Editor's Note: With the beginning of NFL free agency looming on March 12, our Patriots Insider Tom E. Curran is resetting each Patriots position by assessing their 2024 performance, laying out their 2025 contract status and ranking their offseason priority on a scale of 1 to 5.
After going through positional evaluations for quarterback, running back, tight end, wide receiver, offensive line and defensive line, next up is linebacker.
Just as the defensive line was kneecapped by Christian Barmore’s illness, so was the linebacker crew waylaid by the torn pec suffered by Ja'Whaun Bentley in the second week of the season.