1) .
BOTTOM LINE
We have among the worst set of corners among playoff teams. This group is an extreme weakness in a critical area of the defense.
Of course, we always have weaknesses. With the cap, and with Belichick's strategy of stability over time, that will always be the case. Belichick has a challenge. He needs to develop a new defense for the patriots which makes up for weaknesses at the two most important positions on the defense.
Will Belichick succeed? Sure. He always does. But, unless we simply want to stop analysis and just say that the patriots are the SB winner because we have Belichick and Brady, we should face some reality. The corners are weak.
The secondary is clearly a flash point for fans as "experts" alike. I'm not as optimistic as AZ, nor am I pessimistic as you, MG. The basis for my opinion comes from an underlying belief that most NFL players are pretty much equal to each other as far as physical talent goes. True there are probably 5-10 "anomalies" like Revis who are the exceptions who prove the rule, but for the most part I believe that 90% of the CB's in the league are pretty much equal.
For example, off the top of my head, as far as "names" go, I doubt you could think of a worse secondary than the Jets had, yet one of the top offenses in the league (the Pats) last year needed a miracle catch from Amendola to beat them. On that day, against quality talent, that no name Jet secondary played the Pats as tough as any secondary did that entire year.
So in my opinion it is entirely possible that the Pats DEFENSE (as a team) could be every bit as good as the D we had last season. The reason I can say thins is that the DEFENSE (as a team) cannot be analyzed piece by piece (DL, LB's, DB's) You have to look at it as a whole.
I think we all would agree that just based on physical talent, this year's DL has the potential to be the most talented BB has had in years. Whether it turns out that way will depend on the continuing development of young guys like Easley, Brown, and Siliga, but the raw talent is certainly there.
The LB's we would all agree is a group that could easily be argued is among the top 5 groups in the entire league, and is strengthened this year with the return of Mayo and added quality depth. Of course questions remain about when Mayo and Hightower will return to full speed, but we do know that eventually they both will.
Finally, I believe the secondary,
in combination with the other 2 units, and an offense that should be even better
, will be adequate to give the Pats another top 10 scoring Defense. Remember, in reality, scoring defense is the ONLY defensive stat that really matters. BB understands this truism better than anyone. He doesn't care about "total defensive stats", or the rest of them. That's why even when the defense was at it's worst (ironically in 2011), we ranked 31st in total D, yet 16th in scoring.
This brings me to another point of discussion that I have brought up from time to time. That is the growing importance of the S position as the game evolves. Safety could be considered a strength, and while its easy to make Patrick Chung an easy target to dismiss as being a JAG. He has in reality played at a much higher level in 2011 (where he was probably our best DB that season), and 2014 where his good over all play was lost in the hype of Revis and Browner. This post is going too long already to discuss this in detail, but the redo at CB can't be focused on in isolation without considering the effect of the stability, depth and talent we have at the Safety position.
BOTTOM LINE: We aren't even in TC yet. It is legit to question the changes at CB and the secondary as a whole, but we really won't know how good OR bad it will be until October at least.. I defend the right of any of us to be as negative as they want. The fact is we lost our top 4 CB's and that HAS to be questioned. However I WILL bristle when people make those "absolute" statements. Like, "he is garbage" or, "this will never work"; because we really don't know yet, and won't for a LONG time.
