During the offseason, the Patriots not only jettisoned O’Neal but also traded right corner Ellis Hobbs to the Eagles. In their place, the team picked up veteran free agents Shawn Springs and Leigh Bodden. A season after using a second-round pick on Terrence Wheatley and a fourth-round pick on Jonathan Wilhite, the Patriots drafted cornerback Darius Butler with one of their four second-round picks.
The Patriots, who went 11-5 and still missed the playoffs, had a fatal flaw last season. Although New England ranked a more than respectable 11th in the NFL in pass defense (allowing 201.4 yards per game), it had problems preventing the big play.
Part of that was attributable to a mediocre pass rush, but the cornerbacks and defensive backs have to take their share of the blame for a pass defense that allowed 27 touchdown passes, second-most in the NFL, and surrendered 12 plays of 40 yards or more, tying them with the 0-16 Lions and the 49ers for the second-most in the NFL behind Jacksonville (17).
The 27-year-old Bodden, whom the Patriots signed to a one-year, $2.25 million contract that includes a clause that the team can’t use the franchise tag on him, could make the biggest impact. Bodden, who is entering his seventh NFL season, was a member of the ignominious Lions last season and had just one interception. However, the Lions had just four interceptions as a team, an NFL-record low for a non-strike-shortened season, and Bodden’s was the only one by a defensive back.
In the prior three seasons in Cleveland playing for former Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, Bodden intercepted 11 passes, including a career-high six in 2007, when he finished tied for second in the NFL in takeaways with nine. Crennel said Patriots coach Bill Belichick asked his opinion of Bodden before New England signed him.
