Talib is better than any corners that we have had since Law.
Agreed. We have finally replaced Ty Law.
Hopefully, we'll replace Wilfork faster than that. My money is on replacing him when Vince Wilfork comes off PUP next year.
This is going to have a horrendous trickle-down effect on the defense. If we get somebody quick to help with inside pass rush in sub defense, we expose ourselves to running plays against teams that can spread it out. Let's say Armstead is everything we hope him to be as an inside pass-rush specialist and we line him up next to Kelly or Jones. 2nd and 20 can quickly become 3rd and 6 when your undersized DLine can't occupy 2 OLmen defending the delay and you are left with DBs needing to make tackles in passing situations. If they are turning and running in man-to-man, those runs become really dangerous. That could mean more zone when faciing a spread formation and a dangerous back. Now, our secondary doesn't look so good, and if Armstead isn't the answer and Vellano isn't improving by leaps and bounds, the secondary will look even worse, because our pass rush will suffer from Wilfork's absence, too.
Last night, we got by, because we were able to adapt better than Atlanta. When teams have a week to prepare for the Pats' new DLine, they are going to have many more ways to take advantage of Wilfork's absence, and we're going to be challenged to respond effectively.
Our best hope, in my mind, is that Kelly can raise his game and improve his conditioning to take more snaps and still be effective, and that Armstead provides a boost soon. Our best hope, however, is that one of them is the 2013 defensive edition of the 2008 edition of Matt Cassel, because as the thread consensus said pre-season, we just lost our second most irreplaceable player.
