If Chung Is The Issue

[maineman209]

It will draw a lot of disagree and dislike ratings but I don't think Belichick is being sincere when he says that everything that he does is in the best interest of the team.

From Bequete to Tavon Wilson to Richards among others, it seems like some players he keeps on the roster for any other reason or to make it pretty clear who call the shots, him, which in consequence might benefit the locker room management long term and that would be in the best interest of the team but from a pure football talent standpoint some of those decisions are very questionable but who am I

Well, ideally, BB could just cut a guy like Richards and replace him with a superior player. IRL, though, is there a specific player available to BB right now who's obviously superior? If not, then I don't see how keeping Richards goes against the best interests of the team. At least he's contributing on ST (71% of ST snaps, so far).

BB pretty clearly kept Wilson because Wilson turned himself into a ST demon (while still contributing a bit more on defense than Richards has). Also, Wilson isn't necessarily "untalented". He was a starter with DET in 2016 and their second leading tackler.

 

[NE-VT]

it seems like some players he keeps on the roster for any other reason, to send a message that it's not all about talent, or to make it pretty clear who call the shots, him, which in consequence might benefit the locker room management long term and that would be in the best interest of the team but from a pure football talent standpoint some of those decisions are very questionable but who am I

Lets assume you are correct. I still think he is doing it for the perceived long term benefit of the team. BB makes short term talent sacrifices to maximize the chances of being perennial super bowl contenders.

 

[maineman209]

I agree with that. I mean have the DBs given up big pass plays? Yes. Has our pass rush not gotten there soon enough? Yes. Have our DTs not stopped the run well enough? Yes. But in the end the LBs make everything worse.

Also of course just general bad luck and penalties have gone against the Patriots defense as well.

Offenses are not committing enough mistakes vs our D (penalties or drops)
Offenses are finding themselves in the right play too often to counter the D call.
Continually the screw ups on D are just enough every play instead of all on a few.
Also the D is making the worst mistakes at the worse times.
Calls going against the Pats that are 50/50 or less.

I am not trying to say it is bad luck or timing in itself but that has been against the Patriots as well.

It may be more lack of LBs.

Really, it's mostly been only Van Noy (100% of defensive snaps) and Roberts (50% of defensive snaps) out there so far. HT played 51% of the snaps in week-1, was out for two games, then 59% of the snaps against CAR (adds up to 27% of total defensive snaps for the season).

 

[maineman209]

I would sooner see Marquise Flowers at SS than Richards, he played a bit of safety in college didn't he?

Well, remember that they had Grissom working out with the safeties for a few practices a couple weeks ago. Maybe BB and Patricia have cooked up some sort of "Mongo Nickel"?

 

[maineman209]

Imo.

Chung is being used differently this season. I think they were trying to somehow find someone to play the star linebacker effectively which is a DB/LB hybrid type guy. I'm not sure though.

But last season Chung was good to great as a SS. Great in run protection and good picking up TE's and occasionally the RB out of the backfield. He made some solid plays from the SS position.

This year I don't know if he's regressed or if this whole jumble of issues makes him look bad. Tough for me to tell.

It's seemed to me that the Pats are using a lot of guys in the secondary differently this season - using them in roles where I'm not accustomed to seeing them - at least not as much as this season so far. IIRC, it was the HOU game - when Butler came in for Rowe, Butler was lining up at RCB a lot, regardless which receiver was lined up on that side. I don't think I've ever seen him do that.

Anyway, I have to wonder if this is by design somehow, or if it's simply adjusting to circumstances - such as not having enough healthy and competent LBs.