Truly incredible fact

[Ring 6]

The Patriots won the SB in 2014 and, rightfully so the defense was given large amounts of credit.

Two years later they won the SB again with the #1 ranked defense in the NFL. Here is a list of the players subtracted from the 2014 team:

• Darelle Revis
• Jamie Collins
• Vince Wilfork
• Jerrod Mayo
• Chandler Jones
• Brandon Browner
• Kyle Arrington
• Sealver Siliga
• Akeem Ayers
• Alfonzo Dennard

Plus bit parts in Tavon Wilson, Jonathan Casillas and Chris Jones (who actually played a lot) and Dominique Easley.

Would anyone seriously think that you could take that much talent and depth away from a SB winning defense and within 2 years win the SB again, with the defense that allowed the fewest points of anyone in any of those 3 years?

And they did it while having a number 1 pick stolen from them.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

That looks like a nice core group of players to start a defense (especially in their primes).

 

[Ring 6]

Putting this a different way.
Could the 2016 team lose the following players and won the SB with a top D in 2 years.

Butler
Hightower
Branch
van noy
Flowers
Rowe
Ryan
Valentine
Long
Coleman

King, nink, sheard

Imagine we lose all of them and are champs again within 2 years?

 

[Le Numéro Douze]

If anyone needed more.proof that BB is a genius, well...

 

[Ring 6]

If anyone needed more.proof that BB is a genius, well...

And how about some credit to Matty P?

 

[TB_Helmet]

Man, that 2014 D was loaded. Had a lot of "name" players.

This year's version was much more under the radar, as evidenced by the raging "eye test" debates on this board. But had similar, if not better, results, especially down the stretch.

I think one advantage 2016 had over 2014 was positional flexibility and the ability of players to play multiple roles and confuse the offense. Would be interesting to see the play count distribution for both years, I bet this year's was spread around more, especially among edge rushers.

 

[BobDigital]

Names aside lets look at the actual on the field play 2014 vs 2016. Lets go spot by spot. Also lets compare how it was come playoff time particularly.

CB1 -- Revis < Butler
CB2 -- Browner = Rowe
CB3 -- Arrington < Ryan - The #3 spot was an issue in this run. Not till Butler was put back there did it work out. But that wasn't till the last quarter of the run.
FS - Same
SS - Same
S3 - Same

Overall the DB play was better imo in 2016

LB1 - Same
LB2 -- Collins > ??? -This is the biggest difference on the D. But lets be real Collins wasn't great in the 2014 playoff run.

Overall LBs in 2014 were clearly better

DE1 -- Jones < Flowers - Jones never made much impact in the playoffs. This is the biggest upgrade
DE2 -- Nink14 > Nink16
DE3 -- Ayers < Long/Sheard - IDK what the deal is for Ayers but he fell off in the playoffs and Long/Sheard made a bigger impact in those games.
DT1 -- Wilfork < Branch - Wilfork was not good in 14.
DT2 -- Siligia < Brown
DT3 -- Branch > Valentine - Branch was just getting into the swing in 2014 so his snap count was a bit low. And he was the 3rd DT but he was very good.

Overall I will say the DL in 2016 was better on DE and DT.

So when really giving it a look should we be surprised a unit that was better?

 

[FourierSeries]

The 2016 defense was much better than the 2014 defense, and in fact was the best defense in the league this past season. If the #1 ranking in points allowed wasn't enough, they also held the 7th highest scoring offense of all time to 21 points on the biggest stage, 1/8 on 3rd down, 7 points in the 2nd half, and completely shut them out in the 4th.

Incredible indeed.

 

[Le Numéro Douze]

And how about some credit to Matty P?

Very fair point. Patricia does deserve a lot of credit.

 

[patfanken]

The Patriots won the SB in 2014 and, rightfully so the defense was given large amounts of credit.
2 years later they won the SB again with the #1 ranked defense in the NFL. Here is a list of the players subtracted from the 2014 team.

Darelle Revis
Jamie Collins
Vince wilfork
Jerrod mayo
Chandler Jones
Brandon browner
Kyle Arrington
Sealver siliga
Akeem ayers
Alfonzo Dennard

Plus bit parts in tavon Wilson, Jonathan Casillas and Chris jones (who actually played a lot) and Dominique Easley

Would anyone seriyosly think that you could take that much talent and depth away from a SB winning defense and within 2 years win the SB again, with the defense that allowed the fewest points of anyone in any of those 3 years?

And they did it while having a number 1 pick stolen from them.

Interesting mental excersize, Andy. Just the thing to get us through until FA starts.

My first impression of the 2014 list was age. Wilfolk, Browner, Mayo, and Revis were all on the down side if not already cooked. Mayo was already on IR and getting ready for retirement. Vince Wilfolk and Browner's were all (as it turned out) all past their primes, and all were gone in 2015

Dennard was wildly erratic in his play. Arrington was also, but better than Dennard, and Siliga was just the best of a very average rotation. IIRC they all were released the next season, along with Jones and Wilson. Ayers and Casillas left to get paid. Both Casillas and Wilson had great 2016 seasons with the Lions and Giants respectively.

Chandler Jones would be gone a year later in an attempt to get some value for a good player that they thought was odd man out among Hightower and Collins, and was traded to the Cards for decent value of a 2nd (which turned into Tuney and Michell) and OG who didn't work out but sounded intriguing at the time. Collins evidently shot himself out of town just a few month later.

Hopefully it means we will have all the cap space necessary to sign all the people BB thinks we need to make another run at the title.

BTW- The biggest lesson we should take from this excersize is that it is CRITICAL that you keep on getting better every year. If you stay pat, "they" will catch you. EVERYONE is looking to get better in the off season through FA and/or the draft....and the problem is that SOME of them actually will get better.

It will be interesting to see what we do this off season. I know BB will want to keep redoing the DL. Ninko and Long are both past their primes, and Sheard didn't progress from his 2015 season, and we all know what happens when a player stops getting "better", especially FA's looking to get paid.

We also need to be prepard to replace some key parts to the secondary, as well as improve at LB. And now I'm just doing some late night rambling and going way off topic. At any rate, nice OP

 

[BTTA]

...Here is a list of the players subtracted from the 2014 team:

• Darelle Revis
• Jamie Collins
• Vince Wilfork
• Jerrod Mayo
• Chandler Jones
• Brandon Browner
• Kyle Arrington
• Sealver Siliga
• Akeem Ayers
• Alfonzo Dennard

Plus bit parts in Tavon Wilson, Jonathan Casillas and Chris Jones (who actually played a lot) and Dominique Easley.

Putting this a different way.
Could the 2016 team lose the following players and won the SB with a top D in 2 years.

Butler
Hightower
Branch
van noy
Flowers
Rowe
Ryan
Valentine
Long
Coleman

King, nink, sheard

Imagine we lose all of them and are champs again within 2 years?

This is very useful perspective as we head into roster building season. Makes me wonder how much roster turnover they see as useful vs. problematic after a successful season. Perhaps they know that a SB winning team needs an infusion of new players who haven't won one, or haven't won one recently, to counter act the natural pacifying affects of winning one.

Perhaps we should be prepared to see more of the free agents walk than we'd anticipated. And/or perhaps the players who were "just ok" will definitely be gone regardless of their contract status.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Folks need to slow down with the desecration of the 2014 D.

That was a damn good defense.

 

[ChessToCheckers]

Interesting post! Since much of NFL success is relative (EG: how we perform relative to our division and our conference), it might suggest that we are GAINING ground relative to our competition. Said differently, perhaps fewer good offenses in 2016 versus 2014? I have no idea if this is true, but given where we sit right now, with plenty of CAP and some potential Jimmy G chips, I think we are gaining ground against the other 31 teams!

This bodes well for New England.

BB, GOAT GM!

Go Pats

 

[Ring 6]

Folks need to slow down with the desecration of the 2014 D.

That was a damn good defense.

I don't think anyone is ripping the 2014 D just saying that almost a complete overhaul of a really good defense ended up with one that outperformed it.

Other than safety and Hightower it was almost a complete overhaul.
Even the other players who were on both teams had very different roles.

 

[Poker]

How much of the D's success is talent and how much is from the way BB and Matty P get them to play the right way together as a team?

The trades of Jones then Collins taught us that synchronized team D is perhaps more important than player for player talent or st least under appreciated.

 

[RobertWeathers]

I don't think anyone is ripping the 2014 D just saying that almost a complete overhaul of a really good defense ended up with one that outperformed it.

Other than safety and Hightower it was almost a complete overhaul.
Even the other players who were on both teams had very different roles.

Your post was fine.

Others are saying Revis was washed up in 2014 and that was not the case.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

The Patriots won the SB in 2014 and, rightfully so the defense was given large amounts of credit.

Two years later they won the SB again with the #1 ranked defense in the NFL. Here is a list of the players subtracted from the 2014 team:

• Darelle Revis
• Jamie Collins
• Vince Wilfork
• Jerrod Mayo
• Chandler Jones
• Brandon Browner
• Kyle Arrington
• Sealver Siliga
• Akeem Ayers
• Alfonzo Dennard

Plus bit parts in Tavon Wilson, Jonathan Casillas and Chris Jones (who actually played a lot) and Dominique Easley.

Would anyone seriously think that you could take that much talent and depth away from a SB winning defense and within 2 years win the SB again, with the defense that allowed the fewest points of anyone in any of those 3 years?

And they did it while having a number 1 pick stolen from them.

Awesome post!

Here is their official starting lineup from Super Bowl 49. I have bolded the players who even played in Super Bowl 51. 7 out of 22 players.

Offense

Brandon LaFell WR
Nate Solder LT
Dan Connolly LG
Bryan Stork C
Ryan Wendell RG
Sebastian Vollmer RT
Rob Gronkowski TE
Julian Edelman WR
Tom Brady QB
Michael Hoomanawanui TE
Shane Vereen RB

Defense

Rob Ninkovich LE
Vince Wilfork DT
Sealver Siliga DT
Chandler Jones RE
Jamie Collins LB
Dont'a Hightower LB
Kyle Arrington DB
Darrelle Revis LCB
Brandon Browner RCB
Patrick Chung SS
Devin McCourty FS

 

[ALP]

7 out of 22 starters just 2 years later? and you got better?

ridiculous

 

[Ring 6]

Here is a nice breakdown.
The Patriots played 1089 snaps of defense in 2014. That is 1089X11 = 11979 snaps broken down by player.
7120 were by players who were gone by SB LI, and 4859 were players who remained.
That is 60% of the defense, or almost 7 players per snap, were replaced from SB Champ to SB Champ.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Here is a nice breakdown.
The Patriots played 1089 snaps of defense in 2014. That is 1089X11 = 11979 snaps broken down by player.
7120 were by players who were gone by SB LI, and 4859 were players who remained.
That is 60% of the defense, or almost 7 players per snap, were replaced from SB Champ to SB Champ.

That's craaazy