Mike Dussault

He buys them some extra time when the QB wants to go to his number one target, but there still has to be additions to the front seven.

As good as Revis is, the front seven is more important than the secondary. They’re involved in every play and are closest to the most important opposing player, the quarterback.

As I’ve said before, I’d love to see a solid move at defensive end. Jared Allen, Julius Peppers, Cory Wooten are just a few of the guys still out there.

He’s going to be better and he was still very, very good in Tampa last year even though they weren’t great about playing to his strengths. BB won’t make that mistake.

Players coming off an ACL injury usually need a full year to recover even if they return to the field within six months. Nate Burleson mentioned this on NFL Network the other night. It’s that second season back that you’re fully confident in the knee and get your full quickness and ability to cut back.

I’d expect we’ll see Revis in his prime this year. As for Gronk, we might have to wait until 2015, and that’s assuming he has a good enough 2014 that the Pats trigger the next phase of his contract.

Part of it is that’s how the market unfolded. There’s no question they needed a top cornerback, with Talib being the most likely target. Outside of Demarcus Ware and Lamarr Houston, there really haven’t been many defensive ends flying off the board.

Let’s also not forget that they did re-sign Hooman, so that is a way address Tight End, and they had quite a few interior OL and DE Matt Shaughnessy visit.

So ultimately I think we’re all on track for what the needs are, it’s just played out in a different order than we might’ve expected.

Wrote a pretty long piece about this exact thing yesterday. Check it out here for the answer.

I do think they’ll have to make defensive tackle a little more priority both in the draft and for the rest of free agency. Two solid players should do the trick and make for a solid rotation. That’s what I want most.

What can I say, sometimes pipe dreams come true! I just didn’t see Revis taking a deal like the one he took. 

Every year I am shocked by a move the Patriots make and I’ve followed them as closely as anybody since 2006. That’s what I love about the team. They drop bombshells EVERY SINGLE OFFSEASON and even I never see them coming!

I can’t not answer 34/43 questions, but really it’s just semantics now. Sub is the new base defense and has been for at least the past four seasons. 

So what we’re talking about is that 30% of the snaps. The traditional 3-4 we saw 2002ish-2008ish is essentially dead except for specialty matchups when the Pats really just want to stop the run.

The problem with it? All three linemen are essentially just being asked to hold their ground while the linebackers make all the plays. There are too many athletes and the quarterbacks are too good now to have three players who aren’t getting pressure nor making plays in space.

At least with Wilfork, the Pats’ 4-3 was almost more of a 2-5 version of this in 2011-2013, although usually only one of the defensive linemen (Wilfork) would two-gap.

Will they have three guys with their hands in the dirt now? Sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s that old 3-4 defense and likely at least one or two of those defensive linemen will be playing only one gap. In the old 3-4, they all would’ve been playing two.

Now it’s a mix and match defense and the majority they’re in a 4-2-5 nickel.