PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Ideally, who would you want to see on the defense next season, not including rookies and ignoring the cap?

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I mean I’d like it to return essentially intact, sans Wilfork of course, but with the boost of Easley and Mayo to the mix. Even if McCourty walks I don’t think it’s a disaster to move Harmon into the starting spot as long as Revis comes back. 

Add a nose tackle type, either in the draft of maybe someone like Dan Williams in free agency. Bring back Ayers or another mid-range free agent edge guy and you’re pretty much good to go outside of depth at LB.

The past years (since 2007) I’ve closely followed the Pats, the free agency and draft are like annual events of hopeful anticipation, mixed with dread and drama and of course the always quotable reaction: “WHAT THE F#% ARE THEY DOING!” (OR NOT DOING!). Yet, they always keep a team that would compete at the end. Should this year after winning the SB XLIX , be any different? Or much worse? Thank you.

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It’s the same thing every year, I’m not sure why fans ride the same wave of misery and elation, guess they just enjoy it. As the Scott Pioli quote goes “we’re building a team, not collecting talent”. 2013 proved that. The Patriots under BB play as a team and thus, they’ve always been very good no matter how talented they were. Even when the defense was terrible (2010) they went 14-2. Granted, they were flawed and lost in the first round, but you get the idea.

What everyone should take solace in is that they HAVE to spend money this year. They can’t just let Revis/McCourty/Vereen walk and replace them with rookies. 

And you know you’ll be shocked at least once next week, for good or for bad. That’s the fun of the offseason with the Patriots. I just try to sit back and enjoy the ride, and analyze what they do. At this point, I think they know what they’re doing.

Hey Mike, is it crazy to think letting McCourty go isn’t that big of an issue? Seems crazy to overpay a glorified center fielder when you have Revis (hopefully) and Browner. I could see Logan Ryan or Harmon filling in fine at FS.

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I really don’t want to beat the McCourty is overrated drum, because I do think he is very good. However I laid out a lot of stats in this piece here that might give anyone calling him a top-3 free safety some pause.

McCourty’s been at free safety since 2012, but it wasn’t until Revis/Browner showed up that the pass defense really took a big step forward.

I still very much want him back, but if someone wants to give him a monster deal I don’t think the Pats will, nor should, match.

Harmon would be the first in line on the depth chart to replace him and he’s shown some very good range playing free safety in many sub-packages this season –  just see the AFCCG GW INT.

And as I point out in the Revis piece I linked to above, if you’ve got him taking a whole side of the field, how much value do you really need to put on a free safety when he only has to cover ½ – 2/3s of the field?