Over the next couple of weeks, as the Patriots offseason gets underway, we’ll present a snapshot of the team by position. Last week, we featured the offense. This week, it’s the defense. We started with the defensive backs on Wednesday, and today, we put the linebackers in the spotlight:

Tully Banta-Cain finished with a career-high 10 sacks. (AP)

On the roster: Eric Alexander, Tully Banta-Cain, Derrick Burgess, Gary Guyton, Jerod Mayo, Rob Ninkovich, Junior Seau, Adalius Thomas, Pierre Woods, Thomas Williams. (Shawn Crable and Tyrone McKenzie are on injured reserve, while Bruce Davis is on the practice squad.)

Stat standouts: Leading tackler (according to coaches film review): Mayo, 114; Guyton, 91. Sacks: Banta-Cain, 10; Burgess, 5; Thomas, 3. Best single game (tie): Banta-Cain, 5 tackles, 3 sacks for 22 yards on Dec. 20, 2009 at Buffalo; Mayo, 16 tackles on Nov. 8, 2009 vs. Miami.

2009, in three sentences: Disappointing. Always the centerpiece of any Bill Belichick-coached defense, the 2009 Patriots linebackers were almost completely underwhelming. With the exception of Banta-Cain and occasionally Burgess, there was virtually no pass rush from the outside, and when it came to stopping dynamic running backs in key situations inside (Ray Rice), their performance was lacking.

By the numbers (tie, both courtesy of Gary from Chapel Hill): 10: Banta-Cain had 10 sacks in 2009, becoming just the second Patriots linebacker in double-figures since 1995. (Mike Vrabel had 12.5 in 2007.) Six of those sacks came in the fourth quarter. The only New England linebacker with more since they began tracking the stat in 1991 was Chris Slade, who had seven fourth-quarter sacks in 1994. Zero: Patriots linebackers did not record an interception in 2009. Oakland was the only other team without such an interception this season. It was the first year that New England linebackers have been shut out since 2000. In fact, they’ve now recorded just one pick in the last two seasons combined (tied with Dallas and Denver for the NFL low in that span), after getting 33 from 2001 through 2007. Only Indy (41) and San Diego (35) had more during those seasons. Note that 11 of the 33 interceptions by New England linebackers from 2000 through 2007 were by Tedy Bruschi.

Money quote: “No, that’s one thing about Mother Nature. You can’t control that. You can’t run people over getting to work … I didn’t try to be late. That’s basically it. I don’t know anything else to say. Cars sitting in the road, you’re sitting there. What can you do? It’s not the Jetsons. I can’t jump up into the sky. What the hell am I supposed to do?” —Thomas, explaining why a snowstorm made him late for an 8 a.m. team meeting at Gillette Stadium on Dec. 9. Belichick sent Thomas — as well as Burgess, Guyton and Randy Moss — home for being late that morning.

The skinny: There were figures to be some turnover at the linebacker position, starting with Thomas, Burgess and Seau. Thomas is virtually a guaranteed lock not to return, while Burgess is a free agent who likely won’t be a priority for the Patriots and Seau has already said he will retire. Banta-Cain, who was clearly the player who benefited the most from the trade of Vrabel, is a free agent who will be a priority for the Patriots in the offseason. In addition, Woods is a free agent who could return if the price is right, while Ninkovich is in the fold through 2011.

Inside, Mayo — the 2008 Associated Press defensive rookie of the year — suffered an early-season knee injury. Perhaps as a result, he appeared to take a step back in his second season, but is still one of the better young linebackers in the league. Mayo and Guyton played the majority of snaps inside, and are both signed to deals past 2010.

Two younger faces who could play a role at LB in 2010 are Crable on the outside and McKenzie inside, the latter of whom the organization is particularly enthused about. The duo spent all of 2009 on the sidelines because of injury, but both could provide some quality depth at the position in 2010.

Seau spent portions of the last four seasons with the Patriots. (AP)

Sounds like Junior Seau has retired … again. The Patriots linebacker reportedly announced during a taping of Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” on Wednesday that he is retiring after 20 NFL seasons.

“Cris, I’m surfing,” Seau told co-host Cris Collinsworth. “It’s all over with the speeches. Whatever happens, I can say, honestly say, that that probably was my last game.”

Seau was asked definitively if Sunday’s loss to Baltimore was indeed his last game.

“Yeah, that’s going to be my last game,” he replied.

Seau, who turns 41 in a week, spent portions of the last four seasons with the Patriots, including seven games this past season. He made 15 tackles.

Seau first announced his retirement in August 2006 saying he had “graduated” from the NFL. Four days later, he signed with the Patriots.

FOXBORO  –  Everyone is moving on inside the Patriots locker room. It’s on to the Jets and no more looking back on fourth-and-2 and what to do.

Bill Belichick said the Jets have evolved into a good running team to try to take pressure off rookie Mark Sanchez.

Belichick on whether he’s ever cried in front of his team.

Tom Brady said there’s still seven games left in the season and now is the time to move forward.

Brady said no one is taking any criticism personally.

Brady said forget the Colts. It’s on to the Jets.

Brady said he can’t imagine Belichick shedding tears.

Junior Seau said the Pats need a short-term memory.

Dan Koppen said the Jets’ Sione Pouha has picked up where the injured Kris Jenkins left off.

FOXBORO — Just got out of the Patriots locker room, and a handful of guys touched on a few different topics. Tom Brady, Junior Seau, Brandon McGowan, Dan Koppen and Kevin Faulk all talked. We’ll have all the information up shortly, but here are a few quick notes before I head out to practice.

Junior Seau on moving forward from the loss to the Colts…
You can’t [replay] it. One thing we’re going to appreciate here and now is that we’re not going to rehearse the negative and we’re not going to [replay] the positive. What’s in the past is in the past. We have challenges every day. Today’s challenge is basically to be the best team we can be today to get ready for the game.

On leadership…
We’ve won so many games in this locker room, we’re quick to turn it off and turn it back on. … We need to have a short-term memory. That’s the only reason why you’re going to be able to succeed in this league, and in life. You have a short-term memory whether it’s good or bad. Whether it’s good or bad. Go to work the next day. And that’s what we’re going to do.

Faulk on blitz pickup and what he might have done wrong as a younger player…
Techniques. When I first got in, a lot of things that I did wrong was like try to absorb blocks. I’ve always had strong legs, so I felt like if I could absorb a player coming into me, I could regain my leverage and hold them off. It worked for a while, until you get to those players who are, like, 265 pounds that just pick you up and run you back to the quarterback.

On the fact that blitz pickup is now one of his signatures…
It really is funny for me now, because you can see me during games now when Tom throws the ball deep and I have to pick up a blitz, I’ll be cheering like if I made a 30 or 40 yard run because I know that’s what I do. That’s what they expect of me.

FOXBORO — After Sammy Morris went down in the first quarter of Sunday’s Pats-Titans game, Laurence Maroney knew it was his time to shine.

Maroney admitted he has been waiting for his big opportunity, and he certainly capitalized on that Sunday in Foxboro when he rushed for 123 yards on 16 attempts and averaged 7.7 yards a carry. Following the game, Maroney’s excitement about his own performance was obvious in his demeanor.

Junior Seau said it best when asked what it was like to get back on the playing field, saying, “Thats a real surf to turf.” Seau went from a surfboard to the frozen turf at Gillette Stadium in the matter of days, and the 40-year-old linebacker even managed to recover a fumble in the fourth quarter. After the game, Seau spoke to reporters and said he would certainly enjoy this win.

Turn up the volume and listen to what Maroney and Seau said after the game from the locker room at Gillette Stadium.

Maroney is asked about his touchdown but talks about the Patriots as a team.

Maroney says patience was the key for him during this game.

Maroney says he never lost confidence in himself but admits he feels good after his performance.

Maroney talks about his offensive line.

Maroney talks about what he was thinking when Sammy Morris went down.

Seau says the team knows they played well but the Patriots have to prepare to their next game now.

Seau says he’s happy for the organization and won’t know how he feels physically until tomorrow.

Seau says that he will enjoy this win.

Seau is asked about going from a surfboard to the football field.

Patriots tight end Ben Watson appeared on the Dennis & Callahan show Friday morning to talk about the team’s game Sunday against the Titans and other topics. Following is a transcript. Click here to listen to the interview at the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

The 0-5 Titans — I don’t know if this qualifies in anybody’s mind as a trap game. But human nature being what it is, and you’re looking at an 0-5 football team coming into your house, my guess is that Bill Belichick and the coaching staff might have mentioned this to you guys at some point in the week. Fair to say?

Fair to say, they are 0-5, their record is what it is, ours is what it is. It’s a little bit different playing an 0-5 team in college. In college you play a team that’s 0-5, you know you’ve got better athletes, you know you’re better than they are, you know you should kill them. The NFL is a little different, when you look at the 0-5 team and they’ve got Jevon Kearse, they’ve got [Kyle] Vanden Bosch, they’ve got Jovan Haye. On offense, they’ve got one of the best running backs in the National Football League [Chris Johnson], they’ve got a veteran quarterback [Kerry Collins].  It’s little different situation when you face a team that hasn’t won and you don’t know why they haven’t won, but it’s definitely not because of personnel.

The big difference between last year’s team personnel-wise and this year’s personnel-wise is the absence of [Albert] Haynesworth. You’ve looked at the film this year, has his absence made all the difference in the world in your mind?

His absence makes a lot of difference. Any time you lose a premier pass-rusher, a premier run-stopper, a guy that’s 330-350, whatever pounds he is, it’s going to make a difference. They definitely have guys that have come in and, like I said, everybody else is pretty much the same. I mean, they’ve got those two guys coming off the edge that are great players. … Every team in the National Football League loses players from time to time and it doesn’t stop a team from being good.

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