Patriots “Looking to Get Faster Everywhere” In 2022

The New England Patriots will enter the 2022 NFL season with a few major needs on the table. Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh discussed the situation in New England, suggesting that the team will look for a speed.

According to Groh, the Patriots will be “looking to get faster everywhere”.

“There’s multiple ways to [increase team speed],” Groh added. “We did some of that last year, have worked on doing that here in free agency.”

NFL teams will try to make a lot of changes this offseason. Groh is well aware of the fact that the game has changed.

“It’s a different game than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago, and that player has also changed. There are not as many of those big linebackers,” Groh said. “They don’t exist. Colleges want them smaller because they have to be able to adapt to the college game. You can’t just create these guys out of thin air. With all the positions, it’s what the college game provides us. We have to just take what they are going to give us from year to year.”

Patriots need faster players

The Patriots may get a few linebackers in the 2022 NFL Draft. Nakobe Dean is a top target and he is a different breed. The talented linebacker measures at 5’11’’ and 229 pounds.

Linebackers look different and their role is different too. Some players will have to change the positions they had in college.

The Patriots got Peppers for a reason. Belichick and Groh are building a speedy team and we have a good feeling about this.

“There’s going to be different players all across the league who are considered linebackers, whether they’re converting from a different position in college — safety to linebacker, what not,” Groh said.

“And that’s certainly one way to get speed on the field, is just using some of these guys differently. Just the caliber of athlete you can get — the size, the speed — these days. You can put these guys all over the place, and that’s certainly one way to increase the overall speed of the defense.”