Chad Morton was the biggest name released yesterday out of the seven players cut during the New England Patriot?s roster trim. Morton, signed in late June, is recovering from knee surgery, never practiced with the Patriots, spending the entire training camp on the physically unable to perform list. With the emergence of rookie Ellis Hobbs, and the addition of Andre Davis, Morton's services were no longer needed.

Eli Manning will not play in the New York Giants upcoming preseason match versus the New England Patriots this Thursday night and while the Giants are planning on Manning being ready for the Sept. 11 season opener, Manning?s sprained right elbow many not permit it. "The medical department is completely in charge of the rehab," Giants coach Tim Coughlin said. "What he is doing is he's now into the strengthening exercises, he's doing some soft toss, so he's going through the motion of throwing the ball. He's feeling good. They're very optimistic and they feel like he's on schedule."

The New England Patriots acquired wide receiver Andre? Davis from the Cleveland Browns for an undisclosed draft choice, the team announced today. ?We felt it was a situation where there was value and where the player could potentially help,? Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. ?We feel good with the terms of the trade. Now we?ll see how quickly he can pick up the system.?

Patriots' quarterback Tom Brady has been battered with questions regarding the health of his throwing arm which many speculated was the key reason he sat out New England?s preseason opener against Cincinnati last week. Brady explained his absence was a pre-emptive measure to help preserve the strength of his golden arm. ``You just try to stay fresh, because the last thing you want is to start the regular season in Week 1 and miss a Wednesday or Thursday practice because something is sore,'' Brady said. ``You want to build into the year as opposed to working back when the season starts. . . . In previous years my arm (has gotten) tired and worn down at the end of the year, so (we've) tried to take some of those throws out early in the year and see how it feels later in the year.''

While the on-field defections have been many, possibly the largest hole in New England?s chances to capture their third straight Super Bowl came from two off-the-field emigrations; offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, headed to South Bend to revive a floundering Notre Dame program, and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, who took his defensive-minded approach to Cleveland as head coach. Both had been instrumental in all three New England Super Bowl victories with their complex arrangements and schemes that played more towards the shortcomings of others than it did play up the Patriots? own strengths, but neither loss should come as a surprise; both coordinators had been heavily coveted for various coaching positions ever since the Patriots? first Super Bowl victory.

New England Patriots Pro Bowl defensive end Richard Seymour returned to camp on Wednesday with a nice little pay raise. Under the renegotiated fifth year of his contract Seymour will get a raise of 40 percent, bringing his salary this year to approximately $4 million. He originally was scheduled to earn $2.87 million under the contract he signed as a rookie. ''I said that I would announce something as soon as we had something to say," said Belichick. ''We did that this morning and we're happy about it. In terms of the contract and the negotiations or anything that went down, I'm not going to get into any of that. But we're happy to have Richard come back to camp and look forward to seeing him out on the field."

The Patriots and Richard Seymour have reached an agreement to keep the three-time Pro Bowl defensive end in New England. The agreement will take Seymour?s base salary from $2.87 million to the $4 million range and will not include the long-term extension Seymour was looking for. Seymour's new salary is still well below what the top defensive linemen in the league make (the franchise number for defensive ends, which is the average of the top five salaries, is $6.6 million). But it was enough to satisfy Seymour and bring him into the fold.