This year is supposed to be a great year for safeties. That's something the Patriots should definitely look at in the draft. Brent Grimes would have been a CB to look at in free agency, but his Achilles injury will certainly warrant a very cautious approach.
Just my $.02
I agree that Grimes is going to be one of the top 10 CB's in the league, he may already actually be there already, or at least he was well on his way. It's a shame that the injury hurt him, and such a serious one at that.
Even if he hadn't been injured, I think he'd be one of the top CB's in FA next year, which would = a huge payday and an automatic scratch off the list of NEP potentials.
If we grab someone in FA (and we damn well should) for the spot of CB, they will likely be in the mold of the Leigh Bodden mold; meaning "reasonable" money and 3rd tier CB in free agency terms. That would be fine with me, especially since the price of corners seems to be going up every single year.
When I say reasonable money, I'm guessing around 5 1/2--6 million per, which is still quite expensive, and may still be too much for Belichick.
Of course seeing the problem at its worst for the past few seasons may finally change his approach, just like I assumed that this would finally be the year that he pulled the trigger on a 1st rd DE/OLB project---it basically got to the point where he didn't really have a choice anymore. Maybe we'll see the same with a FA cornerback again.
I think the way to go is to potentially address BOTH positions of CB/S in BOTH aspects of FA + the draft. The problem just has become too glaring, and is likely the one piece of the puzzle that would pretty much guarantee domination.
