Buffalo Bills: Ranking the defensive lines of the AFC East
By Rob Spehar
3) New England Patriots
The strength of the New England Patriots defense is clearly the secondary. There really wasn’t much change on the defensive line other than defensive tackle Danny Shelton moving on to play with Matt Patricia and the Detroit Lions. Shelton’s presence will be missed along with his 55 tackles, 3 sacks, and 1 forced fumble. They ended up replacing him with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle, Beau Allen who had an average season at best.
These guys aren’t names that you will hear talked about on a weekly basis, but they get the job done when called upon.
The first person that the Patriots defensive line will look to will be Lawrence Guy. He has been a mainstay on the front for the past three seasons and last season he had 49 tackles, three sacks, one pass defended, one interception, and two fumble recoveries. His 10 years of experience will be key in keeping this defense dominant as it was last season.
The last under the radar piece of this line is defensive end John Simon. Last year he tallied 38 tackles, four sacks, four passes defended, one interception and one forced fumble resulting in the best season of his career and he only looks to get stronger.
This is a group that doesn’t have that superstar along the line, but these guys produce stats by committee, as is always the style of a Bill Belichick led team.