JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Deion Branch needed just five little words to explain why the New England Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls.

Asked Monday if he had any thoughts of leaving the team when he becomes a restricted free agent, the Super Bowl MVP replied: "My home is in Foxboro."

Then, referring to team owner Robert Kraft, Branch added: "I'm proud of the family that Mr. Kraft has built."

An emphasis on winning over money is what drives the Patriots to success in an era when free agency and the salary cap force major turnover at most teams each season.

Next season's Patriots certainly will be different than this season's. The biggest losses are not players but coaches: Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis is the new head coach at Notre Dame, and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel accepted the Cleveland Browns' head coaching job immediately after Sunday night's game.

Crennel's move, which gives the NFL a record six black head coaches, was hardly a secret. As the Patriots' 24-21 win over Philadelphia was ending, coach Bill Belichick put his arms around his two top aides in a gesture of affection and appreciation.

They will be hard to replace.

"Romeo and Charlie have done a great job. A lot of the success we've had should go to them," Belichick said Monday. "I've been with them both a long time. I go back to 1981 with Romeo and I'll miss both of them a lot."

The Patriots might, too.

Next season, they will be seeking to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls and the first to win four in five seasons.

The San Francisco 49ers came closest to three NFL titles in a row, winning the 1989 and 1990 Super Bowls, then losing the next NFC championship game on a last-second field goal by the New York Giants' Matt Bahr.

That New York team, which went on to beat Buffalo in the 1991 Super Bowl, had a coaching staff headed by Bill Parcells and including Belichick, Crennel and Weis, along with future NFL head coaches Tom Coughlin, Al Groh and Ray Handley. Two of the players on that team are also coaches and are reportedly on Crennel's wish list for his staff with the Browns: Pepper Johnson, New England's defensive line coach, and Maurice Carthon, the offensive coordinator in Dallas under Parcells.

Belichick's first order of business, therefore, is rebuilding his coaching staff, although he will take at least a week off, traveling to California for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Most of the core players, however, should be back, although some are getting up there in age, notably linebacker Willie McGinest and safety Rodney Harrison, both of whom have played major roles in the team's success. Harrison, who had two interceptions in Sunday's game, will turn 33 next December, when McGinest will turn 34.

One member of the Patriots unlikely to return is cornerback Ty Law, who missed the second half of the season with a broken foot after quarreling with the team over his contract in training camp.