When long-time New England Patriots safety Patrick Chung announced his retirement earlier this year, Bill Belichick called him “everything a coach could want” and “one of the pillars of our program.”
Adrian Phillips has not reached that level just yet, but he has certainly plenty a lot of quality football ever since joining the Patriots as a free agent last offseason. He also has received plenty of praise for his performance as a versatile box safety — including from Belichick himself: New England’s head coach spent the final four minutes of his Monday morning media conference call talking about Phillips.