BlueThunder

As far as Defense is concerned....the Pats D has the talent to be better this year than last. How much better will be determined later by health and how much the rookies can develop. The vet FA signings will either get it or not ala Ocho on Offense. That will be evident sooner rather than later....

BB has plenty of competition and talent on the practice field to put together a good D this season....

HOW good they will be is the big ????

Can't wait to find out !!

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patsinthesnow

Well, since it's late May, this is most likely what we'll have for the season, to see if the defense is ready, lets look at the talent:

DE: average (Deaderick, Fanene, Jones, Bequette)
DT/NT: average-no depth (Wilfork, Love, Warren, Brace)
OLB: bad (Ninkovich, Cunningham, Scott, Carter) one of Carter/Cunningham needs to step up
ILB: All-pro, a top 3 unit in the league IMO (Mayo, Spikes, Hightower, Fletcher)
CB: solid/strong depth, could be a top unit (Mccourty, Arrington, Dowling, Moore, Dennard)
S: Bad (Chung, Gregory, Wilson)

-The strengths of the defense are at ILB and CB.
-The DL isn't anything special but with one stud in Wilfork, and hopefully two solid starters in Deaderick/Fanene, with some depth, it should work.
-OLB looks ugly, but hopefully with Jones/Bequette/Hightower position flexibilitty they can play there.
-S looks bad again, but bad is still an upgrade over one of the worst units ever assembled.

AzPatsFan

The way I look at it the Defense in 2012 was destroyed with injuries real and self inflicted.

Here are the people missing from hors de combat:

Leigh Bodden (career ending)
Ras-I Dowling
Patrick Chung
Devon MeCourty (played but injured)
James Sanders (self-inflicted)
Brandon Meriwether (self inflicted)
Josh Barrett
Darius Butler (failure)


Jermaine Cunningham
Andre Carter

Mike Wright
Mo Pryor
Ty Warren (self inflicted)
Ron Brace

You can't take 14 players out of your Defense and not have it show. Most of the injuries real or self-inflicted were in the secondary including 3 starting CBs and 3 starting Safeties. You can't replace them with street FAs and not be worse. Even so by the end of the season and the Playoffs, the Defense was playing much better.

Even without the offseason additions, just the return of the injured will make a big difference.

Its true Bodden, Meriwether and Sanders won't be returning but the Fanene is a valid repalcement for Mike Wright, and Hitower should take Guyton's job, pretty easily. The secondary additions of Gregory, Wilson, Dennard and Allen will help. Assuming just a normal run of injuries this Defense will be a lot better.

BradyFTW!

If the season started today, I'd be pretty worried about depth and overall talent on the defensive line. But I'd actually feel reasonably okay about the linebackers and, to a lesser extent, the secondary. Secondary would once again be an injury or two away from dissolving into complete chaos, but with some luck in the health department, they could be decent.

BradyFTW!

I agree that this point is underplayed in a pretty big way, and you're definitely right to bring it up. The one aspect that I'd disagree with, to some extent, is calling Ty Warren self-inflicted. He decided (or was forced, if it was an injury) to show up out of shape and unprepared to play football. Doesn't sound like the Pats had much choice in the matter, given that. Much like with Haynesworth, the Pats simply gave the guy an opportunity; from there, he charted his own path.

Deus Irae

Chung was there, and playing.
McCourty was there, and playing. He stunk before he got hurt, so that argument doesn't work.
Brace and Cunningham were there to be used.
Carter was there, and playing. He got hurt late, but the defense was the defense even when he was there.

On your entire list, only Dowling, Barrett and Pryor become "additions" this year, so the notion that the defense will automatically be a lot better just because of returning players doesn't make sense.

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IllegalContact

maybe its me.......but I don't think chung is all that good.......

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captain stone

I agree in general, and with Safety in particular. I wish that Bill had done a better job fixing
that position besides adding Steven Gregory & Tavon Wilson.

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Sciz

Like what?

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mayoclinic

I think that maybe the Captain means that we should have traded the 7th round pick we got from Green Bay to Baltimore for Ed Reed, and a 2013 7th to Pittsburgh for Troy Polamalu. And Green Bay would probably have thrown Charles Woodson in to sweet the trade up to 62. Those moves would have probably had more impact than just Steven Gregory and Tavon Wilson.

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