They use him well on run blitzes and I think we can all agree that Spikes is at his best moving downhill and attacking blockers. We should definitely see him sent like that a few times this week to challenge Atlanta’s suspect offensive line.
So far I think the Pats have done a good job masking Spikes’ deficiencies in coverage, but it will be interesting to see what happens when teams specifically try to get him matched up with their running backs, which is something I expect the Falcons will try to do. That then opens up the chance for a short dumpoff becoming a big gain.
Though it does seem clear that Spikes won’t be seeing much time in the sub-packages this season, and I think that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with playing to his strengths, but the question becomes whether or not Spikes is okay with that. I hope he is, because despite his shortcomings I love watching him play and the ferocity he brings to the defense. The guy is like a one-stop-shop for shutting down a run game.
If the pressure in front of him and the coverage in back of him are doing their jobs, there’s no reason Spikes can’t be a long-term Patriot.