know that and they put the ball in a place where he can only get it and he can pin the defender behind him and he can go up and take the ball.

“He’s got a great patience in the passing game. He sets up routes, runs a lot of double moves. But he’s got quickness out of his break. He’s got good speed, exceptional hands. He’s obviously a smart football player. He knows how to run routes and get open and set them up.”

And he’s been doing all of that for a long time. He is in his 13th season — an eternity in the NFL. He is one of the most reliable tight ends in the history of the game.

Since the Kansas City Chiefs traded up with the Houston Oilers in the 1997 draft to select him 13th overall, Gonzalez has missed exactly two games in his career, one in 1999 and another in 2006. He has yearly averages of 76 catches, 911 yards and six touchdowns over his 12 seasons prior to his initial campaign this season with the Atlanta Falcons.

So how do the Patriots go about stopping him? Do they go with man-to-man — where Belichick admits they are at a disadvantage because of his size — or do they go with zone, where he can find open seams in coverage for big gains?

Gonzalez has given the Falcons plenty to smile about already.

“Over the course of his career, he’s gone up against a lot of zone defenses,” Belichick said. “He’s gone up against a lot of man defenses. He’s caught a lot of balls against both of them. There’s something to be said about playing zone; you’ve kind of got him surrounded and you’re not in an isolated one-on-one situation. It depends on what route they have called.

“And there’s something to be said being man-to-man on him; at least you are close to him. At least you got a guy that’s fairly close to him — maybe he doesn’t cover him every inch of the way — but you don’t have the space you have in between your zones for him. I think it depends on what the situation is, what type of play you’re trying to stop, what kind of play they happened to have called, like it is in a lot of things in football.”

And this year he’s right on track for another big season, with 12 catches from Matt Ryan for 144 yards and two touchdowns.

“You just try to contain him,” said Patriots linebacker Adalius Thomas. “He’s one of those guys, a veteran, real crafty, a good blocker. They do a lot of different things with him so we just have to make sure we know where he is at all times.”

Thomas is hardly surprised by the tremendously consistent numbers Gonzalez has posted over his career.

“He’s one of the true professionals out there,” he said. “We just have to make sure we know where he is.”

Whether it’s man or zone, Tully Banta-Cain could be one of the Patriots linebackers assigned with knowing where Gonzalez is on any given play.

“He’s very crafty,” Banta-Cain said. “He’s a smart player and even though he’s getting up there in the league and he may not be as fast as he used to be but he still gets open. He does the little things. Through his career, I think that’s what’s been his talent is that he’s a technician. He knows how to stem his routes, he knows how to make people think he might be blocking or influence you on one play and then he’ll sneak out. He’s just very crafty and he’s been doing it for a long time and he’s definitely gotten better over the years.”

His biggest game against the Patriots came in Belichick’s first year in 2000, when he had 11 catches for 147 yards and a touchdown.

“Double-covering him is hard because he’ll attack one guy or the other, so you’re really only ending up with one guy on him and he can defeat that one guy,” Belichick said. “He’s not just going to run in between two guys and get covered. He’ll pick out on or the other and attack them. Whatever aspect of the passing game you want from him, red area, third-down, big plays, possession passes, play action, you name it, he’s really good at all of it.”

As is the case with Chad Ochocinco of the Bengals, Belichick developed a special level of respect for Gonzalez out at the more-relaxed atmosphere at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

“And having spent a few days out there with him out there in the Pro Bowl after the ’06 season, when you are just around him on a day-to-day basis, you really have an appreciation for how skilled he is, how athletic he is, what kind of ball skills … There were times out there I remember where he would come out of a break and the ball was almost on him and he would just turn around and snatch it. He would never see the ball leave the quarterback’s hand, it was just on him quick, and 99 percent of the receivers would have dropped it. He makes it look easy. He’s really exceptional.”