You have to hand it to Bill Belichick. Every year even the most astute draft pundits are completely pretzeled by Belichick’s drafts, and this year has been more pretzel-inducing than most.
Look, I get it. He’s the genius… the best coach in history, he has a plan, knows what fits and will coach up an empty bag of potato chips and it should still be enough to win the AFC East and make a playoff run. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still pull our hair out wondering about all the moves he made.
Day Two of the 2018 NFL Draft began with the Patriots trading for offensive tackle Trent Brown, a hulking right tackle once called by Von Miller the best in the game. But he’s had injury issues and was supposedly way out of shape when he reported to San Fran this season, and with Marcus Cannon atop the right tackle depth chart (and a Patriots family favorite), along with the Day One selection of Isaiah Wynn, how exactly Brown fits in is very much up in the air. And the Pats paid a pretty hefty price, the 95th overall pick.
Then came the actual draft itself, with the Patriots trading down not once but twice before trading back up to take cornerback Duke Dawson. Like most Patriots picks, Dawson’s fit is obvious. He’s a tenacious slot defender, capable of playing man defense. He steps in and is immediately a top-four cornerback on the team behind Stephon Gilmore, Eric Rowe and Jason McCourty. Adios Cyrus Jones unless you set the world on fire with your punt returning this summer, no easy task coming off an ACL tear.
That’s fine, but it still leaves me with a major longing for a linebacker upgrade, really the only position in this entire draft that I was hoping to add some talent. Nope, we’re still stuck with Dont’a Hightower and his band of blah cohorts. Yes, this was once a team dripping with linebacker talent, led by names like Bruschi, McGinest, Vrabel and Colvin. Now the front seven is still very much a work in progress with little-to-no injury protection behind a top line that barely moves the needle after Hightower and Trey Flowers.
“But Mike, we added Adrian Clayborn and Danny Shelton, and Derek Rivers is coming back!” you say. Yes, it’s not the same defense that got bookend blasted last season, but can anyone argue that it’s a more athletic defense? A defense better suited to deal with the kind of diverse attacks that the Chiefs and Eagles unleashed, just to name the most famous two?
On the offensive side of the ball it’s easy to be excited. They’ve spent a lot of resources to set up a fascinating tackle competition. A starter and a swing guy should easily emerge. The wide receivers are littered with first-round picks and an already-solid running back group got a huge injection from first-round pick Sony Michel. The offense looks ready to go from top to bottom, and simply with Julian Edelman returning they could reach new heights.
I’ll put the Pats offense and defensive backs up against any team in the league. They’re deep and talented, and training camp with those groups should be fascinating.
Meanwhile, the defensive front seven continues to wither on the vine. There’s a lot of unknowns and guys who could emerge, but a few key injuries to a few key players with already-lengthy injury histories could immediately knock them down to the average peg they played most of last season at.
My core football philosophy has always been that a) defenses do win championships and b) defenses are defined by their front sevens. The Patriots will most certainly add some front seven pieces today as we trudge through rounds four through seven. Maybe one of those guys does emerge into the player the defense needs, but through two rounds and the expenditure of a lot of draft capital, I still have the same concerns about this Patriots team that I had the moment the clock hit zero on Super Bowl 52.
Valentine showed promise too. With more bigger bodies to play inside, Shelton, Valentine and Brown, perhaps the roles Guy and Wise play will better fit their traits.
Perhaps not drafting an LB to this point indicates the potential roles they see for Langhi and Rivers.