The New England Patriots have a surprising problem. Their last two second-round picks, Josh Uche and Chase Winovich, have not developed into every-down players. They haven’t even cracked the starting rotation. Uche is a situational pass-rusher and Winovich is regularly a healthy scratch, as noted by ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
Coach Bill Belichick is known for developing the best linebackers in the NFL. So why is that suddenly a problem for an organization that had built their defense around that linebacker group for years? Reiss checked in with Rosevelt Colvin, who shared some insight on how Belichick brought him into the scheme.
“I was blazing off the edge. It was similar to what I had done in Chicago; when I was up on the ball, it was more than likely a blitz. So I was like, ‘I’m going to go blow this up,’” Colvin told Reiss. “And I was rolling. But Bill came to me in the middle of drills and said, ‘Rosie, you can’t do that.’ I literally asked him why, because I was making plays. He said, ‘You might have made that play, but if it was a pass instead of a run, we would have been in bad shape.
“So I think for young guys, it starts with getting over the hump of ‘what is my role and how do I play it to the best of my ability?’ They have to know the basics. If they can’t add and subtract, there’s no way they’re going to get to algebra. … I would say it’s not necessarily as complicated as people might think — you have to be able to adjust, that’s the biggest thing.”
