NFL.com- The Chiefs hired Patriots vice president - player personnel Scott Pioli on Tuesday to be the team’s general manager. Pioli, 43, was considered one of the masterminds behind the Patriots dynasty that won three Super Bowls and four AFC titles over a span of eight seasons.

As the Patriots Brain Drain continues, I'm sure there'll be plenty of hand-wringing and panic by people who think the Pats will have lost too many indispensible people and eventually the dynasty will collapse like a Big Dig tunnel. But that's not going to happen as long as the guy calling the shots in Foxboro spells his name Bill Belichick. He's the Borg; the rest are all just part of the Collective.

This is to take nothing away from Pioli, who won two Executive of the Year awards in his time here, and probably should have won more (how he didn't get one in 2001 after building a championship team out of stuff he found in the Swap Shop at the NFL's town dump is beyond me). It's just that there's no question Belichick was the master and Pioli the apprentice. The two had the perfect working relationship in that they never went after a player unless both agreed they wanted him. It's hard to imagine there isn't someone in the Pats organization who's ready to step in tomorrow and give The Hooded One the same level of service, especially given that this move isn't a surprise; if anything, it's long overdue. So now barely three weeks into NFL Front Office Shakeup Season, teams have hired Belichick's estranged Defensive Coordinator (Cleveland), his wunderkind Offensive Coordinator (Denver), and now his protege' VP of Player Personnel. If I was an agent, I'd be on the phone right now working out a deal to represent Stephen Belichick. It's only a matter of time before some team is giving him the keys to the franchise.

PS. I'm sure Gene DiFillipo is wondering why Belichick didn't fire Pioli and Josh McDaniels for interviewing for these jobs. But this is how you attract the most competent people to your organiztion. How badly do the best and brightest want to come work for the Pats knowing that having that mojo is guaranteed to lead them to bigger and better things? Having Belichick's scent on them is like an aphrodesiac to the other owners in the NFL. Pioli will be missed, but every brilliant young football mind in the world will be giving his left nut for the chance to come learn under the master the way he did.