FOXBORO — When Fred Taylor arrived Wednesday morning for meetings, he found Kevin Faulk in his seat and ready to go — despite the fact Faulk had suffered a torn ACL on Sunday, and already knew he would be out for the season.

“I’m not sure how many guys would be in the building — he’s in the meeting bright and early sitting in his chair before everybody else. But that’s Kev,” said Taylor. “That’s a credit to him.”

It’s a sign that Faulk plans to be around the Patriots as much as he can for the rest of the season.

“Before the season, I was elected team captain, and I was elected that for a reason. No matter what happens to me, I’ll be here,” Faulk said Wednesday. “[I’ll be doing] pretty much the same thing I’ve been doing — just that I can’t play now. I’ll answer any questions I can give the guys. And just be that guy there when they need someone to talk to.”

The 34-year-old Faulk, who confirmed the news he suffered the season-ending injury in an extensive Q&A session with reporters at his locker Wednesday morning, said he’ll have surgery on the knee in “about a month.” Then, he said he’s going to “rehab my butt off. And from there, we’ll see what happens.”

“I’ll let my body tell me,” he said when he was asked about the future. “I’ve been playing a long time. I’ve been fortunate enough to have played football for over 20 years and avoid an ACL injury. A lot of people told me I’ve been blessed. And that’s the good thing.

“I’m not upset about it. But let’s say I’m upset for my teammates, because I put so much in — we put so much in — into the offseason and training camp, to go out there and be a good football team.”

The New England running backs have always been a tight-knit bunch, and Faulk feels confident it’s a group that can collective raise its game.

“As a football player and as a competitor, you want to be there,” he said. “You want to be on the field. And as a group, everybody didn’t get a chance to play a whole lot. And that’s just the way it goes.

“But I’m gone now. I’m not going to be here for the year. Other guys are going to have to step up. Sammy [Morris], BenJarvus [Green-Ellis], Fred, [Danny] Woodhead. They have to step up. They have to do their jobs and let the team win.”

While Faulk plans on continuing to work with the team as closely as they will allow, the New England offense will go forward without him. Faulk is a unique in his role as a pass-catching third-down back who presents a different look for opposing defenses. The Patriots’ all-time leader in all-purpose yards with 12,247, and ranks fifth in rushing (3,550), fourth in receptions (424) and tenth in pass receiving yards (3,667), his versatility as a runner and receiver — as well as a regular in blitz pickup — will be difficult to replace.

Mike Tanier of the analytical web site Football Outsiders believes the loss of Faulk will strip the New England offense of some backfield versatility.

“Faulk was 13-of-16 on third-down passing conversions last season,” Tanier said. “I think the first thing the Patriots lose is the security that they can spread the field on 3rd-and-short and dump the ball to Faulk if Welker is covered.

“Between [Laurence] Maroney and Faulk, they have lost a lot of backfield versatility. I don't know what Danny Woodhead is capable of, but I think the Jets showed what the Patriots offense is starting to get reduced to. Faulk was the best third option left. Teams are now going to double Moss deep, allow Welker to get his 10 catches, and force the Patriots to execute 15 plays on every drive.

“It’s a long way from 2007.”

According to Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus, the Patriots would likely turn to Sammy Morris as the primary pass-catcher out of the backfield.

“Faulk is a decent receiver out of the backfield and a decent pass protector too, but he’s not irreplaceably good at either. Sammy Morris was just as good a blocker last season and actually graded better in our system as a receiver out of the backfield,” said Monson. “Faulk caught 77.1 percent of the passes thrown his way in ‘09 and gained 8.1 yards per catch. Morris caught 71.4 percent, but gained 9.7 yards per reception. In terms of replacing him, their best bet is probably plugging Morris in as a 3rd down back and relying on Taylor and BenJarvus Green-Ellis to split the carries in the run game,” Monson added.

“Obviously, we don’t have any significant data on Danny Woodhead, given his lack of playing time, but he has bounced between halfback and wide receiver, so can certainly catch the ball and be an effective 3rd down target out of the backfield. If he can show ability picking up the blitz, he could be more than a throwaway signing at the bottom of the depth chart for New England.”

Woodhead is certainly in the same mold as Faulk — a 5-foot-9, 200-pounder who has played both wide receiver and running back. In 2009 with the Jets, the Chadron State product had 15 carries for 64 yards, while adding eight catches for 87 yards.

“I’ve done some stuff like that in the past, if that was something that presented that maybe I could do, then great,” Woodhead said Wednesday when asked about working as a third-down back. “But I’m not trying to find out what I can do. That’s not for me to make the decision. My decision is that I can come to work every single day, do my best, game-planning for the Buffalo Bills, and working as hard as I can in practice.”

But the bottom line is that when it comes to replacing Faulk, the contributions will have to come from multiple players.

“I don’t think you’re going to find any one player to be a duplicate of Kevin Faulk,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick. “I don’t think we’re going to find one player to be carbon copy of Kevin Faulk. I don’t think that exists and I don’t think that’s really realistic. As a team, we just have to find ways to be efficient, be productive, move the ball, score points, even though he’s not in there. It will be a challenge, but that’s what we need to do.”

“Can he be replaced? We’re going to have to replace him if we’re going to be successful,” Taylor said. “As a unit, from the running back position, we’re all going to have to come together to try and create a one-headed monster in the mold of Kev, but there’s only one Kevin Faulk. We all know that. He’s been doing it for 12 years, so we want to try and do it half as good as he did it, and maybe that’ll help the offense continue to turn like while he was in there.”