As the New England Patriots 2020 draft class gets more and more chances to make impacts this season, one draft pick in particular is making his presence felt.
Linebacker Anfernee Jennings has impressed the pages coaching staff, and now he is taking on multiple roles because of it. Jennings has been both an off-ball linebacker and an edge defender. Earlier this week, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick talked about how Jennings took on of those roles at Alabama.
So far, the head coach is very impressed with what Jennings has been able to bring to the table. and see similarities to when he played in Tuscaloosa.
“Yeah, it takes a lot of work,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Friday. “It’s really hard to play one, and to play both takes a good level of instinctiveness and both mental and physical versatility because the skill sets are quite different between playing off the ball and only a few inches away from a good blocking tight end or a good receiving tight end. So, those are challenges.
“Jennings did both those things at Alabama. He also is a very, very good communicator and signal-caller and had roles on third down, as well. So, he had quite a bit on his plate in college, and I think that the volume of what he has now is certainly manageable, maybe a little bit more. But, he’s a good football player with, as I said, some versatility and ability to do some different things. We’ll continue to try to see where he fits in our defensive scheme and game plan on a weekly basis.”
As the Patriots get set to take on the Las Vegas Raiders, it will be interesting to see if Jennings will have any sort of impact on the game. In what has been a year of youth stepping up defensively for the Patriots, Jennings certainly falls into that category.
