Socci’s Notebook: Will Pats deploy ‘cat coverage’ against the Panthers?

Three games into the season, the Patriots will end September finally close to fulfilling the promise that first-year head coach Mike Vrabel foresaw in mid-March. 

Back then, when a flurry of free agent signings brought Carlton Davis to New England, Vrabel delighted at the thought of pairing the veteran cornerback with youngster Christian Gonzalez and their potential effect on his defense.

“Hopefully, we can just play cat coverage,” Vrabel said at the March 13 introductory press conference for Davis and his free agent classmates. “Like, you got that cat, I got this cat and we can go to work."

Pointing to his right, a black pen in hand, Vrabel then motioned to his left, a smile emerging amidst his graying stubble at the time, practically picturing the possibility of locking down outside receivers from one sideline to the other. But since a July 28 hamstring injury to Gonzalez, and increasingly since the season began, Vrabel’s been able to point to only uncertainty regarding Christian’s return.

Until this week. Listening to Vrabel, first Wednesday and again on Friday, Gonzalez’s return sounded imminent. The plan was, as Vrabel previewed mid-week, to ramp up Gonzalez’s activity. The result was, as Vrabel updated by the weekend, that Gonzalez took most of this week’s practice reps. On Friday’s practice report, he was listed as questionable for Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, The Athletic's Dianna Russini reported that. he's "ready to roll."

Just in time for the Carolina Panthers, we may finally get to see the Pats deploy their ‘cat coverage.’ And as exciting as that prospect is for any of us, no one could possibly be more eager to see a Davis-Gonzalez duo at work in-game and in sync than their coaches.

An animated Vrabel, of course. Equally so, seemingly reserved assistant Justin Hamilton, the Pats’ first-year cornerbacks coach. 

“What's really excited me is seeing how they interact with each other,” Hamilton told a small group of reporters on Thursday. “They've created a cool bond and they push each other and they are good for each other. It's almost like yin and yang in terms of a guy that's been in it for a long time and a young guy, a guy that came in as a mid-round draft pick that had to kind of fight his way to become who he is and the guy that came in as a first-round pick. 

“But both guys, I respect the work that they put in and their attention to detail, the time that they put into taking care of their bodies and their awareness and knowledge of our system and of the game. Yeah, it's exciting to think about getting 'em out there together.”

Hamilton was on Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans staff in the spring of 2023, working as a defensive quality control coach when Gonzalez went through the pre-draft process out of the University of Oregon. He studied Gonzo’s college video and recalls meeting him on a pre-draft visit to Nashville. Two years later, he now enjoys regular and lengthy interactions with the 23-year-old cornerback.

During the month-plus when Gonzalez didn’t practice, Hamilton made sure he was prepared for his eventual return. The coach prepared a daily script, so Gonzalez was engaged while watching practices and in position meetings, and they met one-on-one during special teams periods. It all allowed Hamilton a more informed profile of the person. Still, his impression of the player isn’t fully formed. Yet.

“He's a very intelligent player. He does a good job communicating. He's got a good relationship with the guys in the room and he's been through the battles, so I think that having a guy out there that has played as well as he's played gives you some confidence,” Hamilton says. “But as far as he and I go, our relationship, we've not been out there together during the game.”

If, as expected, they break that ice on Sunday, the 6-foot-1 Gonzalez joining the 6-1 Davis should enable the Patriots to more closely match up with Carolina’s tall receivers. Even without last year’s 32nd overall pick, 6-foot-3 Xavier Legette, who will be inactive with a hamstring injury, the Panthers will line up three receivers who stand 6-feet-4. Among them is Tet McMillan, their top choice in this year’s draft, with his team-high 27 targets and 14 receptions.

“That's the part that we can't coach. We can't coach size,” Hamilton says. “So having that with guys, the ability to move, the ability to stay connected to receivers that can separate is obviously a good thing.”

For the Patriots. Not so much for the Panthers.

“Gonzalez is a great player, he’s a great match player,” Carolina offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said this week. “Has great anticipation, does a great job staying in the hip. They run a good amount of man-to-man coverage, we’ve been seeing the last couple of weeks.

“Our guys have got to be aggressive, a lot like when you’re going against (Carolina cornerback) Jaycee Horn, with a longer guy who has the athletic traits to stay in your hip. You’ve got to be aggressive off the line and everything has to feel like you’re attacking downfield.”

In signing Davis as an unrestricted free agent, the Patriots paid out a $16.5 million bonus as part of a three-year deal worth up to $54 million. Based on what he's experienced so far, Hamilton is sold on the 28-year-old ex-Buccaneer and Lion.

“He's a great spirit, he has a lot of good experience, he brings a lot of good knowledge and he's just fun to be around,” says Hamilton, adding that it took some time to truly get to know Davis, whose spring and summer practice time was curtailed by his own injury recovery. “He’s super, super competitive on Sunday. That's the thing I've grown to appreciate about him. When you turn on the video, when it gets to Sunday, he's ready to go whoever's on the other side.”

Asked about the questionable pass interference penalty assessed to Davis, while defending Pittsburgh’s D.K. Metcalf on a pass sailing well out of play last Sunday, a diplomatic Hamilton offered both a coaching point and some insight into the team’s weekly preparation for officials.

“Depending on the crew that you have that game, (pass interference) may be called different and you just have to adjust,” Hamilton said, touching on the track record of referee Clete Blakeman’s crew. “We knew going in that the crew we had this past week had called a lot of either defensive holding or defensive pass interference (penalties) the week before. So we were aware of it going in. I think the communication with the officials is a big part of it. 

“But in terms of the technique, when you look at the video, it's really at the top of the route or as the receiver's going up for the catch point, it's trying to keep your hands in the inside frame of the receiver rather than the outside or on (his) back or (his) name plate.” 

The inside placement is imperative, even when a receiver uses his hands to gain an advantage. As anyone who’s watched the modern NFL knows – and if you’ll forgive a twist on a baseball expression – when hand-fighting is involved, tie always goes to the (route) runner.

Relatively early in the Pats’ 21-14 loss to the Steelers, Alex Austin, the cornerback spelling Gonzalez in the starting lineup was replaced by recent addition Charles Woods. In the final tally, Woods wound up playing 15 defensive snaps to Austin’s 14. 

Theretofore, Woods had been used predominantly on special teams in his brief pro career. Signed by the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2024, he totaled 13 defensive plays and 169 snaps in the kicking game for Los Angeles. Released by LA at the end of preseason and added to the Pats’ roster on Aug. 27, Woods was inactive vs. Las Vegas and logged just two defensive snaps at Miami, while appearing on 16 special teams plays.

In the span of a month, Woods has uprooted from one coast to move to another, had virtually no time to get acclimated to his new surroundings before the season kicked off, as he crammed to learn new defensive and kicking-game schemes, overcame a Week 1 injury and has seized his opportunity to expand his fourth-down role to earlier downs. Impressive.

“His transition has been great as far as his addition to the room, his personality, his professionalism,” Hamilton said, before alluding to Woods’ ability to transition from Chris Shula’s Rams’ defensive scheme to the Pats’ system.

“I kind of go back to my days as a player where it's really unlearning what you used to call things,” says Hamilton, who played safety for Cleveland and Washington in 2006 and 2008, respectively. “Most teams in the league, offense or defense, do a lot of the same things but just call it something different.

“Once you can unlearn what you used to call it, but also translate the concept, it's usually pretty quick that they can pick it up. But he's been very good. He's been faster than a lot of the guys that I, mainly in Tennessee, that I had experienced with.”

Inexperienced as he is on the NFL level, adapting to new places and assimilating into new programs is old hat for the 25-year-old Woods. His college career unfolded on three campuses. 

FCS member Illinois State extended his lone Division I scholarship offer; Woods stayed there for three years. Enticed by the opportunity to compete at the FBS level, he entered the newly created NCAA transfer portal and left for West Virginia; Woods graduated after his second season with the Mountaineers. Still possessing a season of eligibility, he returned home to Dallas and enrolled as a grad student at SMU; Woods was signed by the Rams the following May.

In Los Angeles, Woods made the opening-day roster through his performance on special teams, working closely with John Streicher. ‘Stretch,’ as Streicher is known, helped coach the Rams' kicking units, while wearing the title of Game Management Coordinator. 

Today Streicher’s title is Vice President of Football Operations and Strategy in New England. Originally hired by Mike Vrabel in Tennessee before spending a year in Los Angeles, he’s rejoined his old boss in Foxborough. When the Rams made Woods available, Streicher reunited with him too.

“There’s a lot that goes into a special teams role, because basically you’re the first play of offense or defense,” Woods says. “I embraced that role since I got in the league. I know, being undrafted, that’s my way to make teams and make my money the first few years in the league. Now it’s about going out there, having fun and trying to make a play to influence the game.”

One of the players Woods studied in his early NFL development is the son of a Rams’ legend and, himself, an all-time Patriot great.

“Coming into the league that’s one of the main guys who’s brought up around the league, Matthew Slater,” said Woods, who now works alongside former Slater understudy Brenden Schooler. “Having an All-Pro special teamer now with ‘Schools,’ it’s a blessing just being able to learn from him each and every day, and watch him go out there and play.”

Woods tries to transfer much of what he’s learned to and from special teams and defense, particularly as a key cog on the punt teams.

“How I look at it, especially being out there as a jammer (on returns) and the flip side as a gunner (in coverage), I try to implement those (defensive backs) skills into my jammer technique,” he says. “So as I’m getting better as a jammer, I’m getting better as a corner(back).”

Reminded that a jammer can keep his hands on a gunner a lot longer than a defensive back is allowed to contact a receiver, Woods shared a smile and chuckle. 

“Yeah, you gotta let them go,” Woods says. “That’s the hard part about the league. There’s a lot of rules that try to help the offense out, score points.

“It’s definitely hard not to make contact with those (receivers) after five yards, but that’s what your technique and fundamentals carry over for.”

And your officials’ scouting report.

This week it’s Bill Vinovich’s crew. In Baltimore on Monday night, they threw 17 flags, 11 accepted. Two for defensive holding. Two for illegal contact. One for defensive pass interference.

In other words, keep your hands inside.

Bob Socci is in his 13th season calling play-by-play for the Patriots Radio Network on 98.5 The Sports Hub. He'll join Scott Zolak for the broadcast of Patriots vs. Panthers from Foxborough on Sunday at 1 p.m.