Lombardi: Patriots Defense Lacking Leadership In Front-Seven
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots' ugly defensive performance against the Seattle Seahawks exposed the serious issues they have on that side of the ball, which could ultimately prove to be their undoing in the playoffs. Not only does there appear to be a drop-off in talent and depth, in the wake of losing Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins to trades without viable replacements in the fold, there appears to be serious issues with communication as well.
A lack of communication on defense can be traced back to a lack of leadership. That's what former Patriots front-office exec Mike Lombardi believes is the problem facing the Patriots defense right now: it's not necessarily on the field, but in the locker room.
"They lack confidence and they lack leadership," Lombardi said on his "Make Me Smarter" podcast. "And that, I think, is the area that is most important that I think fans don't see. What fans don't always understand about winning is ... Marcus Aurelius has this great quote about, 'The secret to all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.' Now, it's not obvious to the fans that Seattle has incredible mental toughness ... They're mentally tough. You can't see that. The Patriots, you can't see their lack of leadership. It really hurts them."
But safety Devin McCourty has long been one of the team's biggest leaders, hasn't he? Lombardi acknowledges that - but he places the blame for a lack of leadership more on the front-seven. He believes that those positional groups need to be, well, the front lines for the team's leadership on defense, which has been lacking after the retirement of linebacker Jerod Mayo.
"Mayo was their leader," Lombardi continued. "Even though Mayo wasn't a great player the last three years - he was hurt quite a bit - but his leadership has really affected the Patriots. His lack of leadership now is there. And there's no one there, whether it would have been Jamie Collins, who was aloof and a loner, or [Dont'a] Hightower, there's no one there to lead in the front seven.
"Devin McCourty's a great leader, but the back-end guys can't lead. The front-seven guys have to lead. I think that's what they're missing. They're missing that tremendously."
Hightower has been hyped as the new leader of the Patriots defense entering this season, as he has assumed green dot responsibilities and taken the same locker as previous defensive leaders like Mayo and Willie McGinest. Lombardi doesn't believe Hightower has lived up to that standard so far in 2016. CSNNE's Tom E. Curran, who spends time in the Patriots locker room almost every day, somewhat agrees with that sentiment, but more that Hightower is "still growing into" his leadership role rather than plainly lacking those qualities.
Hightower spoke about the need for an improvement on defense with Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, showing that he is not shying away from taking accountability for their struggles and assuming the leadership role he needs to take for the defense to play better as a unit.
"Wanting to be a good defense, we know what it takes, and we've got to get those corrections done," said Hightower. "We obviously have more pride than that. We're just going to do a better job of it."
Lost in the shuffle of all the on-field struggles for the Patriots defense this season was the unseen struggle, the leadership transition taking place in the locker room. It may not be as big an issue as Lombardi is making it out to be, but the move from Mayo to Hightower as the defensive captain hasn't been perfectly seamless and has needed more time to develop than anyone expected.
There's no reason not to be confident that Hightower can complete the transition and become a great defensive leader sooner rather than later. But if the Patriots want to fix the defense in time to win a fifth Lombardi Trophy this season, the improvement will need to happen quickly.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
