OMG, a thread talking about anything else but "deflategate". How refreshing.
Nice article Steve. There are some great DL's in the division, at least on paper, and anyone "just looking on paper, would have to rate ours fourth. However that being said, personally, I think that THIS version of the Pats DL could be the best we've had in a long, long time. Here are a few reasons why.
1. The loss of Vince Wilfolk is being vastly overstated. I would agree that his leadership WILL be missed. However between his fading productivity and the changes in how the game is being played, Vince's on field production has been visibly slipping for the past 2 seasons.
2. But more important than Vince's slippage from an Elite DT/NT to "merely" a good one, are the changes to the game.
3. The Pats are now fundamentally a 4-3 team. So the NT's importance has been diminished, as well as the reliance on the 2 gap technique as our base for the rest of the DL. Now our DE's seem smaller and faster as well as the DT's. Between Easley, Brown, and Chris Jones, our DT's will be a lot more aggressive, often moving and attacking, than holding their ground.
4. This will fit in well with our LB group, which is also based more and more on speed and athleticism than the former profile of guys like big strong run suffers like Ted Johnson and Spikes.
5. Last season the talent in the secondary (mainly Revis) allowed the defense to attack the offense from the secondary. This season, that will switch to the front 7. We will attack the offense with them, while the secondary will play more zone to minimize the" big play", and be better prepared to take advantage of the mistakes the forcing unit will cause.
6. However there WILL be times when teams, like the Jets will try to take advantage of this move to smaller and quicker defenses. THOSE will be the times where Branch, Siliga, and Hightower will be key to have in the DT rotation. I believe that ultimately the Pats will end up with a 5 man DT rotation, and the #5 guy is still going to get 30% of the snaps.
Compared to the rest of the division, there won't be any big names on our front 4, but I suspect it will one of the strengths of the DL, rating only behind the LB's in importance. I believe this because it isn't gong to be about the front 4, its going to be about the front 9. Remember the lesson of the superbowl. Even a great front four, can't create a great pass rush for 4 quarters the way they play now. You NEED a front 9.
Bottom line. There will be a lot of hand wringing and whining about the secondary starting with the moment the first pass is completed. But it was never about the secondary, OR the LB's, or the front 4. It is about the defense as a 25 man GROUP and how they play together. So baring a excessive amount of key injuries on the D, I honestly believe that when the dust clears at the end of the season, the defense AS A WHOLE, will wind up with numbers in the key stats that are going to be very similar to the ones that we saw last season.
