Two core members of the New England Patriots’ secondary in the past decade were Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon. Ryan spent four seasons with the team and Harmon spent seven — collecting two and three Super Bowl rings, respectively.
Both players were drafted in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft and it wasn’t by coincidence. Ryan shared an intriguing story of how both players ‘finessed’ their way onto the team while joining Devin and Jason McCourty’s ‘Double Coverage’ podcast.
Keeping in mind, Devin was drafted out of Rutgers in 2010 — the same school Ryan and Harmon came out of.
“Here’s the crazy thing, Dev,” Ryan said, transcribed by NESN’s Zack Cox. “Me and Du, seeing your process — you and Jay — we looked up to you so much, we finessed the Patriots. … After I saw (Devin’s) pro day, me and Du were doing the pro day workout in the weight room like two-a-days. You know me, I’m a worker. So after we would lift in the summer, we would go back to the weight room at 6, 7 at night and we would do the pro day workout — all year.
“So we were doing them drills all year, and then the Patriots held a private workout for all the Rutgers guys. They worked out, like, 15 players. They picked, like, seven of us. So they had this private workout. I called Dev, and I’m like, ‘Yo, what drills do y’all do in your warmup?’ So I knew the Patriots’ warmup drills.
“Me and Du were practicing these drills all week, so when Bill comes, I’m like, shirt off, eight pack, catching the ball one-handed, sprinting back. I’m in great shape. I know all the drills. Like, ‘Oh yeah, I know that drill.’ ‘You ever do it before?’ ‘Nah, I never did it.’ Do the drill with my eyes closed. I was just working straight off what Dev would tell me. ‘Oh, Dev, what’s it like? What’s this? What’s that? What do they like to see?’”
The Patriots picked Ryan with the No. 83 pick and Harmon with the No. 91 pick that draft — while taking two more Rutgers players that year.
“Me and Du both get drafted in the third round,” Ryan said. “We go up there, and the rest is history. But we were working those drills for a year, man, and it paid off. … (Devin) really told us all the little cheats to how to become a Patriot, because we were doing those things nonstop. And when Bill saw it, he must have been impressed, because he took about half of us from that workout.”
Ryan recorded 13 interceptions with the Patriots before heading off in free agency to join the Tennessee Titans. Harmon totaled 17 interceptions in his time with the team before getting traded to the Detroit Lions this offseason.
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