Michigan Football: 3 Reasons Patriots got a steal with Josh Uche at 60

Instant upgrade

The Patriots didn’t need a pass rusher to come in and make an immediate impact, but they got one. New England is getting a guy that they can develop over several years while still putting him in specific pass-rushing schemes from day one.

Uche doesn’t necessarily need to get into the game and act as a starter on the line. The Pats also got a steal last year in Wino who’s warming the seat for his former teammate. Uche can sit back, learn the playbook, and occasionally sprint onto the field with the sole purpose of violently colliding with the opponent’s ball tosser.

That’s why he has such a tremendous upside. Josh didn’t have all the starts and tackles as some of his teammates and most of the defensive players picked ahead of him. He’s raw. He can be molded into whatever the Patriots need of him, which is precisely the kind of player Bill Belichick is attracted to, someone that will fit into the machine, not asking for the machine to adjust to them.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein said it best in his evaluation:

“Balancing Uche’s skill set and athletic potential against his inexperience and lack of instincts makes him a challenging evaluation. He’s unlikely to find sustained success as a situational rusher, but it should be in play for a team to turn loose his rush instincts and agility inside the pocket as a blitzer.”

That leads to the third reason why New England got a steal with Josh…