Michael Bennett has perfect chance for revenge game against Patriots

Michael Bennett’s time with the Patriots wasn’t a success for either party, but he’s found more opportunities to make an impact since joining the Cowboys.

Other than winning the Super Bowl, being named to the Pro Bowl, or earning millions of extra dollars in meeting contract incentives, there are few things probably more satisfying for a professional football player than sticking it to their old team.

Michael Bennett wasn’t a New England Patriot for very long. He was traded from the Philadelphia Eagles to the Patriots during the offseason, and at the time, many considered his acquisition to be the biggest positive roster move New England made during a period of heavy personnel losses (Rob Gronkowski, Trey Flowers, Chris Hogan, etc.).

Bennett was largely held out from the preseason in an effort to keep him healthy and fresh for his 11th NFL season – and because he didn’t have a whole lot to prove, either, at this point in his exemplary career.

But through the first six games of New England’s season, Bennett’s playing time and snap percentage steadily declined on a week-to-week basis. In two of those six games, he didn’t make enough of an impact on the game to fill the box score stat-line.

Conflict between player and team eventually boiled over, with Bennett reportedly getting into it with his position leader, defensive line coach Bret Bielema, after the Patriots’ Week 6 victory over the New York Giants. Bennett later apologized for his role in the argument and referred to the matter as a “philosophical disagreement.”

The team suspended him for their Week 7 game against the New York Jets as a result, and less than a week later, he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a conditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick.

It’s still early, but so far at least, it appears Bennett’s transition from New England to Dallas has been beneficial for both sides. He’s receiving significantly more playing time on the Cowboys as he fills in for Tyrone Crawford – who ended up on IR this season – and has carved out some nice opportunities for himself as a pass-rusher while spelling guys like DeMarcus Lawrence and Robert Quinn.

For the Patriots, they no longer have to worry about a locker room malcontent, and can focus instead on deploying the ideal defense that Bill Belichick prefers to run this year without concerning themselves over Bennett’s happiness. Simply put, their schematics this season don’t really mesh well with Bennett as a player anyway.

Even with both Bennett and the Patriots seemingly pleased with the net positives gained from the change, you have to think the veteran defensive end still has this weekend’s game against his former team circled in bright red ink on his calendar. He’ll undoubtedly want to prove to Belichick, Bielema, and all of Patriots Nation that they made a grave error in undervaluing his contributions… and the best way to do that, of course, is by wreaking havoc on Tom Brady and the Patriots offense.

There’s bad news and good news when it comes to that notion if you’re a New England fan.

The bad news is that this is the perfect year for opposing pass-rushers to work out any extra motivation or added juice they might have when going against a beleaguered Patriots offensive line and Brady himself. Normally the O-line is a point of strength on the team, just as normally Brady is exceptional while playing under duress or pressure.

In 2019 however, the line has been extremely shaky against some of the more disruptive front sevens around the league. Even if defenses aren’t cashing in by piling up their sack totals against the Patriots, they’re breaking through the New England line with relative ease and forcing Brady into bad throws, intentional grounding, and other uncharacteristic mistakes.

The good news if you’re a Patriots fan is that former 2018 first-round draft pick Isaiah Wynn is reportedly returning to action this week against the Cowboys. Wynn has missed most of this season because of a turf toe injury that landed him on IR, but he’s been practicing of late and is eligible to make his return against Dallas.

He’s still a bit of an unknown quantity with little regular season experience under his belt, but there’s no denying he’d represent an upgrade in talent over Marshall Newhouse at left tackle. Hopefully, he’ll better fortify this New England offensive line against pass-rushers of Bennett’s caliber.

In six games with the Patriots, Bennett tallied 2.5 sacks and five tackles. In just three games with the Cowboys, he has 3.0 sacks and eight tackles. The fact that he’s already had more production with Dallas in half the total time he spent with New England proves that the change of scenery was a good idea after all, and the Cowboys are surely happy to have him on their roster.

It’s now up to the Patriots offensive line to prove on Sunday that New England is also just as happy that he’s no longer on their own roster. If they can protect Brady and keep Bennett at bay all game, they’ll essentially rob him of the opportunity to say “I told you so” in person as a player who desperately wanted more snaps when he was still a Patriot.

Of course, a New England victory over Dallas would also work just fine in that department, too.