Bill Belichick is the master of taking castoffs that didn’t work out with other teams and finding a way to make them into effective players. Look at guys like Wes Welker, Danny Woodhead, Richard Seymour, Jabaal Sheard, Logan Mankins and others, none of whom went on to do all that much after leaving the team.
The Patriots signed linebacker Shea McClellin, a former first-round draft pick, to a three-year deal in the offseason. Belichick didn’t really view the former Bears player as a traditional linebacker, and instead felt that McClellin would be better suited in more of a hybrid-type role.
He made his presence felt early in Monday night’s game against the Ravens, when Baltimore was looking to take the lead for the first time in the AFC matchup. And it was a momentum-changing play. New England had control of the game after recording a safety, but Tom Brady and Julian Edelman failed to connect on what should’ve been a 41-yard touchdown on a well-thrown ball, had Edelman not cut his route a bit short at the end, which Brady was not happy about (watch here).
The Patriots were forced to punt, and the Ravens actually put together a solid drive, which ended on a field-goal attempt for Justin Tucker, who hadn’t missed all season. It seemed automatic that Baltimore would take an early lead and weather the Patriots’ early storm.
And then McClellin did this. Check out how he timed his leap perfectly, without touching a lineman, and blocked this kick—exactly how you would envision drawing it up.
[protected-iframe id=”0b342da00f5b0994722ec6181a05d14f-114320562-18702721″ info=”https://vine.co/v/5QAzt3axEd3/embed/simple” width=”600″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″]Belichick has a role for everyone, and McClellin’s athleticism was on full display on that block.
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