Is New England’s pass rush really that big of a liability?

A recent article suggested New England’s Achilles heel this season will be its pass rush… but are the Patriots really that worse off this year than last?

Last year, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl. They also tied for the second-lowest sack total in the NFL.

Many esteemed sportswriters praised Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, ex-defensive coordinator Brian Flores, and the collective performance of the New England defensive players in Super Bowl 53, rightfully giving them credit for most of the 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. Some even went so far as to call it the greatest defensive performance in Super Bowl history.

The natural follow-up question to such a brilliant tour de force is: can it be repeated?

Flores is gone to coach the division-rival Miami Dolphins. Fellow ex-Pats defensive coordinator Matt Patricia poached free agent edge rusher Trey Flowers, who takes his 7.5 sacks from last season with him. Adrian Clayborn never quite lived up to his billing as a takedown artist, but he still had 2.5 sacks last season and made some big plays in the postseason, and now he’s gone too.

With all of this attrition, it’s natural to predict the New England defense might take a step back in 2019. That’s why it should come as no surprise that a recent ESPN article ranking the rosters of all 32 NFL teams and identifying their biggest weaknesses chose pass rush – or lack thereof – for the Patriots.

The statistics these past five years don’t seem quite strong enough to support that assertion though. While New England didn’t get to the quarterback much in 2018, they fared significantly better the four seasons prior to that. Take a look:

• 2018 = 31st
• 2017 = 7th
• 2016 = 16th
• 2015 = 2nd
• 2014 = 13th

While no one’s going to suggest that finished in the middle of the pack at No. 16 or No. 13 in total sacks is something to be proud of, it’s still worth mentioning that the Patriots won Super Bowls in both those seasons (2016 and 2014, respectively).

Here’s what ESPN had to say about New England’s pass rush problems:

"“The Patriots have long lacked a true pass-rushing threat along the edge. Coupled with the loss of Trey Flowers and Adrian Clayborn this offseason, this unit once again sticks out. Outside of Flowers and Clayborn, no Patriots edge defender had more than 30 QB pressures a season ago, as the returning unit brings back only nine sacks, 12 QB hits and 42 QB hurries on a combined 697 pass rushes.”"

That may be true. It’s also true that even in some of the years from the past decade where the Patriots finished as a top-10 team in sacks, they had players leading the way for them that are no longer on the current roster (namely Arizona’s Chandler Jones).

But it would be a disservice to Belichick and his players to overlook what remains on the Patriots’ defensive roster, particularly as it relates to getting after the opposing signal-caller.

Deatrich Wise and Kyle Van Noy each came on strong the past two seasons with their sacks, QB pressures, QB hits, and QB hurries. The last time Jamie Collins wore a Patriots uniform, he had 5.5 sacks in 2015 and 4.0 in 2014. Third-year defensive end Derek Rivers has largely missed two seasons because of injuries, but he’s still a former third-round pick the Pats selected for his pass-rushing abilities. And the player they took in the third round this year, Chase Winovich, is also expected to dramatically boost their rush off the edge.

The strongest factor of all, however, that works against this theory of New England’s paltry pass rush being its biggest weakness, comes over courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles. Michael Bennett has been a quarterback’s nightmare for the past 10 years, and he now finds himself in his best opportunity since Seattle to win a second Super Bowl championship.

Between him, Collins, and the continued growth of the rest of the Patriots’ young edge players, it’d actually register as somewhat of a shock if the team didn’t dramatically improve their pass rush this season compared to 2018.