The news yesterday that Tom Brady was in a potentially life-threatening auto accident was considerably more shocking than that he apparently had agreed to a contract extension with the Patriots.

Although you'd never know it from the near-hysterical concerns of some media members, the question never was "if" Brady would sign a new deal with the Pats, but only "when."

As I wrote in July, at the start of training camp, when some in the media were saying Brady would not report because he was upset about being in the final year of his current contract, "Robert Kraft is on record as saying he has every intention of signing Brady to a lucrative, multi-year deal that will ensure that the superstar quarterback will never wear any other uniform than the red, white, and blue -- and, yeah, silver, too -- of the Patriots.

"Kraft," I wrote then, "isn't going to stiff the guy who put three Lombardi trophies on display at Gillette Stadium. He's not going to let the charismatic Tom Terrific, who had a season for the ages in 2007, get away."

Lo and behold, Brady now has a new deal.

Shocking.

What's interesting about it is that, since the Pats could come to terms with Brady -- and kicker Stephen Gostkowski, as well -- they obviously also could work out new deals with disgruntled wide receiver Randy Moss and all-pro guard Logan Mankins, who remains a holdout.

Personally, I'd "overpay" Moss on a two-year extension. But, given that he'll be 35 in the 2012 season, I'd be reluctant to go beyond that. He's probably hoping to get at least a three-year deal, and likely will start out looking for four more years.

As for Mankins, he and the team remain very much at odds over the amount of years, and, of course, money, involved in a potential new deal -- an increasingly bitter impasse that may well end with his being traded away, a la Super Bowl XXXIX MVP Deion Branch.