LCB: Aqib Talib
RCB: Alfonzo Dennard
NB: Kyle Arrington
SS: Adrian Wilson
FS: Devin McCourty
The starting five is great, we really need outside CB depth though, and I'd rather not use one of our top 3 draft picks on one. S depth is fine with Gregory, Wilson, and Ebner.
I certainly hope your confidence is warranted. Time will tell.
But a few caveats. Has the Dennard penalty come down? Can't he still go to jail, missing part or more of the season? Adrian Wilson is well past his prime and
will turning 34 in October. Have you read Matthew Jones's piece at NEPatriotsdraft.com?
As for [Adrian] Wilson, it remains to be seen whether or not he has anything left in the tank after his skills appeared to suffer significant erosion in 2012. While his signing has been celebrated for providing New England with a physical enforcer in the secondary, the truth is that his run support was lacking last season. In fact, he finished 48th among 55 qualifying safeties in Pro Football Focus’ “stop percentage” within eight yards of the line of scrimmage, signifying that only 2.7% of his snaps as an in-the-box player were negative plays for the opposing offense.
Ouch! Why we signed him to the three-year contract, which boggles my mind, may say something about our second-rounder from last year, Tavon Wilson, who looks more like back-up safety and player in the nickel package. A nice role player that the Patriots may realize is not now starting material. But why not just offer a year or two for Adrian to groom Tavon? Do they expect Adrian to be playing when he's 37 after reportedly regressing so much last year?
The Patrick Chung thing was a debacle. And to think I had held out high hopes for him.
And to expect that Aqib Talib, with his measly one-year contract, is a long-term solution may be wishful thinking. Sorry to the defensive front seven or an offensive tackle (even if Vollmer departs) or even WR where we're desperately thin, but this franchise has a definite need to draft a couple more CBs fairly early. And I don't think they will get lucky again late in the draft like they did with Dennard, who was undersized, underperformed in his bowl--getting thrown out for fighting SC's Alshon Jeffrey (after getting smoked by him a couple of times)--showing up overweight and proceeded to run a slow forty at the Combine, and then a la something out of Jerry Maguire punched an LEO just before the draft. It was like he was hanging around Barney of the Simpsons.
But one never knows. I recall people saying a year ago that another undersized CB, Johnny Adams out of Mich St, was a first-rounder CB, and now he's dropped far, far down, despite running a legit 40 and being a starter for three years. His play wasn't dominant this year, and he was indeed burned a few times, while his counterpart CB, Darqueze Dennard, has NFL scouts drooling for 2014 as a potential first rounder. Teams started attacking Adams because Dennard was a stifling blanket. I'm not sure, though, why he goes from being a first rounder to a sixth rounder like that.
The dramatic wild card, one that Teddy Bruschi has brought up, is not to count out
Ras-I Dowling. I'm very excited at the prospect of two tall studs like him and Talib at the corners, giving our defense a totally different look.
There was a reason Dowling was taken before Torrey Smith, the speedy WR from Maryland, in the second round in 2009. It may have been arrogance on Belichick's part in taking a guy who has elite size, speed, and great character--when everyone else knew his history of the injury plague that has unfortunately borne so much fruit the last two years. Dowling was taken first in the second round, basically an extension of the first.
The biggest irony is one of the foremost experts on the defensive secondary not named Nick Saban has had a very mixed record at best at the draft at these same positions.
I think Seattle's Pete Carroll learned from his disastrous pick of the Kansas State player at CB when he was coaching here. Chris Canty. You guys remember him? Short and slow. This mystified me because earlier on the radio Carroll, whose expertise is also the defensive secondary, said if the guy is short, he should have the speed, esp. the recovery speed, to compensate for a lack of reach. Then we get the short, slow guy, who seemed more interested in recording rap albums.
Now take a look at the secondary of Seattle. Huge freakin' monsters--sort of like what we could potentially have in CB's Dowling and Talib. Carroll has obviously learned his lesson. Have we?
Meanwhile, my fear is that when we finally have our defensive secondary in order we'll have gaping holes in our front seven. If Vince ever goes down, for example, we're screwed.
If there were only another Rodney Harrison out there for us. We have never adequately replaced him. Or Randy Moss.
