Understandably, the New England Patriots' offense has dominated most discussions about the 2023 team. With Bill O'Brien now in the fold, how quarterback Mac Jones fares in Year 3 of his career will be the top storyline of the season.
But during Day 2 of minicamp on Tuesday, the Patriots' defense sent a firm reminder that it's still the strength of this team until proven otherwise. In fact, it could be even better in the upcoming season after Bill Belichick spent first-, second-, and third-round picks to bolster the unit.
Both Matthew Judon and Jabril Peppers shared their optimistic outlooks on the defense after a strong day of practice. Our Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry were in attendance for the session and shared their thoughts on the defense's potential on a brand new episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast.
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"I think one of the ways in which they can be better was actually described by Devin McCourty a few weeks ago," Perry said. "The gist of his message was, 'The Patriots might be better this coming season without me defensively.' ... His point was, and he explained it further, the Patriots have all of these versatile defenders that can play free safety, strong safety, weak-side linebacker, cornerback, slot cornerback. And when you have that, you can be so versatile that you can disguise. ... There's so much you can do there in terms of rotating your defense and confusing the look not only for the quarterback, but for the receivers too.
"On top of being versatile, they're also experienced in the NFL as individuals but also pretty experienced as a group. So there's a communication level there that I think is relatively rare in today's game."
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You can listen to the full conversation about the Patriots' defense in the new episode.
Also discussed in the episode: A Trent Brown sighting in Day 2 of minicamp. A dicey proposition at the tackle position once again. And what did we see from Calvin Anderson?
Check out the latest episode of the Patriots Talk Podcast on the NBC Sports Boston Podcast Network, or watch on YouTube.