When the 2025 season began, the New England Patriots were coming off a 2024 season in which they had a 4-13 record (their second such record in a row), and ranked 30th in Defensive DVOA. Head coach Mike Vrabel and general manager Eliot Wolf did all they could to increase the power of that defense, signing interior defensive lineman Milton Williams, edge-rushers K’Lavon Chaisson and Harold Landry, linebacker Robert Spillane, and cornerback Carlton Davis to try and turn things around.
It’s not often
that an organization goes five-for-five in free agency on one side of the ball, but the Patriots did just that on defense. All of the new additions ultimately turned New England’s defense into a real bear by the time the postseason rolled around. In the first half of the 2025 season, the Patriots ranked 26th in Defensive DVOA. They upticked to 16th in the second half of the regular season, and in the postseason, only the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks were better.
The Patriots did all of this with an unfortunate and unexpected change at defensive coordinator when Terrell Williams was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in September, and linebackers coach Zak Kuhr (who is now the full-time DC) took over.
The most remarkable part of the Patriots’ new defense was the secondary. Davis teamed with Christian Gonzalez to form one of the NFL’s better outside cornerback tandems, and the safety combination of Jaylinn Hawkins and fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson proved to be interchangeable players at a level that belied their limited experience together. Ad in Marcus Jones as the primary nickel defender, and all of a sudden, a secondary that was filled with question marks had nothing but answers for everybody.
Fast-forward to the new league year, and things could be even better. Yes, the Patriots lost Hawkins to the Baltimore Ravens on a two-year, $10 million deal, but they more than made up for it by signing veteran safety Kevin Byard to a one-year, $9 million pact.
Selected by the Tennessee Titans in the third round of the 2016 draft out of Middle Tennessee State (Go Blue Raiders!), Byard played under Vrabel in Tennessee from 2019 through 2023 — until Byard was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles on October 23, of that year, and Vrabel was cashiered at the end of the season. So, it’s clear that Byard is one of Vrabel’s guys, but what can he offer in his age 33 season, the age he’ll be as of August 17?
Last season, in Dennis Allen’s aggressive Chicago Bears defense, Byard allowed 28 catches on 38 targets for 331 yards, 123 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, seven interceptions, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 86.5. Even at age 32, Byard showed a ton of range in the deep third, which is why the Bears had him either as a single-high or two-deep defender on 84% of his snaps.
I love the Byard signing for that reason, and I really love it because he complements Craig Woodson perfectly. In his rookie campaign, Woodson allowed 30 catches on 48 targets for 257 yards, 85 yards after the catch, six touchdowns, one interception, seven pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 108.8. As the season went along, and especially in the postseason, Woodson got a lot better — from the wild-card round through the Super Bowl, he allowed four catches on 14 targets for 28 yards, four yards after the catch, no touchdowns, one interception, three pass breakups, and a ridiculous opponent passer rating of 9.8.
With a full season under his belt, a more defined coaching situation, and Byard to guide him on the field, Woodson could well be in for a MAJOR Year 2.
There are no questions about the cornerbacks. Christian Gonzalez, the Patriots’ first-round pick in 2023 out of Oregon, became the franchise defender the team hoped he would be in Bill Belichick’s final draft.
In 2025, he allowed 46 catches on 106 targets for 498 yards, 99 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, 16 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 57.0. Two of Gonzalez’s most important pass deflections came in Super Bowl LX, when he denied the Seahawks two sure touchdowns in the second quarter — one on a deep post to Rashid Shaheed, and one on an intermediate in-cut to Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
As for Davis, he allowed 52 catches on 88 targets for 515 yards, 157 yards after the catch, four touchdowns, two interceptions, 13 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 81.4. Like the rest of the group, Davis became exponentially better as the season went along, and especially in the postseason.
Adding Byard to this group is an intentional move to bring all the elements together. I asked Eliot Wolf at the scouting combine what he looks for in a safety, and he started with the ability to have everyone on the same page.
“The first thing you have to look at is, communication is so underrated at that position,” Wolf said. “I think maybe a lot of fans don’t understand that being able to communicate, set the defense, that’s something that we talked to the coaching staffs in college about and just making sure that anyone that comes in has to be able to communicate and be smart. But on the field, it’s the athleticism, it’s the change of direction, it’s the speed and range. The anticipation that these guys play with are very important traits that we look for.”
Now, the Patriots have it all, and because of that, they may well have the NFL’s best secondary heading into the 2026 season.
