New England Patriots pass rush a problem Belichick must resolve
There’s been much ado about the New England Patriots offense struggling to adapt to a new regimen without long-time offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels being around.
McDaniels was a key figure for years in New England but his departure to coach the Las Vegas Raiders has occasioned some changes.
Matt Patricia, maybe acting as the offensive coordinator, and Bill O’Brien, two former head coaches are running the show on offense and things are changing.
Yet, with Mac Jones at the helm, there’s little doubt here that things will come around. The bigger problem lies on the other side of the ball. And in one place in particular. And it’s a major one.
That would be the team’s pass rush. It needed augmentation in the offseason and didn’t get it. Let’s take a look at why this is a major issue for Bill Belichick to resolve.
New England Patriots pass rush needs help
The New England Patriots have two top pass rushers on the squad. First, there’s the sack man, Matt Judon.
Judon was among the top sack producers in the NFL before Covid impacted his season. He will be expected to better his 12.5 sacks and 14 tackles for loss totals in 2021 this season. And barring injury, there is no reason why he shouldn’t.
The other top pass rusher whose stats don’t reflect his impact on the opposing passing game is Christian Barmore.
Barmore, a great 2021 second-round draft pick, does his damage from inside at defensive tackle. Barmore had a meager 1.5 sacks and 3 tackles for loss but his impact was far greater. In collapsing the pocket, even as a rookie Barmore was one of the NFL’s best.
He’s focused on sacks and should be even better this year. Expect near Pro-Bowl level performance at a minimum. The problem is that after Judon and Barmore, there isn’t much to crow about.
Deatrich Wise Jr. had three sacks and four tackles for loss, nothing to write home about. And no one else did either from the edge or outside linebacker positions except ex-Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who had five sacks.
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The Patriots inexplicably did basically nothing either in free agency or in the draft to augment their pass rush. Instead, they are counting on either players returning from injury or unproven players. Henry Anderson, a defensive end is returning from injury and may help.
In addition, high draft picks, second-rounder Josh Uche and third-rounder Ronnie Perkins who have little to show for their NFL careers to date, are being counted on to produce. Not much is expected here from either. Uche had a weak three sacks in 2021 and Perkins hardly saw the field at all.
The Patriots only drafted one defensive lineman, Sam Roberts in the sixth round and drafted no linebackers or edge players at all.
This was a gross miscalculation if only to provide top competition for the ultimate starters. More correctly, it was a mistake because New England’s pass rush was terrible last season and needed better players to be added, several of them and none were.
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That’s why this space has taken the team to task for neglecting the first two levels of the defense in the offseason both in free agency and the draft. They are wishing and hoping to find diamonds in the rough from their own roster but the likelihood of that happening is slim.
We’ll see during the preseason and when the real games begin, but don’t expect too much from the defense in the way of pass rush. They have two players who can and no one else.
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