New England Patriots: 3 Early breakout candidates on defense for 2020

2. Ja’Whaun Bentley

A position in the middle of the defense that has perhaps experienced the largest amount of turnover this offseason for New England comes at the linebacker position.

The Patriots defense took a few hits during the free agency period when veteran linebackers Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy, two players who played large roles for the team in recent years and most notably in 2019, left the organization to sign elsewhere.

With Collins, Van Noy and others now absent, that means others lower on the depth chart will have the opportunity to step up and showcase their talents right away in 2020 among the defense in Foxborough.

With linebacker Dont’a Hightower likely to emerge as a frontrunner to land a starting role at linebacker, another player who could also move into a starting job alongside him is Patriots linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley.

With a lot of production to make up for in the middle of the New England defense, Bentley will likely get an expanded role and will try and take over that linebacker group for the Patriots this season and beyond.

Bentley entered the NFL with the Patriots in 2018 after he was selected out of Purdue in the fifth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. After playing in three regular-season games as a rookie, Bentley saw his first expanded role a year ago in New England, playing in all 16 games.

In 2019, Bentley wrapped up his second professional season making two starts at linebacker while recording 44 combined tackles, 29 solo tackles and one quarterback hit as a backup.

Bentley made some nice strides in his sophomore campaign in 2019, but he will have to make yet another step into a larger role this season with a depleted amount of talent at linebacker. He will likely see his playing time continue to increase and that could result in the soon-to-be 24-year-old having a breakout season in year three.