Archives for December 2012

He’s definitely more of a strong safety, but he has good enough quickness to play in the slot. Wilson was thrust onto center stage this season a little early after getting drafted higher than anyone thought he would. There’s no question he was out of his element playing center field for the Patriots defense, in charge of getting the calls from the linebackers and relaying it to the corners, etc.

I still think that long term he and McCourty could very well be our starters coming out of camp in 2013. He just needs to get his feet wet this year and then he seems to have the skills to blossom after a year in the system. But strong safeties who have the quickness to cover in the slot are rare, and Wilson has the chance to be one of those guys. We’ll see next year.

I don’t expect to see them blitz too much more this week at least. Next week against Houston might be a different story. But they must find ways to generate pressure up the middle in Cunningham’s absence so I’m all for using Hightower especially there. Spikes in general is a great run blitzer and they’re starting to move him around a bit more in part to make it harder to attack him in coverage, but also to prevent the run.

I think the Pats know Chandler Jones is a huge key to a Super Bowl run. They needed a lot of luck last year after losing Andre Carter, and they don’t want to be in the same position this year, so they’re taking it slow with him to make sure he’s not going to re-injure himself or make it worse.