By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

FOXBORO, Mass. – The duct tape, chewing gum and bailing wire that held together the New England Patriots secondary last year has been balled up and thrown into the trash bin, replaced with muscle, speed, some youth and plenty of big-game experience.

The secondary that helped the Patriots win their third championship in four years last season wasn’t going to withstand a 16-game schedule, never mind a run at an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl title.

Head coach Bill Belichick knew this, and he and vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli made some of their most aggressive off-season moves to shore up the unit.

There are a half-dozen new faces in the New England secondary this season, three at cornerback, three at safety.

Half of them are rookies, half of them are veterans with considerable playoff experience.

Blend them in with eight contributors left over from last year’s squad, and Belichick and defensive coordinator Eric Mangini have their work cut out for them finding the right matches this pre-season.

“We wanted to improve the entire competition with our entire secondary. We have a number of new players back there, other younger type of players, guys that were with us last year but were in the earlier part of their career,” Belichick said.

“We’ll try to use the preseason to help evaluate that mix, not just individually but collectively… and (find out) what looks like the best combination.”

Belichick acted the part of safe-cracker last year, somehow finding the right combination after veteran starters Ty Law and Tyrone Poole were lost to season-ending injuries early on.

He was forced to plug in inexperienced cornerbacks like second-year corner Asante Samuel and rookie free agent Randall Gay.

He had to move players out of position (Eugene Wilson and Don Davis), even over from the other side of the ball (Troy Brown), and pick marginal veterans (Hank Poteat) off of the scrap heap, to fill the void.

Makeover time

Many observers expected the makeshift secondary to be the downfall of the Patriots come playoff time. Yet New England was able to hold one of the most potent passing attacks in NFL history, the Indianapolis Colts led by Peyton Manning, to just three points in their AFC Divisional playoff. Then they flustered Pittsburgh rookie sensation Ben Roethlisberger in the conference championship and held their own against Terrell Owens and the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.

Even the Patriots themselves, with time to reflect, admit it was an expected result reached under an unexpected set of circumstances.

“You think about it after the season’s over, how guys went down and guys like Troy Brown stepped in and did a great job,” Samuel said. “It was amazing.”

But the Patriots didn’t want to try to make what many thought impossible happen again.

First, they traded a pair of draft picks to the Arizona Cardinals for Duane Starks, a cornerback who developed a big-play reputation in his four seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. Next, they drafted cornerback Ellis Hobbs and safety James Sanders in back-to-back founds (third and fourth). Finally, resigned to the likelihood of losing Law, they shopped for other free agents and added veterans at cornerback, Chad Scott from the Pittsburgh Steelers and safety, Antuan Edwards, who have have played in a combined 10 post-season games in their careers.

The reinforcements have been welcomed by the veterans of the Patriot secondary.

“It always feels good to have the experience (and) to have depth back there,” said safety Rodney Harrison, who along with Samuel and Wilson is the only member of the unit with as much as three years with New England. “We have veteran depth, and that’s really good.”

Position battles

While Harrison and Wilson are ensconced at the two safety positions, there isn’t anything guaranteed at the corners simply because of the depth at that position.

Some have suggested this is the deepest group Belichick has had with the Patriots. The coach thinks it is more likely the most versatile, with a mix of cover corners such as Starks and aggressive, physical corners such as Scott.

“I would say it is very competitive. Let’s put it that way,” Belichick said. “I would say each of the corners have some definite strengths to their game and that varies from player to player.”

Samuel and Starks appear to have an inside track for the starting nods, but the latter has been hampered by injuries recently. Scott was thought to be on the bubble early, but has impressed Belichick more and more throughout training camp with his versatility and professionalism.

“I think he has the ability to play multiple positions,” Belichick said. “He kind of only did one thing in Pittsburgh in their defensive system. Some of the things we’ve asked him to do. he hasn’t done before or hasn’t done since college at Maryland.”

Scott said his comfort within the system has risen with each play.

“The more repetitions you get, you get better at it and everything starts to become more second-nature,” he said. “The more snaps that I get in practice and in preseason games, it will get even better.”

The hope is that the corners of the Patriot secondary will get even better with the addition of the athletic Hobbs, who played well in Thursday’s exhibition loss to New Orleans, and the return of Gay, who has benefited from last year’s trial by fire, and Poole, who is fully recovered from a knee injury that put him on injured reserve in the middle of last season.