Editor’s Note:\u00a0With free agency in full swing and the NFL Draft rapidly approaching, our Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran is resetting each Patriots position by assessing their 2025 performance, laying out their 2026 contract statuses, and ranking their offseason priority on a scale of 1 to 5\u00a0when it comes to potential upgrades.<\/p>\n
We’ve already hit on\u00a0quarterbacks<\/a>,\u00a0wide receivers<\/a>, running backs<\/a>,\u00a0tight ends<\/a>, offensive line<\/a>, defensive backs<\/a> and linebackers\/edge defenders<\/a>. The final installment: Defensive tackles.<\/p>\n Five of the six highest-paid Patriots are on the defensive side of the ball. Two of them — Milton Williams and Christian Barmore — are on the defensive line and occupying $45.6 million of New England’s $300 million cap this year. <\/p>\n The Patriots are the top spenders in the NFL on the interior defensive line ($58.6 million). How\u2019d they do last year? Have they gotten better or worse this offseason?<\/p>\n Some teams (the 2025 Eagles) can be driven to Super Bowls on the strength of their offensive and defensive lines. Are the Patriots getting the bang for the buck they want, and how much more can they do to get better before September rolls around?<\/p>\n Bright spots<\/p>\n Williams appeared in 16 games (including playoffs) and played precisely like the player the Patriots paid for in the offseason with 29 regular season tackles, eight tackles for loss (four more in the postseason) and eight quarterback hits. <\/p>\n Often, upscale DT numbers aren\u2019t going to jump off the page. Much of what they do is occupy attention so linebackers or fellow defensive linemen can dine. Williams is that kind of player. <\/p>\n His late-season absence — beginning with an injury suffered November 13 — coincided with a major dip in run defense. The Patriots allowed more than 100 yards rushing just three times before he was hurt (high of 128). In the next five games, they allowed over 100 every time, including 168, 171 and 164 yards in consecutive games when he and linebacker Robert Spillane were down. Key performer.<\/p>\n Christian Barmore had some dominant moments, which a player of his talent ought to have. In 17 games, he also had 29 tackles, four hurries, nine knockdowns, 15 pressures, 11 QB hits and two sacks. Maybe the biggest stat is the 17 games played after being plagued by health issues in 2024.<\/p>\n The Patriots got a nice contribution from Khyiris Tonga in his lone season here. (He fled to the Chiefs in free agency last month.) The massive 29-year-old made eight starts and had 24 tackles.<\/p>\n Cory Durden had four starts and finished with 30 tackles, including five tackles for loss. He made two playoff starts.<\/p>\n Rookie Joshua Farmer, a fourth-rounder from Florida State, appeared in 13 games with three starts. Leonard Taylor was on the field for three games.<\/p>\n Disappointments<\/p>\n The depth really isn\u2019t there. When Williams went down, the Patriots got run over. <\/p>\n Tonga was more of a space-eater than a game-wrecker. Barmore has Pro Bowl-level talent and Williams has at least that. But while the Patriots’ run defense was so solid against lead running backs at the start of the season, the lack of depth inside to keep everyone fresh and the lack of oomph (especially against the run) on the edge has to be concerning.<\/p>\n Barmore is paid like a star. He\u2019s so far been a good player with moments of dominance and bouts of invisibility.<\/p>\n Contract statuses<\/p>\n Christian Barmore has a $12 million guaranteed salary this season and cap hit of $17.1 million. With his cap hits in 2027 and 2028 ballooning to $23.6 million and $24.6 million respectively in the final two years of his deal (with no guaranteed salary in either), this is a big season for Barmore\u2019s Patriots future.<\/p>\n Milton Williams has a $21 million salary and a cap hit of $28.5 million — the highest on the team in both categories. His salaries remain basically the same the next two years (he\u2019ll be 29 in 2028) with cap hits of $30 million and $31 million.<\/p>\n Joshua Farmer, Jeremiah Pharms, Leonard Taylor, Eric Gregory and Corey Durden are all right around $1 million in salary and cap hits.<\/p>\n Offseason priority (1 to 5 scale)<\/p>\n This is a 4. High priority.<\/p>\n With Tonga gone, the Patriots need an interior anchor in the 350-pound range to gum of the works. For Farmer, Durden, Pharms, Taylor or Gregory, opportunity knocks. <\/p>\n Barmore\u2019s rapidly-escalating deal and the fact that it\u2019s just lower-round or undrafted talent up front are signals the Patriots need to stock the position. We spend a lot of time talking about edge defenders, wideouts, tight ends and offensive tackles, but very little discussing the need for significant work on the defensive line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s Note:\u00a0With free agency in full swing and the NFL Draft rapidly approaching, our Patriots Insider Tom E.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7888,7,11817,7891,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,18699],"class_list":{"0":"post-856945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-christian-barmore","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-khyiris-tonga","11":"tag-milton-williams","12":"tag-new-england","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots","18":"tag-tom-e-curran"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116358253847647375","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}