3 defensive MVPs for the Patriots after first half of season

With the first half of the 2019 regular season in the books, who have been the standouts for the New England Patriots on defense so far?

Trying to narrow down and select just three individual players as MVPs on this New England Patriots defense is almost as difficult as it must be for opposing offenses to try and score against this defense.

Consider the following:

• The Patriots defense has allowed four total touchdowns this season
• The Patriots defense has scored four total touchdowns this season
• The Patriots as a team have allowed a league-low 61 points to be scored on them this year
• Of those 61 points, 21 were scored against either the Patriots offense or special teams (34%)
• The Patriots D is allowing offenses to convert third down just 16% of the time (best in NFL)
• The Patriots have defended 69 passes so far… 17 more than the second-best team (Vikings)
• The Patriots are No. 1 in sacks this year (31.0)
• The Patriots are No. 1 in interceptions this year (19)

Add it all up and it’s easy to understand why the Pats are 8-0 for the third time in the history of their franchise. The first time it happened, New England finished 18-1 and lost the Super Bowl to the Giants in 2007. On the second occasion, New England finished 12-4 and beat the Chiefs in the Divisional round, only to lose to the eventual Super Bowl champion Broncos in the AFC Championship Game in 2015.

What will happen the third time around in 2019?

According to ESPN’s Bill Barnwell and the media giant’s “Football Power Index,” the Patriots have a better chance of finishing this season 16-0 (9.3%) than they do of failing to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs (7.5%).

That’s an incredible stat to digest. Put another way, as unlikely as it is that these Patriots manage to go undefeated against a tough remaining schedule, it’s even more unlikely that they ultimately finish lower than the top seed in the conference.

To be fair, that 7.5% has as much to do with the Patriots’ undefeated record and overall strength this year as it does the shortcomings of their closest competitors in the AFC. The Bills, Ravens, and Colts each have two losses already, the Texans and the Chiefs each have three, and everyone else in the conference has four or more.

Home-field advantage is obviously important for any team in the postseason, but it looms especially large when considering the New England Patriots and their record both home and away in the playoffs since the arrival of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. On the road, the Brady/Belichick Pats are 4-4 in the postseason; at home, the tandem is an unbelievable 20-3. In fact, the Patriots haven’t lost a home playoff game in over six years.

Granted, it was just last year that New England went on the road and won a playoff game in a hostile environment, defeating the Chiefs at Arrowhead in the AFC Championship. Still, the team would undoubtedly prefer the easiest path possible to making their fourth straight Super Bowl appearance, and that path definitely runs through Foxborough and includes a first-round bye.

But enough on the playoffs and the future… let’s take a moment to appreciate the greatness we all were fortunate enough to just witness through the first half of the 2019 regular season.

This New England Patriots defense was nothing short of historic through eight games, and the following three players deserve extra recognition as MVPs so far. Each could have a case for NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors, as well, if they continue their scorching starts to the season.

Honorable Mention: Kyle Van Noy, Dont’a Hightower, Jonathan Jones

3. Stephon Gilmore

No matter what Jalen Ramsey might try to tell you, he’s not the best cornerback in the NFL today. That prestigious honor belongs to Stephon Gilmore, and the competition really isn’t that close in 2019.

Ramsey has missed time this year for all manner of personal reasons… though he looks like he’s finally healthy and happy now that he saw his wish granted and got traded out of Jacksonville. Unless he comes on extra-strong in the remainder of the season for the Rams though, the mantle of the No. 1 corner in the league belongs squarely on the capable shoulders of the soft-spoken Gilmore.

The eighth-year player out of South Carolina leads all New England cornerbacks in interceptions this season with three. He should have had four at this point, but he let an errant throw from Baker Mayfield slip right through his fingers last Sunday… and it apparently ruined his night.

“I should’ve picked that. I’m not going to sleep tonight for that. I’m not going to sleep,” Gilmore told reporters after the game, according to USA Today’s Henry McKenna.

If it helps Gilmore sleep any easier, his missed opportunity at snagging a fourth pick this season didn’t cost his team the game by any stretch of the imagination. The Patriots still defeated Mayfield’s Browns by a two-touchdown margin.

And yet Gilmore’s words are indicative of the kind of season that he’s having – and that this defense is having as a whole. Gilmore and the Patriots aren’t lamenting mistakes that cost them wins; they’re lamenting mistakes that cost them style points during those wins.

Gilmore’s season is all the more impressive when you consider how regularly he’s been assigned the opposing team’s top receiver in man-to-man looks. His victims in 2019 include JuJu Smith-Schuster, Robby Anderson (twice), John Brown, Terry McLaurin, and Odell Beckham Jr… amongst a host of other pass-catchers who have had the misfortune of drawing his blanket coverage. Future adversaries will get tougher down the road (DeAndre Hopkins, Amari Cooper, Alshon Jeffery, etc.), but Gilmore certainly looks like he’s up to the challenge so far.

His play has even garnered the notice of one of the all-time greats at his position… a guy who coincidentally used to wear his No. 24 for a very brief period of time up in New England.

When seven-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis is shouting you out on Twitter, you know you’re playing the cornerback position the right way.

Really the only question at this point is whether Gilmore will be able to increase his gaudy stat totals this season over the remaining eight games of the season. He might face some of the stiffest competition in the league from his very own teammates – Jason McCourty, Jonathan Jones, and J.C. Jackson – each of whom has at least one or two takeaways this season.

Between the four of them, Bill Belichick can feel comfortable and confident dialing up as many zero-blitzes as he’d like this year. He knows his cornerback group is miles better than any other group of CBs in the league right now, and it all starts at the top with the phenomenal play of Gilmore.

2. Jamie Collins

Timing is everything, both in real life and in sports.

Los Angeles Lakers fans probably can scarce believe Dwight Howard is once again on their roster, given how badly things went the first go-around when Howard was a Laker… and yet he’s back in LaLaLand, and the early returns have been promising through the first few games of the NBA season.

Similarly, New England fans probably assumed they’d seen the last of Jamie Collins in a Patriots jersey when he was traded on Halloween three years ago. Collins had earned the ire of Belichick, supposedly because he had a habit of going off-script and “freelancing” on defensive play calls when he felt so inclined. He also was soon due for a massive payday, which probably didn’t help things either.

So in pure Belichickian Patriots fashion, the team decided he was worth neither the cheddar nor the occasional headache, despite all his apparent talent and potential… and they shipped him off to the Browns for a conditional third-round draft pick.

Collins got his coinage in Cleveland, inking a lucrative four-year, $50 million deal in January of 2017. Thankfully for him, over half the contract was guaranteed – because he was released by the team just two years after he signed the pact. He then spent two months on the unemployment line before getting a call from an unexpected suitor: the same team that had casually discarded him a couple years earlier.

Once again… timing is everything.

Now in his second stint with the Patriots, Collins has been nothing short of an absolute revelation. The Browns must be furious that he’s having the kind of season now with Belichick in New England that they originally paid him big money to have years ago.

But with all due respect to the Cleveland organization and its carousel of head coaches and defensive coordinators, no one is better than Belichick at getting the best from his players – and Collins is the foremost example of that this season.

He leads the Patriots in total tackles this year with 44 (35 of which he’s solely responsible for). He also leads the team in sacks with 6.0, leads the team in tackles for loss with 10.5, is tied for first on the team in forced fumbles with two, and is tied for second on the team in fumble recoveries with one.

As a pass defender, he’s tied for second on the team in picks with Stephon Gilmore (each has three). He also has the fourth-most passes defended on the team with four so far – the same number as defensive backs Jason McCourty and Duron Harmon. Only Gilmore, Jonathan Jones, and Devin McCourty have more passes defended this season.

The sack and interception totals are already career highs for Collins, who is now in his seventh NFL season. He also got his first career defensive touchdown this season in Week 2 against the Dolphins on a 69-yard Ryan Fitzpatrick pick-six.

Can Collins challenge for NFL Defensive Player of the Year? It’s not a crazy thought, even though it might have been just a year or two ago. Certainly if he maintains his current pace and finishes the season with double-digit sacks, a few more picks, and perhaps as the team’s leading tackler, he’d warrant significant consideration.

A lot still rides on the collective performance of this New England defense as well. If they can somehow replicate the incredible success they had in the first half of the season during a much tougher second half, it might put pressure on the NFL and the media to give the award to a member of the Pats defense. If that ends up happening, Collins would certainly be a worthy recipient.

1. Devin McCourty

Over the past 10 years, Bill Belichick has used nine different picks in the first three rounds of the NFL draft on players for his secondary. Of those nine picks, only two players still remain on New England’s current roster: 2013 third-round safety Duron Harmon and 2010 first-round safety Devin McCourty.

Of course, back then McCourty was still playing cornerback. He didn’t make the move to free safety until over halfway into his third season with the Pats, but ever since then, he’s become one of the most reliable and dependable players patrolling the back-end of Belichick’s defense. In a career that now spans a full decade, McCourty has missed just five regular season games.

There was some speculation during last season’s playoff run that No. 32 was close to calling it quits. As retirement rumors swirled around more prominent Patriots figures like Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady, and Bill Belichick, it was Devin McCourty who shocked the football world on Super Bowl Opening Night by casually suggesting the championship game against the Rams might be his last.

His twin Jason – who is now in his second season with the Pats playing cornerback – dismissed his brother’s claims and called him “dramatic,” and as it turned out, Jason was right: Devin would in fact be back for his 10th season in 2019. The longtime Patriot cited his love for the game as the primary reason why he came back… and he has indeed come back alright, and with a vengeance so far.

McCourty leads all New England players in interceptions this season with five. That total is also the best mark in the NFL, and it’s two higher than what any other safety has this year.

It’s also tied for the second-highest tally of McCourty’s career. Two more picks, and he’ll tie his career high of seven interceptions that he set for himself as a rookie. Three more picks, and he’ll break the record in style.

McCourty also is second on the team behind Stephon Gilmore in passes defended with six. For a little extra icing on the cake, he also has a fumble recovery this season. The way things are going, it’d be a surprise if he didn’t end up with his second career defensive touchdown this year as well (he had his first just last season, taking a pick-six to the house up in Buffalo).

Is McCourty the best player on this Patriots defense? It’s hard to say with any real conviction who that player is… at least not until we’ve seen this unit take on some of the more premier offensive opponents on their schedule.

Time will tell who the most valuable players end up being for Belichick’s defense when all is said and done this season – probably in the playoffs, and maybe even not until the Super Bowl. But here and now at the midway point of the season, there are few players more deserving of that top honor than Devin McCourty.