FOXBOROUGH (AP) — Devin McCourty made several costly mistakes at cornerback. At safety, the New England Patriots lost both starters to injury.
So they shifted McCourty to safety and, suddenly, the Patriots prospects at both positions look brighter.
A Pro Bowl player as a rookie in 2010, McCourty’s athleticism and knowledge of the defense have made the transition easier to a position he played his first two seasons at Rutgers.
“Dev’s a great athlete,” safety Steve Gregory said. “He’s a smart football player. He understands what we’re trying to do as a defense and he has the ability to play any position in the secondary, so he’s done a great job.”
He wasn’t doing so great at cornerback this year.
Several times he didn’t turn to face the ball when a receiver went up for it. He was called for pass interference penalties — one that led to the winning field goal on the final play of a 31-30 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
But Gregory has missed the last four games with an injured hip and the other starting safety, Patrick Chung, has been sidelined two games with a shoulder injury. Both practiced on a limited basis this week and could be ready when the Patriots (5-3) play the Buffalo Bills (3-5) on Sunday.
If they’re not, and maybe even if they are, McCourty would start his third straight game at safety.
He played there a bit last year and said he has no preference — “whatever they tell me to play” — but it’s “cool” to get a wider view of the field playing deeper and in the middle at safety.
“It’s different,” he said. “You get used to seeing more of the field and I think you have
more of a responsibility since you have that viewpoint to let everyone
else know, because I know when you’re playing corner it’s not as easy to
see the different things that you see on film when you’re on just that
side of the field. So I try to just communicate and let guys know if I
see anything from film study that might happen (and) just send that
alert out.”
As a first-round draft choice out of Rutgers, McCourty
had seven interceptions as a rookie. But he had just two last season
before some poor games at cornerback this year.
The secondary
seemed headed for another one when it allowed Sam Bradford’s 50-yard
touchdown pass to Chris Givens on the first series of the Patriots most recent game. But St. Louis didn’t score again and they beat the Rams 45-7 in London two weeks ago.
McCourty
spent part of the bye week in Montvale, N.J., where Superstorm Sandy
knocked out power to his mother’s house. He bought her a generator
before the power came back on Tuesday. By that time, McCourty was back
in Foxborough, preparing to play wherever coach Bill Belichick wants
him.
“He’s pretty good at everything,” Belichick said. “He’s a
good tackler. He’s fast. He’s instinctive. He has a good feel for the
game wherever you put him in terms of leverage, angles, decisions, that
kind of thing. He’s smart. He has the mental flexibility to go back and
forth between assignments.”
And he’s willing to do that.
“He’s
a selfless player who just wants to do whatever he can to help the team
win,” safeties coach Brian Flores said. “He has all the traits: he
communicates, he’s a focused player, he’s smart, he does a lot of things
well. He can make that transition. A lot of guys can’t. I’m happy to
have him.”
He’s not the only one.
With three rookie draft
picks starting or substituting in the secondary — safeties Tavon Wilson
and Nate Ebner and cornerback Alfonzo Dennard — McCourty’s settling
influence is significant, especially with Gregory and Chung sidelined.
“I
feel like Devin helped me out a lot,” Wilson said. “He’s kind of like a
big brother to me back there and he keeps things calm because there’s
so many young guys back there.”
The makeup of the secondary will
change next week when Aqib Talib, acquired from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
last week, will be eligible to return after a four-game suspension for
violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
“This
week we’ve got to just focus on who’s here and what we have to do to
get a win,” McCourty said, “and then, I think, next week when all that
comes into play, it’ll really help us out.”
It also could mean
more time at safety for McCourty once Talib gets acclimated — a process
McCourty could speed up with his experience at cornerback.
“I have
a good knowledge of, especially for our corners, what they’re doing,”
he said. “So I think a little bit of that helps where I can say things
and I communicate with them to let them know I’m on the same page as
them.”
