2012 NFL Draft: 3 Positions the New England Patriots Should Target

A New England Patriots team that came within seconds and inches of its fourth Super Bowl title in 11 years can't possibly have that many needs in the draft.

Can they?

Fans of the team know that, while they were close to being the best team in football, they are not without their flaws. Those gaps in personnel reared their ugly head from time to time throughout the season, and at key points in their loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI.

So as the team takes stock of their 2011 season and prepares for the 2012 NFL draft, there should be a few positions that show up on the radar.

Cornerback

Go to your nearest Macy's and watch the revolving door as people come and go. That's as close an image as you can get to New England's secondary in 2011.

Although the Patriots have invested heavily in the position of recent, with at least one selection in the first two rounds being used on a defensive back in each of the past five years, Bill Belichick would certainly love to find long-term answers in the back end.

Need meets opportunity for the Patriots, as Wes Bunting of National Football Post writes that cornerback may be the deepest position in the draft.

Plus, there are plenty of small school prospects at cornerback. And we all know how much Belichick loves his small school prospects.

They likely will miss out on LSU's Morris Claiborne and Alabama's Dre Kirkpatrick, both considered high-profile cornerbacks in this year's draft. But Virginia's Chase Minnifield could be an under-the-radar prospect to watch.

He lined up opposite last year's second-round choice, Ras-I Dowling, and shares many of the same qualities as a defensive back without the injury concern.

Chief among his talents is his ability in man coverage. The Patriots struggled when running man-to-man schemes in the back seven last year and Minnifield could help fix that.

The Patriots secondary stepped up in the playoffs,. But as we all know, you just can't have too many talented defensive backs.

Defensive End/"Rush" Outside Linebacker

Mark Anderson and Andre Carter were revelations off the edges in 2011. Both were fairly innocuous free-agent signings, but made their impact in combining for 20 sacks on the season and becoming the first pair of Patriots to each accumulate double-digit sacks since Andre Tippett and Garin Veris in 1985.

Will Carter return to full health? Will either he or Anderson return to the roster? Will both?

There are plenty of questions about these two individuals, but the real issue comes in determining whether the team is running a 3-4, a 4-3 or an "amoeba defense" similar to what they ran this year in the front seven.

Belichick switched his defensive style on a dime to accommodate a shortened offseason and allow for a more mellow learning curve for the team as they entered the 2011.

As the 3-4 is Belichick's preferred scheme, they may look to get back to that. That being said, the Patriots have erred on the side of specialization in the defense as they have for years, with very few players that don't come off the field for one situation or another.

There will be options at the position in the draft, with names like Whitney Mercilus of Illinois and Dont'a Hightower already becoming popular in some draft circles. Both are the prototypical size for Belichick outside linebackers, at around 6'4" and 260 pounds.

Hightower is the more versatile of the two and was cultivated by Belichick's good friend Nick Saban. Mercilus is the far better pass-rusher, having logged 16 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss in 2011.

Wide Receiver

Younger receivers have classically failed with the Patriots. Since drafting David Givens and Deion Branch in 2002, the list of receivers to join the team through the draft is a who's-who of "who's that?" 

In fact, only two of the receivers the Patriots have drafted since 2003, Julian Edelman and Matthew Slater, have been with the team longer than two years. 

Sure, the Patriots have plugged in some talented veterans at receiver in the likes of Wes Welker and Randy Moss. But the Pats have seen others struggle, such as Chad Ochocinco and Joey Galloway.

The Patriots have struggled to develop drafted-talent at wide receiver with Tom Brady doing his best work with veteran receivers that can quickly digest a heavy playbook, learn to play all the positions of receiver in the offense and get on the same page with him.

The Patriots do have two talented pass-catchers in tight ends Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski and will likely bring Welker back on a long-term deal.

But what better way to set the table for the offense post-Brady than to begin cultivating receiving talent?

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter.