The reason why Kyle Van Noy doesn’t expect the New England Patriots’ winning train to derail is simple.
The Patriots linebacker explained Tuesday on “NFL Total Access” why he believes the team will overcome the departures of key personnel and mount another charge at Super Bowl glory in 2019 because of the culture head coach Bill Belichick established and reinforces with the help of longtime veterans.
“(Head coach) Bill (Belichick) does a really good job of the culture being set with the players that have been there for their tenures,” Van Noy told former Patriots star Willie McGinnest. “Like Patrick Chung, Donte Hightower, Devin McCourty, Tom (Brady), Matthew Slater. Those guys have been there for a while and (the standard) has been passed on from your generation.
“When that culture is set, it doesn’t matter, we all have the same goal in mind and that’s just to win.”
Rob Gronkowski’s retirement and Brian Flores’ move to the Miami Dolphins were just two of the departures McGinnest and Van Noy referenced, but the Patriots have withstood plenty of personnel losses during the Belichick and Brady era and continued competing for Super Bowls, if not winning them outright.
And one needs little more than the insight Van Noy offers to understand why that’s the case.
