That bubble can burst
Belichick: Roster risk part of stress test
FOXBORO — It’s a feeling one never forgets.
Patriots wide receiver Chris Hogan sure remembers that feeling — the predicament of being on the bubble of making an NFL roster, as he was in 2011 trying to make the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted rookie free agent. He said it brings an extra level of stress to every preseason game.
Bill Belichick has a different view of that, though: That’s the NFL, so get used to it.
Hogan made it to the last round of cuts four times and didn’t make a 53-man roster until he caught on with the Buffalo Bills off their practice squad on Dec.18, 2012. By that time, he already had been turned away by 49ers, Giants and Dolphins.
Now, coming off a breakout 2016 season in which he made 38 receptions for a career-high 680 yards and matched another career best with four touchdowns, Hogan is a roster lock. But that wasn’t how he came up in the NFL.
“This is a high-stress environment, especially for an undrafted guy, where every single year I was an on-the-bubble guy, which was the majority of my career for about five years,” Hogan said. “These last two weeks (before cuts), all camp was stressful. You just have to learn how to deal with the stress and kind of use that energy that you get and just put it all into football, try to forget about everything else and do the best that you can for this month or two months that we’re in training camp and those four preseason games.”
As the Patriots head to Detroit for tomorrow night’s third preseason game, the sense of angst is growing for those whose position is tenuous. It will ramp even more for the preseason finale, when most starters sit out and audition time continues.
Said Hogan: “For an undrafted guy . . . every single one of those (exhibition) plays is being evaluated.”
But as Belichick preaches, players have to “ignore the noise,” which can be considerable. Almost every media outlet that covers the Patriots harps on roster projections as the clock ticks down to the 4 p.m. Sept. 3 deadline, when each team must trim from 90 players to a 53-man roster.
Belichick, however, noted at this level, there’s no day off when it comes to stress. That’s the default setting.
“This is the National Football League, and there is pressure every week,” he said. “There is pressure this week. There is going to be pressure in October. There is going to be pressure in November. We’re going to be under stress all year every week. We’re going to be under stress out on the field every week against every opponent.
So excuse the coach if he gauges players’ response to the stress of the cut-down clock in his evaluations, too.
Said Belichick: “Playing in the National Football League, that’s what you sign up for. If you’re looking for vacation weeks and weeks off where we play some Division 4 team, that doesn’t happen in this league.”
Stress is there “every week,” according to the coach. So deal with it in August because you’ll surely be dealing with it in December — or maybe January.
“Is there stress in training camp? Yeah, there is plenty of it. There is stress on the coaching staff to get the team ready, to pick the right players,” he said. “There is stress on each player to establish his role, or to make the team or play for playing time, whatever it is. There is stress on everybody and there is stress on every team. We’re not in any different situation than any other team in the league is and every player on every one of those teams is having the same thoughts that our players are having, I’m sure.
“If there’s too much pressure in August, it’s probably going to be too much pressure in November. This is the world we live in. You tell me a week in this National Football League when there is not pressure, I don’t know when that is. Every week is a tough week. Every week is a good team, good players, good coaches, work hard that have a lot of things that you’ve got to deal with, and if you don’t deal with them, then you’re not going to win that week.”
In that respect, that uneasy feeling preps a player for life in the league as much as anything else.
Hogan learned that the hard way.
“You never want your phone to ring (on the last day of cuts),” Hogan said. “Just put it that way.”
Or, as Belichick said simply, “That’s the NFL.”