New England Patriots: Devin McCourty wisely back in the fold

After a somewhat erratic showing the previous year, New England Patriots’ safety Devin McCourty rebounded in 2019 and has now agreed to a new deal.

It’s business as usual, not only for the New England Patriots but the entire NFL as well.

Now that there’s a new CBA that’s been agreed upon and with the announcement that the league’s offseason schedule will go off as planned (the new fiscal year begins at 4:00 pm ET on March 18), the NFL’s most successful franchise this decade is bringing back one of its own before he could hit the free agency market.

No, it’s not future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Tom Brady. Not yet, at least. On Sunday evening, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Bill Belichick’s club was retaining a vital member of arguably the league’s top secondary, safety Devin McCourty.

Safety Devin McCourty has roamed the New England secondary for 10 seasons. He’s missed only five games during his career and started 155 regular-season contests, to go along with 23 postseason outings. There have been 32 takeaways in those 155 games, including 26 interceptions.

He comes off a season in which he finished fifth on the club with 58 tackles and second on the teams with five interceptions, one fewer than 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore. Add in pair of forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and seven passes defensed and it was a solid performance by the steady veteran.

This past season, the Patriots gave up an NFL-low 225 points and led the league with 25 interceptions. The strength of Belichick’s unit was the back end, led by Gilmore, McCourty — who was one of the better safeties in the league via Pro Football Focus (subscription required) — Jonathan Jones, Patrick Chung and more.

Now the New England defense, which could see some key personnel (linebackers Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy) move on in free agency, knows it has its elder statesman back for another attempts at reaching the Super Bowl.