Last year [Marquice] Cole sort of did that, played some safety, played some nickel corner, played a little bit on the perimeter. Logan did that [too]. We’ll have to see how it all comes together, but I would imagine in the spring that we probably give [him] some exposure [at safety again],” Belichick said. “I think there’s definitely a place for that too with the different personnel groups and the different types of receivers that we see. Every time it’s three receivers, it isn’t quite three receivers; it depends on who those three guys are and how you want to match up on them and so forth. So some flexibility for us defensively is probably a good thing over a long haul.
New England Patriots Blog – ESPN Boston
This makes sense. What didn’t make sense was putting Logan Ryan out as a safety with McCourty as the starting safety tandem.