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If there’s a constant theme of the past couple months since Revis et al departed it’s whether or not the front seven can offset an unproven secondary.

There’s no secret that pass rush and pass coverage must work together, but I think if one has to make up for deficiencies in the other, you’re going to choose a great pass rush over great coverage. You could have two Revises back there and he can still only cover so long before guys will get open on him.

I think it’s important to not lose sight of the fact that the Patriots are going to mix-and-match coverages and fronts. They played a lot of Cover-1 Press Man last year, but they also mixed in plenty of zone coverage.

So while they will probably go back to more zone, it’s not like they’re going all zone all the time. This is frustrating because of how much I enjoyed watching our cornerbacks man-up all the receivers. That’s a fun brand of coverage, but it’s also an expensive one.

The interesting thing is how they’ve added so many edge players this offseason. I wish they had done it last year instead of trying to play Nink and Chandler every snap, but now they added a proven NFL player in Jabaal Sheard and three rookie (Grissom, Flowers, Dickson) who also project to the edge position.

None of them are one-trick pass rushers nor would the Patriots ever really want one-trick pass rushers, but it seems that the aim is to amp up the rotation on the defensive line and try to keep winning matchups instead of burning guys out.

There are so many options for the defensive front seven, it’s impossible to speculate what will happen because they can pretty much do anything. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in camp with competition and (unfortunately) injuries.

I’d like to think Adam Vinatieri gets in. Can any other kicker claim the resume he has, not only for longevity but for clutch kicks in the playoffs with two Super Bowl-winners.

After him I don’t know if there’s a real slam dunk in terms of born-and-bred Patriots. McGinest holds the record for playoffs sacks, that could help him. Seymour and Wilfork were certainly dominant players but never racked up the stats. Bruschi and Vrabel meant so much to the defense, but again, do they get docked because they played for a Belichick defense?

Obviously Randy Moss will get in but I’m not sure he really counts as a Patriot. I’d expect he’ll go in as a Vike. What about Welker? He really redefined the slot position and had a ton of catches. But again, is he really that good or just part of the system.

I’d expect Gronk to be pretty much a lock even if he retired tomorrow.

Arrington would’ve been a pretty shock if that had happened in the middle of training camp, wouldn’t he? As always this is kind of hard to project, but I’ll throw Sebastian Vollmer out there as he’s the fourth-highest salary on the team and there are two promising guys (Cannon, who they just extended, and Fleming) in back of him. The Pats would still take a $5million cap hit if they cut him so that could be a deterrent, but he seems to fit the mold of a shocking starter cut that they have the depth to replace. 

Funny thing is they had no depth to replace Mankins last year and that still didn’t stop them. I’m just not sure who else it could be unless you look at the second tier of guys like Chris Jones, Sealver Siliga, maybe Dane Fletcher/Brandon Spikes. Really any of the cornerbacks could get axed outside of Butler and I wouldn’t be shocked.