BPF
In the Starting Line-Up
- Joined
- May 13, 2006
- Messages
- 2,469
- Reaction score
- 0
This article is a good read, especially for this time of year when teams build their rosters. I pulled out some interesting quotes from BB that give us some insight into his thinking.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26424648/site/21683474/
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/26424648/site/21683474/
The attitude of "we do what we do" is not as prevalent in the NFL as it once was. The best teams are able to change week-to-week depending on opponent. The New England Patriots, as Dungy points out, may have one week where they feature a fleet of linebackers and safeties prominently and leave some defensive linemen inactive. The next week, against a power team, those defensive backs may be sitting and the defensive linemen are back in.
But coaches are also trying to establish what they are about, says Whisenhunt.
"It's about having an identity and answering the question, 'What will you try to be?'" he explains. "There's a number of free agents or draftable players out there that are good football players, but we don't want them on our team, while on another team they can be very successful."
------------
"You've got to be careful with how many (specialized) guys you have because you still need players to do the things everyone else at the position does," he explains.
Belichick uses his team's running backs to illustrate his point.
"Even if you have Laurence Maroney (a semi-rugged everydown back) and Kevin Faulk (a slight and quick third-down back), you still need a backup that can do what Laurence does and if that's not Kevin, then you need somebody else," he explains. "When you have a really specialized player that's a lot different from the other players at the same position it gives you flexibility situationally but it would be hard to have Laurence, Kevin and another different style player. Then what do you do if something happens to Laurence? Now you can't do what Laurence does and you have no backup to Kevin. You can only go so far."
Unique skills are nice. But not too unique, Belichick explains.
"Say you have a blocking tight end and a receiving tight end," he begins. "You run one set of plays with the blocker and then these other plays with the fast guy. Then something happens to one of those guys. Then what do you do? Do you have the blocking guy do the receiving? Do you have the receiving guy do the blocking. Now you need two more backups. You need an overlap of skills so it doesn’t eliminate half the plays if you have guys go down."
It may seem that dressing 45 players for every game should give a coach plenty of depth. But it doesn’t. A team really needs the 22 starters, the three dedicated special teams players (kicker, punter, long snapper) and backups to each position if someone goes down. Using a roster spot for someone with unique skills is a luxury.
Belichick explains that, a few years back, the team procured a defensive lineman to create speed mismatches. When it became clear that he wasn’t able to give an appreciably better result on the plays he was used, the cost-benefit of keeping him made him expendable.
"He's got to be productive or it's not worth it," Belichick notes.