Patriots Secondary Takes Big Hit in Darrelle Revis’ Leaving, What's Next?
May you live in interesting times – Chinese proverb
Just two days shy of a year since he joined the Patriots and only a month since winning the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, Darrelle Revis is heading back home to New York. Revis agreed to a 5-year $70 million dollar contract with the Jets with a full $39 million of the money guaranteed with $48 million coming in the first three years.
Revis along with the addition of Brandon Browner transformed the Patriots secondary from the sieve-like unit that was picked apart in so many big games in the past few years to the backbone of the defense. Playing a man coverage, aggressive scheme, the Patriots secondary with Revis at the forefront was the primary reason the Patriots were able to end the 10-year Super Bowl drought.
It was simply a matter of deciding on who Revis would blanket and who Browner would cover. It made the Patriots defense a very difficult one to face and would result in late interceptions in two of the three playoff games sealing each game.
Now Revis is back on the Jets, Browner is in limbo…a free agent since the Patriots declined to pick up his option and the Patriots secondary is basically starting from scratch.
Forget about what will be the incessant finger pointing as to “what could have been done”, “what should have been done”…. They’ll be plenty of that on sports talk radio all spring and summer. It’s done, and it is time to take a page from Bill Belichick, “we’re on to 2015.” So where do the Patriots go from here.
Replacing Revis: The first question Pats Fans want answered, how do you replace Revis? Well that’s simple …you can’t. Short of ringing in a blockbuster deal involving Richard Sherman, Patrick Peterson or Joe Haden, which is about as remote as the moon, that’s not going to happen. The team has three other choices, sign a free agent, build thru the draft or roll with what they have on the roster.
Free agency doesn’t offer much at this point, the best corners, Revis, Byron Maxwell, Brandon Flowers and Kareem Jackson were scooped up quickly and were off the market.
That leaves second tier players such as Antonio Cromartie, Tramon Williams and Chris Culliver out there. None are close to the ability of Revis but could be of interest to the team. Williams has been solid, durable but not spectacular in Green Bay. Culliver like Revis suffered a serious knee injury but came back to play well for the 49ers. Cromartie is rumored to be heading to Dallas and at 31 is older than Revis at this point.
The draft in 2015 isn’t a deep well of talented cornerbacks. Who will be available for the Patriots at #32? Possibly Marcus Peters from Washington, the 6’0, 200 lb corner will be there. He’s been compared to Aqib Talib in terms of size and style of play. Others include Quinten Rollins from Miami of Ohio and P.J. Williams from Florida State.
Prior to the start of free agency, the Patriots biggest needs were addressing the offensive and defensive lines…now the team may be forced to readdress the situation.
Current Roster: With Revis and Browner now out of the picture, the current cornerback roster includes, Logan Ryan, Malcolm Butler, Alfonzo Dennard, Kyle Arrington with practice squad players, Dax Swanson and Justin Green.
Arrington is best utilized in the slot and has performed extremely well there. Moving him to the outside would not be the best solution. Butler, Super Bowl heroics aside, was a dark horse to make the team out of training camp.
Dennard fell out of favor and eventually was placed on season ending IR. He was rumored to be a possible cap casualty, now he may be relied upon. Bottom line is there isn’t any #1 corners here, at best, they are a solid group of #2s. Look for the team to add a free agent and address the position in the draft as well.
End of Man Coverage a possibility: After riding the man coverage defense to the Super Bowl, the Patriots may return to the days…ugh, of those soft zone coverages that the team used for the previous few seasons.
Not having Revis and Browner will have a trickle-down effect on the safeties as well. In 2014, Devin McCourty was the single high safety, allowing Pat Chung who had a career resurgence, playing closer to the line in the box.
Now they may have to revert to the Cover-2 type zones where both safeties are lined up deeper in the field. It will affect the play of both McCourty and Chung and it is a role that frankly Chung hasn’t excelled in.
That means more responsibilities for the linebackers in coverage which hasn’t been their greatest strength in the past and takes away from rushing the passer.
Bottom line: To paraphrase a bit, Bill Belichick always likes to say that pass defense in the secondary goes hand-in-hand with the pass rush. Well here is where the team may be forced to improve…a lot from 2014.
The pass rush in 2014 was inadequate and the sack totals benefitted from having blanket coverage in the secondary. The team will need big seasons from Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich. Both played too many snaps again last season, Akeem Ayers was brought in and played well but is a free agent. The team is hosting Cleveland’s Jabaal Sheard on Wednesday and he’s an excellent edge rusher who can play DE or OLB. They should look into bringing back Ayers as well. Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins provided some nice A-gap pressure last season and they’ll need more of that in 2015.
In the interior of the line, last year’s #1 selection, Dominique Easley will be needed to return healthy and ready to penetrate and collapse the pocket from the interior. They could use some extra help inside and Detroit’s Nick Fairly, a free agent defensive lineman who is visiting teams this week could be a nice addition next to Easley in the interior.
It is going to be an interesting spring and summer with Revis and Browner out of the picture, the defense will have to remake itself…and in a hurry. They are big, big losses and Bill Belichick will to be very creative in 2015.
We’re on to free agency…
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