New England Patriots kick-off in 42 days: profiling No. 42 Xzavier Dickson
Opening day countdowns are great. So are player profiles. Here at Musket Fire, we decided to combine them and create a Week 1 countdown-oriented, jersey number-dictated player profile series. Yesterday we looked at No. 43 Nate Ebner, and the day before that it was No. 44 Matthew Wells. Because today marks 42 days until the New England Patriots open 2015, we are profiling No. 42, rookie edge rusher ace Xzavier Dickson.
The final selection in the Patriots’ haul of 11 prospects from the 2015 NFL Draft, Dickson is in the midst of one of the best battles of training camp. He is contending with fellow rookies Trey Flowers and Geneo Grissom for the remaining edge rushing roles behind Rob Ninkovich, Chandler Jones and Jabaal Sheard.
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In 2014, Dickson quietly led the Rolling Tide with 12.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks, playing all 14 games. He was used as both a defensive end and an outside linebacker, and you know that Bill Belichick likes versatile defenders who have the ability and the intelligence to play well in different fronts.
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Let’s hope that Dickson takes after fellow ‘Bama alum Dont’a Hightower in terms of adjusting to the Patriots and leveraging that winning experience gained in college.
The knock on Dickson is his weakness in the ground game. We’ll find out soon enough just how much of a liability Dickson is in that realm, but for now, Patriots fans should be excited to see how this rookie reacts to the pressure cooker of training camp in Foxboro.
As noted by Oliver Thomas of 247Sports, Dickson will set aside the No. 47 jersey he wore at Alabama and don the No. 42 shirt in training camp.
In case you missed them, here are the profiles for No. 45 D.J. Lynch, No. 46 james Develin, No. 47 Michael Hoomanawanui, No. 48 Geneo Grissom No. 49 Joe Cardona, No. 50 Rob Ninkovich, No. 51 Jerod Mayo, No. 52 Dane Fletcher, No. 53 Eric Martin, No. 54 Dont’a Hightower, No. 55 Jonathan Freeny, No. 58 Darius Fleming, No. 59 Chris White, No. 60 David Andrews, No. 61 Marcus Cannon and No. 62 Ryan Wendell.
Be sure to check back on Musket Fire tomorrow morning as we celebrate 41 days until Week 1 by profiling No. 41, linebacker Dekoda Watson.