Michael Bennett shed light on his time with the Patriots, and why it ended
Bennett addressed a conflict with coach Bret Bielema, and called Bill Belichick "basically the architect of winning in the NFL."
When the Patriots traded for defensive end Michael Bennett in the 2019 offseason, it was hoped that he would add another dimension to the team’s pass rush.
Yet unlike his brother, Martellus (who helped New England win Super Bowl LI), Bennett didn’t find a role that he enjoyed. By October, the Patriots had traded the 34-year-old to the Cowboys for a draft pick.
During the build up to Super Bowl LIV, Bennett stopped by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Felger & Mazz” to talk about his short stint with the Patriots.
According to Bennett, there are no leftover bad feeling toward the Patriots or Bill Belichick.
“Bill Belichick is basically the architect of winning in the NFL,” Bennett quipped when reading the radio show’s text line.
“Nothing happened with me and Belichick,” Bennett explained of his half season in New England. “It’s just I didn’t fit into the [scheme]. They changed to the whole other defense. It was a defense that people hadn’t seen before, really, honestly. [It was] a defense where you had one defensive lineman, three linebackers down.”
Asked why the Patriots traded for Bennett if the team didn’t plan to use him in his preferred role, the defensive end said that he believes the team’s defensive plan was altered after the season got underway.
“I think things change,” said Bennett. “I think Belichick, he could start off with one mindset and then look at what’s better for the team.”
One of the hot-button topics for Bennett in his Patriots tenure was his relationship with 2019 Patriots defensive line coach Bret Bielema. Bennett was suspended from the team for a week in October due to a “philosophical disagreement” with Bielema.
Asked about Bielema — who has since joined the New York Giants as the team’s outside linebackers coach — Bennett downplayed the conflict.
“Brett is a cool guy,” Bennett said. “I think we’re just two people who believe in something strongly. I’m a guy who wants to be on the field. I’m a guy who wants to play. I’m a guy who if I go through practice, I want to be out there. For me the situation just wasn’t a great situation.”
Bennett was asked about the comments made by Chiefs lineman Mike Pennel, who had also been with the Patriots previously and criticized Bielema. Bennett noted that Bielema, previously a coach in college, might not have grasped the differing dynamics between the collegiate and NFL levels.
“I think for him, it’s different when you come from the collegiate level,” said Bennett. “I think the collegiate level, you come in and everything the coach says at the collegiate level, people have to listen to. Now you come to the NFL, there are guys that have played more games than you’ve coached or have been in, big NFL games, they’ve made a lot of money, and they want to be talked to as men. They’re not going to be talked to [the way] you’d talk to a child. You’re talking to people who have wives, who have kids, who have mortgages, and they want to be able to come to you, and they want you to be honest. I think for him, that was what Mike really wanted. He wanted you to be honest.”
“It’s more of a thing where people have conversations,” Bennett continued on the difference between college and pro levels. “It’s not like this thing where, ‘Here’s this, and we don’t do…there’s no adjustments.’ I mean everybody in the NFL, you have to be able to adjust. The player and the coach has to be able to adjust from my perspective in the league.”
Michael Bennett was on @FelgerAndMazz earlier today, and discussed if he was angry when the #Patriots traded him … and gives us a Belichick impression 🙈 pic.twitter.com/A9FyQGYghD
— NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots Coverage (@NBCSPatriots) January 30, 2020
Regarding his eventual trade to the Cowboys, Bennett said he didn’t request it, and that he had no problem with Belichick.
“I mean me and Belichick, there was no disagreement,” Bennett explained.
Bennett knew that New England had a “plan” for him, as he put it. Yet the veteran defensive end simply didn’t want to wait on the sidelines until the latter portion of the season.
“What they wanted from me was something they wanted [for] the second half of the season,” said Bennett. “Their plan was just different from what I’m not used to doing. They know they’re going to be in the playoffs, they know they’re going to make a run, and when you’re an older guy, you just want to be in the game.”
https://youtu.be/CeqYG8GGSaU
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