Kirby Lee/US Presswire
Two years after trading him away, the Patriots meet Richard Seymour Sunday in Oakland.The Patriots face Richard Seymour for the first time since trading him to Oakland on Sunday. Did the deal work out? We examine the swap two years later:
To be sure, the Patriots' defensive line has not panned out as planned when the team dealt Seymour away. At that time, the addition of rookies Myron Pryor and Ron Brace were touted as moves to solidify a group that also included Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Jarvis Green and Mike Wright.
Warren missed all but one game during the 2010 season and was waived this summer. Green, who missed time in 2009, chased big free-agent money in Denver, but didn't even make the team's roster out of camp and hasn't played in an NFL game since. Wright has battled concussions, while a variety of injuries have limited Pryor, who went on season-ending injured reserve last week. Brace can't seem to stay on the field, either, and is currently on the physically-unable-to-perform list.
The Patriots ultimately spent much of this past summer reconfiguring their defensive line, going so far as to change their philosophy to a base 4-3 defense in order to optimize new arrivals Albert Haynesworth, Shaun Ellis and Andre Carter.
Early results haven't shown much improvement, but players swear that will come in time.
Maybe a better metric than just plain sacks is the number of sacks generated per opponent pass attempt. The Patriots' defense generated one on 6.5 percent of attempts in 2008 (slightly above the league average of 6.27). Since then, that number has shrunk each year, though not terribly (6.1 percent in 2009, 5.9 percent in 2010).
Through three games this season, the Patriots are generating a sack on 4.7 percent of all dropbacks, showing the rush remains an area of concern.
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