Is Michael Bennett growing frustrated with his smaller role?

Four games into the season, New England Patriots defensive end Michael Bennett is still getting used to a lessened role with his new team.

It might be easy to forget that before Antonio Brown very briefly was a New England Patriot, the team’s biggest, splashiest offseason acquisition was actually 11-year veteran defensive end Michael Bennett.

Bennett came over via trade from the Philadelphia Eagles last March. After successful stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, and the aforementioned Eagles, many wondered if Bennett could do even more damage playing for a Hall of Fame-caliber head coach and defensive mastermind like Bill Belichick. Bennett himself seemed to add fuel to the fire and the growing optimism around New England, expressing his excitement at suiting up for a guy he called the “Yoda of football.”

Fast-forward seven months later, and Michael Bennett is the forgotten man in Foxborough.

On a superb defense that has been the story of the season for the Patriots through four weeks, Bennett is playing just 40% of the defensive snaps, per USA Today’s Henry McKenna. That’s a shocking decrease in playing time from his days with Philly (69%) and Seattle (85%) in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

It’s almost absurd to think that New England would bring Bennett in – ostensibly to replace the departed Trey Flowers in free agency – and then hand him a two-year contract extension worth nearly $17 million… only to keep him riding the pine on the sideline when it matters most.

The catch, of course, is that the Patriots haven’t really needed Bennett thus far. The defense is playing like the best unit Bill Belichick has ever had – they currently lead the league in both yards and points allowed at the quarter-mark of the season. That same defense also leads the NFL in sacks and interceptions, and it has only allowed one single touchdown this entire year.

And all of this is happening without Bennett occupying a major role for the defending champs.

Even though it may be clear that New England doesn’t need Bennett anywhere near as much as they may have originally thought, how does he feel about all of this lack of playing time and contributions? After all, he’s a veteran player with a sterling track record… and he’s never been afraid to speak his mind, either.

“It’s hard, but at the same time, you want to be a good teammate. You don’t want to break any — just playing the best you can, I guess,” Bennett told McKenna during a recent interview. Pressed further on how he thinks he’s performing this year, he deferred to Coach Belichick’s judgment.

Though he’s only started in one of the four games he’s appeared in this season, he at least has already racked up a pair of sacks in 2019 – one against the Dolphins and one against the Jets. Still, if he keeps up that pace, he’ll finish the year with eight sacks… which would be Bennett’s second-smallest season total in a year he plays in all 16 games.

Worse yet, he’s been nearly invisible in the stat sheets outside of the sack numbers, too. He’s averaging just one tackle per game, and he has a long line of “zeroes” in every other category as well.

All in all, Bennett has seen his playing time usurped by lesser-heralded players like Adam Butler, Deatrich Wise Jr., Danny Shelton, and Lawrence Guy. Not only does he have fewer sacks on the season than Butler, he also has fewer sacks than three other guys on the roster too: Jamie Collins Sr., Kyle Van Noy, and Chase Winovich. Lest anyone forget, Winovich is a rookie.

There’s still plenty of season left for Bennett to make an impact. Perhaps Belichick is still just experimenting with the best possible configurations for his defense, and there may come an ideal opportunity down the line for Bennett to really carve out some playing time for himself and make a sizable impression.

For now though, keep a close eye on this situation as the calendar flips deeper into the fall. If the current trajectory for Michael Bennett and the New England Patriots doesn’t change sooner rather than later, it’s not crazy to think that these two sides could eventually be headed for a messy divorce.