Musket Fire evening read: Danny Amendola earns praise of Bill Belichick
Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
After posting his best regular season performance in two years, Danny Amendola has been drawing attention in the aftermath of the New England Patriots’ victory over the Indianapolis Colts. In a conference call with NESN.com’s Ricky Doyle, Bill Belichick heaped praise on Amendola. Here are a few nuggets:
"Danny’s been very solid for us all year and really every day, whether it be OTAs, training camp, practice, games. He’s in great condition. He can run all day. He’s done a good job for us in the return game. He’s done a good job for us offensively.Blocking, he’s really made some great blocks. He’s helped spring some guys for some big runs. He’s done an excellent job on third down. He’s done a really good job as we use different formations. He’s a versatile player, smart, makes very few mistakes.He’s been a very dependable player for us in really everything we’ve asked him to do and nobody works harder or practices harder than Danny does."
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After a sleepy 2014 regular season, Amendola won-over the hearts of all Patriots fans in the playoffs. If it weren’t for his superman performance in the Divisional Round, the Patriots probably would have faltered against the Baltimore Ravens.
Clearly, that success has spilled-over into this season. In game in which Julian Edelman was uncharacteristically dropping passes (one led to a Mike Adams pick-six) and Rob Gronkowski was getting blanketed for much of the night, Amendola stepped-up and emerged as a dependable target for Tom Brady.
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Amendola led the way in Week 6 with seven catches for 105 yards. He’s currently on pace for a carbon copy of his initial season with the Patriots: 54 catches, 633 yards and a pair of scores.
Evidently, there’s no bigger fan of Amendola than Belichick. As long as defenses key-in on Edelman and Gronk, there will be opportunities to eat the fruits of his hard labor.