Grading New England Patriots' 5 Most Improved Positional Units

For most teams, the primary goal of the NFL offseason is to strengthen the roster. Now, in some cases—because of salary-cap issues or strength of the current group—the goal is to simply maintain as much of the roster as possible.

For example, this is often the case for teams coming off a Super Bowl appearance. These are already high-quality teams and oftentimes expensive ones to put together. Keeping a championship-caliber roster together is tricky business. Actually improving upon it is even more difficult.

Yet, the New England Patriots seem to have managed this very task this offseason. Rather than being content with another title and a parade, the Patriots quickly went to work building a roster that, on paper, appears even more dangerous than last year's.

Where have the biggest improvements been made? Well, this is exactly what we're going to examine here. We'll run down the position groups that have been most improved during the 2017 offseason and examine exactly how the Patriots managed to improve them.

Running Back

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The Patriots will see a couple of familiar faces in their backfield this season. While bruising lead runner LeGarrette Blount will be playing with the Philadelphia Eagles, Dion Lewis and James White will be back for another run.

To help remake the unit, New England brought in former Buffalo Bills back Mike Gillislee and former Cincinnati Bengals runner Rex Burkhead.

What's important to note about the two new additions is the fact they are versatile and they are efficient. In fact, Gillislee and Burkhead were the league's two most efficient backs on a per-play basis last season, according to Pro Football Outsiders.

New England may not have one dominant rusher like it did in 2016, but the team will have more backfield flexibility. White, Lewis and Burkhead have all shown the ability to catch passes from out of the backfield and from the receiver spot. Gillislee brings big-play ability to the equation. He averaged 5.7 yards per carry and scored eight rushing touchdowns last season.

For what the Patriots like to do offensively—change looks, run no-huddle, utilize backs in the passing game—this group should be better than the last.

Defensive End

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One thing that's for sure is that the Patriots got younger at the defensive end position this offseason. Gone are 28-year-old Jabaal Sheard and 32-year-old Chris Long. In are 27-year-old Lawrence Guy and 25-year old Kony Ealy. The team also spent a fourth-round pick on Arkansas product Deatrich Wise.

Ealy and Guy should be part of a three-man rotation the way Long and Sheard were last season. Ealy is a young and ascending talent—he had five sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception last season—while Guy is a vastly underrated veteran.

Pro Football Focus rated Guy 14th overall among all 3-4 defensive ends last season.

On paper, the Patriots should have a younger, faster group at the end position. It will be interesting to see how much the team also mixes third-round edge-rusher Derek Rivers into the rotation. He is listed as an outside linebacker on NFL.com but played end at Youngstown State.

If all goes according to plan, New England should be able to improve its pass rush, which only produced 34 sacks in the regular season and just eight in three postseason games.

Tight End

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How do you improve a tight end group that already includes star Rob Gronkowski? Well, for one, you allow Gronk to get 100 percent healthy, which the Patriots have done this offseason.

Injuries limited Gronkowski to just eight games and 25 receptions last season. He eventually shut things down in order to undergo another back surgery. The good news is that the game-breaking tight end appears to be back to normal.

"He looks like Gronk," offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said, per Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald. "We haven't got into a big evaluation. He's involved in everything."

in addition, the Patriots added Dwayne Allen as a replacement for the departed Martellus Bennett. While Allen isn't as accomplished as Bennett, he's still a 6'3", 265-pound athletic pass-catcher. He's also three years younger than Bennett.

New England also traded to acquire tight end James O'Shaughnessy from the Kansas City Chiefs. O'Shaughnessy hasn't seen much game action as a pro, but he has a lot of physical upside. Coming out of Illinois State, he measured 6'4" and 245 pounds and ran the 40-yard dash in 4.68 seconds.

Gronkowski and Allen should form the dynamic tight end duo the Patriots were looking to build last season, while O'Shaughnessy provides quality injury insurance.

Cornerback

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The Patriots already a pretty good secondary in 2016. In fact, the team was rated first overall in pass coverage by Pro Football Focus. While the team didn't tinker heavily with the overall group, there is one key addition that could have a huge impact in 2017.

That addition is former Buffalo Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore, whom the Pats inked to a five-year, $65 million free-agent contract.

Gilmore is just 26 years old and is coming off his first Pro Bowl appearance. He has a nose for the football too, having produced 12 batted passes and five interceptions in 2016.

The reason Gilmore provides such a big improvement at the cornerback position is the fact New England essentially now has two No. 1 cornerbacks in the backfield. If teams want to avoid Gilmore, they'll have to consider challenging Malcolm Butler, who was rated fifth overall among corners by Pro Football Focus last season.

Third cornerback Eric Rowe was rated 49th among corners by Pro Football Focus last season. There simply aren't going to be many favorable matchups available for teams looking to challenge New England's cornerbacks.

Wide Receiver

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The main addition the Patriots made to their receiver group is that of Brandin Cooks. The Patriots gave up a first-round pick to acquire the speedster from the New Orleans Saints, but his addition could pay huge dividends this season.

Cooks joins Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola and Malcolm Mitchell to give the Patriots four wideouts who were rated in the top 75 by Pro Football Focus last season. The fifth receiver on New England's roster is Chris Hogan, who averaged an impressive 17.9 yards per reception last season.

In short, the Patriots aren't going to want for wideout talent this year. What makes this group even more impressive is that many wideouts bring their own unique skills to the playing field. When you toss in the receiving talent the Patriots have in their backfield and at tight end—plus, you know, Tom Brady at quarterback—it feels like the New England passing attack could be virtually unstoppable.