NFL News 2021 NFL Free Agency/Trade News & Discussion: April Edition

[Lansdowne]

Draft for next season.

The starting corners and safeties for 2022 are? We may have THREE of the four starters gone.

Yeah it was a tongue-in-cheek reference to our bad luck with second rounders at defensive back. But I hope the Pats address those positions in the draft.

 

[captain stone]

Good...Bill needs to rid himself of more dead weight, so he can sign DaQuan Jones...or Steven Nelson/JMac...or Duron Harmon...or Ryan Kerrigan...or Elmanure...or Joe Dahl...or Damiere Byrd...or CP...

 

[captain stone]

Draft for next season.

The starting corners and safeties for 2022 are? We may have THREE of the four starters gone.

The starting DTs & DEs for the 2021 Patriots are? Weak-Side Linebacker? Outside Wide Receiver?

 

[DaBruinz]

The starting DTs & DEs for the 2021 Patriots are? Weak-Side Linebacker? Outside Wide Receiver?

The DTs are as follows:
Godchaux, Anderson, Wise, Guy, Cowart, Adams,, Davis

Edge guys are:
Judon, Van Noy, Winovich, Berry

The Patriots use 2 LB (Mike and Jack).
Hightower, Uche, McMillian, Hall, Bentley

As for Outside WR:
Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Meyers

 

[jah]

The DTs are as follows:
Godchaux, Anderson, Wise, Guy, Cowart, Adams,, Davis

Edge guys are:
Judon, Van Noy, Winovich, Berry

The Patriots use 2 LB (Mike and Jack).
Hightower, Uche, McMillian, Hall, Bentley

As for Outside WR:
Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Meyers

Is Uche not an edge guy? It sure seems like he is.

 

[TomPatriot]

Is Uche not an edge guy? It sure seems like he is.

He reminds me of Collins - he has the physical ability to play anywhere.

 

[Lansdowne]

The DTs are as follows:
Godchaux, Anderson, Wise, Guy, Cowart, Adams,, Davis

Edge guys are:
Judon, Van Noy, Winovich, Berry

The Patriots use 2 LB (Mike and Jack).
Hightower, Uche, McMillian, Hall, Bentley

As for Outside WR:
Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Meyers

The base and strategy will change from opponent to opponent, but if I had to guess in general:

DE Wise
NT Godchaux
DE Anderson
OLB Judon
ILB Hightower
ILB Van Noy
OLB Uche
CB Gilmore
FS McCourty
SS Phillips
CB Jackson

LT Wynn
LG Onwenu
C Andrews
RG Mason
RT Brown
WR Agholor
TE Henry
QB Newton
RB Harris
TE Smith
WR Meyers

Edit - Not a 3-4 base on defense apparently, which makes sense given the frequent use of the fifth defensive back. I’m open to learning on this sort of stuff.

 

[jah]

He reminds me of Collins - he has the physical ability to play anywhere.

He has a similar athletic profile to Collins, but we predominantly used Collins as a stand up ILB and put him into coverage a lot, which I haven't seen with Uche. The 2020 Uche plays I remember are all pass rush off the edge. Not to say his role won't expand to include ILB duties, I just haven't seen evidence the team plans on using him that way yet.

 

[TomPatriot]

He has a similar athletic profile to Collins, but we predominantly used Collins as a stand up ILB and put him into coverage a lot, which I haven't seen with Uche. The 2020 Uche plays I remember are all pass rush off the edge. Not to say his role won't expand to include ILB duties, I just haven't seen evidence the team plans on using him that way yet.

Collins play a lot less inside when he was a rookie. Iirc, he was all over the place. We'll see this year.

 

[PWRxWLF]

I wouldn’t mind Jordan love for our second.
But reports are McDaniels is hot for Mond.
If we are not moving in the top 10 for a QB I don’t see us trading 3 firsts for what 2 to 3 years of Aaron Rodgers. We have a better chance of trading for Mariotta than trading for Rodgers in my opinion. Neither is happening.
I’ve accepted it’s Cam Jarrett and a rookie or 2

Mond clearly doesn’t want to be a Patriot. If he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t kiss and tell as much as he has. Next headline will read “McDaniels continues pressure on Mond. Did he ask for consent in this one sided love affair?”

 

[DaBruinz]

The base and strategy will change from opponent to opponent, but if I had to guess in general:

DE Wise
NT Godchaux
DE Anderson
OLB Judon
ILB Hightower
ILB Van Noy
OLB Uche
CB Gilmore
FS McCourty
SS Phillips
CB Jackson

LT Wynn
LG Onwenu
C Andrews
RG Mason
RT Brown
WR Agholor
TE Henry
QB Newton
RB Harris
TE Smith
WR Meyers

My only qualm here is that Van Noy isn't an ILB. He's never played the position for the Pats. The Pats spent more time with 2 DTs, 2 Edge guys, 2 LBs and 5 DBs.. With Phillips being the 5th guy who would cover the TE or RB..

 

[Ring 6]

I’m still not interested in giving up 15, maybe 96 plus a 1st in 2022 AND a 1st in 2023 for anyone in this draft who isn’t named Trevor Lawrence.

Breer says the chart says 15, 120, 122, and 2022 1.
We would be crazy not to do that.

 

[Lansdowne]

My only qualm here is that Van Noy isn't an ILB. He's never played the position for the Pats. The Pats spent more time with 2 DTs, 2 Edge guys, 2 LBs and 5 DBs.. With Phillips being the 5th guy who would cover the TE or RB..

Would Godchaux play in 2 DT sets? Some combo of Godchaux/Guy/Anderson/Wise in the 2 DTs, Judon and Van Noy on edge, Hightower and Bentley/Uche the 2 LBs, Gilmore and Jackson on the perimeter, Jonathan Jones the nickel, DMac FS, Phillips playing closer to the line like an extra linebacker.

 

[Patsgofor4]

My only qualm here is that Van Noy isn't an ILB. He's never played the position for the Pats. The Pats spent more time with 2 DTs, 2 Edge guys, 2 LBs and 5 DBs.. With Phillips being the 5th guy who would cover the TE or RB..

In my opinion, Bill is going to figure out a way to get Dugger on the field for 80+ % of the snaps in year 2.

3rd and long situations may be very fun to watch for Pats fans....Wino/Uche/Judon/Van Noy rushing from the edge with Hightower/Van Noy being sent on inside blitzes and their elite CB/S group (assuming both JC and Gilmore remain) locking things down in the secondary....just thinking about it makes it move a little.

If they can also grab Parsons or Collins in rd1 as a true ILB with elite speed and the ability to cover RBs and/or their opponent’s TE1....

 

[Ring 6]

Would Godchaux play in 2 DT sets? Some combo of Godchaux/Guy/Anderson/Wise in the 2 DTs, Judon and Van Noy on edge, Hightower and Bentley/Uche the 2 LBs, Gilmore and Jackson on the perimeter, Jonathan Jones the nickel, DMac FS, Phillips playing closer to the line like an extra linebacker.

Let’s clear this up.

The patriots base defense has 5 dbs. So there is a front 6.

That front 6 is varied, complex, and uses many different combinations of players, playing different responsibilities.
The constant is 2 DTs. The other constant is one ILB.

This leaves 2 players on the edge whether you call them DE or OLB, and a 6th player that could really be any front 6 guy playing in any number of positions.

So essentially our base d is
5 Dbs
2 DTs (god, guy, Anderson, cowart, Adams, Davis)
Hightower
KVN (sometimes on the edge sometimes not)
Judon

and one other guy out of

Winovich, Uche, McMillan, Bentley, wise, or an extra dt playing outside over the T.

We can align HT KVN and Judon in many different positions and use a 6th player who is a run stopping lb, pass rusher, over sized DE, chase LB etc to the opponent, situation, play call etc.


This is why it is wrong to post a 3-4 or 4-3 lineup because that’s just not what we do.

It’s a 2-4 or 3-3 or 4-2 and it is interchangeably all of the above with dozens of variations of personnel alignment and responsibility.

 

[Lansdowne]

Let’s clear this up.

The patriots base defense has 5 dbs. So there is a front 6.

That front 6 is varied, complex, and uses many different combinations of players, playing different responsibilities.
The constant is 2 DTs. The other constant is one ILB.

This leaves 2 players on the edge whether you call them DE or OLB, and a 6th player that could really be any front 6 guy playing in any number of positions.

So essentially our base d is
5 Dbs
2 DTs (god, guy, Anderson, cowart, Adams, Davis)
Hightower
KVN (sometimes on the edge sometimes not)
Judon

and one other guy out of

Winovich, Uche, McMillan, Bentley, wise, or an extra dt playing outside over the T.

We can align HT KVN and Judon in many different positions and use a 6th player who is a run stopping lb, pass rusher, over sized DE, chase LB etc to the opponent, situation, play call etc.


This is why it is wrong to post a 3-4 or 4-3 lineup because that’s just not what we do.

It’s a 2-4 or 3-3 or 4-2 and it is interchangeably all of the above with dozens of variations of personnel alignment and responsibility.

Thank you for this. My understanding of offense and defense is very abstract and evidentally outdated. I honestly wasn’t sure if that alignment last year was done from necessity due to the losses at the linebacker spot (Hightower opt out, Collins and KVN free agency). I have noticed a lot more use of five DB defenses by the Pats in recent years but wasn’t sure if that was the base. Unless the strong safety is counting as part of the “front 7” that we usually hear about.

 

[Ring 6]

Thank you for this. My understanding of offense and defense is very abstract and evidentally outdated. I honestly wasn’t sure if that alignment last year was done from necessity due to the losses at the linebacker spot (Hightower opt out, Collins and KVN free agency). I have noticed a lot more use of five DB defenses by the Pats in recent years but wasn’t sure if that was the base. Unless the strong safety is counting as part of the “front 7” that we usually hear about.

It’s been maybe 6-7 years now that we have played from a nickel base.
We started by using 5+ dbs 60-70% of the time and now it has increased to something like 95%.

The real key to the nickel base is those 3 guys in the middle. The nickel is advantageous to pass defense at the expense of run defense. As the league moves more and more to a passing league you have to sacrifice run d. The problem is if you get gashed in the ground it opens up the passing game (why we lost to the eagles in the Sb).
The best was the year branch was dominant inside. Hightower is soooooo important to this scheme becagg if as he is so stout. That year the 2 of them had us as a better run d from nickel than most teams using a front 7 base.
If 2 DTs and HT can mostly control the inside run, we can get really creative with the other 3. (Chung, Phillips, dugger playing in the box in the big nickel and contributing in run d helps too although against a lot too).
This year is exciting, and from a front 6 perspective I think it will be the best we have had.
Mcmillan is better than Bentley, Roberts or any one else we have used in his role.
We are strong and deep at DT, and have some guys who could slide out to play over T on the weak side to give us a bigger front. (Anderson, cowart, even guy now that we have more depth inside).
KVN is key because he can play any of the 4 lb/de spots.
Judon gives us a true beast on the edge.
I have high expectations and if Gilmore is back to 100% this could be our best D of this era.

 

[Uptown]

The DTs are as follows:
Godchaux, Anderson, Wise, Guy, Cowart, Adams,, Davis

Edge guys are:
Judon, Van Noy, Winovich, Berry

The Patriots use 2 LB (Mike and Jack).
Hightower, Uche, McMillian, Hall, Bentley

As for Outside WR:
Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Meyers

Wasn’t this obvious?...

 

[Patsgofor4]

Wasn’t this obvious?...

Not to Captain Crunch...

 

[captain stone]

Is Uche not an edge guy? It sure seems like he is.

He reminds me of Collins - he has the physical ability to play anywhere.

Except that Uche is MUCH smaller than Collins...Dude thinks he's a Pass-Rusher when he's actually built for ILB or Weak-Side LB...but he cannot/doesn't want to play inside with the Grown Men and he has ZERO demonstrable coverage skills...Horrible trade-up and pick.