For members of the New England Patriots’ organization, the NFL’s offseason calendar didn’t provide much of an opportunity to wallow in the regrets of a Super Bowl loss. Free agency began just a few weeks after the 2007 season’s final game, and the annual draft is right around the corner.

It has been an interesting couple of months for the Patriots as far as the transaction wire is concerned: more than a couple of the bold names have been signed by other clubs, and the fair share of players New England did make deals with were their own. New faces are not so much stars (unlike last year), but the solid, middle-of-the-pack bargain guys Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli built their first title teams with.

After exceeding expectations on his initial one-year deal, Randy Moss was signed for three more years, with a generous salary increase over what he made last year.

“I think a big part of free agency for us was re-signing players we were able to re-sign,” Belichick said at last week’s NFL meetings. “Randy is one of those. He gave a lot of leadership off the field, outstanding production on the field.”

Tedy Bruschi was signed to a somewhat surprising two-year extension. Larry Izzo, Jabar Gaffney, Kelley Washington and Lonie Paxton were re-upped as well.

But All-Pro cornerback Asante Samuel — who seemed as gone as disco from the moment he got the Pats to agree to terms that would not allow them to re-franchise him last August — left for Philadelphia, and the team also said goodbye to fellow corner Randall Gay. In their stead are Jason Webster, Fernando Bryant and Tank Williams. All have been hampered by injuries in their respective careers, and all have signed one-year deals.

“There’s certainly going to be a different look to our secondary,” Belichick said when asked about the team’s free agency doings, mentioning new defensive backs coach Dom Capers as well. “We lost a couple players; we signed four players. We don’t really go to camp for another four months, so something could happen between now and then, too. We’ll see how it goes. We’ve made some additions, we’ve lost some players, but that’s kind of the way it is every year.”

As Belichick said, there could be more moves coming. Linebacker Rosevelt Colvin is still on the open market — though it’s rumored Colvin’s injury was a ruptured Achilles, which would explain the lack of interest thus far — as are Takeo Spikes and Victor Hobson, the type of veteran linebackers New England generally takes an interest in. The team also could extend an offer to restricted free-agent linebacker Adam Seward of the Panthers, whom the Pats hosted a couple of weeks ago; Belichick did not dismiss the notion when asked.

Old friend Ty Law is also still available, and both sides have acknowledged that there have been discussions about bringing him back to Foxboro.

“You know, we’ve pretty much talked to, in one way or another, just about all the players that are available, or their representatives,” Belichick said when Law was mentioned. “I don’t know of any negotiations we have going on with anybody. Any player that isn’t on our team possibly could be.”

And Junior Seau remains a mystery. Seau underwent shoulder surgery after the Super Bowl and hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll return for a 19th season or retire to surf the waves. Belichick said there was no cutoff date or timetable for either side to make a decision.

It is to be expected that the majority of changes for the Patriots have come on the defensive side of the ball. For the second straight year, they saw their season end when the opposing team marched at least 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

Belichick mentioned Capers, who also has the nebulous title of “special assistant,” a couple of times during his press conference at the meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., particularly when it came to the defensive changes the team may undergo.

“The big thing is, defensively, we try to put the best, most competitive defense we can on the field, whatever combination of players that is: linebackers, defensive linemen, secondary and so forth. But surely it will have a different look than it did last year.”

smanza@projo.com

 *-2006; out of football ’07