"I mean, when you watch Dalton play, you just don't see a lot of things that we do," Belichick said last April after the draft. "The Virginia Tech offense didn't really translate too much to a New England Patriot offense. That's not uncommon with other players as well. It is what it is. I think the things you saw him do, which was his blocking, his effort to block, his toughness, ability to make plays with the ball in his hands, and certainly the intent of the offense to get him the ball was impressive. They did a lot of things to try to get him the ball one way or another: hand it to him, throw it to him, put him in different locations so that he could run with it or catch it and run with it. That's what you saw.
Thought it was interesting perspective, definitely a quote that other teams can use against us.
Comments
I don't think thats too bad of a reflection on our offense? I feel like a lot of college systems don't really translate to the NFL very well
It's probably true that most college offenses don't translate well, but most schools also don't have the greatest NFL coach of all time directly name dropping them in a quote saying "they don't do what we do" and "it doesn't translate well."
I don't think Belichick even sounds overly negative about VT in this quote either, quite the opposite actually when you consider the full quote, but it can VERY easily be cherry picked and taken out of context to make us look bad. And I'm sure it will.
that's why its a call a pro system i guess. There aren't many programs that I can think of that DO translate well to the NFL. Alabama is the one that I immediately think of, and to me that makes sense given the number of offensive players they have had drafted during Saban's tenure.
But they haven't ran a pro system in years. They just have the talent. Which is really what I took away from this comment, if you are talented the teams will get you the ball. We got him the ball.
They still use a lot of pro-style concepts but they replaced the old chassis with a RPO-spread style one under Kiffin. They have had several NFL coaches as OC's during the last few years with Daboll, Sark, and now BO'B.
Depends what you consider 'pro-style' system. I (now) think of pro-style as a system with multiple reads/progressions vs a college system being a (mostly) single read offense.
I haven't watched the NFL in a decade or so, so I have no idea what the pros are running now, but I think of less spreading the field, playing TEs, motion and play action are used a lot, multiple routes as you said.
Just about every NFL team runs an offense that relies on a lot of spread concepts these days. I feel like half-ish use the RPO regularly.
We got the ball into one of our best players hands in creative ways. Sounds good to me
Reading the article, it seems he's talking more about how little we used Dalton as an "on the line TE". We had him in the backfield a lot or in more of an H-back position. Run blocking or releasing for routes on the line is just a whole different ball game and is more of the scheme the Pats run. Really don't think it was a shot at our offense or how it translates to the league, more so just how it translates to their offense.
Yeah not getting the take you are trying to make. I don't see a knock on our offense at all. There are plenty of them under Fuente, but this is not one of them.
He was utilized enough that one of the greatest NFL coaches of all time drafted him (in the 3rd round no less). I'm not sure that "Yeah even their HB/TE will get drafted by the Patriots....BUT...we will really show off your talents." is a line that would work. Especially since that quote is fairly complimentary in my opinion. Belichick saw the tape and realized how the dude could be utilized.
Dalton isn't a traditional tight end. Nothing negative here.
"Don't go to VT. They are known for getting the football to their best players."
"Listen here young fella, if you're thinking about going to Virginia Tech, there's a chance you're going to get drafted by a 6x Super Bowl champion head coach."
I mean,
I'm not really seeing it. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that Belichick is talking about VT's offense. Especially since he drafted a guy (and didn't Keene still have some eligibility left?) from VT. You don't draft a guy if you don't think they're prepared enough.
With these being Belichik, I took it to mean all players that come to the Patriots did not play in offenses that translate to the Patriots, even NFL players.
In no way shape or form is this a knock on VT. In fact, I just listened to the latest Athletic NFL podcast discussing the Top 5 QB prospects, where they referred to Trevor Lawrence in the Clemson scheme as a "Mickey Mouse offense".
Translation: Pretty much every college simplifies their scheme, which doesn't translate directly to the NFL. Nobody cares, and Belichek went on to talk more about Dalton's effort and VT's desire to get him involved as much as possible, hence why he was drafted earlier than expected in the 3rd round by the best franchise and coach in the NFL over the last two decades.
Find something else to build a narrative, but not this.
Seems like he was just stating facts than more of any opinion on the offense.
I don't think it's meant as a slight to our offensive system, just that Belichick and Co. were able to evaluate his blocking and intangibles that could translate to their system based on our propensity to get the ball in his hands or put him as a lead blocker.
My biggest concern with our misdirection/simplified pass structure offense is whether we will ever be able to recruit and develop a QB with NFL potential. Star QBs usually mean great offenses. So far it's been a revolving door and not much progress for a staff that was much ballyhooed as QB whisperers.
Agreed, TE utilization is pretty low on the list of reasons I don't like our offense, which I have been very vocal about since 2017.
When your go-to 3rd and long play is four verts, one read and if not there, QB scramble drill, or just a designed QB draw, that's not putting much confidence or emphasis at all on your ability to throw the football.
I'm really high
on Tahj Bullock. I think Burmeister has an NFL chance if he can get some touch on his throws. Jerod Evans should have been the guy, but he left too early. Blamed having to run too much in our offense, and durability in several interviews after college.
So it would seem
Sigh, not fixing it now, it's there, just roll with it
Not surprising at all to hear this. I'm sure most of our fans have realized by now that we don't use TE's in a normal way. We don't run many bread and butter in-line TE routes. It's mostly flexed out stuff (Bucky/Mitchell) and misdirection stuff thrown from the H-back role (Keene). It's probably not the worst thing ever, but I would definitely prefer great NFL coaches not going on the record of saying things like "their offense doesn't translate well," and the like. Regardless of that being true for most college offenses, you don't want that kind of thing getting clipped/soundbited and used against you on the recruiting trail. Negative recruiting doesn't work on everyone, but it is prevalent.
Better be careful what he says about VT. Rambo could kick the shit out of Bill
I dunno Bill has a shit load of hardware on his hands that could do some damage.
This is non-news news.
Everything Fuente/Corn want to do is predicated on the inside zone running game. When you get into crunch time and 3rd and 6 and your go-to pay for 4 years has been the QB keeper, your offense isn't working as intended. In a "pro" offense, you need to get rid of the ball quickly and your QB can't be your best running back- if you want to win. We don't do either of those things well.
Teams don't need anything else to use against us at this point
Without some selective editing, I see little there to use against VT.
edits will be selected, you can bet on that.
That can go both ways, ya know...and almost certainly does.
i can't believe we have spent this much time talking about a quote that is a year old. This quote came from an article when he was drafted, and it was just regurgitated for this article.
https://patriotswire.usatoday.com/2020/04/29/bill-belichick-warned-dalto...
I agree, article is old, Bill is old and mumbles- who the hell knows what he is actually saying- he is too smart for the rest of us.
Our offensive scheme is fine, need some jimmies and joes- especially at the QB. Fuente's system is good, it is his cruiting that is lacking- which is all predicated on his personality.
How did we go from him drafting a TE who left early in the 1st three rounds making a comment about the tough transition to the NFL to that comment?
Well, for starters, this is totally debatable.
So does everyone.
I've already questioned the first part of this. But the second part of the job is very much still an important part of the job that I think most fans would agree Fuente isn't doing well enough.
Although you might be right this is complete speculation and you might also be totally wrong here. I think you're right that Fuente isn't getting the desired results on the recruiting trail. The reason for that is a)not explicitly known by folks on a message board; b)likely due to several factors, some of which are in Fuente's control, others perhaps not and; c)only a part of the overall problem with the VT football program.
I know lots of folks are pointing to the recruiting failures as direct evidence that Fuente isn't good at (at least part of) his job. And yes, recruiting impacts everything else. But even so, Fuente has squandered very winnable games against clearly less talented teams throughout his tenure. If his system were really fine and it was just about the Jimmys and Joes he wouldn't consistently lose games to less talented teams and yet he does it at least twice every year. (2016: Syracuse, GT / 2017: GT / 2018: ODU, GT, BC, Pitt, Cincy(?) / 2019: BC, Duke, Virginia, Kentucky / 2020: Wake Forest, Liberty, Pitt)
Do good coaches lose games against teams that are less talented from time to time? Sure. But, I'm sorry, good coaches do not lose to less talented teams 15 times in 5 years. Fuente is not a good coach. His system is not "fine". Recruiting speaks for itself. The results on the field will continue to get worse. As VT loses their talent edge (result of poor recruiting) the number of teams who can just flat out-talent us will grow and so, too, will our loss totals.