Jason Taylor could be the next player to attempt a career renaissance under Bill Belichick. Since the coach first took over in New England before the 2000 season, several other players have been rejuvenated with the Patriots. In no particular order, here’s our Top 5:

Antowain Smith. Coming off a 2000 season where he rushed for just 354 yards in Buffalo, Smith was cast overboard by the Bills as part of a salary dump. New England picked him up as a free agent on June 7, 2001 as part of an offseason team-building plan that was geared toward low-risk, high-reward free agents, and the investment paid off handsomely. Smith finished his first season with the Patriots with a career-high 1,157 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, and was a major part of the Super Bowl XXXVI champions’ offense. It was easily the finest of his three seasons in a New England uniform — his production declined significantly in 2002 (982 rushing yards) and 2003 (642 rushing yards).

Smith left New England after the 2003 season and was never the same back, eventually finishing his career with New Orleans after the 2005 season. But he retired with a pair of Super Bowl rings and the respect of virtually everyone in the Patriots locker room for his good nature and hard work. He remains one of the earliest symbols of Belichick and Scott Pioli’s frugal forays into free agency.

Rodney Harrison. Before the start of the 2003 season, Harrison was a veteran who spent nine years in the San Diego secondary and had twice reached the Pro Bowl. He was one of the faces of the Chargers, a player so celebrated that San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa once said of him: “Rodney Harrison put a 5 o'clock shadow on the jaw of San Diego sports. He was its menace. Its tough reputation. Its official scary person. Next to Rodney Harrison, the football player, Stephen King is Mother Goose, defeathered and edited for nasty content.” But like Smith, Harrison was cast overboard, leaving San Diego when the Chargers were attempting to try and rebuild after the 2002 season.

He was reborn under Belichick, bringing his unique brand of havoc to Foxborough. The veteran safety flourished with the Patriots, putting his imprint on the New England secondary in the unsteady days after the release of Lawyer Milloy and helping guide a generation of young defensive backs through the hazards of life in pro football. Harrison will never win a league-wide popularity contest, but he remains one of the most respected men in the New England locker room. If he retires this offseason — as some have speculated he will — he will leave the game more identifiable as a Patriot than as a Charger, an amazing thought considering the level of success he had in his early days in San Diego.

Corey Dillon. Considered the classic NFL malcontent, Dillon was wasting away in Cincinnati. After finishing the 2000 season with 1,435 rushing yards, his numbers started to decline steadily, and appeared to be on a parallel track with an awful Bengals team that won a combined 12 games between 2000 and 2002. Things bottomed out for Dillon in 2003, when he lost his job to Rudi Johnson and finished the season with a career-low 541 rushing yards. The running back was miserable, so much so that he chucked his gear into the stands at the end of the 2003 season and openly lobbied for a trade out of Cincinnati.

The Bengals obliged, shipping him to the Patriots for a second-round pick in the spring of 2004. And like Smith three years before, he provided an instant jolt of respectability to the New England ground game. He rushed for 1,635 yards in 2004, helping power the Patriots to a win in Super Bowl XXXIX. He slowly faded — his final two years in New England are better known for his off-field rants than his on-field performance — but there was no question that No. 28 found a second life in Foxborough under Belichick.

Randy Moss. You all know the stories. Mooning the fans in Green Bay. Run-ins with the law. Straight cash, homey. Moss was considered untouchable, especially after a dismal 2006 season in Oakland where he managed just 42 catches for 552 yards and three touchdowns. He was thought to be in the final stages of a once-great career, consigned to rot in the NFL wasteland of Oakland.

But a 2007 draft-day deal for a fourth-round pick brought Moss to New England, and all that changed. “The Moss of old is back,” he told reporters shortly after the deal was consummated, and he hasn’t disappointed, picking up 167 receptions and 34 touchdowns in his two seasons in New England, including the astounding 2008 season where he finished with an NFL-record 23 touchdown catches.

Mike Vrabel. Originally taken in the third round of 1997 Draft, Vrabel spent the first four years of his career wasting away mostly as a special teams player with the Steelers. It reached a point where he considered quitting the game for law school. No one quite knew what to do with him in Pittsburgh: was the 6-foot-4, 261-pound Vrabel an undersized defensive lineman or a big linebacker? Consequently, he never really played much in his four seasons with the Steelers — in fact, he never started a game.

But then, the Patriots came calling. Along with Smith, Vrabel was part of the low-risk, high-reward class of 2001, and he paid off in much the same way. The Patriots immediately placed him at outside linebacker, and he soon became one of the most important parts of a New England defense that would dominate the first part of this decade. He was a stalwart, never playing fewer than 13 games and consistently delivering the pass rush over his eight years in New England (he finished with 48 sacks in 125 regular-season games with the Patriots).

Honorable mention

Bryan Cox. The occasionally controversial Cox brought a level of leadership to the young New England defense in 2001. The linebacker won the only ring of his career that season with the Patriots.

Roman Phifer. Cox used to refer to the likeable linebacker as a jinx — he left the Rams after a lengthy career with the franchise, and they immediately won their first Super Bowl. He arrived to play for the Jets the year after they lost in the AFC Championship Game, and then sat through two seasons where New York combined to finish one game over .500. That all ended in 2001 when he won his first title with the Patriots.