The Center Position: Jason Kelce, Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia

we played you Kelsey's a go-to guy and I would say like do not let him [Music] pull Jason just want to talk to you a little bit about the center position I think it's one of the most underrated positions in football especially these days you got a lot of different fronts linebackers walking up in and out of line of scrimmage a double mug look you got so much shotgun now there's very little under Center and then crowd noise on the road the communication both with your lineman and with the quarterback how how hard hard has that job become it's definitely gotten harder defenses have gotten more multiple um you guys kind of originated a lot of that with the different linebacker fronts and everything that you would throw at us which was always fun it seems like everybody's kind of evolved offenses and defenses and you have to be ready for that much more on game day uh so I think I was fortunate to kind of be an older player as that happened and you kind of you're banking all this stuff as it goes through the years okay we got odd mugs four down mugs double A mugs uh you got to split front and you're you're categor categor all these things based on the play that's called the protection that's called how can I put my guys and my team in the position to be successful because what's unique about the center position similar to the quarterback position is just by making a call not anything else I do physically just by making a call I can make a difference in the play and that's what I really love about the position one word tells everybody what to do right yeah well I mean sometimes you got multiple words but yes you can you one word can be the difference of this play working and being set up right and this play being a disaster and a tackle for loss you know and what you were you were so great at the line of scrimmage communication and with the center position but I mean look there's not a lot of centers that could see the secondary and see where rotation was coming and you would get up there and you know you'd be able to see okay hey this guy's rotating down we need to change this or remik that and and your ability to take you know certainly the Five Guys you played with and see it through one set of eyes but then you know help the quarterback change the play I mean it was unbelievable the fact that you could see all of that yeah I mean I still the quarterback has a better vision of that and I would honestly try and take in more than just the secondary and assessing that stuff and you guys I don't want to make this tting you guys as much as you were but you guys did a very good job of hiding a lot of those tells you know I used to play linebacker and I would use that you know if the linebacker was bossing like you know somebody's coming down over here or they're blitzing over here if if those guys hold their position if the nose all of a sudden is a little bit tighter you're factoring you're you're you're taking all that information in to try and tell you what's about to happen is this going to stay the same is it going to change your tackle is telling you fire and you're like all right is it really fire yeah it's fire okay go out to the Nick yes absolutely well Co coach and I talk all the time about Tuesday players when we would go game playing you were one of those Tuesday players we knew that you were going to be able to see what we were doing we were going to have to disguise we were going to have to do as much as we could to try to contain you from that aspect of it defensively just to you know try to because you were so influential in the game try to limit what you know you could do to impact us because we knew you could see it coming yeah we have what we call goto guys and usually that's a receiver tight end like or somebody like that we played you Kelsey's a goto guy and I would say like do not let him pull yeah do not let him pull I don't want to see him leading somebody outside the numbers out there cover him up get on him and if he pulls grab him you still pull drove me crazy long Tuesday for me game planning like hey you know Matt do we got the center do we got Kelsey covered yeah coach we got him covered can he pull it no he can't pull you know we get he's pulling I'm like coach I don't I don't even know what to tell you right now he's and I'd be talking to Stout I'm like coach just let me pull I don't care if he's head up just send a guard down he's not going to make the tackle let me get out of here but yeah I think uh if I was game planed towards me I would have done the same thing don't let me get on the second level make me block the big guy up front that's not my strength we tried so hard we tried so hard I was even trying to get our big guys to go grab you were gone we couldn't even get off the ball in time to even grab you no I think the communication between you and the offensive line and the quarterback especially on the road young quarterbacks now it just it can't be understated and um you know Creed Humphrey big signing for Kansas City you know last week but you know the importance of that position especially the way the game's evolved and everything's shotgun like you're there's very little under Center yeah and so that snap if you know you know that one bad snap and you know what that is I me well I know that to that lives with you for the rest of your life so your leadership and just being fortunate enough to see that every day you were unbelievable with that you know you took that every day and you know made those guys you know because you had some young guys around you you made them better as a coach watching a player any player that makes the guy next to him better um you know that's a special guy in there in the middle and certainly you know one of the best I wish You' retired 5 years ago but congratulations on a great great career congratulations on a great great career thanks for being with us thank you [Music] [Music]