Patriots Mailbag: How will the defense be different? – ESPN Boston

Bill Belichick has seemingly altered his value system for defensive personnel. In the past, it is my opinion that Belichick viewed prospects through the lens of the 3-4 defense and the two-part question that would be asked of a potential first-round draft choice was “Where does he fit in the 3-4 and can he also help on third down?” These days, because the game is so spread out and the Patriots are in sub packages more than the base 3-4 (63 percent to 34 percent in 2011 regular season), a player who projects to a sub role has a greater value than he might have had five years ago when the statistics were probably flipped. The 3-4 isn’t as important and athletic players who can play in space have greater value. I think this is the first year Belichick’s draft approach reflects that he’s on board with that line of thinking. The third-down defense was 28th in the NFL last year and 32nd two years ago.