DaBruinz

Patriots Defense Off-season Preview.

DT/NT – Ron Brace, Myron Pryor, Darryl Richard– The Pats took Brace in the 2nd round last year and many people were very down on him because he didn’t spend much time on the field. Well, people over-look that the Pats were playing a LOT of 4-3 to start with and that limited the personnel they could put on the field. Brace played decently enough in the 2 games he started for Wilfork. He was double and triple-teamed most of the time he was on the field. He’s still a major work in progress. Myron Pryor came out of nowhere and forced himself onto the team. He was probably the 3rd best rookie for the Pats. Richard spent his time on the Practice Squad.

DE/DT - Ty Warren, Mike Wright, Adrian Grady – What was once a strength for the Pats has become a potential weakness. The Pats traded Seymour just prior to the start of the season last year. Jarvis Green was forced to step up and didn’t. Mike Wright and Ty Warren did well during the season. Grady spent the season on the practice squad.

ILB/OLB –Adalius Thomas, Shawn Crable, Jerod Mayo, Gary Guyton, Stephen Alexander, Bruce Davis, Thomas Williams, Tyrone McKenzie, Rob Ninkovich – Prior to last season, the Pats had brought in 3 guys who had been very good college pass rushers, but whom has issues of one sort or another in Angelo Craig, Darrell Robertson, and Vince Redd. Those three were gone before camp ended and the Pats were scrambling for OLBs for their 3-4 because of the trade of Vrabel to the Chiefs. Add to this the retirement of Bruschi prior to the start of the season, and the LB corp was in disarray.

Adalius Thomas is likely gone after he butted heads with BB this past season. The status of Tyrone McKenzie, who tore his ACL in rookie camp last year, is up in the air. Bruce Davis and Thomas Williams are the developmental LBers.

The Pats pass rush just wasn’t happening from the LBers. They weren’t able to get consistent pressure from the 4 positions like they normally have. This is the second year in a row for this.


CB - Terrence Wheatley, Jonathan Wilhite, Shawn Springs, Darius Butler, Kyle Arrington- The Pats made a splash by adding Darius Butler in the 2nd round of the Draft after having signed Shawn Springs and Leigh Bodden. That allowed them to trade away Ellis Hobbs.

Wheatley disappeared for almost the entirety of the season, being inactive on game days. Wilhite couldn’t make up his mind as to whether or not he wanted to be the #2 Cb opposite Bodden. Butler showed signs that he’ll be a starter in this league for awhile.

Springs spent much of the season “injured” and rumors were abound that he and BB weren’t seeing eye to eye. Much like BB and AD.

Arrington was amazing on special teams. He definitely opened some eyes and its no wonder the Pats signed him to their practice squad and then activated him when Lockett went down.


Safety – Brandon McGowan, Brandon Meriweather, James Sanders, Patrick Chung, Brett Lockett -

The Pats really solidified their group of safeties last year with the addition of Brandon McGowan and Patrick Chung. Chung looks to be a future starter and McGowan took the Pats like gang-busters, forcing Sanders to the bench. However, by the end of the year, McGowan was on the bench and Sanders had re-taken his spot as a starter.

Lockett was good on special teams, but Arrington proved to be better.


Special Teams:

Kicker – None -
Gostkowski is an RFA this year. I fully expect the Pats to tender him at the 1st round pick or 1st/3rd round pick level. Though a long term deal would be better.

Punter –None - Chris Hanson had a good. But it can be improved upon.

Look for someone via free agency or via the draft, though Hanson could be brought back in a pinch.


Long-Snapper –Jake Ingram – The Pats added Ingram via the draft and the kid didn’t disappoint. He was as solid as Lonnie Paxton was for the Pats.

DaBruinz

Clear needs are:
DE, NT, OLB, ILB, Kicker, Punter

NT and Kicker can be solved by Franchising Wilfork and Tendering Gostkowski.

In terms of DE, a lot depends on whether the Pats focus on the 4-3 or the 3-4.

There are some nice 4-3 DEs available in free agency like Kyle Vanden Bosch and Reggie Hayward. Not so much on the 3-4 DE, though Richard Seymour (sic) is available.

For the NT position, there are some players like Abroyo Franklin and Jason Ferguson who have anchored very stout run defenses.

ILB - You have Karlos Dansby.

OLB - Jason Taylor, Angelo Crowell, Danny Clark

Punters - Michael Koenen, Jon Ryan

Patspsycho

Pass rush/pressure wasn't happening with the DL either.

DaBruinz

Most of the sacks that TBC got was from the 4-3 alignment. Not the 3-4.

In the 3-4, the pass rush is supposed to come from the LBs. Whereas in the 4-3, it comes from the DL.

wilfork is beastin'

Crowell is injured and he's a 4-3 OLB, not the pass-rushing type we need. Jason Ferguson is 35, coming off a serious knee injury and considering retirement

Patspsycho

Even then, there's no excuse for not cause pressure with the DL in the 3-4.. Seymour had 8 sacks in '08 out of the 3-4. Not saying that any DL we put in the 3-4 must have those numbers, but there was a distinct lack of pressure with the 3-4 DL this year.

The entire DL line in the 3-4 had a whopping total of 3 sacks on the year for '09. Now sacks are overrated, as BB says, but there is no method for measuring pressure, so I am using the next best thing for comparison.

SanAngeloState

There's a guy named Julius Peppers who might be willing to play for a reasonable amount

There's a guy in the senior bowl named Carrington from Arkansas State who has really impressed, he could be a great OLB, he has the size, unlike some of these tiny short guys. He may not be quick enough though.

Crable I am really expecting big things from. Worst case he's a pass rushing specialist. And he could be a very good one. I guess BB thought the team didn't have room for him if he can't play all 3 downs, but clearly that was wrong. We had stiffs like AD doing nothing at linebacker and making tons of money doing it.

DaBruinz

Yes, let's sign a 4-3 DE who has never played 3-4 OLB and is too small to be a 3-4 DE. And someone who just made 17 million this year..

Being discussed in the Draft Forums.

Crable was injured. This is his make or break year. Hopefully he does something, but I'm not holding my breath..

tanked_as_usual

ok....here goes.....

ron brace - he was garbage.....even if he was double and triple teamed, opposing coaches must have been asleep....some nobody name hangartner for the bills looked like he was rolling around a medicine ball when single-handedly pushing brace wherever he wanted to......we should just leave it to the fact that brace was not ready to play NFL football and hoping that a year in OTA's might turn him into a little bit of somethin.

myron pryor - was good...better than anyone could have expected

warren/wright - played well and should serve in the same way next year

LB - interesting blurb about the pats scrambling because they traded vrabel. reeks of inept planning by the personnel staff. simply put, right now LB's are a total disaster for this team with Mayo not withstanding.......miserable failures in the development of you and failure to actually bring in anyone who could already play has turned this into one of the overall worst in the league.....you just can't play the 3-4 this way. end of story.....if something drastic isn't done, it will be even worse next year

CB - all we have that is good to look forward to is butler for defense and arrington for special teams. both wheatley and wilhite have not chanegd much since first showing up (which brings up a separate issue....player development)

S - it took longer than expected to realize that mcgowan can not cover to save his life........good thing they didn't let sanders go......overall, a pretty good stuff to look forward to, though

player development - when was the last time the pats staff has actually developed a player.......they show up with the tools they have and thats it......meriweather's improvements seem to only be experience and that he hasn't gotten an ounce of coaching since he has been here......he is still prone to the exact same mistakes he was in college......mayo,guyton...2 others who are exactly the same players they were when they first showed up.....pryor came out of the box that way...I believe with the way BB has not dealt with attrition has caused this team to struggle just to come up with game plans and that there is nobody there now to leverage any incoming college talent into anything that they weren't already......crable,woods...whether injured or not, neither improved one bit.

even on the offensive side of the ball.......maroney has all the tools, but it seems outside of the fireside chats he has with BB once in a while, his problem is that coaching has done nothing to develop him and work on his issues......every single young player on this team keeps making the same mistakes they've always made.

Warren94

Crable and Woods can be put out to pasture. They have had their time as far as I'm concerned.