The brain drain in Foxborough has sparked much discussion over the last few months, but there is one name you don't hear a lot ...

Brad Seely.

Remember him? He led the Patriots special teams from 1999-2008, one of the few coaches held over (Dante Scarnecchia was another) from the Pete Carroll regime by Bill Belichick. Seely bolted Foxborough last winter to take a similar job on Eric Mangini's staff in Cleveland, and the added responsibility of being assistant head coach there.

It's not always easy to measure the value of units like the ones that Seely leads. But every year, my old colleague at the Dallas Morning News, and a Hall of Famer in our business -- Rick "Goose" Gosselin -- does as good a job as anyone of doing it. In fact, I'm pretty sure every team in the league takes a good, long look at his special teams rankings.

And this year, he's got Seely's "Teams" in Cleveland at the top of the list. Goose drives home how much value Seely's unit has had for the Browns with this fact ... Cleveland ranked 32nd in total offense, 31st in defense, and yet, they found a way to win five games, and the special teams (led by a pretty special player in Josh Cribbs) are a big part of the "How?" in that. It is worth noting that the Browns were sixth in 2007 and third in 2008, so Seely wasn't exactly working with a whole lot of nothing.

But if you want another way of looking at Seely's importance, there's this ... In 2009, Goose had the Patriots 16th in his special teams rankings, a bit of slip from seventh in 2008 and ninth in 2007.