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Patriots Positional Preview: Defensive Ends

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With the 4th of July in the rearview mirror, it will be just a few short weeks until training camp is upon us and Patriots football is back. These are the hardest days of the offseason, the final days, when all the football people are on vacation and there’s a vacuum of information.

Still, we’re so close we can all taste it.

Today we dive into another excerpt from my Season Preview (available here for just $5!), focusing on one of the most interesting positional groups on the roster — the defensive ends. While most of the team returns intact, this group is one that has undergone some significant transition.

Trey Flowers emerged as a breakout star in 2016 but after him there are a lot of question marks. How much does Rob Ninkovich have left in the tank? Can Kony Ealy assimilate? What about rookies Derek Rivers and Deatrich Wise?

With the departure of Jabaal Sheard and Chris Long, some of these new players will be playing significant roles and how they perform could decide whether the defense takes a step forward or back.

Here’s my breakdown of the edge players, whether you want to call them defensive ends or outside linebackers.

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Resetting Patriots Offseason To Do List

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With the re-signing of Dont’a Hightower, along with the other significant free agency moves the Patriots have made over the past two weeks, the 2017 team is starting to round into form. There’s still a big question mark surrounding Malcolm Butler and, to a lesser extent, Jimmy Garoppolo, but it would appear that outside of those two most of the heavy lifting this offseason is close to done.

What we know? The offense looks ready to evolve once again with the addition of Brandin Cooks. He’ll bring a whole new level of explosiveness and if Rob Gronkowski can return to form and everyone stays healthy, who knows what the ceiling is for this offense.

Defensively, the Pats swapped Logan Ryan for Stephon Gilmore and Jabaal Sheard/Chris Long for Kony Ealy. On paper those moves look like they made the Patriots better. There are still depth questions at linebacker and defensive end, but those should be manageable. If Malcolm Butler returns it’s not crazy to think this defense will be even better than last year’s that led the league in points against.

What holes do the Patriots still have? Whose contracts could be extended or released? There’s still plenty of moves to come, and with the Pats currently having no draft picks before the third round, there’s a good chance they’ll look to round out their picks so they can still grab some impact rookies.

Here’s what I see as the priorities going forward with the rest of free agency and the draft.

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Patriots Trade for Panthers DE Kony Ealy

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With a ton of cap space this offseason it was inevitable that the Patriots would make some splashy moves and the first two days of the new league year have not disappointed. After signing top cornerback Stephon Gilmore on Thursday, the Patriots traded a second round pick to the Panthers for defensive end Kony Ealy.

Defensive end was a significant need this offseason with the departure of Chris Long and likely departure of Jabaal Sheard. Trey Flowers had a breakout second season and is primed to play a huge role in 2017. Rob Ninkovich was solid in 2016 but just turned 33, so adding at least one more rotational end was vital.

Ealy had seen his snaps reduced in 2016 after a standout Super Bowl 50 where he recorded three sacks of Peyton Manning in a losing effort. The Patriots won’t expect him to play every down, but will require him to use his athleticism more than he did in Carolina’s system. The Patriots ask their defensive ends to often play in more of a linebacker hybrid role, which includes coverage drops and even some man-to-man coverage at times when they want to be deceptive.

As you can see below in his Super Bowl interception, Ealy isn’t a stranger to pass drops and that’s what likely caught the Patriots eye more than anything, especially at the scouting conbine where Ealy had the best defensive linemen three cone drill time.

Ealy is in the final year of his rookie deal, so that will add some intrigue next offseason. It seems as though the Pats are more than fine to cycle through defensive ends on one-year deals, but Flowers’ contract certainly gives them some flexibility. Finding another defensive end in the draft would still make a lot of sense.