With a couple depth additions in the draft on the line, a sparkling new secondary and underappreciated LBs I think the pats defense is going to be truly competitive for the first season in years. My question concerns how offenses tend to respond to defensive success. Does having a dependable D make QBs more confident/relaxed or does it threaten the sense of urgency/pressure that TB seems to thrive on?

I think that’s more an in-game thing than a seasonal thing. Does some amount of pressure build over the season if the defense can’t get off the field on third down or make the key stops? Yes, I think there’s validity to that, but TB and the Patriots offense are so good on focusing on themselves and their jobs, I wouldn’t say that they’re concerning themselves with what their defense is doing, or saying “this isn’t good enough with our defense”.

I do think we saw some potential out of this defense last year, that they could win games when TB and the offense were off. I expect more of that this season. They should be better on both sides of the ball this year.