Defense Analysis

The most interesting storyline for me when it comes to the 2010 New England Patriots is how the defense develops in year two of the rebuild. 2009 was year zero of the Belichick Patriots Defense version 2.0, and now in the second season we’ve started to see some interesting trends emerging as the coaching staff gets to know their new players better and better.

With a hat tip to Mike Reiss we break down the snaps played for each defensive player and try to read the tea leaves as to what it all means after the jump…

Thru 3 games…

Base 3-4 Defese: 80 of 202 plays = 40%

Sub Packages: 118 of 202 plays = 60%

Short Yardage: 4 of 202 plays = 2%

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Percentage of Snaps Played (min. 25%)

1. McCourty 100%
2. Mayo 99%
3. Chung 95%
4. Banta Cain 86%
5. Sanders 71%
6. Wilfork 69%
7. Butler 68%
8. Meriweather 63%
9. Brace 54%
10. Wilhite 50%
11. Ninkovich 50%
12. G. Warren 45%
13. Wright 44%
14. Pryor 43%
15. Spikes 43%
16. Guyton 36%
17. Arrington 30%

Analysis

Most surprising to me from this is how little Gary Guyton has been used. Seemed to me like he was out there for more than 36% of the snaps. 

Considering the Pats have been in subpackages more than their base it’s interesting that Gerard Warren is still playing slightly more than Pryor or Wright.

Meriweather is still playing nearly 2/3s of the snaps.

Ron Brace is really coming on strong and it reflects in the amount he’s playing.