It’s a good question, especially at this time of year when there’s a lot of comparisons to previous draft picks from years past. Like “well they drafted a guy who was this size and had this kind of combine stats, so they’ll look at these similar guys this year” kind of thing. I think that’s putting the cart before the horse.
Defensively they are on the right track. No question. Add more a quality DE to rotate with Jones/Nink, get healthy at linebacker, round out the defensive tackle squad and bring back Talib and I feel more optimistic about the defense than I have in a long time. And I’m generally pretty optimistic.
Offensively, they need their WRs to develop this offseason. Shouldn’t be hard to upgrade the tight end position from what it was the majority of last season. Whenever Gronk comes back it should just be a bonus. I’d like to see them add a couple mid-range free agent receivers like they usually do to push the second year guys.
Maybe the biggest thing offensively is improving the center and right guard positions. That might be the most important personnel decision this offseason and one that could have the biggest impact. I’d love a big, dominating center. That would make life so much easier for Brady.
Schematically they’re right on track on defense. Their sub package (which is really the base defense) just needs that third defensive end. They can play man or zone and have good versatility in their secondary to match up. Even without an addition at strong safety, which I also think is possible.
Their offensive scheme also has good versatility. They can pound it and with the progress of the receivers who will be in their second season with the team, they should be able to pick up the pace a bit and not have so much inconsistency.
