2011 New England Patriots: How Well Charged Is the Pats' Depth?

In the aftermath of the bloodbath that was the New England Patriots loss to the Detroit Lions on Saturday night, a game in which three of the team's projected starters on defense did not play, it might be useful to look past some of the hysteria regarding the defeat itself and instead focus on a bigger picture issue.

Now that coach Bill Belichick has imported a host of veteran big names to be featured on both sides of the ball, what does that mean to some of the younger players who were given big roles last season? Will they play? Be inactive but remain on the roster? Be released?

It's fairly obvious that the Pats defensive shortcomings of the past couple seasons finally convinced Belichick to shake things up on that side of the ball. Watching his ineffective secondary and inefficient pass rush fail to get off the field time after time after time as the torch was passed from past champions like Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour to a new group of younger, faster, far less experienced players, had to have prompted Belichick to go after the likes of Albert Haynesworth, Shaun Ellis, Mark Anderson and Andre Carter.

These moves, along with the trade for Chad Ochocinco and the re-signing of Logan Mankins and Matt Light on offense, while likely to be helpful this season and in the immediate future, could be detrimental to the development of some of the youngsters who will be expected to step into much larger, more important roles within the next two years. Players like Myron Pryor, Jermaine Cunningham, Kyle Love and Taylor Price, most of whom saw significant action last year, are now probably backups or at least will see their playing time curtailed.

In the here and now, sending Pryor, Cunningham, etc., all to the back of the line makes sense.

The Pats are loading up for a least one more championship run while Belichick and Tom Brady are still in Foxboro and in their respective primes. Last season's playoff loss at the hands of the Jets on the heels of a 14-2 regular season torpedoed a run at Lombardi Trophy No. 4 and the idea of Belichick resting on his laurels in the aftermath of that, as opposed to doing some serious shaking of the tree, doesn't compute in the slightest.

But one has to wonder what the long-term ramifications will amount to. In two years, when Haynesworth, Ellis, Carter and Ochocinco are gone, will the younger, depth-charted players be ready to step in? Will the Pats just reload through trades and free agency again at that point?

Certainly, there are some pressing matters with this year's team, starting with the fact that (to be kind) an already suspect secondary was not improved upon at all (and was just made even weaker with the release of veteran safety James Sanders). But if everyone stays healthy and the cadre of pass-rushers brought in can take some pressure off of the handful of overmatched defensive backs on the roster, there's no reason to assume that the 2011 Pats won't achieve similar results as last year's edition.

It's the years to come that might be a bit more worrisome.