That group includes the likes of Trevor Scott as well as draft picks like Chandler Jones and Jake Bequette. Belichick's response was, in my opinion, one of the more open and honestly observational answers I've ever heard from the head coach.
"We'll see how it all plays out. I think that, generally speaking, the bigger they are the slower they run," Belichick said when asked about that body type. "In that 250-275ish range, depending on the actual individual, is where you usually get those times under five seconds – 4.9, 4.85, 4.8, whatever it is. That speed and quickness with a little lower weight in passing situations usually make those guys a little more active and gives them a little more speed, generally speaking. Not that you don't need inside guys to push and power rush and stuff like that, but those guys have that advantage. We have a lot of big guys on our team. It seems like every year, the game is getting a little more spread out for us. We're in nickel defense more and more every year – over 50 percent last year. Some of that is being ahead; some of that is teams in our division – Buffalo, you're pretty much in nickel all day against them. That's two games. It's a high percentage of our defense, so that's part of the reason we feel like we need that. It's hard to be in our base defense as much as we were in the past."
We've all seen the trends of the league, the passing games and the importance of sub defense. But sometimes it's interesting to hear Belichick put his feelings in words. It will be interesting to see how Belichick employs all these versatile, athletic front-seven types when training camp and the season rolls around. It should be fun to watch.
