Dead On with Deaderick

He’s not a highly regarded first or second round draft pick. He’s not from the preferred football factory of head coach Bill Belichick, the University of Florida. He’s not a veteran free agent expected to provide leadership and experience. But for the last three weeks, he’s been in the starting lineup.

Most thought seventh round pick DL Brandon Deaderick only had a chance at the practice squad. There was a reason why he wasn’t selected earlier. But scouting isn’t a perfect science and we see players slip through the cracks every year.

Deaderick was overshadowed playing alongside Terrence “Mount” Cody at the University of Alabama. That’s easy considering Cody was 6-4 and over 350 pounds of immoveable humanity. He was a prototypical 3-4 nose tackle built to stop the run on first and second downs.

Even I was enamored with Cody. He was a first round talent that likely would slide into the second round because his conditioning was questionable. He was a selection in my dream draft. He would had been a perfect fit in New England as Cody would follow the footsteps of Ted Washington and Keith Traylor, man-mountains with short but productive stays with the Patriots.

Brandon wasn’t the Crimson Tide player I wanted, but I was a fan of the selection. Yes I hate ‘Bama head coach Nick Saban, but I do respect him as a coach. He coaches his behind off and knows how to coach talented kids and turn them into players. Saban is from the Belichick coaching tree so I felt very good about Deaderick. I pegged him to be a surprise like DL Myron Pryor was in 2009.

Pryor was a sixth round pick out of Kentucky the same year the Patriots selected Ron Brace in the second round. By the end of the season it was Pryor getting consistent reps while Brace was regularly deactivated.

Deaderick actually has been better than Pryor after eight weeks. While Myron worked well as a situational pass rusher last year, Deaderick is on the field for all situations and has the results to prove it. Pryor did not start a game his rookie season. Deaderick started the last three games and has a sack against Baltimore and San Diego.

Is the Patriots scouting department that good or did they get lucky when they selected Deaderick? Probably both. But there’s no luck when it comes to Brandon’s performance. He’s part of a rapidly improved front seven that people thought would be a problem, especially after DL Ty Warren was placed on injured reserve. Deaderick went from falling through the cracks during the draft to filling cracks on defense.