Devin McCourty told WEEI on Thursday that barring an offseason change of heart, he will be back for his 12th season in New England.
“I think it’s always tough when you get down to the end of the year to start talking about the future, but for right now I’m still enjoying football; I plan on playing next year,” McCourty said. “Just trying to finish out these two games the best way I can, then when the offseason hits, evaluating and doing all of that stuff. But still feel pretty healthy and love going out there and competing.”
When it comes to the Patriots' 2021 offseason, that's a fairly significant piece of the puzzle. With McCourty back in the fold, that gives us a good opportunity to reset the defensive depth chart — including free agents — at each position. Then we'll give some of our thoughts on where the holes are, and which ones should be a priority.
• McCourty's significant if you believe, as I do, that you build a defense like a baseball team — from the inside out (well, inside, then No. 1 corner). He did not have a great season this year, but like a lot of people on this team (Cam Newton, mostly), McCourty was a byproduct of what was going on around him. An inability to stop the run or generate a consistent pass rush will make any free safety look ineffective. Speaking of that, the team is a little light on free safeties if they want to free up McCourty to match up on third down. Some internal candidates for that: Jonathan Jones/Myles Bryant and Joejuan Williams. Please, do not let it be Duron Harmon. Go the draft in that case.
• Would Devin's return mean that Jason would be back as well? Yeah, I could see that, because Belichick loves him and would view J-Mac as an emergency plug-and-play option at a variety of spots. Still, that's a luxury and I'm not sure it's worth it if you have four safeties: McCourty, Adrian Phillips, Kyle Dugger and Patrick Chung around. Those guys can do some other things. Jason McCourty would be overkill and wasteful.
• Speaking of up the middle, I would expect Dont'a Hightower to return, but how effective he is, remains to be seen. The Patriots do need to get younger and better at linebacker, and Anfernee Jennings appears to be a supporting player, not a bedrock.
• I had forgotten that Beau Allen — the man who I'm not sure ever practiced for the Patriots but was never placed on a non-football injury list or anything like that — is scheduled to be back. Whether that happens, remains to be seen. He has the seventh-highest cap hit next season at $3.95 million. He received $2.15 million for the 2020 season. Releasing Allen would save about $1.75 million. Then again, the Patriots would be right back where they are right now — no nose tackle to speak of on the roster, which is kind of a problem if you want to defend the run. I would guess he's back, unless there's an underlying issue with what went down this past season. You're going to throw away another $1.1 million and sign another guy?
• Speaking of guys, I would expect Lawrence Guy to be a priority. Without Guy and Allen, the Patriots would have literally nothing on the defensive interior.
• Even though Tashawn Bower has been pretty good this season, the Patriots could stand to drop some coin for a veteran on the edge. Would love to get Olivier Vernon at a value rate. I've been pining for him since his days as a Dolphin. He's the definition of a Patriots edge player. Vernon, Josh Uche and Chase Winovich in some sort of rotation would be OK by me.
• Patrick Chung will almost definitely be back. He's not the kind to leave a good chunk of change on the table. He should be a role player at this point.
• If Stephon Gilmore is traded or released, the Patriots should go with what they have in JC Jackson, Jonathan Jones, Bryant and D'Angelo Ross. Treat CB like Belichick does just about every skill position on offense: possibly leave yourself short, and go get more later if needed. Corners don't need much ramp up time. Bryant is going to be good. Ross flashed a lot.
• Yeah, edge and the defensive interior with an eye out for an athletic linebacker would be the top of my shopping list in the offseason. But I'm not splurging on this side. It's not that bad if Hightower is back as expected.