Should the Patriots fire their secondary coaches?
I actually think the Patriots have good players in the secondary and stand to improve. But there’s reason to doubt they will. Just look at the track record. Why does it seem like players always regress in the Patriots’ secondary?
The list goes on and on: Brandon Meriweather, Terrence Wheatley, Darius Butler, Leigh Bodden, Chung, McCourty, and Ras-I Dowling.
Where’s the ascension? Where’s the excellence? OK, how about we settle for a turn of the head and making a play on the ball when the receiver reacts to the ball being in the air?
There is much to be disappointed about with the Patriots, especially in the secondary. Without a Giants-like pass rush, the Patriots are going to have to cover better in the back end to win games.
It’s going to have to start with the coaching. The players are who they are. Belichick, Patricia, cornerbacks coach Josh Boyer, and safeties coach Brian Flores must do a better job.
What we saw on Sunday wasn’t good enough.
And it hasn’t been for a while.
This pretty much sums up my thoughts here. It seems like no matter who the Patriots put in, they do poorly. It's gotten to a point - four years now - where it's ridiculous.
While you can look at players that had initial success like Wheatley or Butler and say, "what have they done elsewhere?" you can also look to the Patriots secondary staff and say they haven't been able to develop that talent.
Patrick Chung has regressed significantly this year, that much is obvious to anyone with eyes. The Devin McCourty story is well documented by now, and while he's played better in 2012 than 2011, he's nowhere near the almost shutdown guy he was in 2010. Even Steve Gregory, who I always thought was decent with San Diego, has been a liability once he came over here.
Boston.com's Shalise Manza Young was on Toucher and Rich this morning and talked about cornerbacks coach, Josh Boyer saying that she's never been a fan. As I said above, you can look to poor drafts, but also a significant part of drafting players is also developing that talent. It's obvious that has not happened for a long time in the secondary. Hell, even Darius Butler had a promising rookie year before he turned out to be a complete and utter failure.
Manza Young mentioned an anonymous former Patriots defensive back who said that when you come in your rookie year, you rely mostly on instincts. Then as you progress you are more coached up and asked to do things in the defense. The results of that speak for themselves.
This might be a problem with talent sure, but there's been a significant problem with coaching. Patriots fans should learn the names Josh Boyer and Brian Flores because these are the guys in charge of getting this secondary to play, and while this is Flores first year, Boyer has been here for years.
It's been the same nearly every year. It hasn't gotten better.
Something needs to change.
