The NFL is a league that revolves around great and very good players. If you have both, you can compete for all the honors. If not, you won't. The New England Patriots were a 2025 Super Bowl team led by their MVP-level quarterback Drake Maye.
But they also have high echelon players on every level of a good and improving defense.
Gilberto Manzano of Si.com has ranked the NFL's best defensive triplets (players at each level of the defense), and the Patriots' top trio is ranked No. 6 in the league. It's hard to argue with Marzano's selections.
They are defensive tackle Milton Williams, inside linebacker Robert Spillane, and cornerback Christian Gonzalez. He was spot on in his selections.
The Patriots' are building an elite defense that has already made an impact on the league
Much of the offseason attention on the Patriots has rightly rested with their first rumored, then completed, mega-trade with the Eagles for No. 1 wide receiver A.J. Brown. NFL blockbuster trades are relatively rare, but this one, as well as the Rams trade for the NFL's best sack man, Myles Garrett, registered massive 7+'s on the NFL trade Richter Scale.
Yet, the Patriots defense also added first-team All-Pro safety Kevin Byard III to the defensive backfield. Only the presence of Gonzalez kept Byard from one of those coveted defensive triplet spots. Manzano ranked the Patriots' top trio sky-high.
"Clearly, the four-year, $104 million contract the Patriots agreed to with Williams was money well spent because his arrival was instrumental in the team advancing to the Super Bowl last year. Williams, who had 3.5 sacks, proved he can be the star of the show after being more of a supporting player with all of the talent in Philadelphia. (He’s reunited with A.J. Brown after the trade between the Eagles and Patriots.)
Gonzalez, a top-five player at his position, was sensational under the guidance of coach Mike Vrabel. The defense took off once Gonzalez returned to the field after a three-game absence at the start of the year."Â
NFL teams comprise players at all levels. Yet, it's fair to say that rosters that don't have great players and a bunch of very good ones starting with their quarterbacks aren't likely to fare well in the NFL and probably won't be seen in the playoffs.
Fortunately, the Patriots are continuing to assemble players of the caliber they need to be a Super Bowl contender every season, and their defensive triplets are a big part of the picture.
Williams was signed to a huge free-agent contract by Mike Vrabel in 2025, and he didn't disappoint. He was a force on the defensive line, and with Christian Barmore, he comprises one of the NFL's top interior D-line duos.
Spillane is a tackling machine on the second level of the defense at inside linebacker. After a slow start in 2025 and some injury issues, he later emerged as his usual self and amassed 97 tackles in only 13 games.
At the third level is the best of the triplets, Pro-Bowl cornerback Christian Gonzalez. He proved he's one of the NFL's best corners by his great Super Bowl effort against the league's best receiver, Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The soon-to-be 24-year-old Gonzalez will be rewarded with a deserved mega-contract extension shortly.
As mentioned, great and really good players win games, and the Patriots' defensive triplets all fit squarely into those categories.
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