The secondary, led by NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore, were outstanding.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a better secondary in the league and most of them return for 2020.\u00a0 However, they are a year older and 4 of them are over 30.\u00a0 Duron Harmon was shipped off to Detroit.\u00a0\u00a0 The Patriots 1st<\/sup> draft pick was the exciting S Kyle Dugger.\u00a0 He played at DII Lenoir Rhymes, not exactly a hotbed of NFL talent.\u00a0 It may take him awhile to get acclimated to the speed of the NFL.\u00a0 I see him as an eventual replacement of Patrick Chung.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Jon Jones (slot) and JC Jackson (RCB) are up and coming players.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t be surprised if both are starters this year. No reason to suspect much drop off in play, except hey are playing much better competition every week this season.<\/p>\n Kyle Van Noy and Jaime Collins were lost to Free Agency.\u00a0 They were victims of the Patriots Salary Cap and the huge amount of dead money that came due when Tom Brady left.\u00a0 Neither even received offers from the Pats because they knew they weren\u2019t in the ballpark with either Free Agent.\u00a0 Replacing that experience will be difficult, but Bill Belichick picked two players in the draft in Josh Uche and Afernee Jennings, who may eventually fill the void.\u00a0 <\/p>\n They also signed a cheap Free Agent in Brandon Copeland who may fill in while they develop.\u00a0 However, last season this group didn\u2019t put much pressure on opposing teams unless they were in blitz situations.\u00a0 Against the weaker teams they got away with the Zero Blitz (no free safety \u2013 man coverage across the board), but not so much against the better teams.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Dont’a Hightower is the glue of the LB corps.\u00a0 Ja\u2019Whaun Bentley will have a more prominent role as a 2 down run stuffer.\u00a0 Watch how they cover for his lack of pass coverage ability.<\/p>\n Defensive Line are the 3 down lineman which are really two DT and a Nose Tackle.\u00a0 They occupy space and cover two gaps.\u00a0 It’s not a glorious job, and you only notice them when they aren\u2019t doing whatever their job entails.\u00a0 That happened too often during the 2nd<\/sup> half of the season against the better teams.\u00a0 The Patriots run defense was abysmal in the last 8 games.\u00a0 Lawrence Guy was solid but he was run down by the end of the season.\u00a0 His back up, Adam Butler, showed some pass rush ability.\u00a0 Byron Cowart needs to step up in year two. They signed Beau Allen to replace Danny Shelton, who was getting blown up in one-on-one blocking, allowing the OL to get out on the LBs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n An interesting UDFA Bill Murray shows some pass rush ability as an undersized NT.\u00a0 Let’s see if that can translate into the NFL.\u00a0 With the windfall salary cap relief the Pats received from the settlement of the Aaron Hernandez and Antonio Brown cases, they came away with another $7M in cap space.\u00a0 I would love to see the Pats snag UFA Damon \u201cSnacks\u201d\u00a0 Harrison.\u00a0 He could fill the other DT position and shore up their leaky defensive front.<\/p>\n News and notes about Training Camp!<\/strong><\/p>\n – The Patriots have delayed the rookies from reporting by a week.\u00a0 Does this mean the Vets will also report a week later?<\/p>\n – The NFL has cancelled all Pre-season games.\u00a0 This will put all the roster decisions on how the players perform in the practices.\u00a0 One benefit is that none of the UDFA and rookies will be exposed to the prying eyes of opposing scouts.\u00a0 It may make it easier for these players to be passed through to the Practice Squad.<\/p>\n – Will the no pre-season games make it harder for the Patriots to keep their streak of keeping at least one UDFA on the Opening Day 53 man roster?\u00a0 It was already difficult because of no rookie camp, OTAs and other workouts.\u00a0\u00a0 However, my thinking is that at least one UDFA makes the team.<\/p>\n – New 80 man roster limit in camp.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think this has officially been decided but that would mean 10 players would need to be cut immediately.\u00a0 Here would be my cuts:\u00a0 QB Brian Lewerke, TE Jake Burt, WR Quincy Adeboyejo, TE Rashad Berry, DE Tashawn Bowers, LB Terez Hall, CB Lenzy Pipkins, WR Sean Riley, WR Devin Ross, WR Isaiah Zuber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With Training Camp steadily approaching, here’s a look at how things went on defense for the Patriots in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-news"],"yoast_head":"\n![](\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/images\/us-presswire\/600w\/2019-Week-3-Kyle-Van-Noy-NNJuW-600w.jpg\")
Van Noy moved on in free agency this offseason.<\/span><\/p>\n