Barring something unforeseen, the defense is going to be good again. We'll still whine about the secondary in the same manner that we whine about Farrell but I'm pretty comfortable with that unit as long as the injury bug doesn't decimate us.
However, the offense concerns me. Right now, the OL is a major question mark, the running game is primarily relying on a plodder like Blount, Edelman's foot may potentially be weakened, and we'll have a green QB against 4 tough defenses to start the season. We've had a few near misses in the playoffs the past decade or so and a lot of them were rooted in poor OL play. I'm happy that Dante is around because this unit is going to be a roller coaster.
The personnel on offense, even with Lewis out, is very, very good. I really don't know how you stop the Gronk/Bennett duo with Edelman/Amendola finding open spaces, Hogan/Mitchell on the outside, and White serving as a quality outlet. We now have better depth in the event that Gronk or Edelman go down with an injury. The real mystery now is whether or not the OL can give Jimmy/Brady time.
As always, I remain hopeful but I think there will be a lot of OL angst this year.
However, the offense concerns me. Right now, the OL is a major question mark, the running game is primarily relying on a plodder like Blount, Edelman's foot may potentially be weakened, and we'll have a green QB against 4 tough defenses to start the season. We've had a few near misses in the playoffs the past decade or so and a lot of them were rooted in poor OL play. I'm happy that Dante is around because this unit is going to be a roller coaster.
The personnel on offense, even with Lewis out, is very, very good. I really don't know how you stop the Gronk/Bennett duo with Edelman/Amendola finding open spaces, Hogan/Mitchell on the outside, and White serving as a quality outlet. We now have better depth in the event that Gronk or Edelman go down with an injury. The real mystery now is whether or not the OL can give Jimmy/Brady time.
As always, I remain hopeful but I think there will be a lot of OL angst this year.