The bye week is a time to take a step back and reflect on what the team needs to do better moving forward into the second half of the season. Never has that been more true than with the Patriots defense, now that they’ve traded away one of their key contributors. There are holes to fill and improvements to be made.
Aside from replacing Jamie Collins from a personnel perspective, it’s also worth taking a look at the scheme and what things haven’t quite been working out the way the Patriots coaching staff might’ve envisioned them.
Here are five moves for the Patriots defense that should help them moving into the winter months.
1. Stop Moving the Front Seven All Around on Passing Downs
I get it, the Patriots wanted to unleash a collection of front seven players who could all attack from any spot along the line. We’ve seen it through the first eight games with guys lining up all over the place — inside, outside, dropping, blitzing. In theory, it sounds confusing and powerful. In practice, it’s been ineffective. So let’s just keep everyone to a position and let them focus on what the Patriots defense hasn’t been doing — winning one-on-one matchups. Sheard, Ninkovich and Long are the edge players. Use Flowers as the interior rusher. Picks spots and stick to them. Simplification should help everyone focus on doing their job a lot more easily. The one exception? Dont’a Hightower. He’s the Queen of the defensive chessboard. Have fun with him, whether it’s sending him up the gut or off the edge, or dropping him into short coverage zones. Everyone else takes a role and sticks to it.
2. Incorporate Mingo Into Pure Pass Rush Package
Barkevious Mingo has played just 27 defensive snaps (5 percent) while playing 79 percent of the special teams snaps. Now without Collins, there’s a need for another athletic linebacker on passing downs. Mingo doesn’t have the size and strength that Collins does, but he certainly has at least as much speed. For a team that is on pace for just 26 sacks it’s time to put that speed to use. The time to use him? Third-and-six-plus-yards, where the Patriots are 27th in the league. He might even be better suited with his speed for coverage, so there’s some things to play with there. Either way, his defensive snaps should increase.
3. Is Elandon Roberts a Three-Down Player?
As we saw against the Bills, the Patriots are already okay giving Roberts extended duty on early downs. Now the question is if he’s ready for some passing down work as well. He could see a rotation with Mingo, depending on the exact third down situation, but Roberts has flashed in every game he’s played in. His fearlessness to attack blockers in the running game should translate to blitzing up the middle as well. The next few games are a great time to really figure out what Roberts and Mingo can do.
4. What Can Kyle Van Noy Do?
Van Noy did everything well in college, but struggled in his first two NFL seasons. He was able to push the pocket and rush off the edge at BYU, but demonstrated little of that ability with the Lions. What do the Patriots have in Van Noy? Well now’s the time to find out, and he’s the biggest wild card on the team here on the bye week. You can bet that they will experiment with him, Mingo and Roberts alongside Hightower to see what the best combinations are and where they’re most effective. Don’t be surprised though if it’s Van Noy who becomes the newest key member of the defense.
5. Settle in with Logan Ryan at CB
The last two games the Patriots have experimented with Eric Rowe and he made far too many mistakes. Ryan has plenty of detractors out there and had a middling start to the season, but what he lacks in flash, he makes up for in solid tackling and generally consistent play. It’s time to give the starting job back to Ryan, let him get over his early season issues, that included a lack of physicality at the line. Ryan has plenty of experience shutting down good receivers like Demaryius Thomas. He can regain that form and give the Patriots far more consistent play than they’ve tried to extract from Rowe. Who the 3rd corner is, whether it’s Rowe, Justin Coleman or exiled rookie Cyrus Jones (who will get another shot), can remain an open rotation/competition.
Very intriguing questions and I’m dying to see what Mingo and van Noy can do for us on defense. Mingo looks like an athletic freak on special teams and van Noy was ridiculously productive in college. I remember the last game of his junior season at BYU where had multiple sacks and forced fumbles. The guy was everywhere.
On the last point, I don’t entirely agree with you. I think Rowe actually played well. Both PI calls on Sunday were nonsense (one of them was even a OPI). He looked back to the football and had very tight coverage. I’m quite confident that he’ll replace Ryan next year as the outside corner opposite Butler. And if Cyrus Jones develops, I think our secondary will be lethal next season. Not so sure about our pass rush though 🙂
This is a great read, thanks for posting. Nice to see some actual answers and suggestions instead of the D needs to be fixed. Looking at the first 8, I would argue the pressure is the problem, not just the sacks, but just shortening the QB decision time. It’s easy to pin this on no more chandler, but I think the inside is missing both Hicks and Easley also… Brown and Branch hold the line and are good in run d, but with Nink and Long getting older and less dynamic, someone needs to get back there.
Thanks and yes I totally agree, the lack of a true penetrator on the line has been a problem. I was banging that drum ever since Mike Wright left and was ecstatic at what the selection of Easley could mean. No one is more bummed he didn’t work out than me. Usage of the DEs on the inside has been mostly ineffective and while Anthony Johnson flashed in the preseason he’s been ineffective as well and thus up and down between the roster and practice squad. Pressure up the middle is so vital. It’s the quickest line to the QB. I hope that they can find an answer there this season, maybe Trey Flowers can continue to grow there, but it definitely needs to be addressed this offseason. Though they never seem to care what I think needs to be addressed (OT/RB last offseason) and things still seem to generally work out.
LOL – good point. I think they look at the D (which they should) as a cohesive unit.. while I don’t really care about how many sacks (look at buffalo’s record or D stats – mediocre considering Rex) I think there needs to be something done as these guys can’t get off 1 on 1 blocks which is discouraging… I would argue too much was on JC and DH in the middle and being the ones who supply the pressure, while helpful, really shouldn’t be such a priority to them. Obviously it has to due to the front 4’s lack, but I look at the front 4 of Buffalo of the Jets and think how much better the D as a whole would be with a little more pressure just rushing 4 and letting the LBs and secondary due the scheming… been an issue for a looong time.. Hicks may have been a keeper.