3 young Patriots stars who grew up alongside Mac Jones vs Falcons

1. Christian Barmore

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Christian Barmore was everywhere on Thursday, and the Falcons had no hope of containing him, which was obvious from the moment he manned up and ended Atlanta’s first drive, pressuring Ryan and getting hopelessly held by the center (penalty declined; the ball fluttered to the turf anyway).

All game long, the Falcons had nothing for him (and Matt Judon, and Davon Godchaux…). Maybe they should’ve considered Bill Belichick’s Kyle Pitts coverage plan and triple-teamed him?

Though it doesn’t plainly show up on the stat sheet, the Patriots’ run-stuffing all night was spectacular, thanks in large part to the pressure Barmore continued to create up the middle with remarkable consistency. There was no room for Mike Davis to operate.

The Patriots did plenty of running downhill. The Falcons? It looked like they were running through a snowstorm directly into a parked car.

Barmore has become the league’s strongest rookie pass rusher, which is stunning, considering he was never intended to be the type of player to steal the spotlight in any given game. This wire-to-wire domination in Atlanta should’ve made it obvious that New England has hit on nearly all their key draft picks from the past two years.

Jones, outside of one greedy back-foot pick, was perfect. Barmore was dangerously unstoppable. Dugger hit hard and hit often. Stevenson hit everybody Dugger didn’t hit.

Seems like a fairly unbeatable young core to us, and they all leveled up in unison in Thursday’s streetfight.

Patriots Mock Draft: 7-round mock with all SEC players

This New England Patriots mock draft is seven rounds and only features players from SEC schools given Bill Belichick's history with the conference