The 6 Most Underappreciated Patriots of the Season So Far

NFL Power rankings for the week. https://t.co/UTDNZwP94G

— David Gurievsky (@DavidGurievsky) October 18, 2018

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To steal a phrase from legendary hitter/Lite beer consumer/ladies man Wade Boggs, who allegedly once set a third person record that will never be broken by saying, “Wade Boggs just needs to get back to playing Wade Boggs baseball like Wade Boggs is capable of,” the Patriots are back to playing Patriot football like the Patriots are capable of.

It hasn’t been perfect, God knows. The defense has things they need to clean up and the Josh McDaniels offense is still coming together with some new additions, but you can see it happening. They’re where they usually are at this point in the season. In first place in the division. With a tiebreaker against the conference team with the best record. No. 2 in most power rankings behind only the Rams. The most mind-blowing stat of all comes from my pal Kerry Byrne of Cold, Hard Football Facts that since 2016, they are 27-10 against the spread. How good is that? No other team in that stretch has that many wins, period. That’s how good. Astonishingly good.

But I didn’t come here just to insufferably fawn over how they are establishing their dominance over the NFL once again. Though I admit that’s virtually all I’ve been doing since I started typing. No, I have a different topic. I’m here to talk about the guys who have quietly been among the best Patriots players without anyone really noticing.

Because the stars on this team – the usual suspects you naturally assume will carry them, your GOAT, your Gronk, Stephon Gilmore, Julian Edelman – have been good. Good but not putting together heart-stopping, panyt-dropping, eye-popping displays of huge numbers or performance you’ll be flashing back to on your death bed. Neither have the guys on this list. But I think they’ve all been some combination of overlooked, under appreciated and played better than expected on the No. 2 team in football at the moment.

In reverse order:

6. Jason McCourty

As I’ve mentioned before, Jason McCourty was barely seeing the field among the starters in training camp. In preseason games they had him at safety in the second half, playing among guys who are getting their pink slips from Sears right now. He looked for all the world like the Danny DeVito to Devin’s Arnold and the conventional wisdom was that he was not going to make the team. Then he didn’t get the starts early on, instead watching from the sidelines while receivers took flamethrowers to Eric Rowe. Since he got his chance, Jason has validated everything about the way the coaches brought him along. By Pro Football Focus grading system, he’s been the 8th most productive corner in the league in coverage, the 8th best against the run and the 6th best overall. Between All Pros like Patrick Peterson and Aqib Talib. When targeted, he’s given up a passer rating of 83.9 which, while not exactly Darrelle Revis numbers, is still 16th among corners who have more than 200 snaps in the passing game. Basically he is what I hoped he’d be in my wildest drunken pool days last summer.

4 & 5. Adrian Clayborn and Trey Flowers

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you pass rush on this team has been a huge, yuge, bigly problem. Anyone that is, except the ones in charge of worrying about the pass rush. Belichick has long said that sacks are the most overrated stat in football. Semi-defensive coordinator Brian Flores said yesterday he’ll take a sack as much as the next coach but thinks pressures are just as good, and singled out Clayborn for forcing Patrick Mahomes into some bad decisions last week. It’s a good thing they feel that way because  the Pats are dead last in the league in sacks, but based on ESPN’s data, 2nd in the league in pressures. A lot of times that is gameplan specific, as they teach their rushers not to get beyond the level of certain mobile quarterbacks like Mahomes or Deshaun Watson, but stay at that level, contain him, and hope for a bad throw. The bottom line is that Clayborn and Flowers have been way better than we think in this sack total-obsessed world in which we live.

3. Lawrence Guy

Get a load of this guy Guy. His job is to come in on rushing downs, eat space, draw double teams and clog gaps. And according the workers in Cris Collinsworth’s nerd sweatshop, he’s doing it better than all but two D-tackles in the league. Better even than Aaron Donald, hands down the best interior defender in football. If this keeps up, Guy will represent one of the prototypical Belichick moves, picking up a player who was taken near the end of the draft, who’s been in the league, now with his sixth organization and found away to use him to be among the best in the game at what they ask of him. Classic.

2. Shaq Mason

Again, with Collinsworth’s crew of House Elves. I get not everyone is watching the interior line play when there are spreads to be covered and Fantasy points to be racked up. But watch Shaquille Olajuwon Mason for one series and come back to tell me PFF is wrong. Or that the Patriots were to extend him for 6 years and $50 million.

1. Jimmy Neckroll

This feels like I’m walking into a PFT Commenter bit by picking a fullback, but I’m serious. James Develin has been a gargantuan factor in the Patriots offense so far. I’d be lying if I said I’ve got some sort of telling stats about his blocking percentage or how many times he’s come out of a one-on-one blocking assignment with the “+.” But I bet it would be off the charts. Every week it seems like the key running plays of the game go behind him as he Kool-Aid Mans his way through a linebacker or chips a lineman then bounces up to take out some hapless defensive back. What numbers I do have is that the Patriots are running behind their fullback more than any team but San Francisco. And while the Niners use Kyle Juszczyk on passing downs a ton, on running plays he only edges out Jimmy Neckroll 111-103. The numbers proof of how well he’s been blocking is Sony Michel’s production. Michel runs almost exclusively out of 2-back sets, in the way Adrian Peterson did in his prime. And in spite of missing the first game and taking another week to get back into shape, only six backs have more than his 4 rushing touchdowns and he’s 4th in yards per game. The guy he’s running behind is such a huge part of the success that while I’m not saying the rookie owes him half his paycheck or anything, but I think a nice Edible Arrangement would be appropriate at the very least.

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Now imagine what will be like when the stars of the team start playing up to their standards and these guys keep doing what they’ve been doing.