With their season ending at 4-13 for the second year in a row, it should come as no surprise that the New England Patriots passing defense was among the worst in the NFL last year. Their pass rushers sacked opposing quarterbacks less than any other team, just 28 times.
They allowed the seventh-highest passer rating (96.9).The scored the second-lowest number of quarterback hits (66) and fewest number of tackles for lost yardage (62).
In the category of expected points allowed by the passing defense, the Patriots were fourth from the worst, with a number of 119.58.
They tied for the fourth-fewest interceptions with just seven. In short, the Patriots pass rush and pass defense overall, was in need of a serious improvement project.
In the free agency period that started in early March, under new head coach Mike Vrabel New England made a point of doing just that, signing former Tennessee Titans edge rusher Harold Landry, who was drafted with the 41st overall pick by the Titans in 2018, Vrabel’s first year as head coach there.
Landry missed 2022 with a turn ACL, but has recorded 31 1/2 sacks in his last three active seasons.
The Patriots also brought in former Jacksonville Jaguars first-round selection K’Lavon Chaisson, who spent 2024 with the Las Vegas Raiders where Pro Football Focus ranked him 25th out of 109 edge rushers.
But given how abysmal the New England pass rush has been not just in 2024, but 2023 as well – when the Patriots ranked sixth from the bottom in sacks and 22nd in passer rating allowed – Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf still have work to do when it comes to building a defense that NFL quarterbacks need to fear.
Patriots Pass Rush Draft Target Will Likely Come Off Board
The obvious route would be to target the leading edge rusher with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 draft, Penn State’s Abdul Carter, rated as the draft’s No. 2 overall prospect at any position by draft experts Mel Kiper and Field Yates of ESPN. Steve Muench of Scouts Inc. sees Carter as the top prospect in the draft.
But Carter is widely expected to be drafted by the New York Giants with the third pick, a projection that Carter himself appeared to confirm with a social media post made after he paid a personal visit to meet with Giants coaches and executives on Friday.
In a new trade proposal by Logan Ulrich of NFL Trade Rumors, the Patriots could continue their pass rush rebuild by looking to the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ulrich says that the Eagles may be looking to deal 26-year-old edge rusher Bryce Huff, who was signed as an undrafted free agent following the 2020 draft by the Patriots’ divisional rival, the New York Jets.
After a 10-sack season for the Jets in 2023, the once-overlooked Huff signed a three-year, $51.1 million deal with the Eagles, where he quickly earned a Super Bowl trophy.
Patriots Have Ability to Take Huff’s Contract
His contract could be an obstacle to trading Huff, but according to Ulrich, “if any team is willing to pay the full salary freight for Huff, it could be New England, which still has nearly $70 million in available cap space to play with.
In this scenario, the Eagles could actually attach draft compensation to incentivize a team to take on the full $16.75 million for Huff.”
That compensation, according to Ulrich, would be to “move a seventh-round pick up two rounds and attach a future pick to balance out the value a little bit.”
Huff would fit with Vrabel’s new defensive scheme, Ulrich wrote, because the new Patriots boss is expected to put “more of a priority on speed and disruption than bulk,” though at six-foot-three and 255 pounds, Huff is not lacking for “bulk” either.
