Matt Chatham knows what it takes to win a Super Bowl.
He was on three New England Patriots Super Bowl championship teams as a reserve linebacker and special teams standout.
Now Chatham is a Patriots analyst on the New England Sports Network, and was the featured speaker at the Hermon Youth Football Camp on Tuesday night. Though it’s too early in the season to make predictions, the veteran thinks there are positive signs for the team.
It begins with second-year quarterback Mac Jones, whose 80.4 Pro Football Focus grade was best among the first-year quarterbacks and 11th among all quarterbacks last season.
The PFF assigns a grade to a player on every play.
Chatham said it is good to see “how he has changed his body” and how hard he works.
“When the organization is willing to speak that enthusiastically about him before they have even seen him play this season speaks volumes,” Chatham added.
Jones completed 67.6 percent of his passes last season for 3,801 yards and 22 touchdowns. He was intercepted 13 times. He led the Patriots to a 10-7 record and a playoff berth.
Meanwhile, for linebackers — a position Chatham is well-versed in — three veterans who played in at least 10 games a year ago are gone.
Kyle Van Noy (16 games) and Dont’a Hightower (15) were the team’s fourth- and eighth-leading tacklers, respectively, and Jamie Collins played in 10 games. Van Noy signed with the Los Angeles Chargers and the other two are free agents.
“Opinions on guys can be based on usage, not ability,” Chatham said. “Josh Uche is a great example of that. He hasn’t played a lot, but he might be really good. He just hasn’t been used.”
The third-year linebacker from the University of Michigan appeared in 12 games last season.
Young players who don’t have a lot of experience — like a lot of the Patriots’ linebackers — wind up playing behind “high-dollar veterans” such as Van Noy, Hightower and Collins, Chatham said.
Now that the veterans aren’t on the team, we’ll get to see if the younger linebackers are any good.
“The fact the Patriots were relatively inactive [with linebackers] in the draft and in free agency tells you they think they have something.”
The Patriots did obtain Cleveland Browns linebacker Mack Wilson in a trade for Chase Winovich. They will also have second-year man Cameron McGrone, who didn’t play last year due to a knee injury.
Leading tackler Ja’Whaun Bentley (109) and sacks leader Matthew Judon (12.5 sacks) headline the linebacking corps.
Lastly, the Patriots haven’t named offensive or defensive coordinators but Chatham said head coach Bill Belichick’s decision to divvy up those responsibilities is “pretty progressive”.
The 45-year-old Chatham, who played college ball at South Dakota, played in 91 NFL regular season games and 12 playoff games. He had 158 tackles in his 103 total games.
Chatham came to Hermon after being invited by his former New York Jets teammate, Mike DeVito, who lives in Hampden.
He said he had covered the University of Maine-Jacksonville State Football Championship Subdivision game in 2018 in Orono and found the area “gorgeous.”
Chatham lives in Wrentham, Massachusetts, and feels football is unique in that it teaches kids how to interact and that it offers something for everyone.
“You have all ages here. You have high school kids who have dreams about what high school is going to be like and what they want to accomplish. Other kids are learning how to stand, where to stand and what this sport is about,” he said.
“The younger kids can talk to the older kids, and it breaks down some of those barriers of anxiety and tension. It’s cool to see.”
