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.