New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick occasionally drops clues with what he doesn’t say about his players. This week was no exception.
When he was asked about linebacker Josh Uche, who played a career-high 36 snaps in Week 13, Belichick praised one specific part of the linebacker’s game — and only that part. This isn’t to say Uche played poorly. Belichick simply provided a reminder that the rookie is limited.
“It’s good to have Josh out there. I thought he provides situationally an element of pass rush and some passing game value for us,” Belichick told reporters on Tuesday. “So, we’ll continue to build on that, but he’s improved and he’s worked hard to understand what we’re doing and also how that changes from game to game. He’s taken some communication roles over defensively and that’s been good. So, he’s definitely improving. He’s working hard. He’s got some skills that I think can help us.”
Uche played his highest number of snaps on Sunday because he was facing a pass-first Los Angeles Chargers offense which quickly fell behind. New England was ready to defend the pass for most of the game, which is why Uche got so much work against quarterback Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. And Uche did good work, with three quarterback hits, all of which came in the first three quarters (and not in garbage time).
That, in itself, is a positive sign for the rookie, who spent time on injured reserve before struggling to get snaps. That said, his snap count may regress from week to week, because of the limited nature of his role as a pass-rusher. A matchup against a run-first team could mean a reduced role.
As noted by NESN’s Doug Kyed and Pro Football Focus, Uche has dropped into coverage 14% of his snaps and defended the run on 14% of his snaps this season. The rest of the time, he’s rushing the passer. That’s exactly the roll he filled in college at Michigan, where he got 53 percent of defensive snaps as a senior, a surprisingly low sum for a second-round pick.
It seems that, throughout his career, he is most reliable as a pass-rusher — and everything else remains in the development stage. That’s what Belichick intimated during his press conference on Monday. This isn’t to say that Uche won’t develop — he has the athleticism, in fact, to develop a skillset similar to Jamie Collins, an every-down linebacker who could play outside and inside. For now, he’s proven extremely useful in the role he has.
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