Michael Bennett appreciative of Bill Belichick’s understanding
After missing the early part of New England’s training camp for personal reasons, Michael Bennett returned to the field on Sunday.
The New England Patriots benefitted from the triumphant return of one of their biggest offseason acquisitions on Sunday, as veteran defensive end Michael Bennett re-joined his teammates at training camp after missing the first three days to attend to a personal matter.
As CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan noted in his report, Bennett didn’t give a full or detailed explanation to the media for why he was absent from training camp – only referring to the reason as being family-related. What he did say, however, was how much having Bill Belichick’s understanding, empathy, and support really meant to him.
“It’s nice when you have a coach that sees you as a human, sees you as a human being, not just a number and you’re able to go talk to him, tell him what’s going on, and you’re able to go take care of it,” Bennett explained in his media-availability session with reporters on Sunday. “That just makes you want to play harder for a coach. When he believes in you, and lets you take care of your family first.”
Bennett was no doubt briefed in full on Belichick by his brother Martellus, who played a couple seasons in New England at tight end before ultimately retiring. And while Michael Bennett has previously indicated his excitement at being coached by one of the game’s all-time greats – he initially referred to Belichick as “the Yoda of football” upon learning of his trade out of Philadelphia – it sounds as if he’s been won over as much by Belichick’s heart as he has by his mind.
"“I think everybody’s always concerned about how their boss is going to take into consideration if something happens back home, but when you have a boss who respects you as a man, it’s easy to go out there and play for him like that. I think for me, that’s easy to look him in the eye and whatever he asks me to do, I’ll do it simply because I know he respects me as a human being and I respect that.”"
Next. Maurice Harris is looking like a major contributor on offense. dark
Bennett is expected to bolster a Patriots pass-rush that had issues at times knocking down the quarterback and producing sacks in 2018. Assuming he’s still as motivated and physically-capable on the field as he’s always been throughout his 10-year career, New England shouldn’t see much of a drop-off in defensive end production after losing Trey Flowers to Detroit in free agency.