After back-to-back four-win seasons, the Patriots clearly set out in 2025 free agency to rebuild the team, unit by unit. They signed two new offensive linemen and used premium picks to draft two more. They signed two veteran receivers and used a third-round pick on another. They brought in two new linebackers to man the middle.
The relative success of those moves can be debated, and there is time for those units to improve. But there is not much debating the success the team had in what was its most extensive–and expensive–portion of the team rebuild: the defensive front.
The team spent generously to bring in Milton Williams on a four-year, $104 million contract ($63 million guaranteed) on the interior and Harold Landry (three years, $44 million, $26 million guaranteed) on the outside, and took chances on lineman Khyris Tonga and pass-rusher K’Lavon Chaisson.
And it’s all paid off. The analysis site Pro Football Focus, in an article titled, “New England Patriots’ new-look pass rush turning heads to start 2025 season,” gushed over the success of the unit, which ranks No. 5 in the NFL in pass-rushing grades, after ranking 28th in 2024.
PFF Sees a Big ‘Step Up’ From the Pass Rush
PFF called the defensive front, “a force to be reckoned with,” through two weeks, pointing out that New England combined for 36 quarterback pressures, which is 12th in the league. That may say something about the offensive lines of the Raiders and Dolphins, certainly, but the fact is, the Patriots are getting to quarterbacks.
The site added, “More specifically, New England’s overhauled defensive line sits fifth in team PFF pass-rushing grade (with additional games remaining in Week 2), sixth in team pass-rush win rate and 13th in pass-rushing productivity. Additionally, the entire team slots ninth in team PFF pass-rushing grade in the early going, a notable step up.”
Patriots Squashed Dolphins With 2 Sacks
It was fitting that the team ended the game on in Miami on Sunday with a pair of standout pass rushes, closing out Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa with back-to-back sacks as the Dolphins threaten to win the game with a touchdown from the New England 28-yard line and less than a minute to play. Robert Spillane got him first, and Williams followed up with another sack on fourth down.
The Patriots are tied for fourth in the NFL with seven sacks.
“The whole game they did a good job of making sure that getting the ball out of Tua’s hands quick and we just kept going,” Williams said. “We were talking on the sidelines (about) just keep rushing, keep rushing and just executing.”
There are plenty of areas of concern for the Patriots after two weeks. But one unit, at least, is executing.
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