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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Tonight's game at the soon-to-be-replaced Giants Stadium is not for the starters.

It's not for Tom Brady, looking for redemption from the last time he faced the New York Giants. He's reportedly looking for real estate in California instead.

Nor is it for David Tyree, whose near-impossible catch to keep alive the Giants' game-winning drive in Super Bowl XLII has become the stuff of legend. He's on the physically-unable-to-perform reserve list and won't see the field again until at least mid-October.

No, the preseason finale is for the 22 players on each team who know their careers might not extend past Saturday.

It's for guys like Agawam's Mike Flynn, a veteran of 11 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, who was signed late in the preseason by the Patriots as little more than a practice fill-in. Injury-related circumstances along the rest of the offensive line have created an opportunity for someone with ability, heart and desire, and a veteran like Flynn knows he can't afford to miss the boat. "There's a lot of work to be done," the 6-foot-3, 305-pound lineman from the University of Maine said earlier in the week. "This is a championship team. You don't come off the street and make the team here. It's just a different atmosphere, a lot of great players, commitment from these guys. It's going to be a tough road, but I'll play hard for a week and see what happens and they'll make some decisions."

The decisions will come quickly after tonight's game. Bill Belichick and his coaching staff will huddle Friday and thrash out the merits and detriments of each player in each position group, and by sometime Saturday, the work will be done and the list of cuts will be submitted to the league office by 4 p.m. Eastern time.

But the task won't be over even then. All NFL teams can establish their eight-man practice squads on Sunday. And from among the 682 or so players released by the other 31 teams, Belichick and his staff are likely to find at least one or two whom they believe will be able to help the Patriots at various positions.

If history can be a guide, the final roster won't be set until a few hours before the Patriots take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium, 1 p.m. on Sept. 7.

That's why, for guys like Flynn, it's a blessing that most of the Patriots' veterans will be home tonight, watching the game on their widescreen plasma TVs instead of trying to "avenge" their Super Bowl loss - which, in the Belichickian way of doing things, is part of ancient history, anyway.

"It's an opportunity to show them what I can do and hopefully get the opportunity to be around," Flynn said. "It's a great team. I grew up in the are, and to me it would be a great end to a career."

Despite having played for the Ravens for his whole career and earning a Super Bowl ring with them, Flynn knows what the allure of wrapping up with New England's home team would be.

`It's exciting, a great team, great players," he said. "Being from the state, I know the history of the team ... actually all the sports history of all of New England, so when they gave me the opportunity I was grateful that I got a week to show them what I can do."

The scene along the offensive line changed somewhat earlier in the week when Matt Light and Billy Yates returned to practice, while Ryan O'Callaghan was placed on injured reserve and Stephen Neal was transferred from the active physically-unable-to-perform list to the reserve PUP, shelving him for at least six weeks into the regular season.

"Guys are getting healthy now, but I don't think that will be a factor," Flynn said. "I think it's whether I can go out there this week and show them that I can still play, and let them know that if something happens during the season, they'll feel comfortable to put me in there and not lose much." There are a lot of people on the same "bubble" with Flynn.

Along the defensive line, Steve Fifita, Titus Adams, Le Kevin Smith, Kenny Smith and Santonio Thomas will be looking to prove themselves one last time. Among the linebacking corps, it's Gary Guyton, Victor Hobson, Vince Redd and Bo Ruud; in the secondary, it's Mark Dillard, Mike Richardson, Jeff Shoate and Ray Ventrone; amid the skill positions it's Matt Cassell, Matt Gutierrez, Sam Aiken, C.J. Jones, Matthew Slater, Kelley Washington, BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Tyson DeVree, Jonathan Stupar and Stephen Spach; and elsewhere on the offensive line, Flynn shares the hopes of Dan Connolly, Jimmy Martin, Stephen Sene and John Welbourn.

Many of them might have an edge, Flynn said, because they've had the playbook in their hands longer. But he has the advantage of experience in the league - a quality Belichick cherishes - and the knowledge that he has to prepare himself to execute when called upon, no excuses accepted.

"It feels like you're never sitting down," he said. "Getting the offense, that's the key ... I don't want to go out there and be a liability just because I don't know the plays. There's no excuse."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.