Phil Perry praises Kyle Dugger following his impressive performance vs. the Miami Dolphins. Phil calls the defensive back an “elite, elite athlete” and says he has teammates in awe of what he can do on the field.
FOXBORO -- Adrian Phillips couldn't help but shake his head, even more than an hour after his team's win over the Dolphins had finished up.
The guy he shares space with in the locker room, the guy who found a way into the end zone for the third time this season, the guy who may have saved the Patriots season is just that gifted. So much so that even in a building full of elite athletes, he's described as different.
"Super rare," Phillips said of Kyle Dugger. "Super rare. It's not every day that you see a safety who's 6-foot-2, fast, can cover in the slot, can knock you out. It's not every day you see that. There's not many comparisons to that in the league."
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With that, Phillips smiled. The one comparison Phillips has made for Dugger in the past has been his former teammate, Derwin James, the Chargers' All-Pro safety. It was lofty praise at the time, early in Dugger's rookie season. But the third-year pro has only made Phillips look like he has a future in scouting.
With his pick-six touchdown on Sunday, giving the Patriots a third-quarter lead in their eventual 23-21 win over Miami, Dugger recorded yet another explosive game-changing play that few at his position have the ability to make.
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"We all know Kyle's a very, very explosive, athletic player," Bill Belichick said. "He's done a great job for us jamming receivers, defending the run, tackling, making big plays. When he gets his hands on the ball, he's a hard guy to get. Not many guys out there that are going to catch him from behind on offense, so if it was the Detroit scoop-and-score play, the interceptions here he's had, he’s really helped us."
Perry's Report Card: Defense passes with flying colors vs. Dolphins
Dugger has now scored on interceptions twice in the last three weeks. His scoop-and-score against the Lions in Week 5 initially got him on the board. And in Arizona, he stripped DeAndre Hopkins, helping Raekwon McMillan generate a scoop-and-score of his own.
"You don’t get a lot of Kyle Duggers in your locker room," Jonathan Jones said. "He's a special guy."
"I think you're going to have to write Kyle a blank check, that's how good he is right there," Matthew Judon said. "Just for him to get that interception and then turn it into offense. That's a one-man band. It just seemed like every week we come up with one. We’ve got to keep doing it, keep focused on it. That's the goal. For Kyle to do that, it was a really unbelievable play."
It was clear, even coming out of Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, that Dugger was a special athlete before he entered the league. He lit it up at the Senior Bowl against some of the best Power-Five conference talent in the country. Then at the combine, he tested like an elite NFL specimen.
Since then, though, his game has steadily ticked upward as his understanding of pro offenses has evolved and as he's become more accustomed to the many roles with which he's been tasked in Belichick's scheme.
His interception of Teddy Bridgewater was a good example of the number of ways in which he can be used. He began the play looking like a blitzer (he hit Joe Burrow and forced a pick last week in that role), then he took on what is essentially a linebacker role (where he's excelled since Year 1), dropping into the deep middle of the field and reading the quarterback before lunging for a pass that had him looking more like an experienced cover corner than a hit-you-like-a-ton-of-bricks safety.
“Just cover-two dropping as the middle player," Dugger said of the play. "Got some odd drops, saw my threat was eliminated, so I was able to get my eyes back to the quarterback and get around to the backside vertical (route). Once I got my hands on the ball, I knew I needed to score. It helped the team greatly. That was the goal."
"You can see," Devin McCourty said, "Dug was going, ‘I'm not going out-of-bounds, I'm finding a way into the end zone.’ Any time a guy like Dug, one of our best players overall on the team, gets the ball in his hands, third touchdown of the year. We needed him today. Stepped up big.
"I would say over the latter part of the season he's played great football. Really proud just to be able to be in there with him. His production and studying, his process throughout the season, it's no wonder it's paying off. The guy has been tremendous."
