Patriots Will Have Hands Full With Benardrick McKinney, Texans' Tackling Machine

Bill Belichick began his Monday morning conference call by complimenting Jadeveon Clowney, the fearsome Houston Texans defensive end who finally is playing up to his billing as the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.

But the New England Patriots head coach reserved his highest praise for a defender Houston drafted one year later: linebacker Benardrick McKinney, whom the Patriots evidently were high on, as well.

“He’s a very good football player,” Belichick said. “We did a lot of work on him coming out of Mississippi State. He’s the kind of player that played outside and inside linebacker. Also played a little bit at defensive end, is an excellent blitzer, runs very well, is long. He’s 6-foot-4, so he gets to a lot of plays with his length, particularly in pass coverage, a hard guy to throw over or around, a very good tackler, good range, good speed, good instincts, good wrap-up tackler.”

The Texans selected McKinney 43rd overall in the 2015 draft, 11 spots after the Patriots took defensive tackle Malcom Brown with the final pick of the first round. After a solid but unspectacular rookie year, the 24-year-old blossomed into a second-team All-Pro this season by being the only player in the NFL to record five sacks and more than 100 tackles.

McKinney finished the regular season with 129 total tackles, nearly doubling the Texans’ second-place finisher in that category (linebacker Brian Cushing, 65). His best game came, oddly enough, in Houston’s worst loss, a 27-0 thrashing at the hands of the Patriots back in Week 3.

McKinney racked up a career-high 16 tackles and one sack in that game, and Belichick knows his team will have its hands full with him and the rest of the Texans’ formidable defense when the teams square off Saturday night in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

“The guy is a real good football player that does a lot for their defense, plays a lot of positions and, again, does so many things well,” Belichick said. “It’s very unusual to find a player with his skills that can do so many things in the running game, in the passing game, on the line, off the line. He’s an excellent player, one of the best players we’ve played against all year.”

Lining up beside McKinney will be Cushing, who sat out the teams’ first meeting with a knee injury. Cushing was the Texans’ leading tackler last season, and Belichick called the linebacker duo one of the best in the NFL.

“With Cushing inside as well, those two guys are as good as any combination of inside (linebackers),” the coach said. “I mean, individually, they’re as good as we’ve played against, but they’re as good as any combination of inside linebackers that we see or that we’ve seen in a while. They do everything well.”