Patriots: Ronnie Perkins’ comments on role change will encourage fans

The New England Patriots’ draft track record in recent years has been the opposite of promising, as de facto general manager Bill Belichick has whiffed on countless picks while also struggling to obtain value in the later rounds.

Luckily for fans, however, Belichick’s newly-adopted collaborative approach to the draft — in terms of listening to different opinions from scouts and other front office executives — has seemingly paid immediate dividends, as their 2021 class has received rave reviews.

The Patriots’ first three picks, of course, are garnering the most excitement, as they netted Mac Jones at No. 15 overall, traded up for Christian Barmore in the second round and nabbed Ronnie Perkins in the third with pick No. 96.

It goes without saying that Jones is under the most pressure of this trio, but Perkins isn’t far behind in that department.

After all, the Patriots are looking to transition the young lineman into an outside linebacker who can drop back into coverage.

That’d be overwhelming for any rookie, but Perkins’ comments during his latest media session suggest he’s handling it without a hitch.

Patriots fans will love Ronnie Perkins talking about switching up his role.

Perkins admitted to working with Patriots outside linebackers coach Steve Belichick and ILBs coach Jerod Mayo rather than DL coach DeMarcus Covington. While Perkins doesn’t have much experience dropping into coverage, he thinks his athleticism will help him make a swift transition.

"“I’ll say I have a good athletic background that allows me to transition into stuff like that,” Perkins told reporters. “It’ll allow me to transition into coverage easily just because I had a tight end background, so I’m kind of good with footwork and everything, so that’ll help my transition to linebacker.”“Pretty much everyone in our room has been around for a really long time. Coach Mayo, he played in the system, Steve, he’s been around the system his whole life, and then you got guys like Hightower and KV, they’ve been in the system for a long time. So I’ve got some great guys to learn from every day.”"

Even better for Perkins? Beyond Belichick and Mayo, he’ll be soaking up pointers from a star-studded linebacker room that features the likes of Dont’a Hightower and free agent signings Kyle Van Noy and Matt Judon. That’s got to count for something, right?

This role change might not seem like much on the surface, but it actually requires Perkins learning an entirely new skillset. In three years at Oklahoma, he had one objective: wreak havoc in opponents’ backfields by any means necessary.

With the Patriots, however, doing your job is just as important as recording sacks and blowing up running plays. The former Sooners standout will have to be cognizant of things like setting the edge against the run and containing mobile quarterbacks.

It could be a while before we see Perkins as a starter at the NFL level, but the Pats transitioning him to an OLB suggests they have BIG plans for their third-round pick.

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