Wednesday Patriots Notebook 4/22: McCourty Unsure About Secondary, Eagles Were Almost Pats' Opening Match-Up, More Notes
Brady and the Patriots have a challenging finish coming up in 2015.
The NFL schedules were announced last night, and the Patriots will kick off the season against the Pittsburgh in their quest to follow-up February's Super Bowl championship when the 2015 begins.
New England received little love from the schedule makers, who set up the back half of the campaign with the team being forced to play five of their final eight games on the road, including three of their last four at home. Their final two are key Division games against the Jets on Sunday December 27th, followed by a trip down to Miami on January 3rd. They also placed the team's bye week in week four, removing the opportunity for a midseason break for players to get healthy.
They'll play five night games this season, with their Thursday night match-up against the Steelers to kick off the season, and from there they'll play a Sunday night game on the road against the Colts in Week 6, a Thursday night game home game against Miami in Week 8, as well as two back-to-back night games in Weeks 11 and 12 against the Bills (a Monday night game at home on 11/23) and Broncos (a Sunday night game on the road on 11/29).
Needless to say on paper it looks like a big challenge facing Bill Belichick's team for 2015. But the release of how it will play out signals the fact the NFL season is creeping closer, and it certainly can't get here soon enough.
MCCOURTY UNSURE ABOUT SECONDARY:
Obviously losing Darrelle Revis sets up the Patriots with a lot of question marks heading into this season in the secondary, and veteran safety Devin McCourty acknowledged on Tuesday that even he's not sure what to expect.
McCourty said he's confident in the preparation he and his teammates are going to put in, but he knows they'll have their work cut out for them.
“I guess right now we don’t know what it’s going to be,” McCourty said via CBS Boston. “I’m confident in the hard work that we’re going to put in, but I’d be lying if I came out here and said we’re going to be great. Same way last year when we got together; we didn’t know what to expect. We’ve got to put the work in now and we’ll grow as the process goes on. Once we get on the practice field for OTAs, and we’ll start practicing, doing things like that, that’s where you put the work in and you give yourself a chance to be a good secondary and a good defense.”
One option to add some talent could obviously be via the draft, and the Patriots have certainly taken a look at a fair amount of options. According to NFLDraftScout.com's Frank Cooney, the Patriots have brought in a host of defensive backs for visits heading into the NFL Draft, with nine visits and six workouts, including:
--Kevin Johnson, CB, Wake Forest (WO)
--Bobby McCain, CB, Memphis (WO)
--Bobby McCain, CB, Memphis (WO)
--Trae Waynes, CB, Michigan State (WO)
--Justin Coleman, CB, Tennessee (WO)
--Cedric Thompson, FS, Minnesota (PV)
--Nick Perry, FS, Alabama (WO)
--Damarious Randall, S, Arizona State (PV)
--Chris Dunkley, WR/CB, South Florida (PV)
It's a lot to ask for a draft choice to come in immediately and make significant contributions, although McCourty was the exception after he arrived as a rookie in 2010 and managed to make an impact in his first season, which is something that the Patriots could certainly use this year.
As for Revis, McCourty joked, "Who? We're past that," although he admitted the two players are "still friends".
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- The NFL took a long look at having the Eagles as the Patriots' potential opening opponent, but eventually settled on Pennsylvania's other team instead and went with the Steelers. “We knew Pittsburgh was a great opener,” NFL senior vice president of broadcasting Howard Katz told Peter King of TheMMQB.com. “But we spent a lot of time looking at Philly as the opener. We really did. We didn’t go away from that path because we were worried about the Eagles quarterback. We really went away from it because we came to the conclusion that we needed that Philadelphia-New England game on Fox as a doubleheader game later in the season [Dec. 6]. We had a sort of finished puzzle, but part of that puzzle was going to be Philly-New England game as a Fox doubleheader.”
- The Patriots will be heading to Washington tomorrow for their trip to the White House, which Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe pointed out is happening 4-6 weeks earlier than other previous Super Bowl winners. With players just this week returning to Gillette Stadium, the timing certainly works out well as it will be a short break but gets it out of the way so they can focus on the upcoming season. “I think from a team aspect standpoint, it really puts everything in the past,” McCourty told the Boston Globe. “I think it will help us focus on 2015 now.’’
- For those of us who are older and get exhausted just hearing about Rob Gronkowski's off the field life, it appears there are some of his teammates who feel they wouldn't be able to keep up with his lifestyle either. McCourty joked on Tuesday about Gronk's life, telling the Globe about being able to keep up with the tight end, “On the football field? Yeah. Off? Maybe for like two days,” McCourty said. “I’m not too old, so maybe for like two days, but he’d probably outlast me after that.”
- Speaking of off the field life, McCourty talked about Tom Brady's offseason cliff-diving video and he had no issue with it at all. “I thought that was cool,” he said via the Boston Herald. “Tom’s got, what, four Super Bowls now? You’ve got to live on the edge to win that big.” McCourty did admit, however, that he wouldn't have done it. “He’s a great swimmer, I guess," said McCourty. "I wouldn’t have jumped. I can’t swim.”
