FOXBOROUGH — When New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick traveled to Rutgers to watch his son, Steve, play in a lacrosse game during the spring of 2010, he planned to meet with the school's star cornerback and hold a pre-draft meeting.
The meeting went on as planned, but Belichick got something more out of it. The Patriots coach recalled how Devin McCourty impressed him that day at Rutgers while speaking at McCourty's retirement press conference on Tuesday.
“When we got into the film, I got blown away,” Belichick said. “[Rutgers] coach [Greg] Schiano told me that Devin was really smart, could run the defense, and knew what everybody was doing. I've heard that before, so I was like, we'll see.
“I started asking him a few questions about the secondary. What's this coverage, who does this, who does that? If this guy goes in motion, what's the call? He went through all that pretty good. So I thought I'd wrap it up a little here and started asking him about the linebackers. What are they keying on this? What are they doing on that? He knocks that out too.”
Devin McCourty shaking hands with some of his #Patriots teammates, including Mac Jones, before taking the stage #ForeverNE pic.twitter.com/Nzw1Ert5lH
— Conor Roche (@ConorRoche27) March 21, 2023
Belichick thought he'd try to trick McCourty at that point, but didn't succeed.
“I figured I'm going to embarrass him a little bit here,” Belichick said. “Let's start talking about the defensive line. One of the classic things everyone calls is a stunt where the tackle and the end go inside, and the corner comes. It's called a pirate stunt. It's pretty universal. I said, ‘What's this called, Devin? Let me guess, it's called a pirate,' and he goes, ‘No, it's actually buck because everybody knows what a pirate is, so we call it a buck.' He knocks out the whole defensive line, too.
“I had never had an interview like this. I was completely stunned that he knew as much as he did about the entire Rutgers defense.”
That meeting turned out the beginning of a 13-year Patriots partnership between Belichick and McCourty. Belichick selected McCourty in the first round of the draft later that spring and saw much success over the next 13 seasons in New England, helping the Patriots win three Super Bowls and reach two more as he was named an All-Pro five times over his career.
McCourty was part of one of the better draft classes in Patriots history as Rob Gronkowski was selected in the second round that year. That led Belichick to take a bit of a dig at analysts on Tuesday, cracking, “That must have been one of our C drafts.”
Bill Belichick recalled how he went to Rutgers in 2010 to watch his son play Lacrosse. Had a meeting w/McCourty there in that he called unlike any other, knowing every player’s responsibility on each play.#Patriots pic.twitter.com/UXTxyDntAM
— Conor Roche (@ConorRoche27) March 21, 2023
As Belichick joked about the intelligence of others, he continued to praise McCourty's intelligence. He noted how McCourty helped audible coverage plays to slow down Tyreek Hill in the Patriots' 2018 AFC Championship Game win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“It was really a tremendous job by Devin of organizing the secondary and making the proper calls and proper adjustments in obviously the biggest game of the year up to that point,” Belichick said of McCourty's football IQ in that game.
McCourty has already stated his intention to work in broadcasting now that his career is over. But the Patriots coach seems to think McCourty could excel in another area, too.
“He could probably coordinate the defense and call the defense for that matter,” Belichick said. “He was just a guy who had such an exceptional mind and ability to transfer the knowledge in the classroom and take it to the field.”
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