08:41 AM EDT on Thursday, August 26, 2004

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

Journal file photo The Pats' Dan Klecko wraps up the legs of quarterback Tim Couch last season as Willie McGinest assists with the sack.

FOXBORO -- Time for our monthly Dan Klecko discussion. The much beloved former defensive lineman from Temple is making the switch to inside linebacker this season. How's it coming?

"I think Dan is doing well considering he has only played the position for a month really," said head coach Bill Belichick. "I think he is doing pretty well and a lot better than a lot of guys who have played it a lot longer."

Strong words. But Belichick quickly tempered them.

"He still has a long way to go," Belichick reminded. "I am not talking about Dick Butkus here, now. I think he has done well and I think that his versatility in other areas of the game, on special teams, rushing the passer, a little bit on offense, he has really created a good position for himself in terms of being able to be used by a team in a number of different spots."

It's hard to figure where Klecko might fit at the start of the season, but given the relative age of the inside linebackers (all over 30) and Klecko being on the upswing, it seems likely he could be in the mix as the season progresses. Meanwhile, his improvement, Belichick said, has been marked.

"You could even see it just in one practice yesterday," Belichick said. "There were things that he improved in yesterday that were much better than they were a couple of days before. Now he can hopefully take those into game situations and get those positive results on the practice field and it will carry over into game conditions. A lot of them have, and I think that he is doing fine. Again, he has a long way to go, and there are guys that are playing the position that have played it for several years, in some cases probably double-digit years ahead of him. He certainly hasn't caught up with them yet. But for what he has done, I think it has been good."

Weaknesses could be lurking

The difference between a regular season game and a preseason game is vast. And it doesn't begin and end with the simple fact that one counts and the other doesn't.

As Belichick explained yesterday, the way teams attack each other in the regular season is vastly different than it is now.

"Teams are not game-planning you [in the preseason]," said Belichick. "They are evaluating their players just like you are evaluating yours. A lot of the matchups and your weaknesses don't get as exposed sometimes in preseason just because of the way it gets dialed up. Whereas, when you get into the regular season, if you have a weakness, you know that your opponents are going to come right after it. Then you really see how big of a weakness it is or it isn't. You are not going to really know that until you get into the regular season. I don't think anybody does."

In some respects, the Patriots have a significant advantage in their schedule early in the year. They open on a Thursday (Sept. 9), then don't play again for 10 days against the normally weak Arizona Cardinals. After that, they have a bye week.

It might help them if they had their off-week later in the year to help heal injuries, but having an opportunity to see what their first two opponents attack, then have an extra week to tweak their schemes could have a major impact on their work the rest of the way.

"Sometimes you don't really know how strong [your strengths] are, or you don't know how strong the other teams are," Belichick said. "I don't think you can go through preseason and just say, 'These are the two or three things that we are going to do best. That is all we are going to do.' When you are in preseason, you are trying to work on everything. I think we have personnel questions. We have some scheme questions. We have a lot of questions about our team and certainly the way we played last week. I am sure we have as many questions, if not more than the other teams do."

Squib kicks

Losing rookie Guss Scott for the season hurts the Patriots in terms of depth but it nails Scott in the wallet. The Boston Globe reported last week that Scott signed a one-year deal worth a little more than $200,000 because the Patriots and Scott's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, couldn't agree on the length of a deal. Now Scott is without a signing bonus (third-round picks can normally get around $1 million in up-front money) and when he negotiates a long-term deal, he will do so as a player who's already sustained a major knee injury in the NFL . . . Belichick was asked if he could foresee any of the Olympic sprinters theoretically having NFL careers. "Believe me, we see plenty of fast guys. I'm not saying they are all gold medal winners, but the difference between a guy running 9.82 and 9.89 is still pretty fast [and they are] probably faster than a lot of guys that we have out there. That doesn't make them all good football players, and that doesn't make them all guys that you would necessarily want to go through the process with. The one thing about track guys that you really have to take a look at is just their ability to change directions laterally. They can run fast. They can be the fastest guys in the world for whatever their distance is, but there's only a certain amount of football that is played in a straight line. A lot of football is played with a change of direction or two. If we're talking about guys that are fast, can change directions quickly and have some size and are tough, now we're talking." . . . The Pats released rookie tight end Andy Mignery yesterday.