For the future, the Patriots' trade of Richard Seymour to the Raiders is a very good move.

For now, though, it's not so good.

Getting a first-round pick in 2011 -- which, given Oakland's recent records, figures to be in the top half of the draft -- in exchange for a soon-to-be 30-year-old whose skills have been slipping is an excellent deal.

Especially since Seymour is in the final year of a contract paying him $3.685 million this season. The Patriots were unlikely to come to terms with him on a new deal beginning in 2010, and so decided to move him when they could get significant value in return.

Remember, the Pats obtained wide receiver Randy Moss from the Raiders in 2007 in exchange for a fourth-round pick, and all Moss did was go on to set an NFL single-season record for TD receptions that season as New England went 16-0.

Oakland just coughed up a No. 1 for a guy who certainly will improve their woeful defense, but won't come close to having the same effect on the Raiders that Moss has had in New England.

"Any transaction we make is with the goal of what is best for our team," Pats coach Bill Belichick said. "We feel the trade brings sufficient value and is in the long-term interest of the club."

There's no question that the trade brought "sufficient value and is in the long-term interest" of the team. But have the Pats subjected themselves to short-term pain for long-term gain?

"You want to make your team better right now," Raiders coach Tom Cable said following the trade for Seymour. "Right now is all that matters."

And, right now, the Patriots are not a better team for having traded Seymour, a five-time Pro Bowler and member of all three of New England's championship teams, a team leader who, for eight seasons, has been a mainstay of their defensive line.

If defense does, indeed, win championships, as the old adage goes -- and it was the Patriots' inability to keep the Giants from driving 83 yards to the winning touchdown in the closing minutes of Super Bowl XLII that cost them a perfect season and a fourth Lombardi Trophy -- then the Pats don't appear to be of championship caliber.

Despite the loss of Seymour, they still have depth along the defensive line, with Vince Wilfork (whose chances for a new deal with New England just improved), Ty Warren, Jarvis Green, Mike Wright, and rookie Ron Brace, a second-round draft choice out of Boston College.

But they will start two players at linebacker who were undrafted out of college -- Pierre Woods and Gary Guyton -- and have two new starting corners in an already suspect secondary in Leigh Bodden and 34-year-old Shawn Springs.

For the Patriots to get to the Super Bowl, even before the Seymour trade, they were going to have rely on their potent offense, led by superstar QB Tom Brady, who sat out all of last year after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the opener.

More than ever, that offense is dependent upon a healthy Brady to be successful. What are the odds, at his age, and coming off reconstructive surgery, he starts all 16 games in 2009 -- especially considering he has taken hard hits in his last two exhibition appearances?

There were concerns he'd sustained a injury to his throwing arm/shoulder when he was pounded to the ground by the Redskins' all-pro defensive lineman, Albert Haynesworth, two weeks ago.

He should be ready to start the opener Sept. 14 against the Bills in Foxboro, but even the most optimistic New England fan must be hard-pressed to say Brady will remain in the starting lineup for every game throughout the season.

Admittedly, Seymour no longer is the dominant force defensively he was when he went to five straight Pro Bowls from 2002-06. But he still was a player to be reckoned with and there is no way the New England defense is better this year without him.

Brady's remaining years as a top-flight QB are becoming fewer. He'll be 34 in 2011, when the Patriots will get to use that first-round pick from the Raiders. The Pats could have used Seymour in a championship bid this season. .