While drafting Byron Cowart in the fifth round, the New England Patriots planned on brining in a run-stopping defensive tackle.
Cowart’s performance in New England’s preseason victory against the Tennessee Titans may have proved otherwise. He finished the game with a two tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. And, his sack was absolutely filthy.
Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monons’s believes that Cowart was played out of position in college, and that Bill Belichick was the only one to see this.
Cowart was drafted out of Maryland and spent a majority of his time stopping the run. In four years of college ball — he was only able to create pressure on 44 plays out of 466 pass-rush snaps, according to PFF.
New England’s director of player personnel Nick Caserio said that Cowart would be more of a run player after he was drafted. Belichick subtly agreed that Cowart was played out of position while speaking to reporters on Sunday morning after the game.
“In the college scheme he played in at Maryland, I wouldn’t say there were a lot of pass-rush situations,” Belichick said. “It was a little harder to evaluate that. Again, you can only go on what you see and probably 75 percent of the plays, maybe more that he played were either running plays or running situations.
“He’s done all that we’ve asked him to do. That’s the main thing. He’s done all that we’ve asked him to do. He needs to get better at everything — the running game, passing game, recognition, reaction and so forth. We’ll just continue to work with him and all of the other players. He’s a young player who works hard. Hopefully, he’ll continue to improve like he has since we got him here in May.”
The Patriots snagged Cowart up as a fifth-round steal, and they also added some pass rush help from the third-round standout Chase Winovich. This is just another classic example of Belichick outsmarting other teams in the draft, and coming away with value players who are cheap and willing to learn.
