New England Patriots prime: Adrian Clayborn gives pass rush a necessary boost

One of the more underrated moves for the New England Patriots over the offseason will be the signing of defensive end Adrian Clayborn.

Don’t sleep on Adrian Clayborn.  In Thursday night’s 37-20 preseason win over the Philadelphia Eagles, the veteran defensive end provided the type of pass rush the New England Patriots have been looking for since Bill Belichick decided to ship Chandler Jones out of town.

Signed to a two-year, $12 million deal this offseason, Clayborn has pretty much gone under the radar.  Actually, most of the Patriots additions have due to the ongoing melodrama involving Belichick, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski.

As the regular season gets closer, however, more of the spotlight will be placed on Clayborn and the front seven of the Patriots. Deemed as one of the team’s weak areas, the pass rush will need a boost from a player like Clayborn and he showed Thursday night that he can be such a force.

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Though just a regular season game, it was good to see the New England Patriots defense rack up eight sacks overall, with five coming in the first half.  Adrian Clayborn accounted for one of those sacks which resulted in a fumble and 55-yard touchdown return by rookie linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley.  He also brought the kind of consistent pressure the team signed him for.

Along with second-year men Derek Rivers and Deatrich Wise Jr., Clayborn’s effectiveness showed that the Patriots’ pass rush could possibly perform better than anticipated.  That would be a great thing for the defense overall.

Following the game, Clayborn said his performance is just part of the job he sets out to do every time he steps on the field.

"“Part of my job as a defensive lineman is to get after the quarterback and they were passing a lot tonight, so we had to get after the quarterback so we don’t leave our DBs [defensive backs] out to dry,” he said, via Patriots.com."

Clayborn went on to say that that it was a great start for the defense and a momentum the team will carry over to the regular season.  It should be much improved with the return of both Dont’a Hightower and Trey Flowers.  Throw in young players like Adam Butler and Bentley and the New England Patriots may just have something.

Still a work in progress

Along with Adrian Clayborn, Derek Rivers and Deatrich Wise Jr., the New England Patriots pass rush also saw contributions from Adam Butler, linebacker Kyle Van Noy, safety Patrick Chung and Keionta Davis.

Definitely promising given the fact that neither Flowers or Hightower played in the game.  It also showed a more simplified scheme by Brian Flores.  A scheme that allows the team to utilize the speed and quickness of the defensive players.

Although the preseason, racking up eight sacks has to be encouraging to anyone besides Bill Belichick.  When asked about the overall effort following the game, the coach wasn’t ready to throw out any accolades, which means he feels there’s still work to do.

"“Yeah, again, I thought we did some good things,” Belichick said.  “There’s certainly some things we need to work on.  It was far from perfect.  We’ll take a look at the film, build on the positives and correct the things that need to be corrected.”"

Keeping these guys modest will keep them motivated to be a more productive unit once the regular season rolls around.  Let’s see how they build on Thursday night’s performance when the New England Patriots take on the Carolina Panthers in the preseason Week 3 matchup.