Bedard: Stop fretting about aggressiveness of the Patriots' D - it's about the players, not Brian Flores

FOXBOROUGH — When people want to find a reason to worry about this Patriots team (besides the retirement of Rob Gronkowski and picking out any of the Patriots' receivers not named Julian Edelman), the talk inevitably turns to the defense and the departure of de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

It looked different when he was there.

He was so much more aggressive than Matt Patricia.

Flores brought the amoeba defense and that was the key last season.

All the coaches are gone. Of course, it's not going to be the same.

There's no question the Patriots lost a ton of coaches, especially on the defensive side.

Here's the tally:

De-factor coordinator/ILB: Flores to Jerod Mayo
Defensive line: Brendan Daly to Bret Bielema
Cornerbacks: Josh Boyer to Mike Pellegrino
Safeties: Steve Belichick to same.
Outside linebackers (new): DeMarcus Covington