"Josh Uche's tape is loaded with him handling Patriots-style responsibilities. That is to say, he did just about everything a linebacker can do.
New England's second second-round pick, No. 60 overall, rushed off the edge. He played off the line of scrimmage. He "mugged" the A-gap pre-snap — standing over the gap between the center and guard — and blitzed. He mugged the A-gap pre-snap and dropped into coverage. He wandered at the second level of Brown's defense, careful not to show his hand, then rushed. He patrolled zones in the short area of the field. He mirrored backs, tight ends and slot receivers in man-to-man coverage. "
While most NCAA teams were studying game film of opponents to improve, Michigan was studying the Patriots defense to improve. So if Uche sounds like a typical Patriots defender, now you know why.
Uche said "When I actually got drafted, I was like, 'Oh my God. This is crazy. There's no way. This is like a glove, like the perfect fit. There's still a lot of work to put in. There's different terminologies and different techniques that need to be learned. But in terms of how coach Brown runs his defense, the multipleness of the defense, [it's] very similar to what I did at Michigan."
Uche was a three down player who was primarily used as a pass defender. The Patriots don't have a threat on the edge because they like to scheme and create mismatches. Thus Uche will fit in well with the Patriots defense.
Van Noy and Hightower were the Patriots pass rush. With Van Noy gone, someone is going to have to step up as 42% of the pass rush was made up of these two lethal linebackers. Prior to Van Noy it was Collins, who was effective in his own right in 2019. These three combined led to a top 10 ten pass rushing unit.
At 6'1 245 lbs, Uche is a bit undersized for today's traditional linebackers. Uche will have to rely on natural gifts, intelligence, and team mates to have an impact when rushing NFL quarterbacks. He has the ability to replace Roberts, Collins, and Van Noy; so his use depends on Belichick.
Uche talked about how he takes on tackles when rushing. "All tackles, or most tackles, have a specific thing that they do and implement into their sets that make them so great. What I try to do is find what that is and then go back and find other top guys or other moves that have worked on them or had the potential to beat them or something that they're really good at beating — a move that I should stay away from."
Studying an opponent is good. Film study as we all know can make poor players average and good players great. We've seen what Brian Hoyer was able to do studying the Rams.
Uche isn't just a pass rusher but a cover guy. He can take on and keep up with running backs and tight ends. It was linebacker coach Jarod Mayo who met with Uche before the draft, and Mayo must've liked what he saw and heard from Uche.
Mayo was the former Star of the Patriots linebacking core before becoming the limenackers coach. Uche was signing Coach Mayo's praises when asked about their interaction. If true, Mayo may have been the reason for the selection.
"My first WebEx meeting I had with the Patriots was with Coach Mayo, He taught me the defense in, I wanna say, under two minutes. He taught it to me so well, I was able to recite it to him after when he started asking me questions."
Coach Brown at Michigan said Uche didn't need encouragement but instead was pushing the coaching staff to be better. That's now something one doesn't see every day and is bound to improve the Patriots organization.
"It's a beautiful thing when you have a player like that who you don't have to encourage. He encourages you to be the best that you can be every single day."
That's the mentality needed to prolong the 'Patriots Way'.
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