It’s hard to believe even through all the injuries, inconsistencies and murders (Aaron Hernandez incident) that occurred during the 2013 season for the New England Patriots, they still managed to finish the season with a 12-4 record plus reach the AFC Championship game. Since injuries can’t be predicted, it’s really hard for the Patriots to be ready for them especially if they arrive as abundantly as they did last season and to very crucial players like Rob Gronkowski. Besides injuries the Pats struggled with inconsistency from their wide receivers and defensive players (granted they did get most of their injuries on the defensive end). During this offseason the Pats seemed to go head to head with the Broncos, countering their every move. For example when the Broncos signed Talib, the former Patriot, the Pats responded by signing Revis Island to a much cheaper and shorter contract, basically at 1/5 the price of Talib. The Pats also added Brandon Browner to their secondary, which solidifies it for this pending season. Besides the shaky secondary, the Pats also gave up nearly the most rushing yards in the league ending up ranked 30th in rush defense. There are a lot of pieces in this draft that could help strengthen this already scary good team.
Draft Needs: WR, TE, DT
Wide Receiver: The Patriots currently have a lot of receivers on their roster so it may seem confusing to why they would need to target this position in the draft. Truth is, that besides Edelman, they don’t have anyone they can rely on. I rank the rest of their receivers in this order: Dobson, Amendola, Boyce, LaFell, and Thompkins. Dobson may emerge as a good receiver if he and Brady can get their timing down because the talent is there, but with the rest of the receivers, they are who we thought they were; very average and Amendola can’t stay healthy. This draft is deep at the wide receiver position so the Pats won’t need to reach early to get a receiver who can compete and get one of these other guys I named earlier cut.
Tight End: Another confusing “need” since the Pats already have who some believe to be the most talented tight end in the game. This is true Gronkowski is a beast at blocking and receiving. He can single handedly save an offensive drive and is almost an automatic touchdown guy when the Pats drive close to the goal line. With all that said the Pats did lose Hernandez to prison last year and they love to run that two TE offense but none of the other TE’s currently on the roster have the skills to run with Gronk. Besides that, Gronk did miss a lot of the year with injuries and the Pats didn’t really have anyone to step in and make even half the impact Gronk would make. A TE would be a great addition to helping Brady reach that 4th Super Bowl.
Defensive Tackle: I highly expect the Pats to draft a DT in the first round this coming draft. Their biggest flaw was stopping the run and although Wilfork did miss the season with an injury, they still need more help for the big guy. After working so hard on fixing the secondary, adding some talent to the defensive line should really make the Pats one of the teams to beat in the AFC if not the team to beat.
