In this week’s edition of the NFL Notebook, we look at Keion Crossen’s quarterbacking skills, Bill Belichick’s methods for dealing with an undisciplined defensive lineman against a running quarterback, and Dont’a Hightower’s “Welcome to the NFL” moment. But first, we ask veteran Matthew Slater for his take on the state of the roster heading into the 2018 season.
1. No one has a better feel for the mood and energy of the Patriots’ locker room than Slater. The veteran, who is going into his 11th season in the NFL, is the spiritual leader on the roster, and one of the most well-respected players among his teammates over the last dozen or so years, ranking up there with the likes of Kevin Faulk.
Between the respect he commands, his background in his game of football, and his own experiences in 10 years in the league, he has excellent perspective. All that makes him really good when it comes to understanding where the team stands at any given point on the calendar. He’s never been the type to trash his teammates when things aren’t going well, but he’s a go-to guy when it comes to taking the temperature of the New England locker room. And now, on the verge of the 2018 campaign, he told me this week he feels good about the state of the roster for a few reasons, including the work they’ve willingly put in and the focus the group has maintained all offseason.
“I think you have to like the way this team has worked, and the focus we try and bring every day,” Slater told me in a quiet moment in the locker room earlier this week. “I think that focus is something you either have as a team or you don’t. I think we have it, and I think that’s going to give us a chance to be competitive.”
The seven-time Pro Bowler, who will turn 33 on Sunday, acknowledges that every team faces some uncertainty at the start of the season. But given how far this team has come over the last six months since the Super Bowl loss, he sounds cautiously optimistic.
“Preseason only tells you so much,” he said. “You get out there in Week One and you have different guys playing together, doing different things, coaches game-planning in a different way. You really find out who you are when the bullets start flying. I like to think we have a great that will compete and stand up to that pressure. But again, no one really knows until we get out there.
“Opening weekend is tough — there are a lot of moving parts for us and for our opponent. We have to be locked in. But I really appreciate the way the guys on this team really work and the focus they have. You have those type of guys, you’d go to war with them every day.”
2. One more note from our wide-ranging conversation with Pepper Johnson a few weeks ago, one that’s important when it comes to facing a dynamic quarterback like Deshaun Watson. Johnson told me the story of one game when he was playing for Bill Belichick at the Jets, and they were facing Doug Flutie. “Bill didn’t want anyone to rush the passer. If you shot your guy a move and you were power rushing, he literally told us he was going to take guys out of the game, regardless of the situation. He wanted to let us know that doing that was going to be a problem,” recalled Johnson. “We’d have one or two guys keep eyes on the quarterback and the rest keep containment. Hell, I’d like to sack the quarterback too. But from a Patriots’ perspective, if he’s throwing interceptions, we get the ball back in No. 12’s hands.” Something to remember if you see one of New England’s young defenders lose containment on Sunday against Watson.
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