Our Secondary

[mgteich]

I think we will be fine with the players we have as long as we’re healthy. We have a couple of players I don’t really like that much but it’s a solid secondary. If one of the draft picks can replace Bryant or Williams, we are better than fine leaning towards good.

None of the draft picks need to step up for us to be OK at corner in 2022.

ONE POSSIBILTY
starters; Mills, Jonathan Jones, Butler or Mitchell
#4 CB: Butler or Mitchell (or perhaps one of these won't make the 53)
#5 CB: Jack Jones (who would almost always be inactive)
returner and #6 CB: M Jones

Yes, it is possible that Williams or Wade will get one or even two of the roster spots.

 

[venecol]

Not sure why anyone believes Terrance Mitchell is even making the roster. Dude was graded (52.4) 103 out of 116 CBs. He was drafted just 2 spots (#254) from Mr. Irrelevant in 2014. He's played for 5 teams in 7 years. His #s the last 2 years are terrible (102.5 avg passer rating, 59% completion, 11 TDs, 1 Int). He's a 30 yo Jag.

CBs:
CB #1: Butler - avg to above avg ??
CB #2: Mills - average
Slot CB: Jones - very good

CB #4: battle between Wade, Slowjuan, Jack Jones.

Returner/ST: Marcus Jones / Bethel

These are the guys that have to cover: Hill, Waddle, Wilson, Diggs, G. Davis, McKenzie, Renfrow, Adams, Hopkins, Marquise Brown, Moore, Pittman, Campbell, Chase, Higgins, Boyd, Cooper, Justin Jefferson, Thielen, Claypool, D Johnson, etc.

Sorry but they're getting smoked.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

Not if Barmore/Judon/Younger FASTER LB's are unleashed on the QB.
2019 DPOY was helped IMMENSELY by the front causing havoc with Flores calling plays.
Hopefully the front 7 are more aggressive to help the DBS.

 

[ashley]

That’s strong conviction in your statement.
I just don’t think he fits what Bills trying to do on defense.
Bill seems to be going for quicker quick twitch defensive backs rather than tall cornerbacks who can play press man and cover taller receivers.

Bringing back Butler and drafting two defensive backs that match his stature perfectly gives some weight to my assumption.

If we brought JC back and had more depth I could understand it, but right now he's our number 1 or at worst number 2 corner. He was above average last year.

It will be interesting to see how Butler looks during TC. I am hoping that he resembles at least a part of his former self and we've been hearing good things about the rookie Jones, so that's good news, but I would expect Mills to be one of our starting corners come game 1 against Miami.

 

[mgteich]

Not sure why anyone believes Terrance Mitchell is even making the roster..

As I said

#4 CB: Butler or Mitchell (or perhaps one of these won't make the 53)

 

[mgteich]

Not sure why anyone believes Terrance Mitchell is even making the roster..

As I said

#4 CB: Butler or Mitchell (or perhaps one of these won't make the 53)
==========
IN THE BEST CASE,
one of the rookies is the #4 CB and one of Butler or Mitchell plays a major role, with other cut.

 

[ralmat55]

3.5 of Jalen Mills’ $4.5 million salary is guaranteed in 2022, so he’s not being cut.

One thing we should keep in mind as we have these discussions is how tight against the salary cap the Patriots are and how seemingly reluctant they are to increase the future cap hits for Judon, Henry and Jonnu Smith to gain the cap space this season to finish signing their draft picks and have space for in-season contingencies.

That’s why I believe we might see another surprise trade or two like the Shaq Mason trade where a good, useful player is traded to create cap space and gain future draft capital.

There really aren’t that many prospects for this kind of trade, but two of them are secondary players - Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones.

Mills is real good player well worth his $4.5 million salary who could upgrade a lot of team’s secondaries. Jon Jones is one of the best slot corners in the NFL with a very reasonable salary for a player of his pedigree. Both would have a robust trade market you’d have to think.

I also want to point out there is a good reason why the Pats might not want to push salary cap into the future for this player or that player besides just the cash flow ramifications of having to pay the money up front. Increasing a player’s future cap hits gives the player leverage as it puts the onus on the team to redo or extend players to lower their cap hit. It would just make it harder to extend Henry and Judon which based on last year is probably something the Pats would like to do. The same goes for Jonnu, or, in his case, increasing his future cap hits could make it harder to walk away from his contract early because of the acceleration of unamortized bonus money if they did.

 

[mgteich]

There really aren’t that many prospects for this kind of trade, but two of them are secondary players - Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones.

Mills is real good player well worth his $4.5 million salary who could upgrade a lot of team’s secondaries. Jon Jones is one of the best slot corners in the NFL with a very reasonable salary for a player of his pedigree. Both would have a robust trade market you’d have to think.

So, your idea is to cut our two top defense backs to save a bit of cap money?

 

[venecol]

3.5 of Jalen Mills’ $4.5 million salary is guaranteed in 2022, so he’s not being cut.

One thing we should keep in mind as we have these discussions is how tight against the salary cap the Patriots are and how seemingly reluctant they are to increase the future cap hits for Judon, Henry and Jonnu Smith to gain the cap space this season to finish signing their draft picks and have space for in-season contingencies.

That’s why I believe we might see another surprise trade or two like the Shaq Mason trade where a good, useful player is traded to create cap space and gain future draft capital.

There really aren’t that many prospects for this kind of trade, but two of them are secondary players - Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones.

Mills is real good player well worth his $4.5 million salary who could upgrade a lot of team’s secondaries. Jon Jones is one of the best slot corners in the NFL with a very reasonable salary for a player of his pedigree. Both would have a robust trade market you’d have to think.

I also want to point out there is a good reason why the Pats might not want to push salary cap into the future for this player or that player besides just the cash flow ramifications of having to pay the money up front. Increasing a player’s future cap hits gives the player leverage as it puts the onus on the team to redo or extend players to lower their cap hit. It would just make it harder to extend Henry and Judon which based on last year is probably something the Pats would like to do. The same goes for Jonnu, or, in his case, increasing his future cap hits could make it harder to walk away from his contract early because of the acceleration of unamortized bonus money if they did.

I agree but doubt any trade is coming from the anemic CB corps. If anything, Agholor seems to be the logical choice since it frees up $10M and team is deep at the position.

 

[Pats2000]

I agree but doubt any trade is coming from the anemic CB corps. If anything, Agholor seems to be the logical choice since it frees up $10M and team is deep at the position.

Jesus, are you this negative every season?

 

[venecol]

Jesus, are you this negative every season?

It's just an opinion man. I'm not a stewardess that has to smile all the time.

 

[Pats2000]

It's just an opinion man. I'm not a stewardess that has to smile all the time.

Your opinion is about as good as a Peter King hot take

 

[Ochmed Jones]

We can always pick up a corner at training camp cut down time.

 

[Mack Herron]

We can always pick up a corner at training camp cut down time.

Why? We have a bunch of cast-offs already.

 

[TheRainMaker]

Don't know where to put this, but this is funny. These are they types of things why people don't take PFF seriously.

PFF ranks Giants’ Adoree’ Jackson among NFL’s top outside corners

Pro Football Focus ranks New York Giants CB Adoree' Jackson among the NFL's best outside corners and ahead of James Bradberry (by a lot).

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Kasmir]

Don't where to put this, but this is funny. These are they types of things why people don't take PFF seriously.

PFF ranks Giants’ Adoree’ Jackson among NFL’s top outside corners

Pro Football Focus ranks New York Giants CB Adoree' Jackson among the NFL's best outside corners and ahead of James Bradberry (by a lot).

sports.yahoo.com

Fans don't respect PFF. The NFL does: they have contracts with all 32 teams.

 

[BTTA]

3.5 of Jalen Mills’ $4.5 million salary is guaranteed in 2022, so he’s not being cut.

That money is already spent. It won't change who the coaches pick to be the best players on the roster for the season. The two decisions, one of which was made prior to this year, and one of which will be made in the coming weeks, are not connected.

 

[ivanvamp]

I hope they can figure out how to make the defensive backfield effective, because man, not long ago they had Gilmore and Jackson - both all-pro caliber guys - manning the corners.

 

[TheRainMaker]

I hope they can figure out how to make the defensive backfield effective, because man, not long ago they had Gilmore and Jackson - both all-pro caliber guys - manning the corners.

They had a nice run having arguably the best CB's and Secondary from 2017 to 2021.

 

[venecol]

Watched the highlights of Patriots vs Texans in 2021. Check out #39. He did cause the FF in the EZ so there's that, but wow.