The New England Patriots have re-signed running back Kevin Faulk to a one year contract carries a $1 million salary with another $1 million in incentives and Faulk also gets a $1 million signing bonus to stay for his 12th season in Foxboro.

Faulk has been in Foxboro so long, he came in under former coach Pete Carroll, that he outdates everyone on the club except coach Dante Scarnecchia. He was New England’s second round pick out of LSU in the 1999 NFL Draft.

This is a good signing for the Pats, Faulk is a team guy, a smart player and someone who head coach Bill Belichick trusts with a game on the line.

Faulk never wanted to go anywhere either despite overtures from Washington and Philadelphia. He and his wife raised their family here and they don’t want to uproot them.

“It was always the Patriots,’’ said Faulk’s agent, Raymond Brothers. “I can’t even tell you it was close. It wasn’t.’’ “He always wanted to stay in New England — he said it publicly, I said it publicly,’’ Brothers said. “Any time he plays for the Patriots, he knows the standard is to win a Super Bowl. It’s not to make the playoffs or win more games than he did last year. Coach [Bill] Belichick is trying to win Super Bowls. “And [Faulk] has won three of them with them already, so he’d be in a place where he’d be in a position to do that again, in a place where he feels most comfortable and a place where he’s loved.’’

The Patriots still have three of their own free agents left on the market punter Chris Hanson, tight end Ben Watson and OLB/DE Derrick Burgess.