Pro Football Focus: The Patriots have the best secondary coverage in the League

[JJDChE]

Most of the really good QBs are in the NFC now. Not surprising they haven't faced great QB competition.

 

[JMC00]

The Jets went from 30th in passer rating against last year to 5th this year. I'd say that's a pretty damn big impact.

And had to bring how many guys to do it?

Pats got rid of their top 3 CBs last year and only brought in an UDRFA.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Most of the really good QBs are in the NFC now. Not surprising they haven't faced great QB competition.

You are dreaming. Outside of Rodgers, Eli Manning, and the Carolina and AZ QBs, the rest are only mildly talented or propped up by a great team around them. Wilson would just be an undersized runaround shrimp, aka Tyrod Taylor, without the Seahawks D, and the crazy hometown fans, for example.

 

[manxman2601]

You are dreaming. Outside of Rodgers, Eli Manning, and the Carolina and AZ QBs, the rest are only mildly talented or propped up by a great team around them. Wilson would just be an undersized runaround shrimp, aka Tyrod Taylor, without the Seahawks D, and the crazy hometown fans, for example.

You clearly haven't watched the Seahawks the past few games. Wilson has been lights out. comparing
Tyrod Taylor to Wilson is like comparing Ryan Mallett to Tom Brady.

 

[strngplyr]

Statistical rankings do support PFF, maybe not that we're #1, but that our coverage is excellent, but it's because of the entire defense:

#6 total
#8 points
#7 passing
#10 rushing
#2 sacks
#8 comp %
#9 passer rating
#7 pass YPA
#8 fewest pass TD's allowed

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Ryan and Butler with Dmac and chung back there....fantastic secondary this year

 

[mgteich]

The reality is that we have a very fine defense. And, the secondary has NOT been a weakness. The defense is doing all that we might have expected from them.

And yes, the GM brought in Coleman and Johnson to play nickel.

 

[JJDChE]

And had to bring how many guys to do it?

Pats got rid of their top 3 CBs last year and only brought in an UDRFA.

Don't know and don't care. You can't tell me they didn't turn the secondary around. The whole team really. They're 8-5 and in contention. They were 4-12 last year. Whatever they did worked out.

 

[JJDChE]

You clearly haven't watched the Seahawks the past few games. Wilson has been lights out. comparing
Tyrod Taylor to Wilson is like comparing Ryan Mallett to Tom Brady.

Wilson has been outstanding since day one in the NFL and he's only gotten better. I believe he'll be the best QB of this generation.

 

[Rob0729]

Still 3 games to go but if you believe QB rating is an indicator on how good a QB is, they have faced more efficient QBs this year than last year.

2015
Roeth- 97 (good)
Taylor-101 x2 (caretaker)
Tannehill- 88 x2 (meh)
Bortles 88 (30 tds)
Weeden 92 (illusion...he sucks)
Luck- 75 (sucks this year)
Fitzy 90 x2 (good year)
Cousins 93 (good year)
Eli 96 (good year)
Ossy- 85 (game of his life vs Pats)
Bradford 83 (he sucks)
Hoyer 93 (meh)
Mariota: 92


Average: 91

2014
GB Rodgers 112 (great)
DEN Manning 101 (start of decline)
SD Rivers 94 (Solid)
KC A Smith 93 (Solid game manager)
MIA Tannehill 93 x 2 (better in 2014)
CHI Cutler 89 (meh)
BUF Orton 88 x 2 (meh)
DET Stafford 86 (better in 2015)
CIN Dalton 83 (meh)
MN Cassell - 66 (awful)
OAK Carr 77 (rookie last year and way better in 2015)
NYJ G Smith 78 x 2 (has two decent games vs Pats)
IND Luck 97 (very good last year...except vs pats)

Average 89

Yeah, the Pats faced better teams last year, but I don't know if they faced that many better QBs. Games against teams like the Bills, Chiefs, and Lions were considered tough games because of their defenses and/or running games. Not their QBs.

Also, the Pats have faced much better receivers this year.

I don't buy into any PFF analysis, but this secondary especially guys not named Butler or McCourty have been far better than people expected or still give them credit for.

 

[JJDChE]

No one expected Butler to be this good either. Going into the season everyone was expecting McCourty to have to hold together a patchwork secondary.

 

[AzPatsFan]

When will folks realize that given two seasons, BB WILL correct a deficiency in any squad.

 

[slam]

New England's secondary coverage PFF grade
Logan Ryan: 86.5
Patrick Chung: 86.4
Duron Harmon: 86.0
Devin McCourty: 84.7
Malcolm Butler: 81.4

I just have to bring this back up given people are still trying to cite PFF as an actual non-made-up thing that reflects reality. If you were to have GMs redraft every player in the NFL, and every player will be given the same salary and it's only for one season long, the order in which the Patriots' secondary members come off the board is probably close to exactly the opposite of PFFs ratings. McCourty probably goes first over Butler, and Ryan/Chung/Harmon are probably close, but I'd wager that the PFF ratings are close to the exact opposite of real world relative value.

 

[Kontradiction]

You clearly haven't watched the Seahawks the past few games. Wilson has been lights out. comparing
Tyrod Taylor to Wilson is like comparing Ryan Mallett to Tom Brady.

The guy has 19 touchdowns in the last five games. That's absolutely absurd.

 

[supafly]

Don't know and don't care. You can't tell me they didn't turn the secondary around. The whole team really. They're 8-5 and in contention. They were 4-12 last year. Whatever they did worked out.

Considering the fact that they already had a very stout front seven, improving the secondary and getting an actual QB seemed to be the winning formula for them. Add in a humble (anti-Rex) and good defensive coach like Bowles and I think they really improved quite nicely.

Of course, one less Geno Smith punch to the face and we may not be having this same conversation. I said the day that Fitzpatrick took over that they'd be a formidable foe and continue to play us tough. The addition of a journeyman QB helped them tremendously, as did bringing in Marshall.