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Mike Wright

Losing interior pass rusher Mike Wright a big blow to Patriots

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Tough news out of Foxboro today with Mike Wright being put on IR for a second straight season due to lingering effects of a concussion. I’ve been preaching for a while now that Wright was possibly the number one injured Patriot that they most needed back for his interior pass rush skills.

Many Patriots fans are always clamoring for a “pass rusher” thinking only outside linebackers are real pass rushers. The reality is that Mike Wright was arguably the best pass rusher on the Pats, he just did it from the interior of the line.

You can have elite outside pass rushers but if the quarterback is able to step up into the pocket it won’t matter. That push up the middle is vital and there is not a Patriot currently on the roster able to get up field with quickness and power required to do so.

The Patriots now must face a second straight season without their top two interior rushers in Wright and Myron Pryor. This will put more pressure on Vince Wilfork to play more downs, and also put a spotlight on Albert Haynesworth to start picking up some of the slack so Wilfork doesn’t get burned out.

There’s no way to sugarcoat this one, it’s going to hurt in the place the Pats already hurt the most. Even if Wright comes back (and who knows if he even should at this point) the Patriots will have to address this area in the 2012 off-season. Neither he nor Pryor can be counted on to stay healthy for an entire season.

Top 5 Injured Patriots I’d love to see back at practice today

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Here’s my list of the Top 5 guys I’m praying to Hoodie are back at practice today. Or at least able to go on Sunday.

1. Albert Haynesworth – It will truly be a travesty if the Patriots are not able to take advantage of the struggling Jets offensive line. If Haynesworth plays and Nick Mangold does not Sanchez should take out some additional life insurance before kick off. There have been rumors that the Pats are holding Albert back for this game in particular. I don’t know if I necessarily buy that, though it seems like he’s getting close by the fact that he had a full pads practice last Wednesday.

2. Mike Wright – For similar reasons getting Wright back could be one of the biggest factors in how much of a Super Bowl push this Patriots team can make. Fanalysts can talk about “pass rushers” all they want, but until the Patriots have someone on the interior who can push the pocket they’re going to continue to struggle generating real pressure. Sadly I’ve all but written off Wright for the season, but it’d be nice to get him back at some point.

3. Leigh Bodden – Last time Bodden faced the Jets he picked off Mark Sanchez three times. Not to say that will mean much of anything Sunday, but Bodden needs to be out there to continue knocking off the rust. The trickle down effect through the secondary from having Bodden back would greatly improve what they can do. And put Kyle Arrington back in the slot where he’d been playing so well.

4. Aaron Hernandez – Really I could’ve put Hernando at number one but let’s face it, he’s a luxury at this point and it’s the defense that needs the most help. What we’ve seen in the two weeks since he’s been out is that he elevates the offense to another level. Gronk is an amazing player on his own, but when coupled with Hernando they’re pretty much unstoppable. Make no mistake, though he’s fourth here, I will jump for joy if he’s at practice later today.

5. Ras-I Dowling – Would it be too much for Ras-I to go a game without an injury? He’s shown some flashes out there, but it seems like every time he makes a play he’s injured a play later. It’s clear that they like him as an outside corner and not a Free Safety as many of us (me included) speculated. With all the big physical receivers that we’ve seen McCourty struggle with we could eventually see Dowling handling those guys in the future. If he can stay on the field. But it would be really helpful to have him on Plaxico in the red zone this weekend.

Top 5 injured Patriots that are needed back asap

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You go to war with the army you have—not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. – Donald Rumsfeld

I look at the NFL season as a 17 week series of skirmishes that all lead up to the real battles that take place in the playoffs. Some weeks you lose soldiers, some weeks you get guys back healthy, but ultimately it’s about persevering through all the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs for the four month regular season and going into the playoffs firing on all cylinders.

As the final weeks of the preseason wind down the army that the Pats will have for the 2011 campaign is beginning to come into focus, but there are some Pats that haven’t been seen at camp in weeks; Pats that are part of the army I want.

Here are the ones they most need back:

1. Brandon Spikes – You probably saw this one coming. Who knows what exactly is going on with Spikes. Maybe it really is just an ankle injury and all his weird tweets are just totally related to something outside of football. But the fact is that the Pats will have a pretty big hole in their 4-3 defense without Spikes. If Spikes is in there, look out. Playing behind Haynesworth* and Wilfork would enable Spikes to have a potential break out year, but he has to get back on the field first. Without him or Fletcher they could be forced to put Gary Guyton at MLB and that’s definitely not the best spot for him.

2. Leigh Bodden – It was sounding like Bodden had returned to form before sustaining an unknown injury last week that has held him out of practice. I was extremely excited to see how the Pats used McCourty, Arrington and Bodden this year. We saw various looks with Bodden and Arrington both taking turns inside at slot corner and outside at boundary corner in the first two preseason games. We don’t know for sure what BB has planned, but having to go back to last year’s corner lineup could be scary unless Ras-I Dowling is ready to step in and contribute after missing most of training camp.

3. Mike Wright – The Pats are in better position to get by this year without Wright if they need to given all the defensive line depth they have, but he remains their best interior rusher. Myron Pryor especially would help ease the blow of losing Wright for any significant period of time, but it look like the Pats are finally set up to use Wright as he should be used. Hopefully that will keep him healthy, if he can get back on the field. Wright has the ability to make life for the edge rusher a lot easier.

4. Dane Fletcher – I said all off-season that I expected Fletcher to challenge Gary Guyton as the top coverage linebacker next to Jerod Mayo this year and his performance in the Jaguars game only reinforced that. Fletch looked primed to break out before sustaining a thumb injury against the Buccaneers. It doesn’t look like it should hold him back for long, hopefully he’ll get a chance to knock the rust off before the games start to count. If he and Spikes can return to the field it will give the Pats multiple options especially on passing downs.

5. Ryan Wendell – As we saw with Gerald McCoy’s hit on Tommy last week Dan Connolly still has his moments that make you wonder if he’s really that entrenched as the starting right guard. Not to say that I’m entirely confident that Wendell is a much better option, but choices and competition are good. Ideally I’d like to see Marcus Cannon end up there once he’s 100% cleared, but it might be 2012 before we see that. I expect this to be a spot the Pats could look to address over the Labor Day Weekend cutdown madness.

ProFootballFocus: What we’ve been saying all along about the Patriots Pass Rush

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Alright, the Gronk and Hernando posts are donezo, time to get back to some real football talk. In the world of casual football fans there’s one way to get pressure on the quarterback. It’s a Demarcus Ware, James Harrison or Lawrence Taylor type, screaming off the edge, causing mayhem on every snap.

But in reality pass rush is so much more than that. It’s a number of different factors, including (and just as importantly) the interior rushers and the quality of the coverage (especially taking away the quick throws).

So while the Patriots don’t have a feared outside linebacker and look now (reminder: BEFORE FREE AGENCY) like they’re going to have the same problems  they had last year we’re preaching patience with the pass rush problems that existed last season because the Pats were hammered with injuries to their interior rushers in 2010.

One thing that I’ve talked about extensively this off-season, especially on the podcast with Frenz, is how you have to take in the whole picture of pass rush before you can make a judgement on how good the Pats will be in 2011. So while Ty Warren, Mike Wright, Myron Pryor and Leigh Bodden don’t play OLB, their return to the lineup should have a definite effect on making opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket.

This is the gist of what our response has been to pass rush panickers of Patriots Nation.

Well today, (hat tip to Frenz) comes this article from Pro Football Focus. Now I usually take their rankings with a grain of salt, but these numbers jump of the page when it comes to Mike Wright.

I’d hazard a guess that, unprompted, not many people would say Patriot Mike Wright was the most productive interior pass rushing lineman last year. He was, and it was such a shame (for him, for the Pats, and for football fans) that his season was cut short. Wright may not be that great against the run, but you only need to watch his performance against Pittsburgh to know what he’s capable of as a pass rusher.

Wright is ranked as the number one in Pass Rush Productivity in the NFL in 2010, and ranked 8th overall in the past three seasons. Now it seems even more apparent how big it was to lose him. But no one wants to talk about the interior guys when they slam the Pats pass rush woes.

The problem of losing Wright was even magnified even more when the Pats lost their top interior rusher behind him, Myron Pryor. If you don’t have push up the middle the QB is able to step up in the pocket, thus nullifying even the most dangerous edge pass rushers.

For the stretch run and playoffs the Pats were forced to use defensive lineman who didn’t have the jump and power of guys like Wright and Pryor. With their return in 2011 the Pats outside linebackers and overall pass rush should improve immensely.

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“I feel much better,” said Wright. It’s good to be back in it and it’s good to be working with the guys and getting back into a normal routine. It lasted a while. I’m just glad that it’s over. It was a lot longer than expected but I’ve moved past it and I’m just looking forward to next year.”

Mike Wright, aka leading Patriots sacker despite not playing a game after Indy. Eeeek!

https://www.patspropaganda.com/i-feel-much-better-said-wright-its-good-to-be/

Let’s talk about sacks… Patriots style follow-up edition

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Before the 2010 season I wrote this article for Pats Pulpit where I surmised that the Patriots really didn’t necessarily need one OLB pass rusher to solve their pass rush problems. What they needed was more pressure from the entire defensive front seven. So not just the high end sack artist type, but the three to four sacks from a multitude of players.

Here was the breakdown of total sacks and sack leaders from the past decade:

  • 2001 – 41 (Super Bowl Champs) Hamilton – 7
  • 2002 – 34 (missed playoffs due to tie breaker) Seymour/McGinest – 5.5
  • 2003 – 41 (Super Bowl Champs) Vrabel – 9.5
  • 2004 – 45 (Super Bowl Champs) McGinest – 9.5
  • 2005 – 33  (Lost AFCDG) Colvin – 7.5
  • 2006 – 44 (Lost AFCCG) Warren – 7.5
  • 2007 – 47 (Lost Super Bowl) Vrabel – 12.5
  • 2008 – 31 (Missed playoffs due to tie breaker) Seymour – 8
  • 2009 – 31 (Lost AFCWCG) Banta-Cain – 10

And now we can add:

  • 2010 – 36 (Lost AFCDG) Wright 5.5

It was our general determination that you really wanted to be around 40 sacks for the season, and after back to back seasons if 31 total sacks in 2008 and 2009 the Patriots improved to 36 sacks in 2010, good for  t-14th in the NFL.

However Mike Wright’s team leading total of 5.5 was the lowest since 2002, and he only played in 10 games. Myron Pryor also battled back problems this season, limiting him to just a half sack. Losing your top two interior rushers can cripple a team, and it surely had an effect on the Pats, especially in the playoff game where they were sack-less.

But it appears that this Patriots team was on the right track and had Wright played the last six games it’s likely they would’ve been right around 40 sacks.

2010 appeared to be a step in the right direction. It’s hard to read too much into these numbers because they don’t include QB pressures, but when you’re leading sack guy is 4.5 sacks lower than last year yet you still have more sacks total you’re getting better production across the board. 

That is the tenet of the 3-4 defense, applying pressure from multiple different spots. Adding additional young pass rushers both on the interior of the line and at outside linebacker will again be a priority, but it looks like the pieces are starting to come together.

Mike Wright Patriots

The Pats missed Wright late in the season.