FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady will miss the entire season with a left knee injury that needs surgery, leaving the New England Patriots without one of the game's great quarterbacks and severely damaging their hopes of a return trip to the Super Bowl.

The 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player will be placed on injured reserve, the Patriots said Monday, one day after Brady's knee collapsed under him when he was hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard in the first quarter of a 17-10 victory over Kansas City.

"As a team we all just have to do our jobs. That really doesn't change," New England coach Bill Belichick said. "He played one position, he played it very well. We have somebody else playing that position now."

A one-paragraph statement issued by the team confirmed that the two-time Super Bowl MVP will have surgery, ending a 128-game starting streak that is the third longest for a quarterback in league history. Belichick would not say what the injury is, but the play, Brady's reaction and the prognosis all point toward a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Brady sounded optimistic about the Patriots in an e-mail to NBCSports.com.

"It will all be OK," he wrote. "I'm excited to see what our team is made of ... I still like our chances."

Matt Cassel, who guided New England to its 20th consecutive regular-season victory after Brady was hurt, will start Sunday at the New York Jets. It will be the first meaningful start since high school for Cassel, who backed up Heisman Trophy winners Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at Southern California and spent the past three years holding a clipboard for Brady.