New England Patriots Defense: Improved & Key To Super Bowl Run

It’s difficult to ignore the excitement about the New England Patriots offense with the return of quarterback Tom Brady.

Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss thinks that the offense can accomplish more in 2009 than it did in 2007 when Brady threw for an NFL record 50 touchdown passes, as he and WR Wes Welker are more familiar with the Patriots offensive system than they were two years ago.

Brady admitted in a Sports Illustrated cover story to be released on June 1—his first extended interview since suffering a season ending knee injury at the beginning of last year—that he wants to plays 10 more years and feels he will be ready for the start of the 2009 season.

Brady wants to earn that elusive fourth, fifth, and who knows maybe even sixth Super Bowl ring.

Additional Super Bowl rings, though, may depend more on the Pats rebuilding their beleaguered defense and improving their anemic pass rush than on how many points the offense can score.

It’s no secret that the Pats defense has steadily declined in recent years with an absentee pass rush and a porous defensive backfield.

When Pats coach Bill Belichick was a defensive coordinator with the Giants, the defensive statistics that he cared most about were points allowed, third down percentage, and yards allowed respectively.

Assuming Belichick still holds a similar philosophy, here’s how boy-genius might view his defense from a year ago: The Patriots were eighth in points allowed (19.8 points per game), 26th in third down percentage, allowing opponents to convert 44.4 percent of the time on third down, and 10th in total yards allowed.

The biggest concern is the Pats inability to get off the field on third down, something that has been a source of pride on Belichick defenses.

This poor performance and the Patriots desire to become a quicker defense led to the trades of two defensive stalwarts in cornerback Ellis Hobbs and linebacker Mike Vrabel.

The Pats have attempted to address their need at cornerback in their last two drafts, taking Terrence Wheatley (second round) and Jonathan Wilhite (fourth round) last year.

This year they selected cornerback Darius Butler in the second round and safety Patrick Chung with their first pick.

New England is hoping that this group will help a defense that allowed the sixth most completions in the NFL last year and had the 23rd-rated pass defense. A major reason for this poor performance was their defensive backs, particularly Hobbs, lacked the speed to play press coverage on opposing receivers so they often played many yards off the line of scrimmage.

The speed of the young players should allow tighter coverage and make it easier for the Pats to get off the field on third down.

The bigger concern the Patriots might have is at linebacker where they return only two legitimate starters, Jerod Mayo, their 2008 first round draft pick and Adalius Thomas.

At this point in his career, Tedy Bruschi is only a part time player whose speed has declined significantly, according to one former coach interviewed for this article.

The Patriots are excited about Mayo and his long term potential, as he was named 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year because of his tackling prowess. Mayo, who played on nearly every defensive snap, finished with 128 tackles for 10th in the NFL.

Thomas, a jack-of-all-trades outside linebacker who turns 32 in training camp, will need to improve his pass rushing for the defense to get better. In his last three years with the Baltimore Ravens, he had eight, nine, and 11 sacks respectively.

In his first two years in New England, Thomas had 6.5 and five sacks. In fairness he missed five games last year because of injury.

To fill the other two spots in their 3-4 defense the Pats will have to rely on unproven talent.

They probably hope that Pierre Woods, an ace special-teamer, who made the roster as an undrafted free agent can fill one of the outside linebacker sports. Woods played respectively in his fill-in time at outside linebacker last year.

At inside linebacker, the hope is probably to once again platoon Bruschi and Gary Guyton, another undrafted free agent who was a rookie last year, finishing with 34 tackles in 15 games.

Other possibilities at this position include Eric Alexander and Vince Redd.