Patriots turn busts into contributors for Super Bowl run
- Thread starter CGI_Ram
- Start date
-
To unlock all of features of Rams On Demand please take a brief moment to register. Registering is not only quick and easy, it also allows you access to additional features such as live chat, private messaging, and a host of other apps exclusive to Rams On Demand.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2014
- Messages
- 20,922
- Name
- Peter
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...igning-chris-long-to-corey-dillon-randy-moss/
Bill Belichick compares signing Chris Long to Corey Dillon, Randy Moss
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 31, 2017
Getty Images
Bill Belichick likes finding players on other teams who are sick of losing, and bringing them to New England to win.
Belichick said that the latest such player, Chris Long, reminds him of some of the other veteran players who have come over from bad teams and then joined the Patriots and bought into the system immediately because they wanted to win.
“They realize how special it is and makes them realize it a little bit more,” Belichick said. “It is similar to what we had with Corey Dillon when he came from Cincinnati. Randy Moss when he came from Oakland. Bryan Cox when he came from Chicago. Guys that weren’t with great teams and had success here and they brought an energy to the team that from a veteran player was unique and special.”
Long only won 33 games in eight seasons with the Rams. He’s already won 16 games in his first season with the Patriots, and he can win No. 17 at Super Bowl LI.
“Some of these players that have been with the Patriots for a while have had a lot of successful seasons and won a lot of games. Chris hasn’t. I think he appreciates winning a lot,” Belichick said.
That’s a powerful pitch Belichick can make to veteran free agents coming from bad teams: Come to New England and you’ll win.
Bill Belichick compares signing Chris Long to Corey Dillon, Randy Moss
Posted by Michael David Smith on January 31, 2017
Bill Belichick likes finding players on other teams who are sick of losing, and bringing them to New England to win.
Belichick said that the latest such player, Chris Long, reminds him of some of the other veteran players who have come over from bad teams and then joined the Patriots and bought into the system immediately because they wanted to win.
“They realize how special it is and makes them realize it a little bit more,” Belichick said. “It is similar to what we had with Corey Dillon when he came from Cincinnati. Randy Moss when he came from Oakland. Bryan Cox when he came from Chicago. Guys that weren’t with great teams and had success here and they brought an energy to the team that from a veteran player was unique and special.”
Long only won 33 games in eight seasons with the Rams. He’s already won 16 games in his first season with the Patriots, and he can win No. 17 at Super Bowl LI.
“Some of these players that have been with the Patriots for a while have had a lot of successful seasons and won a lot of games. Chris hasn’t. I think he appreciates winning a lot,” Belichick said.
That’s a powerful pitch Belichick can make to veteran free agents coming from bad teams: Come to New England and you’ll win.
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2014
- Messages
- 20,922
- Name
- Peter
http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/02/01/malcolm-butler-new-england-patriots-super-bowl-nfl-mailbag
The Patriots’ Surprise Star
Malcolm Butler was a bottom-of-the-roster player heading into New England’s last Super Bowl. Now he’s getting top billing, and maybe the toughest assignment, against the Falcons in Houston.
by Peter King
Photo: Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
HOUSTON — So it has come to this for New England cornerback Malcolm Butler, who two years ago this week was as invisible as any bottom-of-the-roster player at Super Bowl 49: Microsoft approached Butler when the Patriots clinched their Super Bowl berth and asked if he’d be the Pats’ player to wear cleats designed by a fan on the field before Super Bowl 51. What?
Butler tried to process it. Fans at the NFL Experience could draw a design for the cleats on a Microsoft Surface, competing for the right to have Butler wear them on the field during warm-ups; late in the week, Butler would choose a winning design.
Malcolm Butler, in one of the NFL’s mega-partners’ major pre-game promotions? What a long strange trip it’s been for a guy who wasn’t drafted in 2014, who wasn’t one of the Patriots’ draft-weekend undrafted free agents, who earned a shot with the Patriots after a mid-May tryout that year when the team had a couple of camp slots left.
“Life has changed,” said Butler, who has written one of the most compelling stories in recent NFL history. “It’s changed a lot, a whole lot.”
This week, Butler is part of the biggest matchup question of the Super Bowl: How will the Patriots defend Julio Jones? At 5-11 and 180 pounds, Butler has not often been matched against the redwoods of NFL receivers, and Jones is four-and-a-half-inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than Butler.
The Patriots could use the 6-1, 207-pound Eric Rowe, or ever the 5-11, 192-pound Logan Ryan, plus a feisty safety like Patrick Chung, to try to limit the potential Atlanta game-wrecker.
Rowe is actually not a bad guess. In his past 10 games, he’s averaged 53 snaps a game, including 61 in the AFC Championship Game against Pittsburgh. Ryan leads the Patriots in snaps against the slot receiver; that means he could be matched against one of the league’s best in the slot in 2016, Atlanta’s Mohamed Sanu.
Somehow, some way, the Patriots will figure a way to matchup against Jones … and you know that Bill Belichick won’t get lost in this single matchup. He knows that when Jones is a non-factor (Jones missed two games with injuries in 2016, and was held to 35 receiving yards or less in four others), Atlanta’s still very diverse on offense, and very good: 6-0 in fact, averaging 37.0 points per game.
“He can do everything, and he likes to block too,” Butler said. “Best wide receiver in the NFL, and you never hear him complain about anything whether he gets the ball or not.”
The guess here, and that’s all it is, would by Ryan and a safety on Jones, Chung on the back leaking out of the backfield, and Butler handling some of the Sanu duty. But we shall see.
Now, back to the Butler story. Two years ago, when he jumped the Ricardo Lockette route and picked off the Russell Wilson pass at the New England goal line, with Seattle needing one yard in three downs to score the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, Butler’s life changed. Forever.
I’ll never forget seeing Butler in the locker room afterward, looking legitimately dazed by the turn of events. During the week, no one had interviewed him. No one in the media was even sure he’d be active for the game, never mind playing at crunch time after cornerback Kyle Arrington had been benched for getting beat too much. On his 18th snap of the Super Bowl, Butler made history.
“I went from NFL player to one of the well-known NFL players, in one play,” Butler said. “I was surrounded after the game … [Owner] Mr. [Robert] Kraft gave me a kiss on the cheek. He said to me, ‘My guy! So glad you’re a part of this team.’ When you make big plays, the boss is going to like you. If I didn’t make that play, you know what would have happened—I probably would have been on the coach’s tape for not being able to handle big situations in big-time games.”
I wondered: “What did Bill Belichick ever say to you about the play?”
“He used it on teaching tapes with the squad,’’ Butler said. “Then, shortly after the Super Bowl, he said to me, ‘Long way from West Alabama, huh?’ And he smiled. That was about it.
“It does feel unreal to me, especially where I came from. Division II to the New England Patriots, last cornerback on the roster all season, go out in the biggest game of the year, on the biggest play of the game, make one of the biggest plays in NFL history. Then, come back the next year, accomplish a few things, and then, this year, back in the Super Bowl. It is amazing sometimes when I think about it. Sometimes it does feel unreal.”
But …
“The dream world is over. We got a game to play.” Spoken like a Belichick player.
The Patriots’ Surprise Star
Malcolm Butler was a bottom-of-the-roster player heading into New England’s last Super Bowl. Now he’s getting top billing, and maybe the toughest assignment, against the Falcons in Houston.
by Peter King
Photo: Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
HOUSTON — So it has come to this for New England cornerback Malcolm Butler, who two years ago this week was as invisible as any bottom-of-the-roster player at Super Bowl 49: Microsoft approached Butler when the Patriots clinched their Super Bowl berth and asked if he’d be the Pats’ player to wear cleats designed by a fan on the field before Super Bowl 51. What?
Butler tried to process it. Fans at the NFL Experience could draw a design for the cleats on a Microsoft Surface, competing for the right to have Butler wear them on the field during warm-ups; late in the week, Butler would choose a winning design.
Malcolm Butler, in one of the NFL’s mega-partners’ major pre-game promotions? What a long strange trip it’s been for a guy who wasn’t drafted in 2014, who wasn’t one of the Patriots’ draft-weekend undrafted free agents, who earned a shot with the Patriots after a mid-May tryout that year when the team had a couple of camp slots left.
“Life has changed,” said Butler, who has written one of the most compelling stories in recent NFL history. “It’s changed a lot, a whole lot.”
This week, Butler is part of the biggest matchup question of the Super Bowl: How will the Patriots defend Julio Jones? At 5-11 and 180 pounds, Butler has not often been matched against the redwoods of NFL receivers, and Jones is four-and-a-half-inches taller and 40 pounds heavier than Butler.
The Patriots could use the 6-1, 207-pound Eric Rowe, or ever the 5-11, 192-pound Logan Ryan, plus a feisty safety like Patrick Chung, to try to limit the potential Atlanta game-wrecker.
Rowe is actually not a bad guess. In his past 10 games, he’s averaged 53 snaps a game, including 61 in the AFC Championship Game against Pittsburgh. Ryan leads the Patriots in snaps against the slot receiver; that means he could be matched against one of the league’s best in the slot in 2016, Atlanta’s Mohamed Sanu.
Somehow, some way, the Patriots will figure a way to matchup against Jones … and you know that Bill Belichick won’t get lost in this single matchup. He knows that when Jones is a non-factor (Jones missed two games with injuries in 2016, and was held to 35 receiving yards or less in four others), Atlanta’s still very diverse on offense, and very good: 6-0 in fact, averaging 37.0 points per game.
“He can do everything, and he likes to block too,” Butler said. “Best wide receiver in the NFL, and you never hear him complain about anything whether he gets the ball or not.”
The guess here, and that’s all it is, would by Ryan and a safety on Jones, Chung on the back leaking out of the backfield, and Butler handling some of the Sanu duty. But we shall see.
Now, back to the Butler story. Two years ago, when he jumped the Ricardo Lockette route and picked off the Russell Wilson pass at the New England goal line, with Seattle needing one yard in three downs to score the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, Butler’s life changed. Forever.
I’ll never forget seeing Butler in the locker room afterward, looking legitimately dazed by the turn of events. During the week, no one had interviewed him. No one in the media was even sure he’d be active for the game, never mind playing at crunch time after cornerback Kyle Arrington had been benched for getting beat too much. On his 18th snap of the Super Bowl, Butler made history.
“I went from NFL player to one of the well-known NFL players, in one play,” Butler said. “I was surrounded after the game … [Owner] Mr. [Robert] Kraft gave me a kiss on the cheek. He said to me, ‘My guy! So glad you’re a part of this team.’ When you make big plays, the boss is going to like you. If I didn’t make that play, you know what would have happened—I probably would have been on the coach’s tape for not being able to handle big situations in big-time games.”
I wondered: “What did Bill Belichick ever say to you about the play?”
“He used it on teaching tapes with the squad,’’ Butler said. “Then, shortly after the Super Bowl, he said to me, ‘Long way from West Alabama, huh?’ And he smiled. That was about it.
“It does feel unreal to me, especially where I came from. Division II to the New England Patriots, last cornerback on the roster all season, go out in the biggest game of the year, on the biggest play of the game, make one of the biggest plays in NFL history. Then, come back the next year, accomplish a few things, and then, this year, back in the Super Bowl. It is amazing sometimes when I think about it. Sometimes it does feel unreal.”
But …
“The dream world is over. We got a game to play.” Spoken like a Belichick player.