The New England Patriots had a shaky defense last season, which crumbled at the worst possible moment after the team’s stop unit got run over by Nick Foles and the Philadelphia in the Super Bowl last February.
If people are writing off the Pats’ defense for this coming 2018 season, that’s fine with New England linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who told Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald that he and his fellow linebackers will use their being slept upon as a motivation to surprise the rest of the league.
“I think we’re the most slept on linebacker group in the league right now,” Van Noy told the Herald last week. “It’s all good. We like that. We’re going to use that to our advantage and show up a lot of people.”
Apart from Kyle Van Noy, the Pats will also have Dont’a Hightower back for another season. Hightower barely played last year and missed the entire playoffs due to a torn pectoral injury. Up front, the addition of defensive tackle Danny Shelton should help the Pats close out more routes for opposing rushers.
With an aging, though, still capable quarterback Tom Brady under center for the Pats, the defense will be relied upon more this time around by New England.
Last season, the Patriots ranked seventh in scoring defense with only 19.5 points allowed per game, but were 30th in total yards given up per contest with 370.3.
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