One of the areas that I’ve been paying closest attention to during the past few days of camp is of course the defensive personnel and it seems that were starting to get a clearer picture of what the plan is.
As we’ve said all off-season, nickel is really the new base defense. The 3-4 defense that Belichick has been known for will still exist in certain situations, but the days of a pure 3-4 on early downs is gone.
You could say the Pats are now more of a 4-3 team, but the reality is that their base defense is really now closer to a 2-5-4 defense, in terms of really only having two strict linemen. The defensive ends have all stood up at some point in their career. Here’s how things have been breaking down:
The top six ends (Jake Bequette, Jermaine Cunningham, Justin Francis, Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich, Trevor Scott) and the top six interior players (Ron Brace, Brandon Deaderick, Jonathan Fanene, Kyle Love, Gerard Warren, Vince Wilfork) have been really getting after it, giving fans some hope that the pass rush might show more consistent signs of life.
Here are some of the issues to ponder. The model is physicality up the middle, athletes on the perimeter. This defense puts a huge responsibility on the interior linemen and middle linebacker in shutting down the run. If the defensive ends can be isolated they are possibly too light to hold up at the point of attack. There’s no question teams will try to run off-tackle a lot when they see the Pats in this kind of formation.
Vince Wilfork is a big key, but so are the other tackles behind him, especially in the starting spot next to him. With Ron Brace putting a few good days of camp together it’s hard not to imagine Brace and Wilfork, two brick walls dominating the interior line. Jonathan Fanene has been another stand out so far, and with both Deaderick and Love in the mix as well the Pats have some diverse options depending on what kind of designer game plan they want to go with.
The plus is having a player like Brandon Spikes who can dominate the A gaps by coming down hill hard. Spikes’ ability in pass coverage has been questioned in the past, but with the extra athletes on the edge, I think it’s okay to give up a little bit in the pass coverage department with Spikes. And really he was looking pretty good in coverage last year in the playoffs.
Add in the blossoming physicality of Dont’a Hightower and the speed of Jerod Mayo and this defense is suddenly not the hapless bunch of no names and cast offs it has been of late, it’s a hand picked group of first and second round selections, most of whom come from the SEC.
Now of course you’ve got Nink who can play either DE spot or the SLB position. He’s not going anywhere with that kind of versatility. And you’ve got Trevor Scott who just might make a red shirt year for Jones very possible. But in the long term this would be a defense that would be together for a long time, and be peaking during the Brady turnover years.