FOXBOROUGH - If DeMarcus Covington is nervous about his first regular season game as the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, he sure as hell isn't showing it.
At his press conference Thursday morning, Covington exuded considerable energy from the dais, addressing a wide range of topics, including the opportunity he's earned.
"I've always dreamed of doing this," he said. "So, this is what 'Hey, we're here now.' So, you know, it's not like, oh shit, what's going to happen? Like, Nah, been dreaming on it. Been waiting on it."
When he got the title, Covington was inheriting a top-10 defense from the year prior, one that somehow managed to be as stout as they were with their best player, Matthew Judon, and most promising player, Christian Gonzalez, being lost during that week four disaster in Dallas. The expectation of adding both talents to a core that included a blossoming and newly rich Christian Barmore had nearly everyone - fans and media alike - talking about Covington's group being at least top 5 this season.
Then came the bad news about Barmore and his blood clots, Judon forcing his way out of town, injury-plagued summers from Josh Uche and nickel corner Marcus Jones, and suddenly, those expectations have cooled some, just not with Covington himself.
"We're not an individual-based defense like we're going to win because of this one person," he asserted. "We're going to win because we play well as a team, and we play good team defense, we play with fundamentals, and we play aggressively and do what we're supposed to do. That's why we win. That's why we're going to win, and that's how we've done it in the past, too..."
Is he whistling past the graveyard a bit, knowing that his best edge player is long gone and hard to find, and his best interior player seems like a long shot to return in 2024-25? Perhaps, but Covington has never lacked confidence and certainly can point back to as recently as last season for how a team can overcome losing some of their star power.
"I do believe the individual performance of a player can help us win or lose, but at the end of the day, we need everybody to, you know, win a one-on-one matchup, alright? And that's how you can go..."
As for how he prepared for his elevated role, Covington told us that, for starters, he put himself to the test in his own backyard this spring and summer.
"I called games all throughout the summer. (I) Sat there in my backyard, and put on a game, a live game, and called the game. So in my mind, this isn't my first game calling, alright, because I've tried to prepare that already - in the spring, in training camp - and go out there and not script plays, and go out there and call it like it's a game, and then make the mistakes.
"So our players out there practicing are out there getting their reps. I'm getting my reps too. Whether I got it in practice, I did it in the summer, or I did it years past before leading up to the roles that you want to do, Just like any job, you prepare for the role that you want to be in before you get in the role, right? So I've been doing that."
Of course, the obvious follow-up question was, did your neighbors think you'd lost your mind? But Covington smiled and said he's got plenty of room. I guess that's one of the perks of getting that defensive coordinator pay.
From talking to players this summer, I've gotten the impression that Mayo is not setting the defense's plan; instead, he's tasking Covington to draft the plan and then get the players to execute it. As someone already viewed as a head coach in waiting, this is a massive opportunity for Covington to showcase his big brain and prove that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.