Fans of the Patriots are constantly told that the team is ‘too finesse’ and needs to be ‘more physical’. Personally I find those terms rather cliché and nebulous, but let’s just say that we want the team to upgrade and improve (i.e., become more physical); which players and positions are the most important to upgrade with a bigger, stronger player?
Offense
LT – can’t see the team moving on from Nate Solder
LG – ditto for Logan Mankins
C — I thought Ryan Wendell had a good season; don’t think there is a realistic upgrade available.
RG – replace Dan Connolly with who? Donald Thomas? A free agent?
RT – satisfied with Sebastian Vollmer? If not, then who is a realistic improvement? I don’t see one.
RB – should the Pats add a big bruising back? Don’t forget those guys are typically slower; if that’s the case, then who departs? Perhaps adding a genuine fullback would be the way to go. Don’t forget the Pats had three on their off-season roster a year ago; this is something that has obviously already crossed Bill Belichick’s mind.
WR – while the rallying cry is for a ‘big, physical receiver’, isn’t it more important to be able to get better run blocking and pass protection?
Defense
DT – Vince Wilfork is obviously fine; what about the other DTs? Do the Pats need to use an early pick on another DT? Henry Melton would be a more than welcome addition but is likely far too pricey; are there any other free agents worth considering?
DE – Chandler Jones obviously stays; what about Rob Ninkovich? He comes up with a lot of big plays on sacks and turnovers; are we willing to sacrifice that for a player we hope may win more individual battles over the course of a game? Should the Pats go after a free agent like Michael Bennett, who should be less expensive than a guy like Michael Johnson.
LB – wasn’t the issue that this group needed to improve in pass coverage, as opposed to being ‘more physical’?
S – how do you balance the need to cover with being ‘more physical’?
CB – while it would be nice to get bigger and taller, those CBs are hard to find when you draft as late as the Pats do. Any faith Ras-I Dowling can contribute?
It seems to me that if the Patriots truly do want to become ‘more physical’, then the most likely areas would be at safety, defensive tackle, defensive end, and right guard – not necessarily in that order. But how much improvement can realistically be made at those positions in one off-season?
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This article is horrendously slanted towards your personal view. Specifically DT, DE, S where you minimize the value of having stronger guys there and try to say how it’s impossible for us to improve in basically any area of our team.
DT – Love is a decent backup DT. He should never start. Deaderick is even worse overall but is a moderately better pass rusher. For me personally this has to be our #1 priority. We got zero push from the interior of the line because they just doubled Wilfork and Love/Deaderick couldn’t win a single 1 on 1 matchup. Inexcusable. Same thing happened against the Giants in the SB and Ravens in the AFCCG last year. Belichick clearly wanted to upgrade there (Fanene / Red Bryant) but it just didn’t work out. That will be addressed again.
DE – Ninkovich is a good situational rusher. He has been horrible against the run and is invisible for 90% of games where he does nothing but be a liability. He can neither consistently rush the QB nor consistently stop the run and needs to be replaced. I know this is sacrilegious since everyone loves Nink and his splash plays but over the course of the game- especially games where he does nothing at all positive like vs the Ravens, it’s not worth it. We desperately need to upgrade here as well.
S – Safety coverage with McCourty and Gregory was never a problem. Setting a tone, linebacker coverage and CB coverage outside Talib/Dennard was the issue. Having linebackers who can’t cover and safeties who can’t hit (and in Gregory’s case, can’t tackle) is not how to have a successful defense. Look at the Niners. Safety speed is not that important if your #3 CB and linebackers aren’t massive liabilities in coverage. Lower in the list for me of priorities, but still up there.
Address those three and your defense is a completely different animal. Having a front 4 that can rush makes it easier for everyone else. We had a front 4 that couldn’t do anything vs the Ravens. Having a safety that puts the fear of God in opponents changes everything. No one fears being hit by a 30 pound bean bag.
We need to be more physical at the point of attack and make receivers not feel so comfortable going up for the ball.
The difference between physical and finese isnt the personel its a mindset plain and simple. We have the talent there they just need to be tougher mentally. They have been in the “bend but dont break” mode for the past 8 or so seasons and that doesnt work against upper echelon quarterbacks.
Ninko should NOT be replaced but should be more situation pass rusher plus with his ability to drop back in coverage and play linebacker.
And last but not least it comes down to coaching. In the first half of the game the Pats were playing man to man press coverage and were shutting them down. Flacco couldnt control the deep ball and it was all dandy. And then the 2nd half they gave teh naturally 10 yard cushion and let them tear the middle of the field up.
Thanks for the well thought out response. I don’t think we are as far apart in our thinking as your opening statement would make it appear. Perhaps I should have been more specific; many people in one breath were saying the team needed to get more physical in the immediate aftermath of the playoff loss, and in then the biggest rallying cry from fans since then is that the first priority to add a deep threat; it was is if signing a big, tall physical reciver would cure everything. I’m in agreement that Love and Deaderick have not progressed as well as one would have hoped; perhaps we were being unreasonably optimistic with expectations for those two considering we’re talking about an undrafted free agent and a 7th round draft pick. Using Ninkovich as you described makes perfect sense, assuming the Pats can find a quality player to take his place; a big hitting safety (who is better incoverage than Meriweather and Chung were) is paramount.
What about the offensive line? It seems that they get pushed around a bit against better teams as well; if they too could impose their will then that would open up running lanes. That in turn benefits the passing game with play action passes, and slows down the pass rush just enough to give Brady an extra split second to step into his throw and complete more passes.
Thanks much for the input.
Masties, I’m with you in regards to Ninkovich. As for the secondary, I will assume that was a conscious by the coaching staff based on the absence of Talib. In retrospect they probably should have stuck with the man press coverage, even with inferior personnel available.