Pats find a new edge
Clayborn adds help to defensive front
One of the biggest knocks on the Patriots defense last season had to do with the fact their front seven scared no one. It lacked playmakers, particularly the kind who put pressure on the quarterback.
With the exception of Trey Flowers, no one consistently got sacks. Quarterbacks never had much fear of being taken down.
That could change this season. The addition of Adrian Clayborn is certainly a step in the right direction.
Flowers needed a partner on his opposite side, another edge-setter/pass rusher as a bookend. Clayborn, who signed a two-year deal worth up to $12.5 million with $5.5 million guaranteed, is a younger, better, more pleasant version of James Harrison, who was brought aboard late in the year to try to fill that role.
Former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison said pass rusher is at the top of the Pats’ needs this offseason, and he likes what Clayborn adds to the team.
“He has a great motor,” Harrison, now an NBC analyst, said via text. “He likes playing football and is genuinely happy for his teammates when they do well. I think he will have an immediate impact.”
With Clayborn on the other side, he’ll help take the pressure off Flowers. Teams now won’t be able to consistently double Flowers, or just focus on taking him away.
Clayborn will also solve another issue — setting the edge opposite Flowers, which was a huge problem. At 6-foot-3, 280 pounds, the 29-year-old Clayborn has the size to stand up to linemen on the move.
Even though he was primarily used by the Falcons on third down to rush the passer or in sub situations, Clayborn believes he can be a three-down player.
“I know I can rush the passer, I know I can set the edge in the run,” he said. “I know there’s a couple different positions they think I can play, so it’s up to me to prove I can play them.”
Pro Football Focus rated Clayborn as the 19th best edge defender in the NFL last season. As a pass rusher, he ranked 13th.
Clayborn, who played for Bill Belichick disciple Kirk Ferentz at Iowa, described his playing style as “aggressive, hard-nosed. I like to play every play like it’s my last.”
Listening to the 29-yearold defensive end, there’s plenty to like and plenty of reasons to believe he will be successful in New England. He’s overcome a lot in his life, including Erb’s palsy, a condition characterized by weakness or paralysis of the arm.
Looking at his back story, he suffered nerve damage during a breech birth that caused weakness and loss of movement in his right arm. Clayborn went through a lot a physical therapy during his youth to overcome the limitations caused by the disorder.
He isn’t impacted by it now, he said, except in the weight room.
“It doesn’t really affect me,” Clayborn said. “I’ve learned to compensate when I have to. I do what I gotta do to make the plays.”
Clayborn also has dealt with several major injuries throughout his career. He didn’t play against the Patriots in Super Bowl LI thanks to a torn biceps, his fourth major injury. He almost didn’t come back from that, but kept fighting and then had his best season last year with 91⁄2 sacks.
“Life happens. I mean, through the Erb’s palsy or whatever, losing my dad and my brother, I don’t know, it just made me the person I am today,” he said. “(You) just gotta take the blows when they come and throw a couple back at times. So, just learn how to fight and scrap and learn how to keep going.”
Clayborn arrived in town last Friday and spent the day at Gillette Stadium. He watched film, talked with the Patriots coaching staff, heard what they had in mind for him, and, having seen how things were run, decided it was going to be a good fit.
“It brings me back to my Iowa days where you’ve got to work for what you get,” he said. “I’m all for that. I’m just looking to help the team out any way I can.”
Having his presence opposite Flowers will help. They’ll make a good tandem flying in off the edges.
This was a good signing.