Last Tuesday, the Patriots, like all other NFL teams, had to trim their active roster from 80 players down to just 53. While other position groups had players who were either locks to make the team or outside the roster bubble, the linebacking corps was likely one of the groups that many were unsure about.
New England’s newly retooled linebacking corps features many players on the team who are unfamiliar to Patriots fans and media alike, which is seen by some as the team’s biggest weakness.
That being said, let’s take a look at the finalized position group heading into the start of the regular season.
Who is on the roster?
- Matthew Judon
- Josh Uche
- J’Whaun Bentley
- Anfernee Jennings
- Raekwon McMillan
- Jahlani Tavai
- Mack Wilson
Right away, the area of concern for this position group is quite clear. While Jennings, Judon, and Uche are proven on-ball linebackers that will rush the quarterback from the ends of the defensive line, the off-ball linebacking group of Bentley, McMillan, and Tavai is more of a question mark.
Bentley showed great improvement last season compared to the previous one. During the 2020-2021 season, he showed great speed and strength but was consistently exposed in the open field. That changed last year, as he worked hard in the offseason to improve his agility, a move which paid off on the field. He comes into this season as the most experienced player in New England’s off-ball linebacking group, and hopefully, he can build upon a productive 2021-2022 campaign.
McMillan is a player whose career seemingly would have taken off years ago if injuries hadn’t kept him off the field. While he has garnered a fair amount of praise from head coach Bill Belichick, he hasn’t proven much yet on an NFL field.
Tavai is largely slated to operate in a reserve role this season. While the player has been with the team for a few years, he has yet to make significant contributions to the defensive unit. Moreover, he was largely playing with the second and third-team defenses during the preseason, which dictates how the Patriots’ coaching staff feels about his play.
Strengths
The strength of this position group is for sure in the on-ball group. Judon and Uche have shown great pass-rushing abilities in the past and are sure to create further disruption on what is already a menacing New England defensive line.
Jennings, while certainly not as experienced as Judon and Uche, did play 14 games with the team in 2020, and has potential as a young OLB in a reserve role.
New England’s defensive line has recently been a strong spot on their defense, and there has been nothing this offseason that would indicate any significant changes to that strength.
Weaknesses
The weakness of this group is most certainly in the depth of the off-ball linebackers. McMillan has yet to play a full season since 2017, and Tavai is not a long-term starting option. Moreover, this is the first year that Bentley will be the captain of the linebacking group, and there is no telling how he will handle the extra responsibilities that come with the title (such as calling plays, dictating blocking assignments, etc.)
However, despite this glaring weakness, this linebacking corps may be thin by design, as, while the Patriots got thin in their linebacking corps, they built up their safety position unit. While in a vacuum, those two units seem completely opposite to one another, but in reality, many of the strong safeties they have on the team have the ability to play in both as a linebacker and safety, if needed.
I will expand more on this in the next section.
Grade: B-
I feel like this will be the most contentious section of this whole piece, but hear me out.
While in a traditional 3-4 or 4-3 defensive scheme, the fact that the Patriots don’t have many “true” linebackers on the team may seem quite disadvantageous to the defense as they are sacrificing strength for agility. It works quite well for the nickel and dime schemes that they like to play.
In a nickel scheme, a linebacker is replaced on the field by a defensive back; in a dime package, two are replaced. This gives the defense more coverage ability on the field, however, in a traditional sense (as DBs are traditionally much smaller in size than LBs), the defense loses strength and pass-rushing ability.
But in recent years, more young players have been carving out a niche role for themselves on defense as a hybrid safety/linebacker type player. Essentially, they are a large strong safety that is agile enough to cover receivers but also large and strong enough to rush the quarterback.
While other defenses may have one or two players who fit this mold, the Patriots have four such players on this team: Mack Wilson, Kyle Dugger, Adrian Phillips, and Jabrill Peppers. Even second-year safety Joshuah Bledsoe lined up as a linebacker for a few preseason snaps.
While New England’s linebacking unit may be much thinner than we’ve seen in recent years, it certainly seems as if the lack of true linebacking personnel is by design. Many fans were mad that the Patriots didn’t draft star Utah linebacker Devin Lloyd in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but the reality is that he is more of a linebacker in the traditional sense that simply would not have been a scheme fit with this defense.
I’m giving this corps a B- grade because, even with the concerns about the depth behind Bentley, I really like the scheme idea and I think it addresses some of the defense’s largest shortcomings in the past few seasons. New England’s defense has always featured large linebackers great for rushing the quarterback but subpar in coverage. I can think of countless plays in the last few seasons where veteran Dont’a Hightower was beat on an out route by a running back for a 10 or 15-yard gain.
New England’s defensive line seems strong this year, and now they have the coverage personnel in back to hold the fort while the opposing quarterback is being rushed. While the Patriots no longer have any traditional linebackers on their roster, that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Position Previews
- Quarterback
- Running back
- Wide receiver
- Tight end
- Offensive line
- Defensive line
- Linebacker
- Cornerback
- Safety
- Special Teams
