Reiss' Sunday column discussed LBs but zero mention of Anfernee Jennings.
Foregone conclusion AF is a likely roster cut?
New England needs better health and big growth from McMillan and others in the middle of its defense after moving on from three veteran leaders.
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I don’t see a world where Bentley and Raekwon McMillan play side by side. Both are supposed to be thumpers in the middle but Bentley is more mobile and strong. If “getting faster” in the middle of the field is really a priority one of the young fast kids (Uche, McGrone) has to (ideally) emerge next to Bentley. We can’t have two slow thumpers in the middle and McMillan isn’t very big or strong anyway.
In order to have some depth and pass rush on the outside Jennings needs to emerge. Perkins is a stiff IMO, maybe he possesses some pass rush gene where he provides something as a situational rusher but I don’t see it. I could see them bringing Hightower back as a situational OLB on the outside, I think he could still provide some juice off the edge and hold up in contain as a part time player.
The DT’s are talented but Guy is getting long in the tooth and Carl Davis can never stay healthy. Maybe he does and we get 10-12 snaps from him per game as a NT, that’s all we really need from him.
Davon Godchaux was the one free agent who actually got overpaid in my estimation, but one thing he does provide at DT is a heavy snap count, tackles and motor. He doesn’t wear down. He may get pushed back now and again but he turns around and makes the tackles fairly often. Bend don’t break by default, this works because they can sub Davis in on short downs and goal line to get situational run stops… Davis and Guy need to stay healthy.
Barmore is a stud, I want to see him progress more but he is already off to a fast start, I think he could develop into one of the best interior pass rushers in the league and all around DT’s, he was a rock against the run as well when he didn’t make any mental errors.
The corners are all mobile, strong and have decent explosion. We lack one CB with blazing speed on the outside but Jalen Mills is a good technician and possesses legit 4.4 speed.
I see Terrence Mitchell beating out Malcolm Butler on the other side. Butler maybe past his prime and he was never a great athlete. Mitchell seems to me to be a decent player who played on some really bad defenses. Ultimately I think he make a decent #2 but probably is better served as a 3. Another potential dark horse out there is Shaun Wade, he possesses some size, speed and length, if by some chance he shows out in camp I’ll feel pretty good about their overall ability to play more man coverage on the outside.
The talent and speed resides in the slot assuming they get something from Marcus Jones (health) and possibly Jack Jones. I think Jack is a year away, he needs to eat and buy into the weight program. But he apparently possesses ball skills, instincts and has superior agility… which among measurables for CB’s I’d place at the top of the list of importance.
The safeties are stacked with talent and they will play a lot, they’ll use those SS’s as LB’ers and a lot of the “speed” will come from there.
I think, assuming health, that the defense has a lot more question marks than the offense but both sides of the ball will need young guys to contribute… the defense just needs more of them to contribute.
It would concern me but I think back to that decade in between 2005-2013 when Brady was one of the highest paid players in the league, over that period the defense was assembled on the cheap and they suffered some bad injuries to guys they considered building block type players… despite that BB always cobbled together a serviceable D from spare parts and duct tape.
This D has a chance to be very good if healthy and the young kids emerge, they could also end up being a patchwork crew that does their best to no avail… in which case next years bounty of cap space and draft picks will be heavily invested in the D.