What to Expect from New England Patriots' New-Look Defense

The New England Patriots already made it clear that they would be running a different style of defense when they let cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner walk via free agency.

They hammered that point home when they spent seven of their 11 draft picks on the defensive side of the ball, including five draft picks on defenders for their front seven (three edge defenders, one defensive lineman, one stand-up linebacker).

Most Patriots observers were expecting that head coach Bill Belichick would prioritize the cornerback position. Belichick has spent early draft picks on the position plenty of times in the recent past, and after losing two players of such a high caliber, there appeared to be a precedent that he would invest in the secondary once again.

What Patriots observers were not expecting, however, was for the team to focus on bolstering its depth in the defensive front in an effort to improve the pass rush. That's inconsistent with what we've seen from the Patriots in the recent past, as they've entered the past several seasons lacking depth on the edge.

That being said, we shouldn't necessarily be surprised by their focus up front. 

The Patriots have also not been one of the more attack-minded teams on defense; according to Pro Football Focus, they sent a blitz after the quarterback on only 20.8 percent of their defensive snaps, the fourth-lowest percentage in the NFL. That being said, they were one of the more effective blitzing teams in 2014, ranking 11th in the overall pressure productivity of their blitz packages. 

That's fairly consistent with how they've done in the past; they blitzed 26.1 percent of the time in 2013, which ranked 25th in the NFL, but their blitz packages were the 13th-most productive in the league. 

With so much diversity in their front seven and such a high number of pass-rushing/blitzing threats, the Patriots defense could feasibly send pressure from all over the field.

3-4	Player	4-3	Player
DE	Malcom Brown	DE	Rob Ninkovich
NT	Sealver Siliga	DT	Sealver Siliga
DE	Dominique Easley	DT	Malcom Brown
OLB	Chandler Jones	DE	Chandler Jones
ILB	Dont'a Hightower	SLB	Jerod Mayo
ILB	Jamie Collins	MLB	Dont'a Hightower
OLB	Rob Ninkovich	WLB	Jamie Collins

Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich have been the bedrock of the Patriots defense on the edge; the two have played an exorbitant amount of the defensive snaps over the past two years, on the field nearly all the time when healthy (Jones played 86.5 percent of the snaps in the 13 combined games he played, while Ninkovich participated in 94.1 percent of the snaps). 

With Geneo Grissom (Oklahoma), Trey Flowers (Arkansas) and Xzavier Dickson (Alabama) added to the mix, the Patriots have three rookies who could compete for time in complementary roles. Flowers and Dickson are likely to stay on the edge, but Grissom has played all over the place for the Sooners and could find himself in a role as a movable chess piece.

There's also veteran free-agent acquisition Jabaal Sheard, who thrived as a defensive end for the Cleveland Browns in 2011 and 2012 but took a step back as an outside linebacker in 2013 and 2014. The Patriots' versatile defense will serve as an opportunity for Sheard to get back to what he's good at, but he'll have to round out his game as a better rusher from a two-point stance to become more than a sub-package specialist.

Second-year defensive lineman Zach Moore could also contribute from multiple spots but will mostly line up with his hand in the dirt on the line; he doesn't have the athleticism to rotate as a 3-4 outside linebacker, where he could be asked to drop into coverage. 

But this isn't about finding players who can play every down. It's about creating a deep group of versatile players who can give an offense different looks and keep them guessing. The Patriots' additions on defense over the past couple of seasons have given them the flexibility to do that. 

But let's not forget the Patriots linebackers, who all have experience rushing the passer. Dont'a Hightower, Jamie Collins and Jerod Mayo may not get many opportunities to get after the quarterback, but when they do, they make it count. Collins rushed the passer 103 times in 2014 and notched 33 total pressures (21 hurries, 8 hits, four sacks); Hightower had more opportunities (185 pass-rush attempts) and made the most of them by notching 38 total pressures (21 hurries, nine hits, eight sacks). 

Having linebackers like Hightower, Collins and Mayo allows the Patriots to do what they haven't done in nearly a decade under Belichick: spin the dial. Yes, the Patriots may always be a read-and-react defense to an extent, but within that mantra, there are still ways to be aggressive. 

The Patriots could have addressed the cornerback position this offseason, but whether it was free agency or the draft, they were never going to find a true replacement for Revis or Browner. From the beginning, their best bet was to take their defense in a new direction instead of drafting a rookie and giving him the mountainous burden of being the second coming of Revis the minute he steps onto an NFL field. 

Gone are the days of tight man coverage; here are the days of suffocating quarterbacks in the pocket. Thanks to an influx of youth, the Patriots have opened up the defensive playbook and can now unveil a new-look defense that will put the pressure on opposing passers.  

Unless otherwise noted, all advanced statistics provided by Pro Football Focus.