







Devin McCourty has evolved into quite a leader for the Patriots. (USA TODAY Images)







Sometimes playing well doesn't always get you a lot of attention, that's just the way it is.For Patriots safety Devin McCourty, that's probably the best way to describe him.The veteran cornerback has evolved into one of the NFL's top safeties and now he's inching closer to potentially becoming a free agent, one of the many important matters that director of player personnel, Nick Caserio, will likely be focusing on this offseason.When thinking about what McCourty brings to this football team, the best way to describe him is probably that he's a quiet calm in a group that has gotten used to facing adversity over the years, as well as the experience from playing on the biggest stage. You would almost have to equate him to the presence that Vince Wilfork provides up front on the defensive line, with the veteran being a guy who does a good job keeping guys from getting too high or too low when the going gets tough.He's already seen more than plenty of players his age, having played in two Super Bowls and adding a championship to his resume a few weeks ago. He's now one of the seasoned veterans in a secondary that has saw young players like Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler lining up around him and having a player like that around them makes a big difference. He's a player who was a leader in college, and a guy who treated the freshman with respect but made sure they understood their roles on the defense. According to Newsroom New Jersey, McCourty sat with them in meetings and paid attention to how well they understood the defense and then worked with them to help make sure they did.Since joining the Patriots, that approach hasn't changed. He's garnered the respect of his peers who appreciate what he brings to the team."He's not only one of our leaders, but he's a vocal leader after that," Patriots cornerback Kyle Arrington said via lohud . "He gets everybody aligned right. He's like the quarterback of our defense."Everybody has a great relationship with him off the field as well. It makes it a little bit easier to communicate with his guys."Players like that are special, and it falls into the blue print of what Belichick has tried to build his locker room around. The plan has been pretty simple; bring in leaders and guys who love football. The only challenge eventually becomes trying to keep all of them, and that's what New England suddenly finds themselves dealing with this offseason.Darrelle Revis will be the big story, since locking him up for the long-term really solidifies the secondary and essentially takes care of one whole side of the field. The Patriots have the ability to use the franchise tag on McCourty, which should obviously keep him in the fold. Logic would lead you to believe that they'll franchise him but hopefully use that time to hammer out a deal that makes sense in order to ensure that he remains a key component of this group for years to come.McCourty said earlier this month that he's looking forward to how the process plays out.“I’m excited for the process to see how it will all work out,” McCourty told NJ Advance Media . “I haven’t really thought about it that much even though the season is over and that’s kind of the top thing on the list. I think just coming down off the Super Bowl run and winning that, maybe next week or the week after it will really start to set in as it really gets closer to the whole free agency, franchise tag and all of that.”Hopefully if all goes well, it won't get to that point. A tandem like these two doesn't come around very often, and you could even make the argument that you could sign McCourty and Revis and take your chances from there.Caserio recently admitted this team will look a little different next season. But hopefully, if nothing else, those two will be a part of whatever their plans may be heading into 2015 and beyond.File this under, "in case you missed it." McCourty was interviewed by MMQB recently and offered up some insight to what it was like for him when he went through the combine before being selected in the 2010 NFL Draft.According to McCourty, part of what he didn't like was the written exams, which he admitted players simply just have to 'suck it up' and accept the fact it's part of the process."Everybody at the combine just graduated college or left college early. The last thing they want to do is sit in a room for hours and hours and fill in bubble sheets," said McCourty . "One of the tests was four or five pages long, filled with ridiculous questions like, “Are you more like a dog or a cat?” (I picked dog.) It’s kind of nerve wracking, and definitely stressful. But honestly, you just need to suck it up and push through it. Understand it’s just part of the process, and something you’ll hopefully never have to do again in your life."McCourty also said that teams are trying to get players flustered and test how they'll react in those situations."You hear stories about crazy questions teams ask guys: If they have girlfriends, if they could pick one superpower, etc," said McCourty. "To be honest, what threw me most off guard was when one team pulled up tape from my junior year at Rutgers when I didn’t have such a good game. The coach was drilling me: What happened with this play? Why did you do this wrong? I was ready to talk about any game from my senior year—but this? This game wasn’t reflective of my abilities. Looking back, I think the team knew that. They just wanted to see how I would react to that, and to see if I could demonstrate that I had grown since then."An interesting note on Tuesday after Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post reported that the Patriots worked out former Green Bay Packers receiver citing a league source . The former 2013 seventh round pick out of Maryland spent his rookie season on injured reserve and seems to be considered more of a special teams player. Not exactly earth-shattering news but as we know many of the brightest stars, at first, don't always end up shining as bright until later on. Needless to say, this appears to be the beginning ofkicking things off and doing his ever so popular offseason "due dilligence"... Mike Reiss of ESPN Boston had an interesting take on a potential deal for Revis and pondered a long-term deal of five years, which would certainly be welcomed by fans who would like to see the veteran defensive back stick around. The deal, under Reiss' parameters would be five years, $80 million , with a signing bonus of $16 million, giving him an average deal of $16 million per season. The bad news? Reiss ran the deal past one NFL source who felt the numbers might be a little too low to get it done... One final note about McCourty, looking back at the regular season the veteran finished fourth on the team with 67 tackles during the regular season in 2014, including two interceptions, six passes defensed and a forced fumble. He also finished second on the team with 14 tackles on third down as well as two passes defensed... According to CSNNE's Tom Curran, it sounds like pass interference penalties might be changing . Curran reports that Troy Vincent, the NFL’s Executive VP of Football Operations told NFL.com that changing PI to a 15-yard penalty is being considered by the NFL’s Competition Committee. Examples would include them having a couple of different types of PI calls, including a "Simple PI" from the Brown's game to deal with "ticky-tack calls", while a second category is called "Spot Foul Pass Interference" in which the ball is spotted where the foul occurs. It's an interesting concept and one that we're probably sure to hear more about given some of the mistakes that were made last season. However, instant replay will likely correct many of them, and for now it sounds like Bill Belichick's request to make penalties reviewable could eventually become one more great thing to make a reality.