Along the lines of Mary Pope Osborne's "Magic Tree House" series of stories in which the tree house takes a couple of grade school aged children to meet historical legends and help them in their individual quests, this bridge does the same for Rutgers University football players...
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| McCourty has become the leader of the Pats' secondary |
...except the bridge takes them to help out modern day legends Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, to help them in their quest for big, shiny trophies and diamond studded rings.
In the tree house books, the siblings point at a book left by the sister of King Arthur, the legendary sorceress Morgan Le Fay, and speak the works "I wish we could go there" and the tree house starts to spin and deposits the two right in the middle of the story, skipping over time and helping to save the day.
The bridge that connects the Rutgers with the New England Patriots began to appear a few years ago when Scarlet Knights' cornerback Devin McCourty became the Patriots first round draft pick in 2010, and it reappears each year in late April, spanning over New York City and landing at Gillette Stadium...
...and the portal remains open as long as New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick has an open roster spot - his son, Steve, a former Knight himself, serving as sort of a human Charon, guiding their damned souls to the hooded one, who will use them to his unspeakable ends - unleashing 60 minutes of hell upon the likes of Jets, Bills and Dolphins.
Defensive lineman Justin Francis signed on for the magical ride last spring - undrafted, but since when did something like being rejected repeatedly by all 32 NFL teams discourage anyone who attended Rutgers? Unlike McCourty's charmed ride, Francis fought his way onto the roster, paving the way for later Knights...
...so when the portal opened this spring and the bridge appeared, many a Scarlet Knight crossed the bridge at the beckoning of Belichick, hoping to extend the umbilical and anxious to commence tormenting the souls of the fans of those teams - among many others.
The first to traverse the expanse in 2013 was cornerback Logan Ryan, who crossed over as a third round draft choice and has a unique opportunity in the Patriots' secondary. Ryan is a hyper-aggressive fireplug with excellent ball skills who has the luxury of being able to slide right into the dime back role and learn the trade from a legitimate aggressive cover corner in Aqib Talib.
Talib signed a one year contract to remain with the Patriots for 2013, in part to prove that his checkered off-field past and injury concerns from last year are history, but mostly because the draft was top heavy with corners, and that severely impacted the money he would find on the free agent market - so he is in essentially a contract year, and Ryan will have the unique perspective that working behind a motivated cover corner provides, hopefully ready to step in if the Patriots can not retain Talib next offseason.
Alfonzo Dennard and Ras-I Dowling are both nicked up, so it's been Kyle Arrington opposite Talib for the last several practices at corner, with Ryan in the slot. Ryan's aggressiveness will serve him well and he's getting a lot of reps, which will certainly be something worth monitoring going forward.
Safety Duron Harmon followed soon after, drafted just eight spots after Ryan to the puzzlement of just about everyone outside of the Rutgers' campus - but there is little reason to doubt that Belichick made a solid call on the relative unknown from Magnolia, Delaware.
As training camp has progressed, so has Harmon, his versatility in being able to play both free and strong safety positions making him a strong candidate to make the final cut at the end of August - and with both Adrian Wilson and Tavon Wilson practicing in the Big Nickle role, it leaves Harmon to battle with veteran Steve Gregory to take snaps along side starting free safety Devin McCourty.
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| Beauharnais with Schiano |
Then as the clock ticked down on the draft, the call went out for linebacker Steve Beauharnais, an everyman linebacker who started his Rutgers' career as a safety, destiny and injury to the linebacking corps forcing his move to the middle where he became the leader of the Knights' defense.
The fabled Jack-of-all-trades yet master of none, Beauharnais has the opportunity to wedge his way into a nickle linebacker role, passing the likes of Dane Fletcher to meld his skill set with those of the Wilsons to create a formidable depth chart of both intimidation and blanket zone coverage to keep opposing backs and tight ends at bay.
The gold standard for making the transition from Rutgers to the Patriots is McCourty who, despite the presence of newly acquired veteran enforcer Adrian Wilson and the unexpected and refreshing leadership of Talib, is the unquestioned leader of the secondary.
"Devin, he's a great leader and we just try to follow his lead, follow his example." said the former Arizona Cardinals' intimidator Wilson, "He's smart, knows the playbook, puts people in the right positions, so definitely glad to have a guy like that on our team."
Harmon continues to stand out as a playmaking strong safety, and his cover skills become more and more evident each practice. If he continues the upswing, he could have the advantage over Steve Gregory when the lights come on.
Same with Beauharnais, and same with Ryan who could earn a starting nod as a rookie by default should incumbent Alfonzo Dennard miss time due to his legal problems and should Ras-I Dowling continue his trend of breaking like cheap glass.
They, along with McCourty and Francis provide the Patriots with the discipline and fundamentally sound package that former Rutgers' head coach Greg Schiano demanded of the players in his program, something that good friend Belichick obviously finds as an advantage for kids coming out of that program.
It remains to be seen if the magical bridge to Foxboro continues to appear each spring now that Schiano has moved on to coach the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but for now Rutgers football players continue to point at Gillette Stadium and chant, "I wish we could go there" - and more often than not, Gillette Stadium is exactly where they end up.
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