Not your father's old slow defense

[Bostonian1962]

Re: Not your fathers old slow defense

The youth movement has arrived. This isn't your fathers slow Patriots defense anymore. In fact the Patriots might have the fastest secondary in the NFL.

All of these players will become part of the Patriots core defense for the next 3-5 years:

• Butler - 2nd round pick, one of the fastest CBs in his draft class (4.49)
• Mayo - 1st round pick, one of the fastest LBs in his class (4.54)
• Spikes - 2nd round pick, slow as hell but can play ball (4.9ish)
• McCourty - 1st round pick, good speed (4.38)
• Merriweather - 1st round pick, good speed (4.47)
• Chung - 2nd round pick, very good speed (4.49)
• Cunningham - 2nd round pick (4.86)
• Wilfork - Probowl player, 1st round pick
• Guyton - fastest LB in his class (4.47)
• Brace - showed some signs of improving, not fast, no, not fast at all

All times are from NFL Draft - CBSSports.com - NFLDraftScout.com

Concerns are at OLB, So far they have shown an inability to rush the QB and inability to set the edge.. not exactly what we are looking for. Their strength appears to be for pass defense, they may give up some rushing yards but with the offense putting up 25-30 PPG teams will be forced to pass the ball.


Football is back! Football is back! Football is back!

It's all very exciting. If I'm being realistic though, I get nervous as hell that they haven't improved the pass rush. It was so pitiful last year, that fast or not it's hard to cover people forever. Nice post though.

 

[Lamanai]

Re: Not your fathers old slow defense

The old and slow thing never bothered me. What I want back is the days where we used to punch people in the mouth. '01-'04 we never blew people away or outran them, each game was more like a fist fight. We took their best shot and seemingly always had the resiliency to respond and wear they *** out in the end.

I have to agree with this. In past years speed was not the M.O. of our players - possibly by design. The front seven of the defense was comprised of "smart, tough players" Other teams were getting beaten up physically. That was our defense's calling card - not speed.

It's not to say that adding speed isn't a good thing. As long as they aren't going to be the ones getting beaten up now. I don't see that happening to a Wilfork-Spikes-Chung-led defense, but I wouldn't say that Wright, Guyton, TBC, Butler, etc... are mauler types.

We may not be able to have it both ways. Maybe there is a balance. Just something to consider.

 

[pdangle]

Re: Not your fathers old slow defense

Yeah, I love how this D is evolving. Now if we just get lucky (cross your fingers) with some of these late round/udfa young d-linemen and outside linebackers breaking out we are looking sweeeeet. Otherwise, we'll need one more draft to seal the deal.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Re: Not your fathers old slow defense

Yeah, I love how this D is evolving. Now if we just get lucky (cross your fingers) with some of these late round/udfa young d-linemen and outside linebackers breaking out we are looking sweeeeet. Otherwise, we'll need one more draft to seal the deal.

BB will spend 1/2 of his next "Double Draft", a Belichick copywrited perennail invention, on Defense "to seal the Deal". The other draftees will continue the Offensive Team renewal, begun so brilliantly at OT, WR, TE, and QB.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Re: Not your fathers old slow defense

It's still a read and react defense, which puts us at a disadvantage against teams that have a coaching staff that knows what they're doing.

Watching against the Falcons, Mayo (who's got good speed) got taken advanrage off in the middle by the Falcons' TEs. By the time he reacted, he was already a step behind and Ryan completed passes.

Our ILBS are in such a disadvantage because they have to read run first and then are expected to cover. No matter how much speed you have, it won't matter because in today's NFL, every skill position on offense can run.

Read&React Defense just wins. The Falcons didn't complete any long marches. And they didn't get any cheap scores either. Neither did the NO Saints "1s" either, despite their potent Offense.

 

[pencilneckgeek]

The old and slow thing never bothered me. What I want back is the days where we used to punch people in the mouth. '01-'04 we never blew people away or outran them, each game was more like a fist fight. We took their best shot and seemingly always had the resiliency to respond and wear they *** out in the end.

That was a great tradition Parcells brought to town. I used to enjoy reading the before and after injury reports for the Pats opposition. It wasn't that they'd knock players out of games all the time, but the number of niggling little injuries that would make a team suddenly "question" or "doubt" a player's elegibility for the next game would mount. BB kept that tradition alive, but it has waned in the last few years. I expect it to begin to return this year. Remember m x a = F; speed kills, er, hurts.