Given how the Patriots’ 2019 campaign played out, some noteworthy achievements were swept under the rug.
One of the more impressive milestones reached by a Patriot this season came courtesy of Matthew Slater, who broke the NFL record for most Pro Bowl selections by a special teamer with his eighth. More accolades likely are on the way for Slater, including the outside chance of being named the first special teams ace inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As Slater explained in a recent sit-down interview with The Athletic, the idea of having a bust in Canton, Ohio hasn’t even crossed his mind. He thinks of himself as more of a “glue guy,” but don’t tell that to Bill Belichick, who includes Slater in the same company as some of the game’s best.
“I think the impressive thing about Matt is he gets doubled every week,” Belichick told The Athletic. “I mean, every week there’s a game plan for him. I think that’s really the mark of the truly great players. Players that I’ve coached like Lawrence Taylor, always saw double-team blocks. He always saw help in the pass rush. The great receivers in the game, Randy Moss, always double-covered. You just didn’t put a guy out there on Moss and let him go. You just didn’t see that. Matt’s a complete player. He does a great job in every role that he has.”
Belichick continued: “With the bullseye on their back, this is the guy the other team is game planning for and still see him excel is, to me, the mark of the great players. So whether it’s Taylor to Moss to Slater in the kicking game, those guys all kind of fit into that same category for me.”
The future is unclear for Slater, who is set to become a free agent in March and will turn 35 at the start of the 2020 season. But given Belichick’s view of the longtime Patriots captain, as well as the importance he puts on special teams, it wouldn’t be shocking if Slater winds up back in Foxboro.
