Let's not diss Bruschi too badly here. On a lot of those successful penetrations, sacks, and strip-sack fumbles, he was right around the play contributing to the mayhem. I don't recall a lot of the defensive bending being in his area of responsibility. He did even technically get an interception, even if that was little more contribution than a simple incompletion would have been. And he's a genuine field-general type. He's one of that tier, along with Warren, Vrabel, et al. As for Vrabel, notwithstanding that he once made Defensive Player of the Month with a cast on his wrist, he may be the last of the classic Pats defenders to remain underrated. But the streak of "Mike Vrabel makes zero mental errors" has finally been interrupted, as he's been yo-yoed between OLB and ILB. And whereas he had the second highest sack total for LBs one season, he doesn't seem to be getting the opportunity to shine in that role as much now. And after this year's draft, his TE contributes are less important, although I may have to revise that opinion if Graham stays fragile or something. So I'm putting Warren above him, even though my heart is with Mike. (Sorry about the run-on. It seems like I need to figure out a different workaround for almost every vBulletin site before the formatting works properly for me, and I haven't figured this one out yet.)
