Nice article in The Athletic on McGrone.
Patriots’ Cam McGrone has battled back from injury before. Can he do it again now at an NFL level?
Good combo of athleticism, football instincts, discipline, focus, and smarts. Some pieces:
He was also incredibly intelligent. After Bush turned pro, McGrone wasn’t afraid to assert himself with the coaches as a sophomore.
“He loves football,” Brown said. “You better have your **** together when you go in that meeting room because he’s going to have a couple good questions for you. He keeps you on your toes. That’s probably the thing I like about him the most.”
“He was so glued into what we did defensively that he was almost an extension of coach Brown on the installs and understanding the defense,” Jean-Mary said. “He was super, super smart and understood the defense as well as some coaches.”
At 6 feet and 235 pounds with 4.4 speed, McGrone displayed similar sideline-to-sideline ability as Bush. Brown, who coached Matt Milano at Boston College, compared McGrone to the current Buffalo Bills linebacker in terms of his penchant to target the ball off the snap.
McGrone was cerebral enough to diagnose conflicted runs – against the spread with zone reads, quarterback keepers and the like – while working off pulling linebackers and avoiding getting caught on pass options. He was capable in coverage because of his speed, and Brown called McGrone a prototypical modern-day linebacker due to that collection of traits.
“He is a legit player,” Brown said. “Just watch him run. It’s impressive. That’s the definer. His athleticism just jumped off the screen.”
McGrone was a leader in practice, too. Every rep mattered, his or otherwise. When a particular defender kept jumping offside in one period, McGrone lit him up to ensure everyone was mentally on task.
Then on Saturdays, he took over in games against Notre Dame, Iowa, Penn State and Illinois, and Brown got him going in blitz packages to deploy that athleticism. McGrone finished the season with 65 tackles, nine for loss, 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble and a pass breakup.
“Cam is flying,” Ross exclaimed. “Cam is fast as ****. He’s fast. Seriously, he’s fast.