Doug Kyed: Despite fans' pleas, trading for a Cornerback upgrade isn't necessary

ender24601 said:

Roethlisberger?

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Right, if Roethlisberger doesn't count then we won't play a great QB until the SB if we get there. Peyton is a shell of himself. Romo is out next week. Luck? Tyrod Taylor? Tannehill? Dalton/Flacco in the playoffs? Pretty good year for a mediocre group of CBs

A Defiant Goose said:

Right, if Roethlisberger doesn't count then we won't play a great QB until the SB if we get there. Peyton is a shell of himself. Romo is out next week. Luck? Tyrod Taylor? Tannehill? Dalton/Flacco in the playoffs? Pretty good year for a mediocre group of CBs

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But then what happens when you face the Bengals in the playoffs? Or Rogers in the SB? Or Eli "Horeshoe" Manning (with the receiving weapons he has) ?

Rodgers is going to be good regardless of who he's throwing to, but at least we can rest easy knowing he doesn't have a big bodied WR like Nelson to tower over the likes of Coleman and Butler. His WR corps outside of Cobb is fairly average for the most part. Still, it'd have to wait until the SB for this to happen unless they run into the Steelers again in the playoffs and as we know, with BB and Brady, we always stand a chance in the SB

Good news! We now know that Doug Kyed's football opinions are worthless.

robertweathers said:

The CB situation is what it is.

With all the moves from this past week I am fascinated by what BB is doing on the d-line.

By my count, depending on down, distance and situation, everyone can play either inside or outside in a 3-4, 4-3, nickel, dime, man, cover-1 cover 2.

The combinations are craaazy.

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Unless I am mistaken, the primary defensive transactions the Patriots have recently made are:

* Poached Coleman, a cornerback prospect from the Seattle practice squad by signing him to the 53
* Traded for Bostic, a young Chicago former starter in the 4-3 who had difficulty transitioning to the 3-4
* Traded for Hicks, a young Saints former starter in the 4-3 who had difficulty transitioning to the 3-4

So: BB has traded for a couple of young former starters in the 4-3 who had problems transitioning to the 3-4, and he poached what-I-hope-is a promising cornerback prospect from a Seattle team with a very strong group of cornerbacks on their 53. A few have interpreted the Bostic / Hicks trade as "Chicago / New Orleans going into tank mode!", but I think it was just a matter of a player that wasn't contributing because they couldn't make the adjustment to the 3-4, and their front office ran out of patience.

So we already have a young cornerback prospect on the 53, it probably doesn't make sense to try to poach another prospect (from someone else's practice squad), a vet would be better. However, how many teams trade away competent starting cornerbacks in the middle of a season? The situation with Talib was unique because he had been suspended for 4 games and Tampa Bay decided "enough is enough!" and traded him for a 4th (of course, that probably wasn't the smartest trade Tampa Bay ever made). Taleb was talented enough that he could adjust on the fly to a new defensive system immediately.

However, how often is a veteran like that available? Does anybody really know of a competent, starting level cornerback that we could realistically acquire? Please, no "Fleming and a 3rd for Joe Haden" talk.

A Defiant Goose said:

Right, if Roethlisberger doesn't count then we won't play a great QB until the SB if we get there. Peyton is a shell of himself. Romo is out next week. Luck? Tyrod Taylor? Tannehill? Dalton/Flacco in the playoffs? Pretty good year for a mediocre group of CBs

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It's almost as if BB knew that he could get away without a Revis type corner.

As far as acquiring a corner, the only thing that gives me pause is how physical Butler is. He tackles like Revis without the same size. If he were to get hurt, we would have a secondary from yesteryear, and not in a complimentary way.

DropKickFlutie said:

"Holding" opposing QBs to a 91 rating isn't very good. We've seen this before, the inability to make stops on 3rd down hasn't hurt the team yet but could in a playoff game

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They have the exact same 3rd down % on defense as they did last year.

I think we'll be fine for the next 6 games and then we can reevaluate.

We are one Butler injury away from serious trouble so upgrades, if possible would be nice. A duo of Logan Ryan and Bradley Fletcher (or Coleman) would be an utter disaster. I didn't see much of Tarell Brown last week but maybe I am wrong in how much he played.

Kdo5 said:

We are one Butler injury away from serious trouble so upgrades, if possible would be nice. A duo of Logan Ryan and Bradley Fletcher would be an utter disaster. I didn't see much of Tarell Brown last week but maybe I am wrong in how much he played.

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Tarrell Brown is good. I do not have a major concern with him. He sat last week as he was a bit dinged up during the BUF game. He should bee good to go next week vs DAL.

I do agree, if either Malcolm or Brown goes down for an extended period of time I'm very concerned about Fletcher or Ryan playing full-time on the outside. Coleman might or might not be good enough. Who knows what he can do here.

Brandon Dixon intrigues me. Seems to have good physical tools. Who knows what he can do.

I usually enjoyed reading Kyed, but on this matter he is completely, utterly Wrong.

And to call those of us who are concerned about the lack of talented depth at CB "spoiled"…
…Eff him.

captain stone said:

I usually enjoyed reading Kyed, but on this matter he is completely, utterly Wrong.

And to call those of us who are concerned about the lack of talented depth at CB "spoiled"…
…Eff him.

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I hear you on the concern Captain because it is the weakest portion of the D. I remember listening to Tedy before the season and all the analysts were predicting doom over the loss of the 4 veteran corners. Tedy said that BB would not keep Browner because he only made sense with Revis there and that he would come up with a defensive scheme of more pressure up front and zone defense in the backfield. I think we will be ok until Denver and if things haven't improved, hopefully BB makes a move.

captain stone said:

I usually enjoyed reading Kyed, but on this matter he is completely, utterly Wrong.

And to call those of us who are concerned about the lack of talented depth at CB "spoiled"…
…Eff him.

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Patriots fans being concerned about CB play is a sign that those fans were watching the team from 2008-the present, not a sign of being spoiled. Kyed stepped in it with this one.

The CB's are the weakest position group on the Patriots. We have Butler a back-up last year thrust into the #1 CB slot. He has all the skills to do the job, he just needs more experience. I expect him to get better every game. Logn Ryan is like Arrington, good at times and inconsistent at other times, also a back-up last year. Fletcher has pretty well played himself to the bottom of the depth chart. Tarell Brown looks to be a solid CB. If Butler continues to improve, it would be like trading for a CB and find out he is another Talib or Revis. Overall it's adequate with room to improve as the season progresses. Butler is the key.

I believe the secondary will improve as they play together. When the PATS play Denver we should see
if they are working well as a unit. Often the PATS defense really comes together in November.
As of now PATs are 3rd in Ints and 2nd in sacks. That's not too bad. Points/game is high but
that probably has to do with how BB runs his defense when PATS have a big lead.

It's not that Pats fans want every position to be "perfect", it's that many of us can see that there's pretty poor depth at that spot and if one of Butler or Brown go down, they've got big problems. I can live with Ryan as a third corner but if he had to be a second corner then that's a big issue. Maybe Coleman has something but we don't know right now... Fletcher just isn't good.

As someone else in this thread said, it just sucks Roberts got hurt. I think we would all feel okay about CB if he was healthy, as he showed a lot of promise in the preseason.

Ross12 said:

It's not that Pats fans want every position to be "perfect", it's that many of us can see that there's pretty poor depth at that spot and if one of Butler or Brown go down, they've got big problems. I can live with Ryan as a third corner but if he had to be a second corner then that's a big issue. Maybe Coleman has something but we don't know right now... Fletcher just isn't good.

As someone else in this thread said, it just sucks Roberts got hurt. I think we would all feel okay about CB if he was healthy, as he showed a lot of promise in the preseason.

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I just want another guy that can play man. That's all.

robertweathers said:

I just want another guy that can play man. That's all.

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Yep, that's it in a nutshell. I feel fine about Butler and Brown, and ok with Ryan in the slot. One more "guy who can play" -- outside -- would make things a lot more comfortable. Coleman actually looked ok against Jax, but that wasn't much of a test.

I'm not holding my breath, though. Nobody can ever have enough CBs in this league, and the Patriots already rounded up a bunch of bodies in the offseason (including Brown, thank goodness.)

We are NEP fans. We just follow the hoodie and his posse. He always tries to improve the team, as is evident during this bye week with two trades and several PS moves, so we do the same. There's no such thing as "good enough."