Personnel puts them in select company

They are 7-2 and they have already created the best of all NFL playoff scenarios: They don't need any help from anybody to win their division. The coveted first-round bye is attainable.

If they're not necessarily the talk of the league, they are certainly on the short list of the NFL's sexiest conversational topics, along with the Parcellsinization of the Cowboys and the real possibility that the Kansas City Chiefs, gifted with a very soft schedule the rest of the way, could go 16-0.

But the Patriots are right there. They were almost universally picked by the outside world to finish in the seven- to nine-win category, and they were dismissed immediately by the pundit crowd following their 31-0 trouncing by the Bills on Opening Day. It was Lawyer Milloy this, and Lawyer Milloy that, and this was all supposed to prove that the technocrat head coach was a failure in human relations and would drag his team down. Not long afterward, respected ESPN commentator Tom Jackson, a man with whom the words "loose" and "cannon" are seldom linked, declared that a representative sampling of the Patriots "hated" their coach. Since then the Patriots have gone 7-1, and they certainly could have won the eighth (20-17, at Washington). Anyone who says he or she saw this coming after that debacle in Buffalo has got to produce the polygraph report.

Injuries could have wrecked the season, but they haven't because Scott Pioli and Bill Belichick and whoever else deserves a share of the credit hit an almost fantasy jackpot on Draft Day. Their first six selections are all making significant contributions. The Patriots are getting very useful service out of Ty Warren, Eugene Wilson, Bethel Johnson, Dan Klecko, Asante Samuel, and Dan Koppen, who may be the most intriguing story of all since all you ever hear is how there are so few decent centers available in the draft and how it is the most sophisticated offensive line position. So what does it say when a fifth-round choice can step in and play a major role on a good team? What didn't people, the Patriots included, see? (This is where you can insert the "drafting is an inexact science" line, if that's you're inclination.)

It is the most productive draft the team has ever had, and it ranks with the memorable 1973 haul (first-rounders John Hannah, Sam Cunningham, and Darryl Stingley, plus 14th-rounder Ray Hamilton) as the most important importation of talent in the history of the franchise. It was the Draft Day from Paradise.

Other personnel decisions look pretty good, too. Rodney Harrison has brought his hitting and his attitude east. Tyrone Poole has fit right in. Can't ever have too many guys from Fort Valley State hanging around, if you ask me. You could see that Rosevelt Colvin was going to be everything he was supposed to be, and Ted Washington was doing his blot-out-the-landscape thing before he was hurt. You can make a case that no team had a better offseason than the New England Patriots.

But the most important Patriot is not a newcomer. The most important Patriot is coming off what might have been his most impressive game ever. The most important Patriot is -- what a shock -- Tom Brady.

There is so much to like about Tom Brady, who is about as honest and gracious with the media as any quarterback ever will be, but I was never sure just how good he really was. I was confident that Belichick had done the right thing by choosing Brady over Drew Bledsoe, but I thought I'd have to resign myself to Brady's apparent physical limitations. For the last two years, he's been the master of the dink-and-dunk, a guy who would, as we love to say, "find a way to win," but who just didn't have the arm to air it out like, you know, the real star quarterbacks of this league.

Mea culpa, OK?

Give him a speed receiver or two, throw in a little protection, and Tom Brady is very happy to air it out. And just think what he could do if he had a first-rate running back. That was a pretty good chuck he made to win the Miami game, and those looked like serious bombs he was throwing in Denver. Do you realize he averaged 10 yards per pass attempt (35/350) Monday night? I didn't think I'd ever see him do that.

OK, so we now know he has a proper NFL arm. We already knew he had basically good judgment and we have never had any remote reason to doubt his guts. We also know he thrives in pressure situations. The winning drive Monday was his ninth career fourth-quarter/OT game-winner. He has now made 39 regular-season starts, and exactly one-third of his career wins have come in that fashion. I don't know for sure, but I would imagine this to be a very impressive number.

Colvin is out for the year, but the rest of the injury brigade is beginning to trickle back. In some sports circumstances this could be a problem, but I don't quite see this as inhibiting Coach B, who may be taxing even his legendary imagination as he concocts schemes to mask this deficiency and augment that strength, usually in that order. One of the reasons this won't be a problem is that he and Pioli have put together an unusually flexible team, loaded with players who have multiple position possibilities and not only personal Plan As and Bs, but Cs and Ds. This is no accident. I mean, it didn't just happen. The people in charge know what they're doing.

I'm not calling Super Bowl or even AFC title game. I'm still wary, because I know there are more talented teams out there, and none of them are coached by dummies. I don't believe in microanalyzing the schedule for the probable Ws and Ls, because it just doesn't work out that way, as we all know. There are dangerous "Ats" and treacherous "Heres." I'll happily settle for watching it all unfold.

I just want to take the occasion of the bye week to salute everybody in question: the coaches, the players, and the administrators, and to tell you we're all kind of looking forward to the latest Tuna Bowl a week from Sunday night. Anyone around here who's not paying attention was never a sports fan to begin with.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.