I recently saw a really neat piece on SI.com going through the entire history of the NFL and highlighting the best players to ever wear each number, so I've decided to do the same with the Patriots. Given the team's somewhat pitiable history (pre-Kraft) a lot of these guys might not be very good, just the best the Pats could muster with that number. I used profootballreference.com to go back as far as 1960 and look up the jersey numbers.  If there wasn't anyone of consequence, I left the number blank, but I've only been old enough to follow the team since the mid 90's so if I've left somebody out, I encourage my fellow fans to help me fill in the blanks. I based my players on what they did in New England, disregarding their production elsewhere (i.e. Irving Fryar, Henry Ellard, Brian Cox, etc.) Enjoy!