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NFL1000: Why New England’s Defense Can Carry Belichick to Another Super Bowl
- Updated: January 3, 2017
From 2012 through 2015, the Seattle Seahawks led the NFL in scoring defense every season. It was a remarkable feat—no NFL team had accomplished it since the 1953-57 Cleveland Browns, who did it five straight seasons well before the NFL-AFL merger and all the strategic changes that followed.
The Seahawks finished third in scoring defense in 2016 with 294 points allowed, behind the New England Patriots (250) and New York Giants (284). And while the Giants’ defensive improvement can be explained in part by the lucrative contracts handed out to veterans like Olivier Vernon, Janoris Jenkins and Damon Harrison, the Patriots led the league in scoring defense with a squad lacking many major financial constraints.
Of the Patriots’ starters, only safety Devin McCourty carries a major cap charge, according to Over the Cap; most of the guys in this particular defense are players on their first contracts, or veterans thrown on the scrapheap by other teams and given the best chance to succeed by head coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
Moreover, the Patriots lapped the field without two of their prior stars. They traded defensive end Chandler Jones to the Arizona Cardinals for guard Jonathan Cooper in March and traded linebacker Jamie Collins to the Browns for a conditional draft pick in October. Jones had been the team’s sack leader the year before with 12.5, and Collins had been the team’s best coverage linebacker by a long shot. But in true Belichick fashion, the Pats jettisoned both players before their second contracts came, believing they had the personnel and coaching acumen on board to replace their production.
It hasn’t always worked through time, but Belichick has done this better than any of his colleagues, primarily because he understands so completely who will fit his concepts and who is replaceable. And he’s got a real bead on those players on other teams who can come in and make it work—quickly.
It’s hard to say which Belichick coaching season is best, but I’d put 2016 right up there. The obvious reason is the team’s 14-2 record despite Tom Brady’s four-game Deflategate suspension, but I think what he and Patricia have done with their defensive personnel is even more impressive.
New England’s defensive line is a different animal without Jones as the primary sack artist. This season, defensive tackle Trey Flowers led the team with seven sacks, end Jabaal Sheard finished second with five, and end Chris Long finished third with four. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but Belichick has long been a proponent of the theory that hits and hurries add up just as well as quarterback takedowns, and in that category, New England is doing just fine.
Long, who signed a one-year, $2.375 million contract in March after injuries greatly affected his last two seasons with the Rams, led the team with 46 quarterback hurries, adding six hits to his total, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Matt Moore interception thrown to cornerback Logan Ryan in the Patriots’ Week 17 win over the Miami Dolphins is but one example of how the newly healthy Long affects opposing quarterbacks. Here (click the link to see the play), Long (95) gets blocked out by left tackle Branden Albert (76) at the start of the play, but he reads Moore’s rollout to the left and breaks off quickly to stop Moore from gaining yardage and getting a clear view of the intended target.
“I followed Chris [Long] since he came out of Virginia,” Belichick said in November of the man who went second overall in the 2008 draft. “We did our scouting on him, followed his career, and when he was released last spring and available, like we do with a lot of free agents, whether they’re free agents or players who were released, followed up on him, and we were able to work things out.
“He’s good to have on our team, and I’m glad he’s here. I think he enjoys coming to work, working on football and competing every day. I really respect that about him. He gives a great effort every day.”
Sheard, taken in the second round of the 2011 draft by Cleveland, was an early standout but got lost in the shuffle in 2013 and 2014, when the team went to more of a 3-4/hybrid front instead of a straight 4-3 look. Belichick had made the switch to a 4-3 around …
