I Love our Front 7

AndyJohnson said:

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

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Great post! And, yes, a fine Front Seven! It is interesting that Belichick saw the need to draft FOUR players to shore up the defensive front seven, even after signing Sheard.

CORE DEFENSIVE FRONT SEVEN (12)
DE (3) - Ninkovich, Jones, Sheard
DT (4) - Brown, Branch, Siliga, Easley
LB (3) - Mayo, Collins, Hightower
DE/OLB (2) - Grissom, Flowers

COMPETING FOR LAST 3 ROSTER SPOTS
DT (1) - Chris Jones, Johnson, Vellano
DE/LB/ST (2) - Moore, Buchanan, Bequette, Johnson, Wells, Fleming, Skinner, Martin, White, Gordon

strngplyr said:

That's what he was supposed to do, Mayo's last healthy seasons weren't playing behind all star defensive fronts, DL gets blown up, Mayo forced to play safe and clean up. And he was always there to clean up.

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Wholly agreed. Mayo is so smart as a LB. Let him roam a bit and I bet you get an extremely solid playmaker. If this D-line can do that, look out.

Who here thinks that with a full NFL offseason training schedule, Scrap will be able to cover a #1 for 3 seconds? I'm thinking he will. The game always changes as well. Load up to stop them pass, teams will start pounding you. Not a coincidence that 2 backs went in the first round. BB probably can read the tea leaves.

rookBoston said:

It is not common to think you can lose Vince Wilfork and still upgrade the defensive front. But I think they have.

No wonder BB has been so cheerful during the last few media sessions.

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Yeah, he was positively jolly last night.

Fencer said:

It's not looking good for Jake Bequette.

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Depends on whether or not he still has those photos.

Should be good. BB went to work on the D in this draft.

I am confident the front 7 will be good. The question for our team is will our CBs be able to hold up enough to let it do its thing? If it can they are in very good shape.

i think Sheard will be a pro bowl caliber player

With health, our 3 linebackers will be outstanding, what a group. A healthy Jones and Ninkovich are proven too IMO. After that, I think Brown is the perfect DT to anchor a new style defense, but i want to see him and Easley, along with the stout guys in a rotation, with Sheard and whoever before i declare it a success.

It's exciting, that's for sure, but there has to be some growing pains from extracting the dominant Wilfork and instituting an attacking defense I haven't seen on this team.

Damn exciting on paper, though.

I just want a trade for a proven veteran corner. He doesn't have to be elite, just 2009 Bodden esque. If we can get that then this defense can be great with this front 7.

I love this draft. We have some nasty potential for our front 7 and bolstered our interior line.

Fencer said:

It's not looking good for Jake Bequette.

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Doesn't Belichick expect players to make a big leap from the third to the fourth year?

AndyJohnson said:

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

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I thought that with the disproportionate numbers of high picks on Defense, that Bill Belechick would start to balance with an Offensive oriented Draft.

How wrong I was.

BB has chosen to add players to every single Defensive squad.
He selected a prize DT, several DEs, several DE/OLBs, and added to the secondary with a Safety or two and a CB. He even added several Special teams players, and a ST specialist with a LS draftee.

By comparison, the Offensive side of the ball continued to receive the short shrift. Admitedly the Offense was high scoring last season, relying on the Superstars Brady, Gronk and Edelmen and perhaps Blount.

Even though a couple of Offensive linemen were needed and drafted, there was precious little addition to the Offensive skill positions, especially in light of losses at RB with the departure of Vereen and Ridley. Precious little talent was obtained in veteran FA either, as replacements too.

Maybe it indicates that there is more to the reserves who admittedly showed flashes, but nothing more, in WR Dobson, and RBs Gray and White.

BobDigital said:

Should be good. BB went to work on the D in this draft.

I am confident the front 7 will be good. The question for our team is will our CBs be able to hold up enough to let it do its thing? If it can they are in very good shape.

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The CB corps has few to no weak links that are truly hopeless. Butler, Fonzie, Arrington, Ryan, have turned in some good performances, and newcomer Fletcher was a former regular starter too. Few teams can boast 5 fairly good CBs. Certainly, the loss of Revis and Browner hurt, but both were allowed to depart.

RayClay said:

With health, our 3 linebackers will be outstanding, what a group. A healthy Jones and Ninkovich are proven too IMO. After that, I think Brown is the perfect DT to anchor a new style defense, but i want to see him and Easley, along with the stout guys in a rotation, with Sheard and whoever before i declare it a success.

It's exciting, that's for sure, but there has to be some growing pains from extracting the dominant Wilfork and instituting an attacking defense I haven't seen on this team.

Damn exciting on paper, though.

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Same thought exactly... I called it an "inflection point" in D philosophy, if all goes well.

AndyJohnson said:

We have 4 starting caliber DTs. Branch and Siliga are run stuffers. Brown is a run stuffer with some pass rush skill, and Easley can be a disruptive force. Chris Jones will probably never see the field, but we have seen his pass rush ability too.
We have 3 starting caliber DEs. Jones, Nink and Sheard are all above average DEs.
We have 3 probowl caliber LBs.
I think that Grissom ends up at LB as the depth.
I think this can be the best(up to Brown and Easley to get it there) and it is almost certainly the deepest front 7 in the NFL.

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Can someone give an example of a d-lineup designed to rush the passer?
Jones-Easley-brown-sheard with Collins, mayo and Hightower? Or something else

This draft aside from not getting a cb (I can live with that) was great. Beefed up both sides of the line BIG time.

PatriotsReign said:

Strangely, at this point I think Mayo may be the most expendable. He's always made a lot of tackles, but most are after 4-5 yard gains.

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Mayo makes the base D better and allows guys like Collins and HT to move around. He's also (in the past) those four yard gains aren't 6 or 7 yard gains.

Is he critical? No. Is he valuable? Absolutely.

Dark horse to make the team: Antonio Johnson?

He was pretty good, iirc, before the knee injury.

It's really easy to get super excited about the talent additions to the front 7 of this defense. The camp battles amongst this grouping outta be fierce.

The rotation is so important for the pass rush.

A lot of aggression, and a lot of pressure.

Froob said:

This draft aside from not getting a cb (I can live with that) was great. Beefed up both sides of the line BIG time.

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The draft DID get a CB. I think they regarded everything after the first four as pretty much the same. Certainly, this kid Roberts has every physical tool you could possibly want in a corner.