FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — With the New England Patriots, it has always started with Tom Brady.

Not this year.

If the Patriots are going to get back to the Super Bowl, get back to playing February football, it’s going to be because of the defense.

And the Patriots have put themselves in prime position to do just that.

In the offseason they signed free-agent cornerbacks Brandon Browner from Seattle and Darrelle Revis from Tampa Bay. The Patriots have defensive tackle Vince Wilfork and linebacker Jerod Mayo back from injuries that derailed their 2013 seasons before November.

And they have some up-and-coming stars in linebacker Jamie Collins and end Chandler Jones, to go with steady veterans such as Rob Ninkovich, Devin McCourty and Dont’a Hightower.

There are a couple of question marks – who will line up at safety beside McCourty, who will fill the other defensive tackle and who will stand in for Browner while he serves his four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy – but overall this could be the best defense Bill Belichick has had in his 15 years as coach.

And considering the Patriots won Super Bowls during the 2003 and 2004 seasons with rosters that included Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison, Willie McGinest, Asante Samuel, Ted Washington, Rosevelt Colvin, Tyrone Poole and Mike Vrabel, that would be saying a lot.

The defenders are aware of expectations that this defense can be great. They’re not buying into the hype.

“I don’t care about ESPN, reporters or anything like that,” said Hightower.

What he and the other defenders care about is how they play. And Hightower, who led the team with 137 tackles last year, loves how this defense has come together through the offseason team activities and training camp.

“We’re out there having fun,” he said. “Any time you can go out and have fun playing defense, good things are going to happen. Everyone is flying around, everybody is doing the right thing, there’s not a whole lot of questions being asked.

“We get it done in the meeting room and then we go out there to the practice field. If we do have mistakes, we come in and get them fixed.”

Mayo, who led the team in tackles in each of his first five seasons before going down with an injury last October, said it is obvious that the defenders, both new and old to the Patriots, are focused on playing well together.

“I do like that the team, the defense, enjoys the game of football,” he said. “We’re all in here even when it’s not mandatory. We’re all in here trying to get on the same page, get that camaraderie, that communication, that you need.”

Since that magical year of 2007, when the Patriots romped to an undefeated regular season by averaging 36.8 points and 411.3 yards per game, the focus has almost entirely been on their offense.

And in this new age of NFL football, where rules are in place to provide a high-scoring game, that’s understandable.

But even as the offense has maintained its excellence over the last six seasons, ranking first in the league in 2012, second in 2011 and third in 2009, the defense has slipped dramatically. In 2007, when the team went 16-0 in the regular season, the defense was ranked fourth among the 32 NFL teams. The next year the defense was 10th, followed by 11th, 25th, 31st, 25th and 26th.

That the Patriots got back to the Super Bowl in the 2011 season, and the AFC championship game in 2012 and 2013, is a testament to the offense and tenacity of the team.

But last season’s 26-16 AFC title-game loss to Denver, in which Peyton Manning dissected the secondary while keeping his uniform clean, exposed the defense and prompted the Patriots to regroup.

So they signed Revis and Browner, two excellent cornerbacks who can shut down the first two options of any offense. Revis, considered by many the best cornerback in football, has the ability to control an entire side of a field.

Early in training camp, Brady talked about what it was like going against the two of them.

“They’re both great players,so when you make a mistake, they make you pay, and I think that’s the mark of a really good corner,” he said. “As a quarterback, you’re always trying to find the weak link in the defense and neither of those guys are weak links. Sometimes we’ve got to go after them, we’ve got to try to see if we can make a play. But like I said, if you miss a little bit they end up making the play. It’s great work for us and you understand what you’re up against.”

Wilfork, who is recovered from the Achilles tear he suffered last Sept. 29 in the fourth game of the season, said that in-team competition is what will make this team better.

“Both sides don’t want to lose,” he said. “When you’ve got Tom Brady getting mad when he throws an incomplete pass and then you’ve got a bunch of defensive players over there yelling at him and laughing, then he turns around and throws a 50-yard touchdown, it’s like all hell is going to break loose.

“It’s good to have guys on your team like that, that love the game, that show their emotion, that care about football. The more we can compete against one another, because we have some great ballplayers in this locker room, it’s going to make it a lot easier come game day.”

That first game day is Sunday in Miami against a Dolphins team that is expected to push the Patriots for the AFC East title this year.

Since Brady took over as the starting quarterback in 2001, the Patriots have won 11 AFC East titles. The Dolphins won the division in 2008, the year Brady missed when he suffered a knee injury in the first quarter of the first game.

Ninkovich, who leads the NFL with 11 fumble recoveries over the last four seasons, realizes expectations are high for this defense.

“That’s just the way it is,” he said. “You handle those, you put in the time and effort, and the work to go play well on Sunday. You can have as many guys as you want but if you don’t go out there and get the job done, it doesn’t matter.”

Wilfork believes his defensive teammates understand exactly what Ninkovich means.

“We’ve got a bunch of new guys,” he said. “But the one thing that stayed the same is we have a bunch of guys who love the game, have a chip on their shoulder and want to get better. Hopefully that can put us where we need to be.”