Derek Rivers:

He’s 6’3, 234 pounds and has tremendous sideline-to-sideline speed.  He’s a quick twitch athlete who is versatile and can play inside at the Mike Linebacker position or outside as well as rush off the edge in sub-packages.

Getting Hightower, Rivers, and Langi back is big. Hightower is a known commodity and he’s the Patriots best defender in the front seven. Rivers and Langi both flashed potential last season.

He’s been effective blitzing up the A-gaps but with David Harris in the fold in 2017, this will allow Hightower to play more on the edge.

The good news is that rookie edge player Deatrich Wise should be back to practice soon after the team returns from Houston.

With the retirement of Rob Ninkovich, the Patriots were in need of another player to step into that role heading into the future. For 2017, it sounds like rookie Derek Rivers might not be part of an immediate solution.

But Ninkovich’s retirement leaves a void in experience, so who steps up in 2017 to fill the gap and provides the team with the pressure they’ll need?

The team had a pair of shorts and shells practices the first two days of training camp to get things started but the intensity was dialed down a bit.

Flowers, like many others in the Pats defense, is versatile and can rush from the edge or push inside as an interior pass rusher.

Confidence is high as always in New England. And for a team that has won 10 or more games for 14 straight seasons, why should there be any other feeling?

In this episode Miguel shares his thoughts on the Patriots draft.

If there was one element the Patriots front seven lacked on the edge last season was speed. Rivers will bring that to the pass rush with athleticism

Here’s a look at this morning’s Patriots-related stories for Tuesday May 2nd, 2017.

Here’s a look at today’s Patriots-related news for Monday, May 1st, 2017.

“The four players that we acquired already are also part of the draft process, Belichick added.” “Hopefully we’ve been able to improve our team

The Patriots made a couple of trades Friday night and ended up with two pretty good players.