McCourty At Corner In Week 1 Wouldn't Be A Good Sign For Patriots
BOSTON (CBS) -- In Saturday night's second preseason game, the New England Patriots did a little experimenting in their secondary.
Safety Devin McCourty slid over to corner, the position he broke into the league at in 2010, starting across Malcolm Butler as New England tries to lock down who their right corner will be to start the season. That left Duron Harmon as the "center fielder" in the secondary, and the results weren't great, as the A-Team got burned for a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter. After the game, McCourty said he hopes the move isn't permanent, a sentiment he also had prior to training camp.
Dan Roche had the call of the game on WBZ-TV, and joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich Monday morning to discuss McCourty's move to corner. While Rochie thinks it's too early to read much into it, he doesn't think having McCourty at corner in Week 1 would be a good sign for the secondary.
"Basically, Bill [Belichick] tries to prepare for [everything] over the course of the season, every situation that may come up. One of them is if Devin has to shift to corner, they would rather do it now so he can get used to it," said Rochie. "The other part is, with departure of Revis and Browner, are they nervous about what they have at corner across from Malcolm Butler? I don't think we know yet, but on the surface it's a depth move, to figure out if there's a situation they know.
"For now, it was trying to mix and match, move some guys around and see if they can get comfortable," said Roche. "I don't think it'll be good chemistry-wise or for McCourty. If they come out week 1 with McCourty at corner, and maybe injuries force them to, but if McCourty is your right corner against the Steelers, that's not a good sign for your football team."
Roche says with Logan Ryan struggling, a guy to keep an eye on is eight-year veteran corner Tarell Brown, who played for the first time on Saturday.
Another area of concern on the Patriots' depth chart is at wide receiver. Julian Edelman and Brandon LaFell haven't seen any game action as they come back from injuries, and newly signed Brandon Gibson limped off the field late in Saturday's game.
The Patriots reportedly had veteran receiver Reggie Wayne in for a physical over the weekend, a move Roche would be on board with to build up the depth chart.
"It's insurance more than anything else because of that situation," he said. "You saw Gibson go down and hurt his knee, so add him to Edelman, [Aaron] Dobson, Lafell. It's more insurance and that they need bodies."
While undrafted rookie Chris Harper has impressed during the first two preseason games, Roche says Wayne would be a great No. 4 or No. 5 option for Tom Brady (or Jimmy Garoppolo).