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I’d like to do an extensive study of Siliga because he’s got a lot of buzz around him with knowledgeable Pats fans this offseason. 

With Chris Jones and potentially Armstead and Tommy Kelly, I’m not as concerned with how well he pushes the pocket. If Wilfork comes back and we have Siliga too, it gives us five diverse defensive tackles that can rotate and mix and match to execute any gameplan.

Siliga is most promising because he’ll be able to either spell or at least try to replace Wilfork. Let’s say Wilfork comes back, I’d vote for a 60-40 rotation with him and Siliga. This also doesn’t include heavy passing games where those two might play just 40 percent of the overall snaps.

The days of playing Wilfork 80-90 percent of the game are over regardless. It will be a “by committee” approach now and I think that is for the best.

Absolutely. I think Collins might never leave the field this year. A lot of people are still thinking the Pats need to find a “money” dime linebacker, a role that usually goes to a safety like Adrian Wilson (five years ago), but I think that role now goes to Collins.

He’s just as athletic as those kind of safeties and that small step he might lack on them in speed, he’ll make up for with his size and strength. Usually that guy covers tight ends anyways and Collins matches up well against those kind of guys.

We got just a taste of it in the playoffs last year, but I think this year Collins could be the Pats breakout player on defense. They’ll have him doing everything from blitzing to covering, he’ll really excel with great coverage on the outside that takes away the quick passing options.

I haven’t really seen these people who are infatuated with him, but I agree that he’ll very much be in a fight for his roster spot. He had quite the interesting rookie year. He burst onto the scene in training camp, with everyone there singing his praises. We all thought he was going to be a big part of the offense.

He flashed a bit early in the season and I liked some of what I saw, especially his quickness off the line where he could beat press man, a rare feat for most rookie receivers.

But the drops started to add up and he kept seeming to leave his feet every time he even caught the ball. Good stat from Nick Underhill of Masslive.com:

Thompkins left his feet on 22 of the 48 passes thrown his direction (Thompkins has been targeted 56 times, but I removed the passes he no chance on). He also used a “double catch” on seven passes. It’s hard to tell if those dives were necessary, but at least a few were the result of Thompkins putting himself in poor position to receive the ball. 

He was a non-factor after the bye despite six catches against the Broncos in November.

Perhaps no other player is more at a crossroads this season. Can he live up to the training camp hype of last season? Or was that just how he looked in practice and in reality there was a reason he wasn’t drafted – that he’s really just not that good.