Over the spring, two of the Patriots’ three top draft picks created an unexpected buzz.

In non-padded practices, first-round corner Christian Gonzalez draped himself all over his wide receiver teammates in non-padded drills. Marte Mapu flew around at linebacker and safety, making plays at both spots. The silent outlier, second-round defensive lineman Keion White, took a little longer to draw notice.

Now, White is the headliner. A 6-foot-5, 290-pound menace who rag-dolls veteran O-lineman, hunts quarterbacks and runs with running backs wheeling out of the backfield. Who is this alien?

White is a terrifying combination of strong, explosive and punishing. During Thursday’s joint practice, he stripped a Packers player of his helmet in the middle of a scrum and flung it skyward like he was excitedly ripping wrapping paper off a gift. White later rushed alongside outside linebackers Matt Judon and Josh Uche and defensive tackle Christian Barmore as part of the defense that stopped the Packers in a 2-minute drill.

“He’s been great,” Pats linebackers coach Jerod Mayo said of the rookie.

During that 2-minute drill, Judon earned a sack, which followed a sack from White in an earlier team period. The day before, the Patriots piled up nine sacks total, including three from a defensive lineman excluded from Thursday’s closing group: Deatrich Wise. Like Judon and Uche, the 29-year-old Wise set a career high for sacks last season. As a team, the Patriots pocketed 54 sacks, a high mark of the Belichick era.

What will they do for an encore?

“We want to improve upon what we did last year,” Judon said this week.

If they succeed, that should mean more history. And it could mean the best pass-rushing front of the Belichick era. Other contenders for that title — the Super Bowl-winning 2003 Patriots and the 2015 squad led by Chandler Jones’ 12.5 sacks — may squabble, but it’s impossible to argue with the potential.

Judon is a Pro Bowler in his prime coming off a 15.5-sack season. Uche and Wise are ascending edge-rushers who combined for 20 sacks last year. Then there’s Barmore, who generated 48 pressures as a rookie before getting hurt last season, and the aforementioned alien.

Without White, and without Barmore for much of the year, it bears repeating: the Patriots piled up 54 sacks. Fifty-four.

But forget the traditional stats. Sacks can be a function of excellent coverage, disastrous offensive line play or occasionally both. Let’s go deeper.

According to Pro Football Focus, Uche posted the NFL’s fifth-best pass-rush win percentage last season among defenders who logged at least 200 pass-rushing snaps. His 19.2% win rate trailed only a who’s who of Pro Bowl pass-rushers: Myles Garrett, Nick Bosa, Brandon Graham and Micah Parsons.

By comparison, Barmore ranked 28th in the league at 14.9%, Wise finished 32nd at 13.8%, and Judon was 54th at 11.4%. That’s basically four players among the NFL’s top 50 pass-rushers, at least half of whom can reasonably be expected to improve this year. How many defenses can boast that type of talent?

At the very least, this core should set the floor for a Patriots team built to lean on its defense, and a defense that may need to protect its young secondary. The Pats are tracking to roster four cornerbacks playing in their first or second season, and one of them, Jack Jones, could be sidelined indefinitely at any moment.

Despite all that, Judon sounds ready to shoulder the burden.

“This is a very good front, a very good front,” he said this week. “Run-stopping and also getting after the quarterback, we can mix it up. We can put guys in different positions. … It’s going to be hard to block us.”

The coaches seem to agree.

“We’ve got a lot of good players across the board, but I think with the defensive line, it’s a great group,” Pats defensive play-caller Steve Belichick said Friday. “And (it’s) a versatile group. Those guys play hard.”

The Patriots heat up quarterbacks in a variety of ways — blitzing, stunts, simulated pressures and scheming 1-on-1 matchups for their best pass rushers — but nothing beats a straight four-man rush composed entirely of players opponents wish they could double.

Judon’s been drawing secondary blockers since he arrived in New England, and Uche has been double-teamed throughout camp. As a rookie, Barmore fought 1-against-2 more frequently than almost any other defensive tackle in the league, save for two or three.

And if teams slide protections to help against one of those rushers, Steve Belichick will tie them up with a curveball; namely through the aforementioned simulated pressures. In these designs, the Patriots drop an expected pass-rusher (such as Judon or Uche) off the line of scrimmage into coverage, while blitzing another defender the second or third level. Last year, hulking, 250-pound Ja’Whaun Bentley was often at the center of these designs.

Bentley finished with three sacks and 20 pressures over the best blitzing season of his career.

“One thing that sets us apart defensively is the versatility from the first level to the second level to the third level,” Mayo said.

Looking outside the defensive meeting room, the Patriots should play from ahead far more often than they did last season. In 2022, their offense ranked third-worst in first-quarter scoring and bottom 10 in scoring over the first half. Bill O’Brien has rejuvenated, modernized and reorganized the side of the ball.

The Patriots’ expected offensive success should force opponents to pass more, as they play catch-up in the coming weeks and months. Furthermore, the Pats will face just five offensive lines that ranked in the top half of pass-blocking grades at PFF last year. The rest, as they say, is up to them.

“We tell the players all the time: it’s your defense,” Mayo said. “Have ownership, accountability, and here are the keys to the defense.”

Turn the ignition. Go.

Quarterbacks and franchise history await.

It was one thing for the Patriots to introduce Ezekiel Elliott on Wednesday, allow him to run through basic positional drills. It was another for Elliott to jump into the fire of live team periods with Packers defenders hunting him at full speed.

Elliot acquitted himself well, taking six handoffs, including four from Mac Jones, and catching one pass. His participation indicated an advanced level of understanding of the Patriots’ playbook, something offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien all but confirmed Friday.

“One thing you see right away is that he’s smart, he’s been in different systems, he understands football. Maybe they called it apples, we call it oranges, but it’s still football, and he gets it,” O’Brien said. “He picks up on it really quick. We’ve seen him out on the field a little bit, not enough to really give you a breakdown of his skillset and all that.

“I do think he’s a three-down back, and he’s been a really good addition the last two days to our football team. We’re really happy to have him.”

“He was, like, in his pajamas, so we’re really just trying to get him some Patriots gear and make sure he’s good to go.” — Mac Jones on Ezekiel Elliott’s arrival

“Uh, sometimes. Sometimes not. Not here. Might be here.” — Patriots cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino when asked if Jonathan Jones is in Green Bay after sharing Jones has been “like a second coach” in his meeting room.