Tag: Brian Flores

Nick Caserio is Staying With the Patriots Despite Months of Rumors

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ESPN – Longtime Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio is closing on a contract extension with the club, a source confirmed to ESPN. Caserio’s contract is set to expire after the 2020 draft, and head coach Bill Belichick has cited his dual role in personnel and coaching as a “great asset” to the organization. Caserio, 44, has played a central role in drafting and signing players under Belichick, while also contributing to the coaching staff as a regular presence at practice and in the coaches’ booth during games.

After all the drama and rumors of Nick Caserio potentially leaving town to go work for the Texans, he probably saw Houston promote Bill O’Brien to Coach/GM and had a come to Jesus moment. Wait, I wanna go *there*?

This wasn’t just some media concocted story either, the Patriots literally filed tampering charges against the Texans last offseason. The former Patriots priest or character coach or whatever you want to call him Jack Easterby left the team because Robert Kraft may have allegedly gotten some hand stuff done to him. Easterby then got a job with the Texans alongside fellow former Patriot Bill O’Brien, which the Pats were “livid” about. Then Easterby came back for the Patriots Super Bowl ring ceremony over the summer and allegedly tried to poach Nick Caserio to come be the GM/Executive VP for the Texans. IN ROBERT KRAFT’S OWN BACKYARD. The Texans even went as far as to fire their own GM the day after that party and then requested to interview Caserio three days later.

So this is great news for New England with all the turnover this team has had over the past year and thats before we even get to the uncertainty around Tom Brady. We’ve seen Joe Judge, Brian Flores, Matt Patricia, and Bill O’Brien all leave the team in recent years. Although a lot of former Patriots coaches and executives have gone on to less than stellar results, sometimes stability is a valuable asset. Not to mention Caserio has done everything in this organization and is one of the few, if only, executives in the NFL that has a hand in coaching and is on the headset on game day. I would expect a new title as he’s been the Director of Player Personnel since 2008, but I suppose a generous raise may do the job.

The Patriots Appear to Possibly Be Committing a Cardinal Sin of Football and I’m Terrified

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So I’m about to nerd out about football pretty hard. If you’ve come for a dose of the rants of a mad man, that is coming much later on in this blog and I’m not sure you’ll make it. Some of this, or most of it, is going to get pretty dry. So you’ve been warned.

Free agency, or at least the most major moves, have come and gone, probably. As expected, the Pats made a couple small quiet moves that will help incrementally (Blogger’s Note: Mike Pennel is a bigger get than it seems. He is a hugely talented player who just can’t stay off the pot. Was a surprise cut by the Jets). They also, just as predictably, let a number of key contributors from last year walk (Trey Flowers, Malcolm Brown) or keep walking (Chris Hogan, Danny Shelton) as the Pats weren’t or aren’t willing to pay them what they saw or see as their worth. Such is life for a Pats fan, watching players come and go that to an untrained eye (SEE: rest of the NFL fanbases) seem indispensable or at least good enough to retain. But we make do with what we have, playing as a team.

On a semi-related note I’ll tie in later, the Patriots made the peculiar move of bringing in notable “defensive mind” Greg Schiano to be a member of the staff this season. Red wrote about why this is kind of odd earlier this year. Most notable is the fact that no one really likes Greg Schiano. He’s what you may refer to as an ass hat. He also hasn’t been terribly successful ever since he used his bringing the Rutgers program out of the basement in the late-00’s-ish as a launching pad for his pro coaching career. Anyway, a hiring of this kind in general just seems like an odd fit and overkill for the Pats. At this point, why don’t you just allow Belichick and another Flores-esque high ranking assistant to run the defensive side of the ball? I mean there’s a reason I’m not in the New England front office but as an outsider from  a high-level this doesn’t make a ton of sense. Basically, when you have a great defensive mind like Belichick in-house why bring in a guy with so many of his own…ideas?

And this is where I start to get scared. And where things get reallly dry for a second. (Skip if you are a football diehard)

I’ll make it quick and as painless as possible, but basically defenses in football have what one refers to as “schemes”, also known as “base formations”. To dumb it down, if someone who had never seen football before walked onto an NFL (or college, high school, w.e) practice field and a coach wanted to show them what the defense NORMALLY should look like, this is the position he would line them up in. These schemes are predicated upon the front-7, aka the linebackers and defensive lineman.

What kind of scheme you run pretty much defines the shape and look of those players. For instance, since outside linebackers (OLBs) in a 3-4 (3 down lineman, 4 linebackers – one of the more common schemes) basically serve as defensive ends on a significant number of plays, they have a size-range similar to a DE, say 6’2-6’4 and 250-265lbs. On the other hand, since the pass rush is covered by the DEs in a 4-3 (4 down lineman, 3 linebackers – the other more common scheme) the outside linebackers are a bit smaller and are used for chasing down ball carriers, making tackles, and covering tight ends and sometimes running backs. They go, say 6’0-6’3 and 230-240lbs (some teams recently, in this pass-happy NFL, have been experimenting with converting college safeties, like Mark Barron (6’1 214lbs), into linebackers with varying degrees of success. There’s just not as much need for the size anymore as there is not as much power running).

We used a mess of defenses last year, but mostly some sort of 4-2 alignment. This is basically the same concept as the 4-3 except since the league is passing so much, we skewed the third linebacker in exchange for an additional defensive back to cover someone. Sometimes this was Duron Harmon. Sometimes Jonathan Jones. Sometimes even J.C Jackson. The bottom line, and what I’m trying to get at now, is that there was always someone there to step up. Someone to slot in easily, although not always successfully. And you know what? Throw all the fucking stats you want at me (NEEEEERDS) but we won a Super Bowl while holding one of the most prolific offenses ever to 3 points. So I’d say our D was just fine.

This is what I’ve been leading up to. This is why I’m worried.

One of the CARDINAL sins of football is to try and change your roster/scheme to fit your coach, not the other way around. More accurately, you should never allow a new coach to twist and tweak your roster to fit his purposes. If you have the pieces, consistency, and hell, success in place then keep it. Tell any new coach that this is what he has to work with. To that end, maybe that is why the Pats have been so successful the last couple of decades. Ultimate flexibility. I remember when Belichick started bringing in 4-3 type players when he was known as a 3-4 coach people lost their goddam minds. “But but but he doesn’t fit!” Well ya dummy Coach just switched the defense up, no biggie. Sure he probably prefers the3-4, but he’s not married to it. The conclusion/thesis is a mixture of “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” and “work with the scraps you were given.” (2pac).

Belichick one in a million though. Especially when it comes to coaching philosophy.

Greg Schiano, and no I did not do research for this blog, I read up on this when we signed him, loves his defense. Fucking loves it. He runs a weird one, almost a 3-4 masquerading as a 4-3. I say this because his line is basically three DTs and one DE, much like how a 3-4 uses three jumbo lineman, in different proportions.

So were we ever giving Trey Flowers all the money he got? Nope, sure weren’t. Were we going to hold hostages to get Malcolm Brown back? Probably not after a down year. But could we suspect there may be reasons for letting two of our primary lineman go beyond cash? I think it’s fair. And that’s terrifying.

Because although it could be debated up and down whether or not Brown ever became “that guy” he was projected to be a truly Belichickian DT – big and stout against the run (6’2 320lb) but still able to put just a little pressure on the QB when needed. A swiss army knife,if you will. Probably 70/30 towards the run. Flowers is really a 50/50 guy (6’2 265lb, plays a lot bigger) – he plays the run really well but also excels in pressuring the QB. Sure he still hasn’t passed 6.5 sacks, but he is ALWAYS in opposing backfields. You know whose system doesn’t really seem to favor swiss army knife DTs? Probably Greg Schiano, as he has three of them and he probably wants them each to do different things. You know whose system probably doesn’t want a 6.5 sack run defender? Again probably Schiano.

So were we really saving money or were we truly cashing out? Is there a reason we re-signed John Simon to rush the passer and Pennel to clog running lanes? Is Belichick really going to let Schiano do the one. Thing. That. Never. Works and reconstruct the look of the Pats D to fit his scheme’s/ego’s needs? Fuck me if that is the case.

I’m all out of steam and out of love. Tell me I’m wrong in the comments or on twitter @300sjoeyb.

-Joey B

Patriots 2018 Report Card (Part 2): Defense

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The new league year starts in less than a month (March 13), and the Pats will have a lot of decisions to make in the coming weeks, especially considering the fact that 18 (!) guys from this year’s championship squad are set to hit unrestricted free agency.

But again, before we hop into the future, I’m here to bring you Part 2 of our 2018 Patriots report card. Last week, we focused on Brady and the offense; this week, we’re grading out the defense.

Overall, the Pats finished with the league’s 21st-ranked defense, but they did allow the seventh-least amount of points per game. As we’ve seen with most Belichick defenses over the years, the boys played a lot of “bend but don’t break” ball this year, giving up some yards but still finishing with the fourth-best opponent’s scoring percentage, only behind Chicago, Baltimore, and Houston. They also had the fourth-best turnover percentage, hauling in 18 interceptions on the year. And they even grabbed 10 fumble recoveries, too, which was good for 12th.

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Now the new official head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores did a great job with this unit in 2018.

The point is, the defense doesn’t get enough credit for just how important they were to the team’s success this season – especially in regards to the secondary, which featured First-Team All-Pro Stephon Gilmore and the dynamic McCourty twins duo.

To be honest, some guys (or groups) played much better than others, and, just like with the passing offense, the team certainly wasn’t without its flaws on the defensive side of the ball either.

Let’s look at the grade sheet…

Defensive Line: B

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The play of the defensive line starts and ends with Trey Flowers. Both Red and I have never made any secret of our love for the do-it-all defensive end, who has been the leader of the team’s front seven for the past three seasons. In fact, Flowers was so good in 2018 that Pro Football Focus ranked him at No. 21 on its list of the 101 best players from this past season. Primarily a defensive end, Flowers is actually one of the more versatile D-lineman in the league, playing almost a quarter of his snaps from the inside and wreaking havoc no matter where he lines up. It seems as though he finds his way into the backfield on almost every play, and his 78 pressures (including the postseason) were the second most in the league. His 7.5 sacks also led the team. (SPOILER ALERT: Flowers was the team’s defensive MVP this season; yes, even over Gilmore.)

The team has a gigantic decision to make this offseason, as the 25-year-old is set to hit the open market. Belichick needs to open up the purse and lock this guy down for the long term, as he truly could serve as the foundation of the team’s D for much of the next decade. Usually pretty frugal as a franchise, the Pats HAVE TO change course and do whatever it takes to bring this guy back. PLEASE.

Lawrence Guy was also outstanding, even though most casual fans may not know who the hell he is. That’s no disrespect to the big fella, but most run-stuffing defensive tackles don’t usually get the love they deserve. The Pats struggled mightily as a team against the run at points this season (which I blame mostly on the linebackers), but they still finished 11th in the league against the opposing ground attack. Guy was a huge reason why, finishing with an elite 91.1 run-stuffing grade from PFF and coming in at No. 83 on the same list of best players Flowers found himself on this year.

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This “Guy” deserves a ton of credit for his play this year. (Sorry, I had to.)

Malcolm Brown, another unrestricted free agent, was up and down this year. He lost more playing time than anticipated to second-year man Adam Butler. But overall, Brown was pretty consistent, or at least reliable, often taking on double teams that freed up others around him. Still, I wouldn’t say he did anything particularly special, and I’m predicting the team lets him walk this spring. (Also, Butler is a very underappreciated player on this line. Unlike Brown, Butler can rush the passer from the inside and has five sacks over the past two seasons. He came on strong as a rookie UDFA last season, and he could take a big leap forward with another solid showing in 2019.)

I thought Danny Shelton and Adrian Clayborn would’ve played a bigger roles after the Pats started last offseason off with a bang by bringing both guys in. Both were expected to make a much bigger impact, especially Clayborn. But, for some reason, each of them struggled to earn playing time in a crowded rotation, and Shelton was even benched entirely for one stretch of the season (before coming on strong in the playoffs). Both had their (brief) moments this year, but overall they were a major disappointment.

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Clayborn played nowhere even close to how a guy making over $6 million per year should.

Finally, injuries slowed the trajectory of young guys like Derek Rivers and Deatrich Wise, Jr. this year, but I’m still excited about their potential. In fact, Wise, who finished with 4.5 sacks on the year, was my pick for defensive MVP this preseason after a solid rookie year. I’m looking forward to what these two can still do next season if they start off with a good camp.

Linebackers: D+

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I really don’t have many great things to say about the team’s linebacking corps, and I’ve felt this way ever since the summer.

Let me just start by saying that Dont’a Hightower is one of the most overrated Patriots players in recent memory. Yes, he’s made some pretty big stops in his career in some pretty big moments, but the 28-year-old has noticeably slowed in recent years, often struggling to keep up with speedy opponents. He can still lay the wood on opposing ball-carriers, but that is only if he’s able to get to them first. And forget about pass-coverage, as both he and Kyle Van Noy allowed almost 70 percent of the passes they were targeted in coverage this postseason to be completed – and this was after the Pats already allowed the 11th-most receiving yards per game to opposing running backs throughout the regular season. There were also six games in which the Pats gave up over 130 yards on the ground.

At least Van Noy makes up for his poor coverage skills by being an above-average to excellent pass-rusher at times. His 3.5 sacks may not jump off the page, but he continuously applied pressure to opposing signal-callers all year, particularly in the postseason. He and Flowers were easily the team’s two best guys off the edge, and I believe Van Noy does play a pretty key role on the team’s D.

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For as much flak as I give Van Noy, he can be pretty important at times.

Elandon Roberts – literally the only other linebacker to see significant playing time in 2018 – is entirely forgettable at this point. While once looked upon to be a potential piece for the team’s future, he struggled to even stay on the field this year. There’s really nothing more to say about him.

Fortunately, the Pats still have preseason standout Ja’Whuan Bentley, a promising rookie who was lost for the year due to injury in Week 3 against Detroit. I’m excited about what he can bring to the table. But again, this unit is in desperate need of an upgrade this offseason, especially in terms of guys with sideline-to-sideline ability. This should be one of the team’s main areas of focus over the next few months.

Defensive Secondary: A-

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It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this is the unit receiving the highest grade, as the secondary was dominant at times this season. Remember, stats can be misleading; I realize the team finished 22nd against the pass, but that only means that they gave up a lot of yards – not points. Because truthfully, Stephon Gilmore routinely eliminated the opponent’s top weapon; in the 13 games he tracked receivers this year, he only allowed 42 catches on 90 targets for a measly 466 yards, per PFF. He was also selected as one of the league’s top two cornerbacks this season, earning his first All-Pro honors.

But it’s not all about Gilmore. As a team, the Pats finished 12th against thier opponents’ No. 2 receiver and fourth against “all other” wide receivers in terms of DVOA. Safeties Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, and Duron Harmon (who also served as a hyrbid linebacker at times) helped locked down the back end of the defense all year. They helped the team finish as the eighth-best against the tight end position as well.

Rookie J.C. Jackson was also a revelation. The undrafted free agent out of Maryland used a surprise standout preseason to springboard himself into a starting role opposite Gilmore as the season wore on. He did not come without his struggles, but his rapid ascension shows a lot of promise for him going forward.

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The rookie far exceeded expectations in 2018.

And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give some special shine to Jason McCourty. The Pats went out and brought him in on a flyer this offseason, trading a low draft pick to snatch him away from the Cleveland Browns, who were likely going to cut him otherwise. While he was still a serviceable corner in 2017, he was on his second team and looking at a career crossroads before coming to New England. But in 2018? He finished with the 11th-highest coverage grade at the position, per PFF, and the seventh-best mark against the run. He also played the most snaps he’s played since 2012, and he is another guy the team must make a priority to re-sign this offseason.

Much like the offensive line, you could argue that this group also deserves to be a collective MVP. They were absolutely fantastic.

(Defensive MVP): Trey Flowers – Many might want to give the nod to Gilmore here, but I’ve said pretty much all I needed to say about the star defensive end above. Flowers is the engine that keeps the defense running. He was an absolute stud again in 2018.

(Biggest Surprise): Jason McCourty – For a guy who many weren’t even sure would make it out of training camp, he was vital to the team’s final outcome this season. Perhaps revitalized playing with his twin brother, here’s to hoping the double trouble continues in Foxborough moving forward.

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(Biggest Disappointment): The Linebackers – I’m really hoping the team makes an investment at this position this offseason. I’m just plain sick of watching these guys out there. Plain and simple.

Be sure to stay tuned to The 300s for all your Patriots offseason talk, which should ramp up even more in the coming weeks. No rest for the weary! On to 2019!

Patriots May Be Hiring Greg Schiano to Take Over the Defense. Why?

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PFT – The Patriots are set to lose linebackers coach and de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores to the Dolphins after the Super Bowl and that will make two years in a row that the team’s top defensive assistant has moved on for a head coaching job.

Per a report from the Senior Bowl, former NFL head coach Greg Schiano is a likely addition to the top of the defensive staff for the 2019 season. Schiano is in Mobile to talk to teams and NFL Media reports that “the spot that appears likely” is on Bill Belichick’s staff in New England.

Now this is just a rumor in the wind so we have no idea if it’s actually true or not, but we still wanted to blog about it because this would be WILDLY out of character for Bill Belichick. The man *always* promotes from within.

“While Schiano has never worked with Belichick, the Patriots coach has endorsed Schiano as a coach on more than one occasion since his son and current Patriots assistant Steve played for Schiano at Rutgers.”

Belichick likes to bring in young, smart guys and run them through the ringer until they either quit, move on, or become a football mind in his own mold. We very rarely see a big name come off the street to take over either side of the ball for Belichick. (Despite my downright mayoral campaign for the Pats to bring in former Oregon and Eagles and current UCLA head coach Chip Kelly to lead the offense….the pieces were all there!) Despite all that it never happened.

Just take a look at their last 5 defensive coordinators and their last 3 offensive coordinators (Bill has only ever had 3 OC’s in 18 years as coach of the Pats, that’s insane) and how long they had been with the team before. (Note: I am making a couple of assumptions here with titles since Brian Flores wasn’t technically the “defensive coordinator” he was still the man in charge of the Pats defense.)

Defensive Coordinators

  • Brian Flores (14 years)
  • Matt Patricia (8 years)
  • Dean Pees (2 years + bonus points for 3 years coaching at Navy)
  • Eric Mangini (5 years w/ Pats + 3 years w/ Jets + 1 year with Browns)
  • Romeo Crennel (3 years w/ Jets + 10 years w/ Giants)

Offensive Coordinators

  • Josh McDaniels (8 years)
  • Bill O’Brien (4 years)
  • Josh McDaniels (5 years)
  • Charlie Weis (3 years w/ Jets + 3 years w/ Giants)

And before you point to guys like Charlie Weis who didn’t have prior Patriots coaching experience under Belichick, Bill was the new HC in town and whats the first thing he did? Brought in guys he knew intimately from his time with the Browns, Jets, and Giants. Belichick has NEVER worked with Schiano at any level, which is why this is even more out of character. Maybe Bill sees the cupboards are bare and he can’t very well promote his son to defensive coordinator (yet) so why not bring in a guy he respects and at least in theory is on the same page philosophically. This is all before we even get into Schiano’s head coaching record at Rutgers (68-67) and his NFL coaching record in Tampa Bay (11-21).

Again it’s just out of character for Belichick, but as a man in his 60’s he may look around and see the well is dry as the rest of the league has come with a straw to suck any bit of water they can from that very well.

Or maybe, just maybe, this has been Belichick’s great white whale. After yearsss of drafting player after player from Rutgers, Bill finally gets his guy, the man who made it all possible; the former Rutgers head coach himself.

BREAKING: Dolphins Reportedly Stealing Away Brian Flores

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Right in the middle of getting geared up for this weekend’s divisional round showdown, Pats Nation found out late this afternoon that they’re reportedly about to lose one of their own.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first broke the news this afternoon:

It has since been corroborated by guys like Bert Breer, one of the industry’s leading talking heads:

First and foremost, congrats to Brian Flores, who is getting his first crack at running an NFL team at just 37 years old. Truly. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime. The trend in the league lately seems to be hiring fresh faces as opposed to falling on bad habits and recycling older, failed former coaches. With guys like Sean McVay (32) killing it out in Los Angeles, and others like Kliff Kingsbury (39, Arizona) and Matt LeFleur (39, Green Bay) being hired as first-timers just this week, I guess the news shouldn’t be so surprising.

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The young hotshot certainly started quite the trend.

Since first coming to the Pats as an assistant in the scouting department in 2004 – after a pretty solid career as a linebacker at Boston College – Flores has continued to ascend at a rapid pace, making his way onto the team’s coaching staff just four years later. He’s worn many different hats over the past decade, but he finally got his real shot at glory when he was given the responsibility of calling the defensive plays this year after Matt Patricia bounced to Detroit.

The fact that he’s only been in such a prominent position for such a short period of time makes the move even more interesting. But, in truth, he was even being looked at as a candidate by some teams last offseason, and his defense did allow the seventh-least amount of points per game in the league this year (20.7). And, again, teams around the league seem to finally be flouting the idea of “experience over everything,” and instead seem willing to roll the dice on newer guys with new ideas.

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Seems like teams are finally learning to leave guys like Ole Jeff in the dust.

To be honest, though, the news has got to be a bit deflating to guys around the locker room right now. Here you are zoning in on the first postseason obstacle facing you in just two days, and you learn that one of your coaches is likely off to sunnier skies next year – win or lose.

Now, it is important to note that nothing is official yet. Flores has yet to sign any contract or issue any public statement regarding the news – and likely won’t say anything at all until, at the very least, next week – but the writing seems to be on the wall. He’s heading to South Beach.

I want to be clear that I am not criticizing him for taking the role, if he so chooses, and I really am happy for him. The timing is just a bit of a bummer – but, as they say, that’s showbiz, baby!

I’m sure, though, as a Belichick disciple, he knows how to ignore the noise and still get the boys ready for the Chargers on Sunday. We’ll be just fine. I’ll stop raining on the parade.

Congrats to Brian Flores. I’m just sorry that I have to hate you now.

Patriots Pass Rush Still Non-Existent a Third of the Way Through Season

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Everyone throughout Patriots Nation is flying pretty high right now after two back-to-back wins – wins in which the Pats outscored their respective opponents, the Dolphins and Colts, by a combined 45 points.

Brady’s also been on point over that time, with two straight 94-plus QB ratings and seven total touchdowns. Also, Sony Michel is looking pretty solid carrying the rock; Josh Gordon seems to be on track toward being a big factor in the offense; and Julian Edelman is finally back as the team’s top target. And above all, after a 1-2 start the Pats are right back on top of the AFC East, tied with Miami for first place after five weeks of action.

Sure, I’m feeling pretty good right about now. How could you not after what we’ve seen the past two weeks?

Still, though, there is one glaring issue with the team – an issue that is certainly not new – which could rear its ugly head sooner rather than later. I’m talking, of course, about the team’s anemic pass-rush.

Our faithful 300s readers know that I’ve had the team’s pass-rush ear-marked as an area of concern since the offseason. Besides being ranked as Pro Football Focus’ sixth-worst unit heading into 2018, the team was coming off of a heartbreaking Super Bowl loss that saw Nick Foles pass for over 370 yards and three scores – mostly because he wasn’t sacked ONCE and was touched a measly five times otherwise. It was truly one of the most pathetic performances I’ve ever seen from a defensive front, and big changes were needed in the offseason.

Belichick & Co. seemed to agree after signing former Falcon Adrian Clayborn pretty much right away in free agency, and with young guys like Derek Rivers and Keionta Davis also expected to return from injury, there was a glimmer of hope. Then, after the group’s excellent showing against the Eagles in the second preseason game this summer, I was actually pretty bullish on the pass-rushing corps. I even pumped their tires pretty hard following that victory as part of our “The 300s Previews the Patriots” series.

But through five games so far this season:

  • Clayborn has zero sacks and a total of two tackles.
  • Davis played in each of the first three games, registering three tackles. However, he hasn’t seen the field once since Week 3 against Detroit.
  • Rivers played in Week 3 against Detroit, but has been dealing with “an undisclosed injury” which hasn’t allowed him to play at all outside of that one appearance.

Well so much for that “hope!”

As I pointed out in our Pats/Colts game preview last week, heading into Thursday night there were only four players who had been able to muster up even just one sack through this season’s first four games: Trey Flowers, Deatrich Wise, Adam Butler, and John Simon, the last of whom  has been on the team for a total of one-and-a-half weeks.

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Guy’s been here for less than two weeks and he’s already one of our top players up front. YEESH.

Against the Colts, Patrick Chung was able to get in on the action with a half-sack, with the other half being credited to Flowers. So, through five games now, only five Patriots have been able to get to the quarterback a total of seven times. (Also, ZERO sacks have come from anyone in the linebacking corps. Yikes.)

To be fair, pass-rushing is about much more than just sacks. Still, even in terms of QB hits, the team is averaging just 4.6 a contest, so they’re barely even throwing opposing signal-callers off their game. Taking away the Dolphins game – which was probably more about Ryan Tannehill’s ineptitude in Foxborough than anything else – the Patriots are giving up a bottom-five-worthy 294 passing yards a game.

One must also understand that different teams employ different schemes, and not everyone blitzes or sends pressure at the same rate. In 2017, only four teams blitzed less frequently than the Patriots, so it’s not like Belichick and Brian Flores are encouraging anyone to pin their ears back and get after it.

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Come on, Bri Guy, let the boys loose!

In order for that type of philosophy to work, though, you need to have an elite secondary. While Gilmore is a fine No. 1 corner, Eric Rowe has been in out of the lineup the past few weeks due to injury, the McCourtys aren’t spring chickens, and after that it’s pretty much just Chung, Harmon, and a bunch of rookies still trying to climb their way up the depth chart.

While guys like Blake Bortles, Matthew Stafford, and Andrew Luck can chuck it pretty well, up next comes Kansas City phenom and 2018 MVP candidate Patrick Mahomes in Week 5, followed up by matchups against the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Kirk Cousins, and Ben Roethlisberger in the coming months.

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Mahomes could be getting ready to commit a Sunday Night Massacre against the Pats D this week.

Fortunately, the Patriots play in a division which features two teams with rookie quarterbacks – and another who plays like one from time to time. And even more fortunate is the fact that the Pats still have five games left to play against said squads in 2018.

But when the competition stiffens and the game’s elite throwers are on the other side of the field, things could get ugly. Only time will tell, but we’ll get our first glimpse at the team’s true colors this Sunday night in a prime time matchup against the Chiefs’ No. 3-ranked offense.