Over the years, the New England Patriots have had to deal with the loss of several key veterans who played important roles in their Super Bowl dynasty.

Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Mike Vrabel, Troy Brown, Drew Bledsoe - all have either found new homes or ultimately retired to cap long, successful careers.

Tedy Bruschi is one of the rare exceptions. Often considered the heart and soul of New England's Super Bowl defense through the years, Bruschi has been a member of the Patriots his entire career and is one of only a small handful of players who've been on all three of New England's championship teams.

As he enters his 14th season and the final year of his current contract, Bruschi is keeping his options open.

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Since the Jets traded three players and two draft picks to move up 12 spots and select him, former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez has dominated the news coming out of Jets' camp, at least at those times when Rex Ryan isn't talking trash to the rest of the AFC East.

Sanchez has struggled at times during the spring, as Ryan has made sure to throw plenty of defensive variations and looks at him in order to welcome him to the NFL.

But in Sanchez's final drive of the spring mandatory minicamp, as if on cue, he directed the offense on a masterful drive that he climaxed with a touchdown pass to Wallace Wright. It looked as if he were playing Washington State again.

Veteran Kellen Clemens led the quarterback competition throughout the spring, but Sanchez certainly was...

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A lawyer for Ryan Leaf says a fugitive action filed against the former NFL quarterback in Washington state has been dismissed. The Whatcom County prosecutor had filed an interstate fugitive case against Leaf after he was arrested by federal Customs agents as he crossed the border from Canada in mid-June on his way to face drug and burglary charges in Texas.

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The Cowboys went into OTAs and minicamps looking develop an identity on offense.

The departure of Terrell Owens means the Cowboys will not have the same wide-open offense they did in the past. His replacement as the lead receiver, Roy Williams, is more a mid-range threat than a downfield target.

Also the Cowboys plan to concentrate more on two-tight end sets with Jason Witten and Martellus Bennett. The biggest weapons are in the backfield with running backs Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice.

Look for the Cowboys to be more ground-oriented. They have sets where they will feature Barber and Jones in the backfield together, and clearly are focused on finding ways to get the speedy Jones the ball in the open field.

They also are experimenting with...

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Weak-side linebacker Michael Boley, the first free-agent signee for the Giants last spring, underwent hip surgery to repair a torn labrum and will be lost for eight to 10 weeks.

Boley apparently suffered the injury in an early OTA workout but kept going, even to the extent of fully participating in the recently held mandatory minicamp June 16-18, but had to succumb to the arthroscopic procedure last Wednesday.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

Boley, who spent the first four years of his NFL career with Atlanta, was expected to win the starting weak-side job, but since he might not be back until just prior to the start of the regular season, that possibility becomes more and more uncertain.

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The Eagles have one of the best young defenses in the NFL. They were one of just three defenses (Baltimore and Pittsburgh were the others) that finished in the top five in total defense, run defense, pass defense and points allowed last season.

But that unit is facing the possibility of being without two of its key components in 2009. One is Pro Bowl free safety Brian Dawkins, who signed with the Denver Broncos in March. The other is defensive coordinator Jim Johnson.

The Eagles probably will have a harder time replacing Dawkins' leadership more than anything else. At 35, he no longer was playing at a Pro Bowl level.

Johnson's status remains up in the air. He was diagnosed with cancer shortly after the Eagles' NFC Championship game loss to Arizona and took an...

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Playing golf Monday morning to help raise more than $100,000 to grant the wishes of 16 seriously ill children who are served by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Clinton Portis had his own less critical wish. The Washington Redskins' star running back wishes that people would stop talking about a rift between him and second-year coach Jim Zorn.

"How this story came about, I have no idea," Portis said of a ProFootballTalk.com report that he had disrespected Zorn in front of his teammates earlier this month during the organized team activities that ended on June 11. "There's nothing going on. There's no beef between me and Coach Zorn. We're on good terms at this present moment. There's no problem."

The unpredictable Portis had a well-publicized spat with Zorn after he was benched...

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The Ravens believe quarterback Joe Flacco will be improved this season. The supporting cast around him, though, is still questionable.

Throughout the Ravens' offseason minicamps, their top three receivers (Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton and Demetrius Williams) and top two tight ends (Todd Heap and L.J. Smith) were all limited because of injuries.

While team officials expect all of them to be ready for training camp, there's no guarantee that they will remain healthy. In particular, Williams, Heap and Smith all have labels of being injury prone.

If the Ravens want to take their offense to the next level, their passing game has to improve. The Ravens have tried to address wide receiver, signing second-tier free agent Kelley Washington and entering trade talks for...

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Three months of conditioning workouts, 11 organized team activity sessions and five minicamp practices later, the Bengals feel like they are in better shape.

"I think we've had a really good offseason of work on the field. The 1,000 snaps gives us an opportunity to get through some things on defense and offense," said coach Marvin Lewis after the final practice, which was held at Paul Brown Stadium. "Our team has worked hard to be in shape and play football. The key now is to be in the best conditioned shape going into camp. The will be the first time in a long time we have the chance to go to camp healthy."

The minicamp practices continued a theme of the offseason on-field work - the receivers standing out.

Laveranues Coles made a nice one-handed grab along the...

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Fans might be frustrated about the mystery, but as far as coach Eric Mangini is concerned there is no reason to name a starting quarterback a month before training camp starts and more than two and a half months before the regular season begins.

If nothing else, Mangini is keeping opponents unsure about who will win the battle between Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson.

At the start of the first voluntary minicamp, Mangini said Quinn had a slight edge because of the work done in the offseason program. But by the end of the mandatory minicamp Mangini said there is no frontrunner. This, despite the fact Anderson was forced to miss the last two practices with a lower right leg injury.

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