Also from Bedard
When it comes to edge players, the Patriots are most concerned with whether or not you can set the edge. Everything else, including rushing the passer, is secondary.
It’s the reason why, among others,
Cassius Marsh was released after the team traded for him (but was signed to an extension by the 49ers), and replaced by
Eric Lee off the Bills’ practice squad. It’s why
Deatrich Wise saw his playing time go from a season-high 18 snaps against the run and 88.1 percent overall against the Bills in Week 13, to 16 total snaps against the run and less than 50 percent playing time in the final seven games of the season — even though he was the team’s second-best pass rusher.
This goes to what I wrote about earlier in the offseason: You can have your dreams. You can have your draft binkies. But 95 percent of the time,
Belichick will not go get a dominating pass rusher because he has a tried and tested system that works with phenomenal efficiency.
Here’s what you need to understand. Other schemes and teams want players to go up the field off the edge. That has never been a priority for Belichick. He wants to control the edge. The way he looks at it, if you control the middle (two inside tackles) and the two edges, it’s a triangulation of power that is the foundation of his defensive scheme. If you don’t control those three points, then the manpower needed to overcome those deficiencies has a disastrous trickle-down effect (defensive backs have to play run and pass, offensive linemen get out on linebackers, etc). Controlling the edge is the name of the game for Belichick, and that’s why some players like Chris Long weren’t great fits in New England.
If there’s a disconnect I hear most when it comes to Patriots fans and Belichick’s scheme, it’s in this area. Fans want a dominating pass rush. They don’t want bend-but-don’t-break. They want pressure and three-and-outs.
And it’s fair to disagree. The argument is there to be made that in this pass-happy age, New England should readjust and focus on affecting the quarterback first. It’s great to be better against the run — and we illustrated
why that was such a problem last year and how the team moved swiftly to clean that up — but when the games are decided in the fourth quarter, it usually comes down to whether or not the opposing quarterback can execute against you.
I get that argument. But Belichick’s scheme is tested and true for years. I’d make the counterargument the Patriots’ failings in the Super Bowl were more about personnel (Marsh and
Kony Ealy failed additions, and injuries) than they were scheme and Belichick’s system. Seems like he does as well.
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If you've watched the drills at Pro Days that BB has run, you've seen BB using 2 bags instead of just 1 as other teams do.
This is to see if a player can 2-gap, plain and simple.
