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New England Patriots 2021 defensive starters: Early projections & reactions

By Michael DeVito

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 06: J.C. Jackson #27 of the New England Patriots makes a catch during warm up before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on December 06, 2020 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 06: J.C. Jackson #27 of the New England Patriots makes a catch during warm up before the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on December 06, 2020 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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New England Patriots
New England Patriots Dont’a Hightower (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

Let’s take some time to project the New England Patriots starting defense after their seriously solid additions in free agency and the draft.

One team of TV commentators recently spoke about how the fall-off in the Patriots’ defense last season may have been the true Achilles heel that cost them a winning season.

That’s a pretty astute observation especially in light of the mega-attention paid both to the departure of their all-time great quarterback and their signing of another great, Cam Newton.

The New England Patriots defense back to full strength

Yet, in addition to that situation on offense, the defense also suffered major personnel losses both from defections in free agency and in opt-outs due to Covid-19.

Among the losses, there was their best all-around linebacker, Dont’a Hightower, a massive loss. In addition, they also lost another key performer, another big-game performer, Kyle Van Noy to Miami.

That was subtraction for the Patriots and addition by subtraction for Miami simultaneously. It turned out to be a bad combination indeed.

Miami went to the playoffs and New England went home after 16 games.

The Patriots were also poorer at defensive back due to the injury to Stephon Gilmore. How can you not be when you lose the best in the business for some games.

So, in this exercise, let’s take a look at the 2021 defense and put all that lousy 2020 experience behind us.

We’ll look at all three levels and grade each. That’s always fun and worthy of a pounding of the writer when the readers disagree!

That’s their complete right and keep the comments coming, please! So here we go, let’s take a good look at the 2021 defense.

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