MAN FOR ALL REASONS
Versatile Van Noy a boost to Patriots anywhere on field
It did not take long for Kelly Poppinga to recall the quintessential Kyle Van Noy game at Brigham Young University.
Poppinga, an outside linebackers coach and the special teams coordinator at the University of Virginia, served as Van Noy’s position coach at BYU.
In the 2012 Poinsettia Bowl, Van Noy, now in his second year as a linebacker with the Patriots, did a little bit of everything in the Cougars’ 23-6 win over San Diego State. He burst through the line to block a punt. He blitzed around right tackle for a strip sack in the end zone and fell on it for a touchdown. To put the cherry on top in the fourth quarter, he dropped into coverage, made an interception, weaved across the field and turned it into a pick-six.
“He basically won the game for us,” Poppinga said.
It was scout’s honor
As the 2014 NFL draft neared, Van Noy’s playmaking skills had caught the attention of many, including one Patriots scout whom Poppinga chose to keep anonymous.
“We talked a lot about (Van Noy) when he was coming out before the draft,” Poppinga said. “I think (the Patriots) were really hoping they could get him. He got drafted really high by the Lions (second round, 40th overall) to a place that really didn’t fit him, a 4-3 scheme that just did not fit his style at all.
“Even when he was at the Lions, the scout would still kind of talk to me, like, ‘Man, hopefully, one day, we can get our hands on this Kyle Van Noy guy.’ Sure enough, the day that the trade was announced, this scout reached out to me to say, ‘We’ve got our boy.’ ”
That transaction on Oct. 26 of last year was a swap in which Detroit sent both Van Noy and a 2017 seventh-round pick for a 2017 sixth-rounder. In the 13 months since, Van Noy has blossomed into a key player for the Patriots. While Van Noy hasn’t put together as dominant a performance as he did in the Poinsettia Bowl, he’s quickly become an indispensable player in the Pats’ front seven. The seasonending injury to linebacker Dont’a Hightower last month depleted the unit’s depth, and there isn’t a single player who can master the multiple roles at which Van Noy excels.
And Van Noy likes it that way. When a reporter began a question during a conference call Monday mentioning how the Pats seem to be moving the linebacker all over the field this season, he cut the question short with a playful and sarcastic, “Ya think?”
Added Van Noy: “I feel like in other systems they try to conform you into what they wanted and I think here they let me play to my strengths and love what I do. Any time that you can help out the team in a victory and get put in position to succeed makes you have confidence and I think the guys that are on the field have confidence in you as well. Any time you’re in a position to succeed it always makes you happy and confident to play some football. It’s just not me personally. I think everybody on the defense is put in a place to succeed and it’s showing right now.”
And while that may be true of everyone, Van Noy’s maneuverability has paid major dividends. He already has a career-high 51 solo tackles to go along with nine assisted stops, ranking second on the team to safety Devin McCourty in taking down ballcarriers this season. He’s also tied for the team lead in sacks with 3.5.
Poppinga is not surprised. He saw that type of potential in Van Noy from Day 1.
“That’s the same stuff he’s doing now is a lot of the same stuff that we were doing with him back at BYU,” Poppinga said. “We did it even more at BYU just because he was our best player and we tried to put him in as many different spots as we could just so teams never could know exactly where he’s going to be aligning and where he’d be blitzing from, where he’d be dropping from.
“I would say, in a certain game, he could line up in probably five different spots just depending on the call. So he was really versatile for us and we could use him at outside ’backer, inside ’backer, (and) really kind of a hybrid safety position, as well. So he could do a lot for us.”
‘Handy’ set of tools
That’s how Patriots coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia are using Van Noy. Before the snap, any opposing quarterback is forced to play a game of “Where’s Kyle?”
“He can play on the end of the line, he can play off the line, he can rush the passer from a variety of positions,” Belichick said. “He’s a good coverage player — man and zone . ... His versatility is certainly coming in handy at several points in the season this year where we’ve been able to plug him into a spot where we maybe didn’t have the type of depth that we wanted or needed, and he was able to provide that and provide it at a highquality level of play.”
And, somewhere, that unnamed Patriots scout probably has a big, I-toldyou-so smile on his face.