New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick often stresses the importance a player’s second year in the system has for his development. There are plenty of recent examples of men taking a significant step from year one to year two: Mid-round draft picks Trey Flowers and Shaq Mason are the latest examples of players improving into reliable starters over the course of their first full offseason in New England.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at this year’s second-year Patriots and how they developed from 2017 to today.
The draft class
DE Derek Rivers: The Patriots’ highest picked player last year missed all of 2017 due to a torn ACL suffered during his first training camp.