Patriots Secondary Matchups

          2014 Coverage Matchups

          Since it’s the offseason, there is nothing much to talk about football wise (outside of some idiots trying to say Brady isn’t a Top 5 QB), so I thought I would look ahead at the possible coverage matchups for the secondary. I’m really taking a look at Revis, Browner and Dennard’s matchups for the upcoming season, because it is most likely that they will be the Top 3 CB’s on the depth chart. Also, since BB made a huge splash this year with Revis and Browner, I thought it would be fun to see what the guy’s matchups will be. The Patriots secondary is loaded with talent (Revis, Browner, Dennard, Ryan and Arrington) and they will be able to match up well with any offense out there. So here are the possible matchups versus each team’s best weapons:

Team	Revis	Browner	Dennard
@ Miami	M. Wallace	*Suspended	B. Hartline
@ Minnesota	C. Patterson	*Suspended	G. Jennings
Vs. Oakland	J. Jones	*Suspended	R. Streater
@ Kansas City	D. Bowe	*Suspended	D. Avery
Vs. Cincinnati	AJ Green	M. Jones	M. Sanu
@ Buffalo	S. Watkins	M. Williams	R. Woods
Vs. New York	E. Decker	S. Hill	J. Kerley
Vs. Chicago	B. Marshall	A. Jeffery	M. Wilson
Vs. Denver	D. Thomas	J. Thomas	E. Sanders
@ Indianapolis	H. Nicks	R. Wayne	T.Y. Hilton
Vs. Detroit	C. Johnson	B. Pettigrew	G. Tate
Vs. Green Bay	J. Nelson	J. Boykin	R. Cobb
@ San Diego	K. Allen	A. Gates/L. Green	E. Royal

 

It’s pretty straight forward that Revis will take every team’s #1 WR, but from there on out it can get rather complicated. Browner is a guy that loves to be physical at the line, but he isn’t the fastest CB out there so he will take the bigger WRs and TEs in some cases. This way, he can matchup his size on the opposition’s biggest weapon and just beat them up at the line. Alfonso Dennard is a smaller CB who likes to be physical as well, but as we saw in the AFC Title when Talib went down, D. Thomas abused Dennard with his size. So, I see Dennard taking on WRs that play in the slot and on the outside as the #2 option as well. The other possible matchups outside of these three guys include Jamie Collins or James Anderson on the opposition’s TE and Kyle Arrington or Logan Ryan on some slot WRs as well. While there are a ton of possible options and matchups for the defense this upcoming season, I think these are the most likely matchups to happen.

The addition of Revis and Browner will make this secondary physical and lethal to any offense out there and to top it off, Dennard and Ryan will continue to grow as young players. Then, backing all of these studs up is Devin McCourty who is a top tier safety in the league. Add Jamie Collins hopefully continuing to grow as a cover LB too with the signing of James Anderson and the coverage unit as a whole looks to be its best since the Dynasty Days. BB is most likely going to have a field day with all of the options and talent he can deploy in different situations. This defense, if healthy, is going to be a Top 5 defense without a doubt.