For whatever reason Bill Belichick always seems to open up a bit more than usual when talking with Pat Kirwan on Sirius XM Radio and Monday’s show was no exception. Kirwan, who poked his head into then Ninkovich retirement presser, has one of then best books learning how to watch football — Take Your Eye Off The Ball.
This quote stood out to me, as Belichick mentioned they were looking for more balance out of their backfield.
“Hopefully we will be a little bit less of a Blount on first down [and] second-and-short, Lewis on second down, White on third down — that type of [set-up],” Belichick said on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
“Part of that for us was getting our best player to do what he does best type of thing. Hopefully, this year, we’ll have a little more balance between the running game and passing game. Again, LG was primarily a runner. He didn’t have a lot of receiving production. The reverse is true of James White. So hopefully with our backs this year we’ll have a little more balance and be a little less predictable from that spot.”
It’s kind of rare to hear Belichick so honest about where his team might’ve been a little too predictable.
#Patriots ran the ball 45.6% of the time in 2016, 5th-highest in NFL. Number dropped to 43.8% with Brady back, and 34.2% in the playoffs. https://t.co/vJDciX4NGj
— Evan Lazar (@ezlazar) August 1, 2017
So while the Pats did lean on the run while Brady was out, and those numbers are even more skewed given they were throwing all day to come back from 28-3, it’s less about run-pass balance from a play perspective and more about not tipping the defense to what’s coming.
There’s no question you need a hard charger like Gillslee and that White is still developing as a running threat, but overall the versatility of the four backs will help hide what’s coming.
On the other side of the ball, I worry that after Dont’a Hightower the linebackers are a little too specialized like the running backs were the last couple of years. This is reminiscent of 2010/2011 when the defensive rebuild was throwing everything at the wall and had wholesale changes on the field between running and passing downs.
We’ll see how that plays out this season, but it’s exciting to see so many options in the Pats’ offensive backfield now.