How New England Patriots Use Volume to Find Quality Depth

Throw enough mud at the wall, and some of it will stick.

It's an old proverb that the New England Patriots have lived by in recent years. This approach (heretofore referenced as the "volume approach") gives the Patriots multiple opportunities to find players that fit their scheme and fill a need on the roster.

Player	Years	Total	Guaranteed
Chimdi Chekwa	1	$825,000	$50,000
Bradley Fletcher	1	$1,500,000	$550,000
Robert McClain	1	$1,240,000	$300,000

With a glaring need at cornerback, the Patriots are at it again. They have added three veterans—Chimdi Chekwa, Bradley Fletcher and Robert McClain—in hopes that at least one of them will stick around on the roster and contribute in a meaningful way. 

They've also taken the volume approach at running back, adding Jonas Gray, James White, Tyler Gaffney, LeGarrette Blount and Travaris Cadet in the past 14 months to address looming needs at the position in the wake of the departures of Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley.

This is not a new approach. In fact, this isn't even the first time they've done it at cornerback. In 2009, the Patriots added Kyle Arrington, Leigh Bodden, Darius Butler and Shawn Springs to the roster. Bodden and Butler played big roles that year, but Arrington was the one who stuck in the long term.

Player	Years	Total	Guaranteed
Jonas Gray	2	$930,000	$0
James White	4	$2,617,088	$397,088
Tyler Gaffney	4	$2,316,600	$96,600
LeGarrette Blount	2	$1,730,000	$0
Travaris Cadet	2	$1,715,000	$65,000

They did it again at cornerback in 2011, with the additions of Philip Adams, Ras-I Dowling, Sterling Moore and Malcolm Williams. Moore was the only one who made any contributions to that year's team. 

The 2011 offseason actually brought two instances of the volume approach, with the Patriots adding five defensive linemen: Mark Anderson, Andre Carter, Markell Carter, Shaun Ellis and Albert Haynesworth. Anderson and Andre Carter were key players on that year's defense, but none of those players made meaningful contributions beyond the 2011 season.

At wide receiver in 2012, the Patriots added Jeremy Ebert, Jabar Gaffney, Anthony Gonzalez, Brandon Lloyd and Donte Stallworth. Lloyd was the key player to emerge from that group, with 74 catches for 911 yards and four touchdowns in his lone season in New England.

In 2014, the Patriots went hog wild on the offensive line, adding three players in the draft: tackle Cameron Fleming, center Bryan Stork and guard Jon Halapio. The first two are still on the roster and figure into prominent roles with the team for 2015 and beyond. 

The aim of the volume approach isn't to land a bunch of role players; it's to find hopefully one or two players who have more value than anyone else realizes.

The other benefit of the volume approach is to create competition within the roster. The Patriots currently have nine cornerbacks on the depth chart; clearly, nine cornerbacks are not going to make the final roster. The hope is that, with a fierce competition where close to 50 percent of the current group will not make the final cut, each player will be driven to maximize his potential.

The beauty of this method is that it rarely ever involves any big risks but always carries the potential of big rewards. The Patriots signed Chekwa to a one-year, $825,000 contract this offseason with only $50,000 guaranteed. Fletcher's contract totals one year at $1.5 million with a $550,000 guarantee. Robert McClain is only on a one-year, $1.24 million contract with $300,000 guaranteed. 

The Patriots could cut all three and they would only be out $900,000 on the whole thing. Granted, that's the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario is that all three pan out into studs who work into the rotation at cornerback along with the likes of Logan Ryan, Arrington, Malcolm Butler, Alfonzo Dennard and the others.

The same goes for running back, where Cadet's two-year, $1.715 million contract carries only $65,000 fully guaranteed. LeGarrette Blount's contract offers exactly $0 guaranteed. The Patriots can cut Tyler Gaffney at any time and gain back the full cap value of his contract. The same goes for Jonas Gray and his contract.

Again, that's a situation where the Patriots would much rather not cut ties with all of those players—that would leave them with more questions than answers at the running back position. That being said, the Patriots have set themselves up nicely with an opportunity to find multiple players who could contribute without hitching their wagon to anyone at a high risk. 

After awhile, it begins to feel like the Patriots are simply bad at evaluating talent because of all the players they've acquired through this approach that haven't panned out. At the same time, it's important to remember that the offseason is full of hits and misses for each team, and the margin of error is much greater when Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are in the fold.

Unless otherwise noted, all salary cap and contract information provided by OverTheCap.com.