More than any recent offseason, there's been an astounding amount of negativity surrounding the New England Patriots. The Deflategate circus and Tom Brady suspension snowballed to catastrophic proportions, and free agency stripped away much of the non-Brady defensive core that could have propped the team up in the absence of its franchise quarterback.
However, dubbing the Pats on the verge of collapse would be premature. As hard as it might be to believe, the Patriots did make progress in a few key areas this offseason, particularly as Bill Belichick reshaped his roster to compensate for losses at cornerback, the position that anchored the defense in 2014.