Depending on how you count, there are 8-10 players who are crucial to the defensive front seven. Right now on the Pats it seems to be 9 -- starters plus top interior sub rusher plus sub speedy LB.
Here's how I see the comparison vs. last year:
NT -- wash. Wilfork is in his prime.
LB (all 5 positions) -- improved to varying extents. All young guys, all getting better. (I'm not counting TBC as the starter).
LDE -- greatly improved w/ Warren's return.
RDE -- improved somehow, e.g. by an out-of-position but improving Brace. (If you move Warren to RDE, that doesn't change much.)
Top sub rusher -- down. I don't think Wright is coming back.
I.e., things are looking up even with the surprising lack of a talent injection via the draft.
I guess this made too much sense and all the whine asses couldn't argue with logic.
Brace played well, Deaderick played well until he was suspended for being a knuckle head. Gerard Warren played really well, getting Ty back will make our DL a strength. A starting lineup of Warren - Wilfork - Warren is fine with me, especially with Brace, Deaderick and Stroud rotating in. And I'm sure soemone else will be signed or resigned (Wright) when FA starts.
FA will be very interesting, especially if 2011 is played under a Cap. If a cap is reinstated I'm sure we'll see some new FA's enter the market place and some other's become available via trade.
As far as LB goes. We are stacked at ILB, as good as any ILB corps as there is in the league. OLB: Nink is servicable and showed he is still developing and that he is capable of getting better. I wouldn't mind seeing an upgrade over Nink, but I'm not losing sleep over it. I love Fletcher, especially his open field tackling. He has a huge motor, he is smart and he is decievingly fast. If he is capable or can learn to set the edge I would love to see what he can do on the outside. Cunningham was solid as a rookie, was in the backfield a lot but always seemed to be one step to late. Hopefully he takes that next step and starts to get to the QB on time.
I thought going into this draft OL was the Pats biggest need, given that Light is a UFA (I expect him to resign, but no one can be sure), Neil retired and Logan is still unhappy. That leaves Koppen, Vollmer and Connolly (if you want to count him) as the only returning starters from last year. Kaczur will most likely be penciled in as the starting RG, but if Light doesn't sign then he probably becomes the RT with Vollmer moving over the left, which then makes you weak at Guard again. I would like to see a Guard drafted today as insurance against either Light, Mankins or both not being on the roster come September. But once again this could be addressed in FA, something many people on this board have seemingly forgotten about.
