Cameron McGrone ought to have been chilly coming off the bench.
It was late November, in any case.
Not to say, McGrone hadn’t participated in a single NFL observe but, although the Patriots drafted him within the fifth spherical months earlier. McGrone’s ongoing restoration from a torn ACL had delayed his on-field debut by way of the spring and coaching camp and positioned him on the Non-Football Injury List. Now due to league guidelines, all he had was two weeks value of regular-season practices to impress his teammates and coaches.
Mission completed.
“One thing that I noticed is that all the other guys on the field had been playing football for months, and then he had been coming off of a year or whatever of not playing football. And he really didn’t look, in any sort of way, out of place on the field,” Patriots exterior linebackers coach and defensive play-caller Steve Belichick stated Tuesday. “Which I thought was impressive.”
Despite his efficiency, the Patriots stashed McGrone on injured reserve for good in mid-December. Since then, mere mentions of the 6-foot-1, 233-pounder have unfold smiles throughout the faces of a number of Patriots staffers this offseason.
After declining so as to add a linebacker in final month’s draft, director of participant personnel Matt Groh stated he was “really excited” concerning the Patriots’ present group. The first title he talked about?
McGrone’s.
“Excited to see Cam McGrone was able to get on the field a little bit last year, excited to see him be in an expanded role,” Groh stated. “He’s kind of an additional draft pick. … That all kind of counts to getting younger, getting faster, being a tough team.”
Despite his standing as a second-year participant, McGrone is definitely the third-youngest participant on the crew, as first famous by MassLive’s Chris Mason. He personifies — at the least for now — a world shift for the protection towards youthful, quicker and smaller gamers. McGrone is just a few inches shorter and 15 to twenty kilos lighter than linebackers have traditionally been beneath Bill Belichick, together with one-time starter and present inside linebackers coach Jerod Mayo.
On Tuesday, Mayo described McGrone as a participant “who can still fly around and make a bunch of plays in the run game and the pass game,” whereas cautioning the crew should see how the 21-year-old performs this spring.
“Just an athletic guy who moves well. He’s able to do a bunch of different things,” Mayo stated. “He’s able to cover, he’s able to play in the run game. But like I said, we’ll have to see what happens this year.”
Mayo added he expects McGrone to contribute inside his place room, which additionally contains returned starter Ja’Whaun Bentley, Mack Wilson, Raekwon McMillan and Harvey Langi.
In 16 profession faculty video games at Michigan, McGrone tallied 52 tackles, three sacks, one go deflection and a compelled fumble.
Source: www.bostonherald.com