The New England Patriots are going through what Pats fans hope will be a short rebuild. The coaching staff has changed to a great degree and the roster is a little different. But to be fair, some parts of New England's team were not terrible in 2023. The defense was good.
The team is likely to add more offensive pieces than defensive in the 2024 NFL draft, at least as far as the high draft picks go. New England simply has greater needs on that side of the ball. But the Patriots do not want to create issues down the road, either.
That means the team should look to extend some players currently under contract for 2024 a bit early. Why wait until the players hit free agency next offseason. To make for a quicker turnaround back to being a playoff contender, New England needs to work out extensions with these three players.
New England Patriots need to extend defensive lineman Christian Barmore
Barmore is ascending at the exact right time. The 2021 second-round draft pick is still just 24 years old and has improved every season. But he absolutely exploded in 2023 with 8.5 sacks, 16 quarterback hits, and 13 tackles for loss. He graded as the eighth-best interior defensive lineman in the league this past season, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). The fact is that if Barmore has another season - or better - as he did in 2023, he is going to cost a lot of money in 2025.
This has been a great offseason for defensive tackles financially. Christian Wilkins signed with the Las Vegas Raiders for four years and $110 million. Derrick Browns was re-signed by the Carolina Panthers for four seasons and $96 million. Barmore is going to be expensive to bring back, but his production has shown he should be because the Patriots won't have an easy time finding his replacement.
Barmore is a bit better at pass rush than he is as a run-stopper, but he also is not bad against the run. The point is that Barmore is a well-rounded three-down defensive tackle whom a defense can build around. The only way New England can do that, though, is if the team spends quite a bit to bring him back. The good part is that currently, New England has the most cap space in the NFL in 2025.
Patriots need to extend safety Jabrill Peppers
Peppers is now seven years into his career and he has bounced around a little. He seems to found a home with New England, however. After not starting much in 2022, his first season with the Patriots, he became a full-time starter this past season and he arguably has his best year. He set a career-low in passer rating allowed when targeted of just 72.7 and just 4.9 yards allowed per target. That last number is extraordinarily low but not terribly far off the 6.5 he allowed in 2022.
Where Peppers truly excels, however, is against the run. He has always been good in that aspect, but he has also greatly improved in the last two seasons. In other words, the years he has played for the Patriots. Peppers moving to New England in 2022 has not just been good for the player, though; his signing has made the defense better as well.
There was an issue late in the 2023 season when Peppers was caught on a hot mic saying the team was not very good. But while no one wants to hear a teammate or a player say that, he also was not wrong. Plus, sometimes it takes tough love to bring a team together and improve in the future. It also takes a bit of leadership to apologize and Peppers did just that but in the words of someone saying, "What I did was wrong, but we should be doing better."
Peppers told reporters, "I just want to apologize to my teammates and coaches for even having to answer questions about that. We have more important things to worry about than me being quoted on a hot mic. At the end of the day, we're 2-9, we have a top-five pick in the draft that didn't come via trade, and we all know the standard. We all know what it's supposed to look like, and it's not that right now."
As much as maybe he should not have disparaged the team, he also did not mean to do so publicly. He was just upset at the way the team was playing. Plus, New England would have been worse had they not had Peppers. The team needs to keep the safety for a few more years, too.
New England needs to find some money for linebacker Jahlani Tavai
Like Jabrill Peppers, Tavai did not begin his career with New England but only perfected the small things once he was in Foxborough. He was so good in 2023 that was the fourth-highest-graded linebacker in the league, according to PFF. But he did not just chase down quarterbacks or stand out in some other area. Tavai is one of the more well-rounded linebackers in the league and is capable of disrupting an opponent's run game.
He is still only 27 years old, though, and plays a position where he could play at a high level into his early 30s, especially as Tavai is an inside linebacker and not an edge rusher. He is not Bobby Wagner, of course, and few players are, but Wagner and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David has been excellent into their mid-30s. Tavai, of course, is nowhere near that currently, but should New England sign him for four more years, he should be counted on to be productive for that entire time.
He also is not going to be expensive. The Patriots will have plenty of money to spend, but there is no reason to overspend on a position, either. The signing of Tavai at around $5 million or so solidifies inside linebacker and means New England can focus on addressing other areas of concern (mostly offensively).
Another aspect of Tavai's game that is underrated is his ability to cover running backs and tight ends. While he allowed 74 percent or slightly better of the passes thrown his way to be completed the last couple of years, those passes only amounted to 4.7 or fewer yards per target. If someone does make a catch in front of Tavai, he brings the receiver down immediately. The kind of stability Tavai brings is worth extending into future years.