Teams scramble to fill big holes

QB Brady (free agent), LB Kuechly (retired), WR Hopkins (trade) among elite playmakers no longer with their clubs.

When the season starts, plenty of eyes will be focused on the New England Patriots as usual.

Only this time it will be to see how 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton fares replacing three-time MVP and sixtime Super Bowl champion Tom Brady at quarterback.

Newton is far from the only player dealing with big shoes to fill this season as a series of trades, free-agent signings and retirements opened up some massive holes at jobs that had been filled by stars for years.

Not surprisingly some of the biggest focus is at quarterback with Teddy Bridgewater tasked with replacing Newton in Carolina after the No. 1 pick in 2011 had a nine-year run as starter for the Panthers.

Philip Rivers started 224 consecutive regular-season games for the Chargers before leaving to sign with Indianapolis as a free agent. The Chargers now will turn to veteran Tyrod Taylor or first-round rookie Justin Herbert to take over for the reliable Rivers.

Brady had the longest run of all the QBs on the move, taking over as the starter with the Patriots a decade before Newton made his debut in 2011. He started 283 regular-season games over that span, missing only 15 games in 2008 with a knee injury and four more because of suspension at the start of the 2016 season.

But he couldn’t agree on a new deal with New England and signed as a free agent in Tampa Bay, clearing the way for Newton’s arrival.

A three-time Pro Bowl selection who was the league’s top player in 2015, Newton remains the NFL’s all-time leader in touchdowns rushing by a quarterback. He’s been hampered by shoulder and foot injuries the past two seasons but should offer a different look than the more stationary Brady did the past two decades.

“I’m never shocked with anything we do as a Patriots organization,” defensive back Devin McCourty said last month on the podcast he hosts with his twin brother and fellow Patriots defensive back, Jason. “I feel like everything we do is always in the thought process of trying to win and win championships. I think that’s what it comes down to, trying to make the team better. I’m never surprised when we’re trying to do that.”

DOUG MILLS / NEW YORK TIMES 2016 Former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, who is two years removed from his last healthy season, will arrive at Patriots training camp seeking to answer for himself the same question wondered by a vast legion of football fans: Can he replace Tom Brady, New England’s six-time Super Bowl winner?