By Jordan Long
The New England Patriots won’t have mandatory minicamp until June 5. When they report for camp, there will be a new Defensive Coordinator, Brian Flores. The Patriots’ defense was led by Matt Patricia for the previous 6 years. Patricia is now in Detroit as the Lions’ Head Coach.
Flores is ready to take the reins as Defensive Coordinator. He has been part of the New England organization since 2004. The last two years Flores was the linebacker’s coach.
Flores wants his defense to play at a high level. According to ESPN, Flores said, “There is a long history of this defense. Bill’s been here for a number of years, so I would say we’re going to continue to play defense like we’ve played the past 18 seasons he’s been here.”
Flores is going to need to improve the defense from last season. They couldn’t stop offenses from gaining yards. They allowed an average of 366 yards per game, 29th in the NFL. Teams beat New England through the air with 251.2 yards per game, ranking 30th in the NFL. Teams were able to run the football at 114.8 yards per game. Those stats aren’t the best but New England didn’t allow teams to score once they were in the red zone permitting only 18.5 points per game.
Flores is going to have to figure out ways to stop offenses. Those will come during in game adjustments. Patricia didn’t do a whole lot of that last season, but it didn’t cost the Patriots until the Super Bowl. If Flores notices teams are throwing the football, back off the blitz and play coverage. That may allow the defensive backs to be in position to make a play on the ball. The Patriots will be successful if Flores is able to slow down offenses. If he can’t it might be a long season, at least on defense.
Leave a Reply