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McCourty Pursuit Comes Up Short

It was an uneventful trade-deadline day around the NFL this week, with not a single deal being made in the hours before the 4 p.m. Tuesday deadline. Though NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport connected the Patriots to Tennessee Titans cornerback Jason McCourty, ESPN.com's Mike Reiss explains how a deal was never really feasible:

Would the Patriots have liked Titans cornerback Jason McCourty? I don't think there's any question about that, but it was relayed to me through Tennessee connections that the Titans had no interest in trading him. So for there to even to be an extended discussion, they would have had to be wowed by a trade offer, and the Patriots aren't in the business of trading first-round draft picks.

Reuniting Devin McCourty with his twin brother would have been the ideal deadline scenario for the Patriots, not unlike when they bolstered their similarly thin cornerback corps in 2013 by trading for Aqib Talib. Reiss also notes how the Pats sought Kansas City's Marcus Cooper in a potential deal, but that the Chiefs weren't interested in thinning their future depth due to the expiring contracts of Sean Smith and Jamell Fleming.

Thus, New England will march forward with the quartet of Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan, Justin Coleman and Rashaan Melvin at the position. The depth at safety has enabled the Patriots to offset some of the position's thinness, but it looks as though scheming against more talented receiving corps will be Bill Belichick's biggest challenge the rest of the way.

Broncos D Better Than Pats O?

At the moment, there's little question the two best units in football are the Patriots offense and Denver Broncos defense. Whereas the Pats lead the league with 35.6 points per game, the Broncos have topped the league in scoring defense, stifling offenses to the tune of 16.0 points per game. Fresh off its masterful effort against Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, the Broncos defense might actually hold the upper edge on New England's offense, per Football Outsiders' Aaron Schatz:

According to DVOA, the Broncos have been 36 percent more efficient than an average defense. By comparison, the No. 1 New England offense has been 29.5 percent more efficient than an average offense. For all the conventional wisdom about defense winning championships, it's quite rare for the league's best defense to be better than the best offense over the course of an entire season. As we often write, the best offenses are usually better than the best defenses, and the worst offenses are usually worse than the worst defenses.

The Patriots do top the weekly DVOA ratings, FO's mark of overall efficiency, but Denver rose into the top 10 (sixth overall) largely on the strength of its historic defense. As Schatz goes on to list, the Broncos possess the second-best defensive DVOA figure (-36.0 percent) in the site's database dating back to 1989, trailing only the 1991 Washington squad.

The two sides will settle the score on the field in Week 12, but both statistically and on the chalkboard, the Broncos appear better equipped than any team in the league to stop the irrepressible Patriots offense. Of course, the inverse also holds true, and if Peyton Manning's revival on Sunday proves sustainable, we might have our second Patriots-Broncos AFC Championship Game in the past three seasons.

Butler Seeks Redemption vs. Jackson

Malcolm Butler's confidence was evident even in his nascent days as an undrafted rookie, and that apparently manifested itself in one of his first training-camp practices. As NESN's Cameron McDonough relays, Butler reflected on volunteering to cover Jackson during Washington's joint practices with New England before the 2014 season, as well as the speedy wide receiver's strengths:

I asked coach to go against him. I just wanted to, and that didn’t turn out too well. You’ve got to be careful what you do when you’re putting your hands on him. Pure speed. He can stop on a dime and take off, so there’s a lot to prepare for. . . . I’ve been a fan of him since way before I even got here. I have a lot of respect for that guy.

Jackson doesn't have a reception this season after injuring his hamstring early in Washington's Week 1 contest, but he will return to the lineup this week after missing six games. We'll touch more on Jackson's strengths shortly, and Bill Belichick certainly appears attuned to the field-stretching dimension his return offers to Washington's offense.

Nevertheless, Jackson should be a better matchup for Butler than what he's seen the past two weeks, as he's primarily played the slot in covering Eric Decker and Jarvis Landry. The second-year pro has always looked more comfortable on the perimeter, and though Jackson is different from the bigger split ends Butler usually sees, the Patriots' top corner should find more of a comfort zone playing on the perimeter.