Grist for the mill...........
Coach Belichick likes Dane Fletcher - a lot. Belichick said the following of Fletcher in December 2010:
“Dane’s in a very unusual situation, it’s a short list of players who have gone from being defensive linemen to being inside linebackers that I’ve worked with: Harry Carson would be one, Tedy Bruschi would be two, and Dane would be a third example of that.
Most of the time, those guys go from being defensive ends in college to outside linebackers at our level. To take a defensive lineman to an inside linebacker position, it’s a much bigger challenge, to go from a defensive lineman to a guy that has coverage responsibilities, formation responsibilities, to seeing the game from your feet, and from depth, as opposed to seeing it this far away from you, [that is] the guy across from you. It’s a whole different ballgame, and there’s not a lot of players that can do that. Dane’s done a good job of it. He obviously has a long way to go, he’s nowhere close to being a finished product, but the progress that he’s made from the spring, to training camp, to in-season has been significant, enough that we’re going to continue to work with him there and he’s contributed for us.
Dane was good in the kicking game, he was active, and that enabled him to get a bigger role on the defensive side of the ball, he’s been able to capitalize on some of those opportunities."
Harry Carson and Tedy Bruschi all rolled into one? Good enough for me.
