With Andre Carter still recovering from a torn quad and Mark Anderson a new member of the Bills, the pass rush solutions the Patriots found in 2011 won’t be back in the same capacity in 2012.
While I expect Carter to re-sign once he can prove his health, the loss of Anderson leaves the Pats with a hole at designated pass rusher, and while Markell Carter should be an interesting player to keep an eye on, I believe that newly signed Trevor Scott could be an even better fit for the Patriots than Anderson.
Scott isn’t one of the heralded Patriots signings. He signed a one-year deal which means he will have a lot to prove if he wants to stick around this season, much less into 2013 and beyond.
Scott entered the NFL in 2008 with the Raiders and demonstrated some solid pass rush skills playing as a sub at both left and right defensive end. He finished the year with five sacks and nine QB pressures in just 233 snaps, including two sacks of Matt Cassel against the Patriots in week 15.
In 2009 Scott started the season off again as a sub player at right end. In week 12 he was moved to a full time starter at linebacker where he racked up 15 of his 28 total tackles in just 5 games. He finished the year with seven sacks and ten QB pressures.
In 2010 the Raiders began to use Scott in different spots every week. Before tearing his ACL in his tenth game of the season he had already racked up 19 QB pressures. He played left and right end and weakside linebacker, and was generally solid in both run defense and pass rush no matter where he was playing.
Upon his return from injury in 2011 it seems like Scot was no longer a significant part of the Raiders plan. He was used solely as a sub defensive left end and his statistics fell of a cliff. Patriots fans are well aware of the drop off a player can have in his first year back from an ACL injury (see Brady, Welker), so it’s safe to say that played a part in Scott’s drop off. But the coaching staff also no longer used him in a variety of roles which seemed to benefit his play most.
When you look at Mark Anderson’s numbers before coming to the Patriots they are very similar to what we’ve laid out for Trevor Scott, however never before had Anderson played linebacker like Scott. In a perfect world I’d love to have both Anderson and Scott on the Pats in 2012, but if Anderson does walk Scott seems like he’d be a good candidate to replace what Anderson did, and perhaps do it even better in some spots.
This is not to say that I expect Scott to come in and put up ten plus sacks with the Pats right off the bat. But what I do see is a versatile player who played well in a number of different roles for the Raiders, and at 6-05, 255 he’s the ideal size for a Patriots outside linebacker. He should also be back to form being two full years removed from his ACL injury, and he’ll have something to prove with the Patriots being on just a one-year deal.
Scott will surely be a player to keep an eye on when training camp rolls around.
