FOXBORO — Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore has proven himself indispensable early in the 2024 season without taking a snap.
There’s a reason why Barmore signed a four-year, $92 million extension with the Patriots in April. It’s hard to find defensive tackles like the 2021 second-round pick who play a ton and are equally effective as pass rushers and run defenders.
That’s been apparent this season with Barmore out indefinitely after being diagnosed with blood clots. Barmore’s condition has forced the Patriots to rely heavily on defensive tackles Davon Godchaux and Daniel Ekuale with both players on pace for career-highs in defensive snaps this season.
Barmore has stayed around the team, but coaches have been hush on the defensive tackle’s status as he recovers.
The Patriots’ run defense has not played up to the team’s usual standard, ranking 22nd by allowing a 43.3% success rate against the rush. Godchaux and Ekuale rank 94th and 98 out of 126 qualified defensive tackles in pass-rush productivity.
“I’ve talked to those players about that, and they need extra conditioning, stuff like that, making sure they’re ready,” defensive coordinator Demarcus Covington said Thursday morning of Godchaux and Ekuale’s increase in snaps. “It’s 60 minutes. We need them to be ready in that fourth quarter too just the same as in the first quarter. With that being said, so they don’t have to take that many snaps, the other players behind them or the other players in that room need to bring their level of game up to where we can continue to rotate those guys and keep everyone fresh.”
Both Godchaux and Ekuale rank top 20 among defensive tackles in snaps. The Patriots typically like to play with more of a rotation at that position. The Patriots are one of just four teams with two defensive tackles in the top 20 in snaps.
They haven’t had a defensive tackle finish a season in the top 20 of snaps played since 2016, when Alan Branch did it.
“Those guys are our guys,” defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery said of Godchaux and Ekuale. “So, we’re building some depth in that room. Obviously, it doesn’t help that we had some injuries. But we just need help from the guys behind to keep developing and so we can spread the wealth a little bit.”
Ekuale played a career-high 362 defensive snaps in 2022 with the Patriots. He’s already at 144 through three weeks. Godchaux’s career-high came in 2019 with the Dolphins, when he played 718 snaps. He’s at 131 so far. Third on the Patriots list of defensive tackles is Jeremiah Pharms Jr. at 70.
“He’s kind of like the guy that you put out there, and he kind of does his job,” Montgomery said of Pharms. “You know where he’s going to be, and he’s done a decent job.”
Eric Johnson was claimed off waivers from the Colts in late August. He played 11 snaps in the Patriots’ Week 3 loss to the Jets and is learning a completely different style of defense with his new squad.
“We’re just teaching him how to play the game that we play,” Montgomery said of Johnson. “You got to remember, guys that have been here have been here since, the spring, fall camp. They’ve repped hundreds of reps at things the way we do it, and then he’s repped them different ways at other places. He’s learning he’s going to do fine.”
The Patriots also have Trysten Hill, who played seven snaps in Week 1, and Jaquelin Roy on their practice squad.
