2011 NFL Draft: Will the Pats Look at Stephen Paea as Vince Wilfork's Backup?

Former Oregon State Beaver's defensive tackle, Stephen Paea, is one of the most explosive and powerful defensive linemen in recent drafts—Paea is a freakish athlete. 

At the 2011 NFL scouting combine, Paea recorded a combine-high 49 reps in the bench press—11 more than the closest defensive tackle. 

Paea was extremely productive at Oregon State over the past three seasons. He tallied up a career total of 15 sacks, 30.5 tackles for a loss and a whooping 130 tackles. 

The 6'1", 305-pound defensive linemen is set to go sometime in the second round. The New England Patriots currently hold the 33rd overall pick and the 74th overall pick, both second-rounders.

If Paea is available when Bill Belichick and the Patriots are on the board, will they take a look at him? If they do bring him into Foxborough, what kind of role would he have? Would he fit into New England's 3-4 defensive scheme?

Strengths

Paea is the most powerful defensive linemen in the entire 2011 draft class—by a long shot. Amazingly, with his great strength, he's equipped with decent athletic abilities. 

For being 305-pounds., Paea is very athletic, fast and quick at the snap of the ball. He fires off of the ball faster than most offensive linemen and was a very disruptive player at the college level.

Paea has one of the best bull rushes in a long time—with 49 reps of 225 pounds, I'd say that the strength and power in his upper body can man-handle a lot of blockers.

With his enormous size and power, Paea can occupy two gaps along the defensive front and nine times out of 10 will demand a double team.

He is an ideal anchor on a defensive front, and plays with very low leverage and is nearly to impossible to "dig" out and remove from his respective gap.

Weaknesses

If he were to be drafted by a 3-4 defensive team, he'd be quite undersized to be nose tackle—but he still could be effective. 

Paea does not have a wide variety of moves in his arsenal—he only has the bull rush and will need to develop more in order to become an elite force on the defensive front seven.

His 2009 names may be deceiving as he only recorded three sacks the entire year, and they came in the same game—wasn't a dominant pass rusher.

Some may say he's inexperienced; as he's only played a career total of six seasons of football.

Conclusion

Paea may not be the best choice for the New England Patriots—he isn't an ideal 3-4 defensive linemen. He's too small to be a nose tackle and too big to be a defensive end. 

However, if selected by New England, he could be a potential replacement to Ron Brace, who's suffered nagging injuries over the years and has yet to develop into a quality rotational defensive linemen. 

Paea is a freak of nature with his amazing strength, which is appealing to all teams. His talent is raw, and still could be molded into defensive linemen in a 3-4 defensive—will be difficult.

If any coach in the NFL can turn Paea into an effective member of a 3-4 defensive line, it's Belichick. But, Paea is best suited for a 4-3 defense. 

New England will not select Paea, unless he slips and his talent and potential is just too much to pass up on. 

This article was first seen at PatriotsPlus.net. Be sure to follow Tony Santorsa on Twitter @   TonySantorsa.