PatriotsLife Mailbag: Revenge of the Brady

Health will likely determine if Brandon Browner makes his Patriots debut on Sunday. Adam Hunger/USA Today Sports

What a difference a week makes.

Last weeks mailbag featured plenty of hand-wringing about the Patriots embarrassing Monday Night loss in Kansas City. Questions ranged from why the team hasn't surrounded Tom Brady with better weapons to whether it was time to turn the offense over to Jimmy Garoppolo.

The Pats were happy to loudly announce just how much the rumors of their demise had been exaggerated, making a big statement with a blowout Sunday night win over the previously undefeated Bengals. While this certainly calmed the nerves of fans everywhere, the NFL is a week-to-week proposition, and the team is already on to Buffalo. Without further ado, lets get to your questions.


That depends on your definition of "long-term", Daniel. Wendell's experience and ability as a run blocker clearly gave the offensive line a boost on Sunday night. Considering that the alternative is converting rookie offensive tackle Cameron Fleming to guard, Wendell is probably the best in-house option for this season.

However, Wendell is a limited player who has struggled throughout his career in pass protection. Simply put, he's not big or strong enough to handle the game's elite interior pass rushers, and he's about to face two really good ones in Marcel Dareus and Kyle Williams this week. You can do much worse than Wendell, as the first few weeks of this Patriots season proved, but that's a spot you'd think the Patriots would look to upgrade, be it through the draft or free agency, next offseason.


Tommy, you'd have to think expanding Wright's role will be a priority for the offense going forward. Good things happened when he was in the game, as his athletic presence forced the Bengals to make damaging compromises to their defense. The Patriots offense is predicated on creating and exploiting mismatches, and Wright's combination of size and speed certainly helps matters in that regard.

While I expect to see Wright more and more as the season goes on, the rate at which his role expands likely depends on a number of factors. The obvious one is how much of the playbook he knows, as Wright has been playing catch-up since his arrival in New England. Furthermore, while the Pats have run a fair amount of "12" (two tight end, two receivers one back) personnel this year, many times it's been with the intention of overpowering the opposition on the ground. Wright can contribute to the running game by dictating nickel looks from the defense, but he's not going to overpower many guys as a blocker. A game plan as run-heavy as that from the Cincinnati game (46 rushing attempts) could limit his snaps.



Joe, excellent question. I don't think anyone was surprised to see the Pats let Spikes leave without a fight last spring, but back-to-back poor performances on run defense have me thinking how much better this defense would look with Spikes bringing his physical, downhill style on early downs. There's no question that Spikes was a good pickup for Buffalo, as he's been a big contributor for the league's second stingiest run defense (71 rushing yards allowed per game).

The Pats rushing game has struggled to simply line up and overpower opponents this year, but they had a lot of success last week finding running lanes against Cincinnati's nickel defense. Rushing room will likely be hard to come by against Buffalo's stout base defense, so I expect the Pats to try to spread Buffalo out and try to do the same. Whether that works will depend on whether they can maintain blocks against the likes of Marcel Dareus and Kyle Williams, and getting a hat on Spikes will certainly be key.

As for your scheme question, I don't think it's really accurate to call the Pats a "3-4" or "4-3" team. They've always been a multiple defense, using both fronts at times depending on the in-game situational factors and opponent at hand. I do think their current personnel, when healthy, is better suited to play a 4-3 than a 3-4. They have far more depth on the defensive line than at linebacker, although that defensive line depth has been thinned out by injuries in recent weeks. Furthermore, they have a number of down linemen (Chandler Jones, Dominique Easley and Chris Jones among them) who are better suited to win with quickness and upfield penetration than the two-gap, blocker-occupying principles that form the basis of most 3-4 sets.

Speaking of which...

Absolutely, Josh. The biggest difference between these two schemes is traditionally the technique of the defensive linemen. Defensive schemes are generally built around gap assignments up front, but whether a lineman is assigned one gap or two typically dictates both a player's technique and the prototype characteristics for each position in the scheme.


A 3-4 generally asks it's defensive linemen to two gap, which means they are responsible for defending two gaps instead of one. The typical 3-4 features a 0 technique nose tackle, who lines up directly across from the center (hence the position's name) and is responsible for clogging up the A gaps to either side of the center. As the anchor of the defense, the nose tackle is generally a massive, stout presence in the middle, strong enough to hold his ground against double teams and big enough to occupy space and blockers in the middle of the defense. Patriots fans already know this, as they've long had one of the best in the business on their side in Vince Wilfork.

The nose tackle is then flanked by two 5 technique defensive ends. They typically are aligned head up on the tackle and are responsible for the B and C gaps to either side of the tackle. This requires mastery of the "stack and shed" technique, in which the defensive linemen engages his offensive counterpart but keeps his arms extended, ready to read the play and shed his blocker for whatever gap the run is headed. Size and strength are still very important for this position, but length comes into play too; the longer a lineman's arms are, the easier it is for him to keep offensive linemen at bay while reading the play.

With both defensive ends tasked with defending two gaps in the running game, the responsibility to set the edge and power the pass rush falls on the outside linebackers. The prototype for this depends on individual scheme; some 3-4 backers rush the passer almost exclusively (think DeMarcus Ware) while others have far more coverage responsibilities.

This differs from your typical 4-3, which is built more on gap penetration than occupation. Most 4-3's have a big body to take up double teams, but he normally lines up as a one technique (shaded to the inside shoulder of the guard). He's generally flanked by a 3 technique tackle, who generally lines up on the outside shoulder of the guard and uses his quickness and strength to penetrate gaps and make plays. Many of the league's most disruptive interior linemen play this position, and it's a role suited for Patriots first round draft pick Dominique Easley due to the rookie's explosive quickness off the snap.

The 4-3 calls for defensive ends to set the edge and rush the passer. The left end is typically the stronger run defender, as he lines up against bulkier right tackles and is often on the strong side of the offensive formation, while the right end is generally a speed rusher who matches up against the opponent's left tackle. The Patriots have a pretty standard pairing with Rob Ninkovich and Chandler Jones, as Ninkovich is a strong run defender while Jones is a major threat off the edge.

For more on the subject, check out these breakdowns of defensive line and linebacker prototypes from Profootballfocus

This season? I certainly wouldn't rule it out, as I expect this team to get better and better as the year goes on. This week? I'm not so sure about that. This Bills team is dangerous, and matches up well on paper with the Patriots. They have a big, physical and disruptive defensive line that could give the offensive line trouble. If the Bills shut down the run and make the Pats offense one-dimensional, it could become very difficult to adequately protect Tom Brady. Furthermore, the Bills offense is built around it's running game, and the Pats defense has struggled against the run the past two weeks. I'm expecting a close, hard-fought game this week.


I can't say for sure, Kerin, as I've never attended a Wembley game, much less played in one. My understanding is that the players seem to enjoy the experience of traveling overseas (for many of them, it's their first time leaving the States), and they certainly enjoy the extra attention that comes with the London game. Rob Gronkowski certainly did.

However, it's nearly impossible to expect the crowd at Wembley to match the passion and energy of the crowd at a team's home stadium. It's impossible to recreate that without the local ties and history between the attending fans and team, especially in an area where the NFL isn't even the most followed sport named "football". To their credit, fans continue to show up to the Wembley games, despite the NFL leaving them with some particularly dull matchups in the past few years.


If anything, Bill has proven he won't hesitate to pull the trigger if the right offer comes along. The position they could most use an upgrade at is guard, but I'd be very surprised to see any starting caliber guard available on the trade market, mostly because most starting caliber guards are, you know, starting for their current teams.

The other position I could see the Pats targeting would be some healthy bodies on the defensive line. Sealver Siliga is unavailable to return from IR until Week 12, Michael Buchanan is out for the year, and both Chandler Jones and Dominique Easley are nursing shoulder injuries that will need to be monitored going forward. I could see rookie Zach Moore getting chance to carve out a role for himself here, as he looked impressive in the preseason, but that shouldn't stop the Pats from looking to supplement their numbers. Either an extra big body against the run or another end to supplement the walking wounded would help matters greatly, and defensive linemen are easier to find on the scrap heap than most positions. A trade involving a mid/late round pick wouldn't surprise me at all.


I don't think the Pats are planning on trading/getting rid of Brady anytime in the immediate future. He is the quarterback of this team and both the face and heart of the franchise. He's also still an excellent football player when his offensive line gives him some semblance of pass protection, as Sunday's game reminded us.

However, lets not be naive about the future. Both Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo are signed through 2017. By 2017, Brady will be 40, while Garoppolo will be 25. If the organization has full confidence in Garoppolo as a franchise quarterback by then, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they see what Brady can fetch them on the trade market. In fact, as sacrilegious as it is to say, trading Brady would likely be the correct decision for the future of the franchise at that point.

However, we aren't at that point yet, and Garoppolo is still a rookie (albeit a promising one) with plenty to learn. Lets just sit back and enjoy Brady's incredible career while we still can.






We end this week's mailbag with Browner/Tyms talk, as this was the most popular question of the week. Many thought Browner would make his Patriots debut last week, as he was eligible to return from suspension, but the Pats chose to wait until this week to activate the cornerback. It was reported that Browner wasn't activated because of struggles learning the defensive calls, but this rumor was shot down by Bill Belichick. It didn't make much sense to begin with, as Browner was playing a substantial role in training camp and has been able to attend all team meetings while serving his suspension.

I suspect the issues facing Browner are more physical than mental. No matter how much he worked out during his off time, it's impossible to truly get into "football shape" until you get out there with pads on and play football. Football conditioning consists of far more than just physical fitness, but also includes the ability to withstand the physical tolls of collision after collision during the course of the game. No amount of weight training or cardio can prepare an athlete for that, and that's especially relevant for a player like Browner who relies heavily on physicality.

For that reason, I originally suspected the Pats would use the next two weeks to work Browner into the mix. Browner is more of a matchup specific player, as his size and physicality can play major dividends against bigger receivers, but his lack of quickness can get exposed against smaller, shiftier players. That size will be key three weeks from now, when the Pats take on the Bears and their dynamic duo of Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, and could come in handy the following week against the likes of Demaryius and Julius Thomas for Denver.

However, Browner surprisingly showed up on yesterday's injury report with an ankle that was bad enough to keep him from practicing. If that injury is serious enough to keep him from playing Sunday, it could setback the entire process of getting back into football shape and establishing a role on the defense. Playing on a short week (Thursday night) after Buffalo won't help matters either.

As for Tyms, I don't think he's active right away on game days. He essentially replaces Kenbrell Thompkins on the roster, who was a healthy scratch despite having far more experience with Brady. Tyms doesn't contribute on special teams, has by far the least experience playing with Brady, and is presumably behind on the playbook as well after being barred from attending team meetings during his four game suspension. Given all of those listed obstacles, I find it hard to picture Tyms leapfrogging any of the receivers ahead of him (Julian Edelman, Brandon LeFell, Danny Amendola/Aaron Dobson), and reps for receivers will likely be harder to come by as the team increases the role of Tim Wright at tight end. It's hard for me to picture Tyms making any significant contributions early on, although the fact that the Pats released Thompkins to make room for him suggests they think highly of Tyms as a developmental prospect.



On we go to Buffalo. See you next week!

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