Bill Belichick spoke with the media on a conference call Friday morning, and touched on a number of different topics, including the use of Cordarrelle Patterson, the work of Keionta Davis, and the confusion around the new helmet rule. Here are my three top takeaways:
1. I wouldn’t worry too much about Cordarrelle Patterson not returning kicks for the first two preseason games.
Belichick listed a variety of factors behind the thinking of having youngsters Braxton Berrios and Riley McCarron as kick returners in the first two preseason games instead of Patterson.
“(There’s the) individual player, the unit that he's in, what he's done on the practice field, who the other people are that are involved and what's best for the team,” explained Belichick. “When you combine all of those things, that's what leads to most of the decisions in preseason games and so forth.
“Not all games go the same way. Sometimes, you play more of a particular type of play, or maybe more offense or more defense in the game based on that individual game,” he added. “You just have to do the best you can to try to, as I said, in the end do what’s best for the football team and try to balance all of the other things out. That’s the way it always is. It’s never going to change.”
This would be perfect form tackle by Jordan Richards was flagged last night. Not sure if anyone understands the “proper” and “legal” way to tackle nowadays. pic.twitter.com/Fa5DZcK0Cg
— Hung Up Podcast (@HungUpPodcast) August 17, 2018