FOXBORO, Mass. — New England Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty played at a high level as a safety for one of the NFL’s best secondaries last season. But since winning Super Bowl XLIX in February, the Patriots have lost veteran corners Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner to free agency and released Kyle Arrington.
New England is thin at corner on the depth chart as a result, which might force McCourty, who played a lot of snaps at cornerback during his first three pro seasons, to move back to that position in the upcoming campaign.
“It’s up the coaches,” McCourty said after Thursday’s OTA at Gillette Stadium. “I want to play safety, but it’s out of my control. Whatever the coaches decide is what it’ll have to be.”
Offseason OTAs are a good place to try new things and see which guys are versatile enough to play in different positions and roles defensively. To play in this Patriots defense, you need a lot of different skills.
“We do so many different things defensively, game plan-wise,” McCourty said. “Right now it’s not as much since we’re not game planning an offense, but whether you want to call it a safety playing a linebacker role, a corner playing a safety role, a safety playing a corner, depending on matchups or how we want to play a team, all that can happen.
“That’s what good about this time of the year, we’re just running defenses and guys are playing positions and going out there competing. That helps us as we go into the season.”
As you might imagine given the amount of offseason departures, the level of competition for jobs in the secondary is quite high. The Patriots have more than 10 defensive backs at OTAs competing for jobs and playing time. Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler was not among the defensive backs at Thursday’s OTA session.
“It’s heavy, this time of the year, it’s always highly competitive,” McCourty said. “Even last year, you bring in a bunch of new guys that were great players, it was still really competitive. Everyone wants to play. I think that’s a the great thing about having top-notch athletes, everyone wants to play.”
As one of the veterans of the secondary with five NFL seasons under his belt, McCourty is someone younger players or new additions can go to and ask questions about the defense.
“It’s good. I think myself, along with a lot of the other guys, whether it’s (Patrick) Chung, a guy like Logan Ryan who’s been here now for a couple of years, Duron (Harmon), all those guys have to really take that leadership role and try to get it out to those guys,” McCourty said. “Especially the safeties, you’re in control of everything going on back there.”
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
