Tom Brady is there for Matt Cassel

Tom Brady's replacement ain't that bad. The Boston Globe reports: "(Quarterback Matt) Cassel has directed five scoring drives of 10 plays or longer, which ties for the NFL lead with Giants quarterback Eli Manning." The Boston Globe reports that Brady is free for advice for Cassel.

Coach Bill Belichick said yesterday that Brady, one of the team's eight captains, could continue to serve in an advisory capacity, but indicated there are no set plans.

"Right now, the priority for Tom is to rehab and do everything he can to get back to 100 percent, and that's a long process. That will be the priority for him," Belichick said. "When that's taken care of, and depending on how the schedules fall and so forth, Tom's always been great about helping other players and being part of the team, or being part of whatever we're doing."

Teammates seemed to be buoyed by Brady's presence at Gillette Stadium last week. After Sunday's 19-10 victory over the Jets, Cassel noted that he had communicated frequently with Brady throughout the week and that his advice was to "manage the game and be smart with the football; we have good enough players on this team that we should win if we did that."