The Tennessee Titans clearly didn’t know what they had in Akeem Ayers.
Ayers had lost his starting role with the Titans before a midseason trade to the New England Patriots, as he failed to click with new head coach Ken Whisenhunt and defensive coordinator Ray Horton. The Patriots saved him by shipping a sixth-round pick to Tennessee for Ayers and a seventh-rounder, and the former second-round pick has been a rising star for the Patriots.
Ayers’ success — three sacks, 12 tackles and an interception — with the Patriots has shocked some fans, but head coach Bill Belichick knew what the Patriots were getting in the UCLA product.
“I think he’s what we thought he would be,” Belichick said Wednesday. “But, you know, when you work with somebody you obviously get to know them a lot better.”
Ayers was acquired after the Patriots lost linebacker Jerod Mayo for the season with a knee injury and defensive end Chandler Jones for weeks with a hip ailment. So far, Ayers has taken over Jones’ role more than Mayo’s since the Patriots have stayed in a nickel defense with just two linebackers.
“He played outside linebacker in college and at Tennessee. He played defensive end in sub situations, which is pretty common for a lot of guys like him, like a Rob Ninkovich-type of guy,” Belichick said. “But until we actually had him, we didn’t know exactly how that would manifest itself. But he’s smart and he’s had a lot of experience playing on his feet and he’s had a lot of experience playing down. We’ve been in a lot of nickel defense over the last, I’d say probably two months, so not exclusively, but a lot. So his defensive end role has become a lot bigger than the outside linebacker role, just because we haven’t been in a lot of our base defense. But could he play linebacker and play on his feet had the percentage been different, had we been over 50 percent base defense in the last couple months? I think he’s certainly capable of playing outside linebacker.”
That’s good news for the Patriots, because his role as a defensive end could diminish when Jones returns. The Patriots likely will still use Ayers as an edge rusher on third downs, kicking Jones inside to defensive tackle where he played last season.
“I’d say he has done about what we have expected him to do,” Belichick said. “He learned very quickly, got on the field quickly, has a lot of position flexibility physically and has a lot of position flexibility mentally in terms of assignments and rushing, covering, man coverage, zone coverage. He has a good feel for the game. He’s a smart guy and he’s an instinctive player, like Rob, different than Rob, but like Rob. I’d say it’s pretty much about what we thought it would be, but we certainly know a lot more having worked with him on a daily basis the last couple months than what we knew just scouting a guy off of film in Tennessee.”
Thumbnail photo via Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press
