PLAN A: Sign two mid-level vets, use a Day 2 pick
Look to the AFC North.
In Baltimore and Pittsburgh, where two of the NFL’s stingiest run defenses have resided for years, key free agents are about to hit the market. Don’t let their gray hair discourage any calls.
Steelers defensive tackle Tyson Alualu has enjoyed a career renaissance in his 30s, ranking as a top-10 run-stopper at his position the past two seasons, per Pro Football Focus player grades. Alualu would provide the Pats with desired versatility up front at 6-foot-3 and 304 pounds with two-gapping experience. Alualu is also remarkably durable, playing in 172 of a possible 176 games over his career.
He boasts a powerful bull rush, which would also fit in the Patriots’ rush plans of squeezing quarterbacks within pockets rather than chasing them out. He should age well within a rotational role. As Pittsburgh barely treads water with roughly $3 million in cap space, the Pats would ideally sign Alualu away with a short-term deal at around $5 million annually.
Elsewhere in the division, Ravens defensive lineman Derek Wolfe is a former Patriots freeagent target who should again draw interest. Like Alualu, Wolfe has maintained his reputation as a strong, versatile run-defender despite being 20 pounds lighter. Wolfe is also close to three years younger than Alualu, having just turned 31, and may have more suitors.
Then again, he offers little as a pass-rusher aside from his power and was miscast in that role, rushing quarterbacks on almost twice as many snaps (429) as he played run defense (246) last season, per PFF. Wolfe totaled just 11 pressures in the regular season. Equipped with more than $18 million in cap space, Baltimore will have an easier time retaining him than Pittsburgh should with Alualu.
If not, the Pats should pounce. And if they whiff, Tennessee’s DaQuan Jones (6-4, 322) and Chicago’s Brent Urban (6-7, 300) offer viable, run-first options. Both are movable pieces, especially Jones, who played all across the interior line in a similar Titans system.
The balance to signing any of these veterans would be investing a high pick at defensive tackle. The Pats must get younger at the position sometime soon and have a track record of spending top picks on D-linemen (see: first-rounders Malcom Brown in 2015 and Dominique Easley in 2014).