The questions are easy.

It’s the answers that are difficult.

With training camp opening Thursday, there is no shortage of questions surrounding the New England Patriots, who’ll have six weeks – until the season opener against the Bills on Monday night, Sept. 14, in Foxboro – to find the answers.

Here are the most pressing:

Will the offense be adversely affected by the loss of coordinator Josh McDaniels?

McDaniels, who left to become head coach in Denver –– where he replaced longtime coach and two-time Super Bowl champion Mike Shanahan –– was quarterbacks coach in New England before taking over as offensive coordinator in 2006. He helped Tom Brady set passing and scoring records as the Pats went 16-0 in 2007. When Brady was hurt in the first quarter of the first game last year, McDaniels helped Matt Cassel, who hadn’t started a game since high school, step into the lineup and lead the Pats to an 11-5 record.

While former Brown linebacker Bill O’Brien has been named quarterbacks coach for the 2009 season (he was wide receivers coach last year), head coach Bill Belichick has not appointed an offensive coordinator for this season. Instead, he’ll fill that role himself, as he did in 2005, after Charlie Weis left to become head coach at Notre Dame.

For McDaniels’ sake, let’s hope he fares better in his new job than Weis, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini did after leaving coordinator’s jobs in New England to become head coaches. Weis, after taking the Fighting Irish to BCS bowls his first two seasons, is on the ropes this year after going 3-9 in 2008 and 7-6 last season. Crennel was fired by the Browns. Mangini was fired by the Jets, although he then was hired to replace Crennel. McDaniels didn’t get off to a good start in Denver, where he alienated Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler, who was traded to the Bears for Kyle Orton.

How much will the Pats miss Scott Pioli?

Butch and Sundance. Abbott and Costello. Fred and Ginger. Pick your pair – Pioli and Belichick worked together as well as any of ’em, combining to make the Patriots the Team of the Decade, winning three Super Bowls and coming within seconds of winning a fourth.

Now Pioli is in Kansas City, trying to do for the Chiefs what he did for the Patriots – assemble the kind of talent that wins titles.

It isn’t only Pioli the Pats will miss. Tom Dimitroff, who was director of college scouting in New England, left last year to become GM in Atlanta, where he drafted quarterback Matt Ryan and the Falcons went from 4-12 (last in the NFC South) in 2007 to 11-5 and the playoffs.

Nick Caserio has moved up from director of player personnel, but filling the shoes of Pioli, who had such a remarkable, and successful, working relationship with Belichick, is a huge undertaking.

Will the Pats be able to run the football?

It will be a necessity, in order to ease the pressure on Brady. But who’s going to do it? The 33-year-old Fred Taylor, signed from Jacksonville? The oft-injured and, so far disappointing former first-round draft pick, Laurence Maroney? Last year’s rushing leader, Sammy Morris, who had 727 yards on 156 carries? Only once in the last seven seasons have the Patriots had a runner gain more than 1,000 yards. That was, not coincidentally, when they last won the Super Bowl – in 2004, when Corey Dillon racked up 1,635 yards on 345 carries. It doesn’t, unfortunately, appear as if the Pats have anyone on the roster capable of putting up anything close to those numbers.

Is the linebacking corps closer to all-NFL caliber, or all-AARP caliber?

The Pats were so desperate for linebackers at the end of the last season that they resurrected Junior Seau and Rosevelt Colvin. And now veteran Mike Vrabel is in Kansas City. The popular Tedy Bruschi is still here, but he turned 36 last month. Adalius Thomas will be 32 next month and missed half of last season with a broken arm. He hasn’t been the dominant force Pats fans had hoped when he was signed as a free agent from Baltimore prior to the 2007 season. Last year’s first-round draft choice, Jerod Mayo, is a bright spot, having led the team in tackles as a rookie. Tully Banta-Cain returns from San Francisco, where the 49ers were willing to let him go after having signed him as a free agent in 2007. Is Pierre Woods going to be the next Vrabel? Do you really want the answer to that question?

Should the secondary be a primary concern?

Both corners who started in Super Bowl XLII, Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs, are in Philadelphia. In camp in New England will be veteran free agents Shawn Springs and Leigh Bodden, and youngsters Jonathan Wilhite and Terrence Wheatley. Bodden was available because the Lions didn’t want to pay the seven-figure bonus required to retain him. Springs, 33, may have lost a step in recent years with the Redskins. Tellingly, the Pats drafted safety Patrick Chung and cornerback Darius Butler in the second round to begin shoring up their suspect secondary.

What is the status of Tom Brady’s knee? Just as importantly, what is his state of mind?

Bill Parcells used to say that, on Sunday, everybody wants to win, but not everybody wants to do the work necessary the rest of the week in order to win on Sunday. When Pats fans last saw Brady, he was the best quarterback in the NFL, coming off a season in which he’d thrown for a record 50 touchdowns. Now almost 32 (his birthday is Aug. 3), he’s coming off the first serious injury of his career and hasn’t played in a year. He’s also gotten married to gorgeous supermodel Gisele Bundchen, with whom he has been jet-setting around the globe. Perhaps dodging paparazzi will help him avoid the pass rushers who are sure to test his toughness, both physical and mental, this season. Does Brady still burn with the competitive fire that has made him, and the Patriots, great? That’s the most important question to be answered.

Can the offensive line protect Brady?

The Giants provided the model in Super Bowl XLII of how to keep Brady and the prolific Patriots offense under wraps – pressure the quarterback. Few teams have the talent to do it as successfully as New York did, but rest assured that every team will try. Veterans Matt Light, Logan Mankins, Dan Koppen, Stephen Neal and Nick Kaczur should be up to the task. But one mistake could mean the end of the Pats’ playoff hopes.

What happens if Brady gets hurt again?

Don’t ask.

Will the Pats get back to the playoffs, after missing out last season for the first time since 2002?

That’s a question that won’t be answered until December – or perhaps even January, when the Patriots play their final game of the 2009 season, on Jan. 3, 2010, in Houston. But I suspect the answer is that, if Brady can play at least 14 games: Yes, they will.

jdonalds@projo.com