The New England Patriots are barely a few weeks removed from the team's latest Super Bowl title while the heralded AFC East franchise has remained the talk of the town early on in the offseason — and rightfully so.
Most recently, Patriots defensive back Devin McCourty explained that New England was just a little tougher in 2018-19, a season that did not seem to be headed in the right direction for the franchise at times.
“I’d say last year, it was harder for us to be able to jump from all zone to all man the way we were able to do it this year, personnel-wise,” McCourty said, via Sports Illustrated. “Steph [Gilmore] and Malcolm [Butler] are great players, but they’re more man guys. So you can have the best player, but having guys that are able to think and do different things, it helps. People don’t usually talk about that, they talk about the scheme, or this was a great call by the d-coordinator or Bill, but you need guys like Kyle Van Noy, like [Dont’a] Hightower, that can play down at outside linebacker, can play off the ball, Trey Flowers plays on the end and at 3-tech, because now it’s alright, we move Trey Flowers from end to 3-tech, dang, we’re blocking a whole different type of guy in here and now we’re in a different front. It’s harder to deal with, but you can’t do that unless you have guys that are physically versatile and also mentally can be like, ‘yeah, I’m not what I do 80% of the time, I’m in my other role.’”
The Patriots have now appeared in the last three Super Bowls while going 2-1 in those games. After upending the Atlanta Falcons in overtime a few years back, the Patriots came up short against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017-18 before reclaiming their throne in 2018-19 by way of steamrolling the upstart Los Angeles Rams.
In addition to winning two of the last three Super Bowls, the Patriots have also won three of the last five as well.
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