mgteich

We like to say that the patriots don't have strong a free safeties, that they are all equal. That being said, coverage skills are still important. After all, if Chung is going to provide run support or blitz, then someone needs to be able to play center field and cover. We can have 9-11 defensive backs. For now, I will guess at 5 corners and 5 safeties.

COVERAGE SKILLS
---------------------

CHUNG

GREGORY

BARRETT

BROWN

WILLIAMS (not really a safety, but it seems he could take a safety spot)
=====
Our corners are McCourty, Dowling, Arrington, Moore and one to be acquired. Some would put a different value on the degree of need.

AndyJohnson

I think that it would be great to avoid having Sergio Brown on the field for any defensive snaps.
I BELIEVE that Barrett is not a good safety, but I leave open the possibility that his play last year was hindered by injury.

We need another starting caliber safety.

mgteich

I strongly agree with all three of your points. With regard to Barrett, I think that Belichick sees some talent, probably enough for him to make the team as our #4 safety.

Sicilian

I don't see another S in FA that could really fill the role you're describing. Landry definitely won't. The Gregory signing was a good one I think, he'll contribute but I'd rather him rotate in rather than be the starter.

Seems like the draft is our best hope for an impact addition to the secondary. The good news here is it can be either a CB or S, since another good CB would give us flexibility to play McCourty more at S. He would be a good center fielder in those situations I bet.

AndyJohnson

Yeah, the way he played was not what I expected BB thought he had, so either he evaluated him wrong, or the injuries diminished his play. I think that BB had plenty of opportiunity to evaluate him so I leave the possibility of less than full strength as an explanation. We'll see.

AndyJohnson

I think Landry would be a great addition, if healthy, but I think another team is going to break the bank for him, relatively speaking given his position.

Armchair Quarterback

Barrett looked pretty bad to me when he was in there. He's been on IR the majority of the last two years. I don't think he should be counted on for 2012 and should be easily replaced/upgraded.

I'm really not all that impressed with Chung either and would welcome some competition for his starting position too.

dex13

Chung's coverage skills are good against most TEs but when a quality WR goes back there, the WR definitely has the advantage. The Pats could really use a good FS who could play deep and read the field. Unfortunately, there aren't any in FA or in the draft.

One big issue is that the Pats don't have a safety who is really good at reading the field. Harrison seemed to excel at this as he set the secondary on each snap. Hopefully Chung can develop this skill.

strngplyr

Barrett seemed to be the fastest of our Safeties until injury, but he wasn't really around enough to see what we had. Don't recall seeing anything special outside of his speed.

Marqui

Yeah...that's not happening.