Patriots Best Move Is to Leave Devin McCourty At Safety
 Devin McCourty's name keeps being brought up in a possible switch to cornerback. He's best at safety and should remain there. (USA TODAY Images) |
McCourty is one of the better safeties in the league, why move him to corner?
Sometimes in an effort to fix one problem, people tend to overreact and create two. Bill Belichick, however isn’t that type of person who will knee-jerk react to issues and make life more difficult for himself and his team.
Lately the debate has been raised on whether the Patriots should slide Devin McCourty back to cornerback from his safety position. With the losses of Darelle Revis, Brandon Browner, Kyle Arrington and Alfonzo Dennard many have argued that it would make sense to move McCourty back to his original cornerback position. That in essence doesn’t fix one problem but creates a second in its place.
When the Patriots re-signed McCourty this spring to a five-year $47.5 million dollar contract, they were signing one of the better safeties in the league and one who quarterbacks the secondary.
The move, if Belichick were to make it, wouldn’t alleviate all of the team’s questions at corner and would effectively weaken itself on the back end as none of the other safeties can play the deep centerfield position as well as McCourty does. Thus it doesn’t fix one problem, it creates two.
McCourty played well at corner as a rookie earning a Pro Bowl selection and 1st team All-Pro nod by the Sporting News. But things began to slip for him in his second season. Three years ago, the Patriots and Belichick moved him to safety and it has been a great move for McCourty and the team.
Now he plays to his strengths and is able to see the play unfold in front of him, he makes sure the other secondary players are in position and he’s able to break on the ball and make plays. He’s an extremely smart player, and as the quarterback for the secondary, he’s become a much more vocal leader and moves players around before the snap.
The Plan is to Play Team Defense: The talent level at corner while taking a big step back from losing Revis, Browner et al, isn’t completely bereft of ability. Second-year corner Malcolm Butler who made the game changing play to win the Super Bowl wasn’t on the field by a fluke at the conclusion of that game. He earned that trust by the coaching staff with hard work thru the year.
In taking a closer look at that, in the Patriots “Three Games to Glory” DVD, the coaches knew Butler would be the target of that play and sent him in there with the Super Bowl on the line. So with his success comes the question can he parlay that into being an every down corner? I wouldn’t bet against him.
Logan Ryan, Bradley Fletcher, Robert McClain and new comer Darryl Roberts with Butler gives the Patriots the talent to succeed, but are they even close to the shut down ability of the Revis led corners of 2014? Not even close So why didn’t Belichick go after one of the top corners in the draft?
The team made a concerted effort to improve the front seven and take a lot of pressure off of the secondary this season. Chandler Jones and Rob Ninkovich are good bookend edge rushers but have been overworked, playing more than 90 percent of the snaps in recent years.
The first thing the team did in free agency was bring in DE/OLB Jabaal Sheard from Cleveland. Sheard is a player who can fill in the rotation and bring pressure on the QB while maintaining fresh legs throughout the game.
The Patriots first selection in the draft, Malcom Brown is a big bodied defensive tackle, but isn’t a two-gap run stuffer only. He’s a guy who has the speed to shoot gaps, disrupt plays in the backfield and collapse the pocket. Coupled with last year’s top selection, Dominique Easley, now completely healthy, they will provide that interior pocket presence the team has been looking for…and lacking for years.
The Patriots draft also brought in players in the front seven who can bring pressure on the quarterback and are versatile enough to play with their hand down or standing up. Geneo Grissom, Trey Flowers and Xzavier Dickson can get all play DE or standing up as OLBs. Athletic but undersized linebacker Matthew Wells can also rush the passer as well as cover in the passing lanes.
Linebackers Dont'a Hightower and Jamie Collins have shown the ability to blitz up the A-gap and should be doing even more of that in 2015. With the improved pass rush of the others, it will make them more effective in overloading the middle.
Rather than try to recapture lightning in a bottle with Revis, Belichick decided to improve the overall defense by beefing up the front seven, building a better, more efficient pass rush and taking the pressure off of the corners having to cover for very long.
Do the Patriots expect Ryan, Butler and Fletcher to be the equal of Revis, Browner and Arrington? No, that would be a ridiculous stretch…but with an improved front seven and pass rush, they shouldn’t have to be.
In order for all of this to work, they need excellent play at the safety position, especially from McCourty. He has to ensure all the players in the secondary are in the right position and move players around according. With the second round selection Jordan Richards being considered a “coach on the field”, he’d fulfill a similar role. Once he gets acclimated to the New England defense, it would seem he’d find himself playing more snaps sooner rather than later.
But moving McCourty back to corner? Not a Belichick-type decision and not a good one either. Leave him where he’s in the best position to succeed, and that is at safety.
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