Chung is one of the more underrated stories of this season. Essentially the Patriots have had him on early downs in the box and then sub him off for Harmon to play deep on passing downs.
Chung (fka PATCHUNG!) was one of the first faves of this blog. His aggressiveness was always something this defense needed, the problem was that it often got the best of him and resulted in injuries.
His first stint with the Pats he was asked to play on the back end a lot more and as we saw, he just didn’t have the range and anticipation to be a Cover 1 Free Safety. They also asked him to play some slot corner and again, man-to-man in the slot was not his bag either.
Now he’s primarily playing the role Steve Gregory played last year, a Cover 1 Robber. He comes down into the box and brings a good level of physicality. He also has been taking strong angles and provides a strong veteran presence that I really like next to McCourty.
Chung is a great example of how a player can excel when you play to his strengths and don’t ask him to do what he’s not good at. Plus he’s stayed healthy so far – that was arguably the biggest problem early in his career.