On Wednesday we brought you five of our 10 burning questions facing the Patriots this summer. Now we do it again with the next five.
This time it’s not a preamble. Less fixation on offense as well. Let’s go away.
Who is in front of Gonzo?
Even though his season was extremely short, 2023 first-round pick Christian González signaled over the summer and the first three games that he will be a weapon on defense. But the Patriots could use another borderline corner to deal with the abundance of outside receiver talent they will be dealing with.
Jonathan Jones can play outside and has done well at times. But at 5-foot-9, there are times when he lacks length. He is a tremendous slot cornerback.
Third-year cornerback Marcus Jones is similar. The 2022 third-round pick is a brilliant athlete and made plays as a rookie and last summer before getting injured early last season and missing the year. He is 5 feet 8 inches tall.
The biggest corners the Patriots have are Shaun Wade (6-foot-1), Alex Austin (6-1, 2023 seventh rounder), Isaiah Bolden (6-2, another 2023 seventh rounder), sixth-round rookie Marcellas Dial (6-0) and Marco Wilson (6-0, 2021 fourth round for Arizona).
Can the Patriots find a starting-level corner in that group that allows them to move Jonathan Jones inside? Or will they have to look for veteran help still on the market (Stephon Gilmore is still there)?
How are your kickoffs going?
The new startup rules are quite drastic. Designed to keep the kickoff in the game but reduce the kicking teams’ high-speed collisions with a 65-yard run, the coverage unit will now line up at the receiving team’s 40, just five yards from nine of the 11 players in the return. equipment.
Any shot that lands between the goal line and the 20 must be returned. The coverage team cannot move until the ball is touched by a returner or hits the ground. A touchback in the end zone moves the ball to the 30.
There is the potential for big returns as the coverage team will be less able to react to the angles taken by the returner because they are much closer.
Are the Patriots going to invite returns by kicking near the goal line? Will they just go to the end zone and start playing defense in their 30s? When they return, will they use a different returner than they normally would to generate those explosive plays? (Marcus Jones could be a demon in this setup.)
A good portion of camp will be dedicated to seeing how this plays out.
A sneaky guy making a dare?
Another special teams issue is the kicking competition. Chad Ryland only made 64 percent of his field goals last year (16 of 25) and was just 7 of 14 from beyond 40 yards. He had some unexpected mistakes in his rookie season after being drafted in the fourth round last year.
The team signed free agent kicker Joey Slye this spring. He shot 79 percent from the field last year and is at 82.3 percent in his career with the Panthers, Texans, Niners and Commanders. A team as offensively challenged as the Patriots can’t afford to be sweating field goal attempts that the rest of the league routinely makes. This is a big summer for Ryland.
Do you have enough at tight end?
Hunter Henry was one of the top tight ends to hit the free agent market in March. The Patriots didn’t let him get there. Good move. He has been, when he was healthy, a tremendously reliable player for them. But the Patriots need more than just Henry at tight end to make Alex Van Pelt’s offense work. And there is uncertainty after Henry.
Austin Hooper, 29, was hired in the offseason. His production has declined since he was a 70-plus-catch target for the Falcons in 2018 and 2019. But he spent 2020 and 2021 with Van Pelt in Cleveland and has only missed one game over the past three years. He had 31 receptions last year for the Raiders, his lowest production since his rookie year in 2016.
Patriots tight end Austin Hooper talks about playing for offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt in Cleveland and shares why he’s excited to play for him again in New England.
Also in the mix is Jaheim Bell, a seventh-rounder out of Florida State. He has versatile skills and can get yards after the catch. In fact, Bell carried the ball 73 times in 2022 when he was a junior at South Carolina. He doesn’t fit the profile of the classic tight end.
They also signed a block-happy tight end, Mitchell Wilcox, who had been with the Bengals the past three seasons and has 29 receptions. He is 6-4, 250 and will definitely have relevance if the Patriots run as much as expected.
Any pending issues?
Late June is when teams carefully analyze their rosters and available players. Are there places where a player on the street could beat the group of guys in a position group? The signing of Cam Newton in 2020 is a perfect example of this. In March and April, the team did not make offers to Newton because he thought he would be expensive and his style was a departure from what the Patriots’ offense was. But in late June, a former MVP available on the cheap competing with Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer? Makes sense.
Could the same thing happen at corner, as we mentioned with Stephon Gilmore? Or address where there are still recognizable names like Donovan Smith, David Bakhtiari, DJ Humphries and Jason Peters?
Could the team go big and still try to catch Brandon Aiyuk? They currently have more space than any team in the league ($45 million according to Over The Cap) and that could be used to get high with Aiyuk. Or they could come to terms with players like Matt Judon and Davon Godchaux, who want or need some contract adjustments.
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