We’re closing in on the worst part of the offseason, aka “The Void”, a time to marinate on the roster and start putting together a Patriots defense outlook, among other things. One great thing about having 90 guys on the roster, there’s always something to analyze.
Aside from the usual “are the Pats going back to a 3-4?” question that drives me nuts, it’s easy to read the tea leaves on how the Pats’ scheme will evolve a bit this season. The two easiest areas to start — defensive tackle and cornerback.
Let’s take a closer look at how things have shaken out at those positions this offseason.
Where’s the Beef? The Pats DTs have it
The last couple seasons it appeared the Pats were transitioning to more of a versatile defensive tackle group. Since 2011, when they started going with more even (four-man) fronts, they’ve always had a soft spot for size, but it wasn’t until 2014 and the selection of Dominique Easley where they actually seemed at all interested in penetrators. And it wasn’t just Easley, they kicked the tires on a number of guys who weren’t 300 pounds-plus, like Jerel Worthy to name one.
But this offseason the defensive tackle position came into clearer focus. They jettisoned Easley and Chris Jones, re-signed Alan Branch, signed Terrence Knighton and drafted Vincent Valentine — three guys whose combined weight is over 1000 pounds and all generally fit the same body type.
In the old days of the traditional 3-4, all these players would likely be five technique defensive ends, but now the Pats will mix-and-match them with Malcom Brown, who should be the new Vince Wilfork — playing almost every down and doing a little bit of everything. Brown isn’t the same mold as the others and has excellent lateral movement skills that should make him one of the best playmakers they have up front.
Schematically, the objective seems clear. Occupy the three interior offensive linemen with just two man-mammoths, opening up one-on-one matchups for the defensive ends against the opposing tackles. This should also make trying to run up the middle quite the challenge.
The bigger question becomes what happens on obvious passing situations, especially third-and-long. This was Easley’s sweet spot when he was healthy the last couple years, or sometimes Geneo Grissom in a fill-in role. I believe they’ll use Brown in this role now unless it’s a pure pass rush situation, in which case we might even see four defensive ends.
So look for a Ninkovich-Brown-Long-Sheard front in third-and-medium and then swap in Grissom or Flowers for Brown for third-and-longs.
The defense was torn apart by early-down passing in 2010-2013 and that’s why it will be imperative for the defensive ends to win their one-on-one matchups, especially if the tackles in the middle are not getting push. But the good news is that they can rotate the big men and shouldn’t have to run them into the ground like they did with Wilfork.
Man Coverage is Here to Stay
Last year when Revis, Browner and Arrington were all sent packing the common sentiment was the Patriots must be moving back to more zone coverage. This drove me insane, because I truly believe you can’t play good defense in today’s NFL with a zone-heavy coverage scheme.
Of course, these fears were unfounded when we discovered the Pats still had every intention of sticking to a heavy Cover-1 Man Robber scheme and Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan and Justin Coleman did far better than anyone expected.
This draft only reinforced the fact that man coverage is here to stay, as the Pats used their first pick on a man-cover corner and signed three rookie free agents who can all do the same.
Check out these scouting report tidbits from NFL.com:
Cyrus Jones: Press corner with good build and strong lower half. Plus play strength. Confident and tough. Able to reroute and maintain positioning on receivers.
Jonathan Jones: Man cover specialist with springy feet and ability to shadow his man. Usually near the throw. Has closing burst and ball skills to be aggressively disruptive at the catch point.
V’Angelo Bentley: Shows very good awareness to pre-snap movement and gets his secondary aligned with good communication. Actively attempts to redirect receivers in their routes from zone and sifts through combination routes quickly.
Cre’Von Leblanc: Plays with exceptionally strong hands clutching and challenging receivers from press. Allowed just 34.5 percent completion rate in 2015. Impressive mirror and match footwork to stick to his targets and stay in position to make plays on the ball.
The free agents were all undersized and that’s why they went undrafted. Bentley is the only one whose scouting reports don’t implicitly mention his man coverage skills, but he, like the others, check all the other boxes — fearless tacklers, smart and tough.
Add in last year’s seventh-rounder Darryl Roberts (Can change directions on command and has desired stop/start quickness. Has long arms and is aggressive with them in press coverage.) with what we already know about the corners who played all of last year, and the Pats’ secondary seems primed for more aggressive man coverage in 2016.
