Grading the 2018 Patriots: Defensive resurgence led way for more-balanced team

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 2019.

That goes, yes, even for Super Bowl champions.

Obviously, we have no idea what the Patriots’ internal grading 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 imitated but never duplicated offseason depth chart coded for performance and contract status, and with a comprehensive analysis of team needs headed into the ’19 offseason.

And with that, let's get started...

The 2018 season ended in surprising fashion — considering where they were after back-to-back December losses to the Dolphins and Steelers — with a 13-3 defensive victory in Super Bowl LIII over the Rams.

The biggest takeaway from the 2018 Patriots? The defense had a huge resurgence as all three units showed improvement — vast from the linebackers and secondary, the most-improved unit on the team.

The positional group with the largest drop from 2017 might surprise you.

Let's start off with the '18 grades on a per-game basis. Please note that due to the averages and the fact that I don't give out many 4.0s each week (I'm a tough grader; might need to loosen those up a little), the grading should roughly be viewed as:

Coming next: Team grades in eight categories.

A: 4.0-3.2
B: 3.1-2.75
C: 2.74-2.25
D: 2.24-2
F: Below 2

[table id=257 /]

From best to worst, here are the rankings for each individual units, with total points and average.

Defensive line: 74.5 (3.92)
Offensive line: 66.0 (3.47)
Running back: 63.5 (3.34)
Linebackers: 61.5 (3.24)
Receivers/tight ends: 60 (3.16)
Quarterback: 59.5 (3.13)
Defensive backs: 58 (3.08)

For the first time since '16, when weaknesses at running back and the offensive line held them back, the defense was the overall strength of this team over the course of 19 games. The offense posted a 3.3 average; defense 3.4. Overall, the Patriots were a 3.29 — almost exactly in the area they've been the past three seasons (it's like there's some sort of plan to have a well-balanced team or something — yes, that was sarcasm, that is indeed the plan).

Here's a look at the grade progression from 2016-18.

[table id=258 /]

Ranking the units from to most improved to least improved:

[table id=259 /]

Defensive backs: +0.63
A full season of an elite Stephon Gilmore with a more-steady Jason McCourty, plus good youngsters in J.C. Jackson and Jonathan Jones. Safeties were better overall as well.

Defensive line: +0.43
This was a little bit of a surprise for me considering struggles at NT, but Lawrence Guy and Trey Flowers were elite, and an upgrade over nothing at the other end spot.

Linebackers: +0.42
Any version of Dont'a Hightower was an upgrade and Kyle Van Noy went to another level. Elandon Roberts was more consistent.

Offensive line: +0.39
More snaps for Marcus Cannon meant 4/5ths of the line was together again, interior players all improved, and Trent Brown an upgrade over Nate Solder.

Running backs: -0.29
If the group was healthy all season, this might have been different but it was thin there for a while. Sony Michel was good, but he was no Dion Lewis from '17.

Receivers/tight ends: -0.31
When you go from explosive Brandin Cooks and All-Pro Rob Gronkowski to average at both spots (and a four-game suspension for Julian Edelman), that's a lot of ground to make up.

Quarterbacks: -0.60
Tom Brady was the NFL MVP in 2017, so anything short of that would be a drop. Add in the drop in weapons and his own health/mechanical issues and it was a battle.

Not hard to see why each group rose or fell in '18.

A look at the perfect weekly grades by position, and the game in which they occurred:

[table id=260 /]

The worst weekly grades by Patriots units, and the game in which they occurred:

[table id=261 /]

Ranking the five best and worst overall team performances:

[table id=262 /]

[table id=263 /]

RANKING THE STUDS AND DUDS

Here are the 3 up and 3 down rankings for the 2018 season by game:

[table id=265 /]

[table id=266 /]

By using a point system (3-2-1 from 1 up/down to 3rd up/down), we can get a better sense of a player's value over the course of the season (but players who had one or two splash games, like Elandon Roberts and Josh Gordon, do kind of skew it a bit. So it's not foolproof or anything):

[table id=267 /]

There were some surprises.

Trey Flowers could arguably be viewed as the team MVP — he was the team's best player in 32 percent of games.

Julian Edelman came in No. 2 despite missing the first four games and taking some time to round into form.

Lawrence Guy was a rock in the middle, while James White, Kyle Van Noy and Shaq Mason showed off their remarkable consistency.

On the other side, the Patriots' top finishers a year ago, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, dropped well down the list. Malcom Brown also went from being in the top five to the bottom five.

A year ago, Gilmore was a minus-7 (so was Malcolm Butler). This season he was even.

Like I said last year with Nate Solder (he was last at minus-10), this was probably a little unfair to Trent Brown because left tackles basically have to be shutdowns to be really high in rankings. But he definitely saved his best for last and was overshadowed by four very good players around him during the season.