Grading the 2017 Patriots: Offense overcame defense, personnel decisions

Before an NFL team turns the page on the previous season and moves forward to the next, they put the team and their players under a microscope to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to be changed/altered to make progress in 2018.

For example, the Patriots realized they had slipped in offensive big-play percentage in 2016. To address that, New England traded a first-round pick to the Saints for Brandin Cooks. As a result, the Patriots went from tied for 18^th in plays of 10-plus yards (207) to fourth (234).

Obviously, we have no idea what New England’s internal grading system looks like, and we don’t anticipate Bill Belichick opening up his grade book anytime soon. So, we’re left to do our homework with some assistance from people who have knowledge of how the Patriots view things.

So we’ll start our dissection (which is an homage to my mentor, Bob McGinn) with an overview of the team and positions, and then we’ll move onto individual player grades/assessments. Finally, we’ll conclude with our often imitated but never duplicated offseason depth chart coded for performance and contract status, and with a comprehensive analysis of team needs headed into the ’18 offseason.

Next up: Team grades in eight categories — passing offense, rushing offense, passing defense, rushing defense, special teams, personnel moves, coaching and overall.

And with that, let’s get started…

PASSING OFFENSE: A

Just about any way you slice it, the Patriots’ passing offense was one of, if not the best, in the NFL. From adjusted net yards per attempt (tied for first) to advanced metrics like FootballOutsiders.com’s DVOA (first by a good margin over the Chargers and Vikings), Tom Brady and Co. enjoyed a fine season even without Julian Edelman. In fact, it was the first time since 2012 -- Josh McDaniels’ first year in his second stint as offensive coordinator -- the Patriots ranked first in the league in passing DVOA.

[table id=35 /]

Patriots averaged 11.9 yards per catch. Brandin Cooks led the team with a 16.6 average, which was better than any of his previous three seasons in New Orleans. Phillip Dorsett was second at 16.2, which topped his 16.0 last year with the Colts. Rob Gronkowski averaged 15.7, which led all NFL starting tight ends, but was his lowest since 2014. Danny Amendola's 10.8 average was his highest since 2013. Chris Hogan's 12.9 was well off his 17.9 pace from last year. ... The Patriots' 63 pass plays of over 20 yards were their most since they had 72 in 2011. Gronkowski and Cooks tied for the team lead with 18. ... The Patriots' completion percentage of 66.3 was just off their 66.9 rate from '16. ... Brady's interception percentage of 1.4 was still below his career average of 1.8. ... His passer rating of 102.8 was his second-highest since '11. ... Brady's 581 pass attempts led the league. ... The Patriots' sack percentage of 5.7 was 13th in the league, and tied for third-highest in his career. ... They had 35 drops, after posting 36 in '16. You'd figure the Patriots should show a lot of improvement in that department with the injury to Edelman (team-high 14 drops in '16), but that number was matched by Cooks (eight) and Gronkowski (six). ... Dion Lewis led all receivers with a 91.4 catch percentage.

[table id=34 /]

RUSHING OFFENSE: A-minus

McDaniels ran the ball on 41.8 percent of plays, which was lower than '16 (45.6) and the third-highest rate since his return in '11. ... Patriots ranked third in Football Outsiders' rushing DVOA, which measures efficiency compared to the rest of the league. .... New England was first in FO's adjusted line yards (5.05), for the first time since '13. They were ninth in '16 (4.46). ... The Patriots' 28.0 attempts per game ranked tied for 11th in the league. ... Average per carry of 4.2 was 11th in the league. ... New England was 10th with 118.1 rushing yards per game. ... Patriots were sixth with 16 rushing touchdowns. ... The rushing game lacked a little bit of explosion, as they were tied for 19th with runs of at least 10 yards (43), and 14th with 10 rushing of 20 yards or more. ... Terrific ball security with just four rushing fumbles. ... Patriots had some issues in short yardage, and they ranked 22nd in the league with 60 percent conversions on third- and fourth-and-1. ... Lewis ranked second among NFL running backs (Alvin Kamara) with 5.0 yards per attempt. ... Mike Gillislee was 38th at 3.7. ... Of the 101 "bad runs" for the Patriots (1 yard or less outside of kneel downs, goal line and short yardage), only 8.5 (8.4 percent) were judged to the responsibility of the running backs, which means they were exceedingly good at picking the right holes and not hesitating. ... LG Joe Thuney led the team with 13.5 bad runs allowed.

PASSING DEFENSE: D

[table id=36 /]

Patriots posted a 91.9 defensive passer rating (including postseason), which was their worst under Belichick. It ranked 20th in the league, which was their worst since 2008 (89.8). .... Patriots ranked 21st in passing defensive DVOA by Football Outsiders. ... They allowed a completion percentage of 62.2, 16th in the league, and allowed 251.2 passing yards per game, which ranked 30th in the league. ... 7.3 yards allowed per completion ranked 25th. ... Had 42 sacks, for a sack percentage of 6.6 (tied for 17th). ... Pass coverage was ranked 10th by ProFootballFocus.com, with the pass rush coming in last. ... Had 12 interceptions, which tied for their lowest mark ('15) since 10 in 2005. Patriots have averaged 12.3 interceptions the past three seasons. They averaged 20.2 from 2010-14. ... Allowed 49 pass plays of 20-plus yards, which was tied for 18th. ... Allowed 10 passes of 40-plus yards, tied for 21st. ... Including the postseason, they allowed 59 passes for 20-plus yards. Malcolm Butler (14.5), Stephon Gilmore (10) and Patrick Chung (9.5) accounted for 57.6 percent of those plays. ... Trey Flowers led the team with 52.5 total quarterback pressures (6.5 sacks) and pressure rate (9.1 percent) among regular pass rushers. Deatrich Wise was second in total QBP (34) and pressure rate (7.4 percent). No one else had more than 17 total QBP (Adam Butler). ... Alan Branch produced one quarterback pressure in 136 pass-rush snaps (0.7 percent). ... Allowed six 100-yard receiving games: Emmanuel Sanders (137), JuJu Smith-Schuster (114), Tyreek Hill (113), DeSean Jackson (106), Kelvin Benjamin (104), Corey Clement (100). ... Allowed opponents to pass for over 300 yards in the first six games (NFL record), and then didn't allow a 300-yard game until the Super Bowl.

[table id=37 /]

RUSHING DEFENSE: D

Allowed 114.8 rushing yards per game, which ranked 20th in the NFL and was the Patriots' worst mark since they allowed 134.6 in '13. ... The 4.7 yards allowed per attempt was tied for next-to-last in the NFL and was the team's worst mark since '02 (4.7). ... Patriots ranked 30th in Football Outsiders' rushing DVOA. ... Allowed three 100-yard backs: Kareem Hunt (148), Melvin Gordon (132), Le'Veon Bell (117). .... Elandon Roberts (8.8 percent), Jonathan Jones and Kyle Van Noy (8.2), and Marquis Flowers (8.1) led the team with the percentage of tackles per snap played. ... Trey Flowers (31), Malcom Brown (30), Van Noy (29) and Lawrence Guy (28) led the team in Pro Football Focus' stops stat (solo tackles that constitute a failure for the offense on that play). ... They missed 120 tackles, which was two more than '16. Van Noy (13), Trey Flowers (10), Chung and McCourty (9) led the team. It was McCourty's highest number since '12. ... David Harris (2.8) and Jordan Richards (2.2) had the highest missed tackle percentage per snap played. ... Brown (20), Guy (17), Flowers and Van Noy (13) led the team in stuffed runs (1 yard or less outside of short yardage).

[table id=33 /]

SPECIAL TEAMS: A-minus.

The Patriots placed third in Rick Gosselin's comprehensive annual special-teams rankings behind the Rams and Chiefs. New England finished in the top five in the following categories: kickoff coverage (third), punt coverage (fourth), kickoff starting point (fourth), opponent starting point (third), field goals (fourth), field-goal percentage (fourth), opponent field-goal percentage (second), points allowed (tied for first with 15 teams), blocked kicks (tied for third with three teams), opponent blocked kicks (tied for first with nine teams), giveaways (tied for first with 13 teams). ... The big blemish on the special teams was that they had 24 penalties, which was tied for fourth-most in the league. They had 15 the previous season. ... Stephen Gostkowski's 92.5 percent field-goal rate was his highest since '14 (94.6) and third-highest mark of his career. But he missed an extra point in the postseason for the third-straight year, and he missed two field goals in the playoffs as well. ... Ryan Allen ranked near the bottom of the league in average 43.4. His net average of 40.5 was 20th. His three touchbacks tied a career low. ... Jordan Richards, Jonathan Jones, Johnson Bademosi, Brandon Bolden and Brandon King all played over 50 percent of the special teams snaps. ... Bademosi (nine), Nate Ebner (eight), Bolden (eight) and King (eight) led the teams in tackles.

PERSONNEL MOVES: D

Well, we might as well lay it all out there in a chart. Here are the major moves the Patriots made in 2017, without getting into free agents they did not bring back:

[table id=32 /]

On the whole, not a lot went right for the Patriots considering what they gave up. Cooks certainly did what he was supposed to, but the Patriots gave up a ton (first-round pick) for a player who may not be long for Foxborough. I mean, the Patriots never draft a receiver in the first round, and you get five years of control with draft picks. Patriots gave up a first-plus and could only have him for one year. On what alternate Patriots planet does that make sense?

You could make the argument that none of the Patriots free agents/trades gave the team what they paid for them, starting with Kony Ealy and Cassius Marsh, all the way through Dwayne Allen, Gillislee and Rex Burkhead (hurt way too much).

The Patriots got a good player in Wise in the draft. Other than that it was a big fat goose egg — because of bad luck with injuries, yes — when they needed players to come in and contribute.

And we haven't even gotten into the two biggest moves this season: trading Jimmy Garoppolo for a second-round pick; and not giving Butler a contract extension, and instead giving his money to Gilmore.

We can go round and round on the Garoppolo trade, but the bottom line (to me, maybe not you) is the Patriots went from not entertaining offers when the player's value was at its height, to trading him for almost zero return on investment while not searching for the best deal. Garoppolo should have been kept, and tagged and traded this offseason. The Patriots easily could have done it with the cap, and the only reason that didn't happen was because someone interceded. That decision will continue to bring its own issues.

And then the decision not to reward Butler with a contract extension and then to give even more money to an outsider (Gilmore) could have cost the team the Super Bowl. Butler was an issue the entire season, and he was right to be. It's the Patriots' prerogative not to give Butler what he wanted, but it's also the player's right to react negatively. That's part of the deal with human beings. The Patriots should have traded Butler right after they signed Gilmore for something. Anything. They didn't, he had his worst season as a Patriot, took up a roster spot that went completely wasted and was terribly needed in the Super Bowl. It all stemmed from the off-season contract negotiations, and the decision to sign Gilmore.

The Patriots may indeed be proven right on many of their decision in subsequent years, but for the '17 season only, it was one of their worst offseasons under Belichick.

COACHING: A-minus

Some will make a big deal out of the Super Bowl — and there were some colossal blunders on the defensive side of the ball — but I'm going to continue to sound like a broken record. The Patriots were one play away — with the ball in Brady's hand — from winning another Super Bowl. It wasn't a pretty game, but the Patriots nearly got the job done.

We certainly had some issues with the way training camp was conducted, and that definitely contributed to the team's slow 2-2 start. But the coaches did their job and coached up the team. They won 11 of 12 to close the season, secured the AFC's top seed, and were the favorite all season long to win another title despite losing their best playmakers on both sides of the ball (Edelman and Dont'a Hightower). Sure, it's disappointing the way the season ended, but it doesn't take away from the job Belichick and his coaches did this season.

OVERALL: A-minus.

One play away. That was it. A lot didn't go right this season, from injuries to offseason moves to the defensive approach in the Super Bowl, but the season as a whole was still a smashing success. The Patriots were AFC Champions and Brady had the ball in his hands with two minutes to play in the Super Bowl. If you asked any Patriots fan in training camp if they would be satisfied with that scenario, 99.9 percent of them would have been thrilled beyond belief.

That being said, we're entering a very tenuous time in the history of this franchise, and a lot is up in the air. But that's for another day. This is about the '17 season, and it was a very successful campaign. I know seasons are judged by Lombardi trophies around here, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that every other NFL market would dream to have a season like the Patriots just had.

No, it wasn't perfect, especially the ending. But it was pretty darn good.

Coming Saturday: Individual offensive grades.