Since the defensive Golden Days of the 2001-2004 New England Patriots Super Bowl teams, one of the big knocks on Bill Belichick has been his ability to identify and develop cornerback talent. The Patriots have thrown a lot of draft picks toward that part of the secondary, but with limited success over the past decade.
For the past two seasons, the Patriots have finally started to turn their secondary around, after turning to free agency in 2015 (Darrelle Revis, Brandon Browner) before inserting some long-awaited talent at the position that had developed in New England (Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan).