Rob Ninkovich came along roughly the same time this blog really kicked into high gear and thus I felt really attached to him and his incredible emergence. As I’ve written many times, what interested me most in the early days of PatsProp was the defensive rebuild that occurred in 2009, the year Nink arrived.
No one embodied the Patriots rebuild more than Nink and when we talk about Belichick rebuilding the defense from scratch to win two more Super Bowls, Ninkovich will be exhibit A of how they did it.
2009 was the year that the Patriots lost Bruschi, Harrrison, Vrabel and Seymour and began laying the groundwork for a defense that would make critical plays to win Super Bowls just a few years down the road. That leadership void needed to be filled and who better to fill it than a free agent long snapper? It’s so Belichick it hurts.
But it wasn’t an easy progression. The 2010 and 2011 Patriots defenses ranked 21st and 30th respectively in Football Outsiders’ DVOA efficiency ratings, the worst and t-3rd worst under Belichick. From those ashes only a couple players survived to become building blocks, none more impressive than Ninkovich.
The comparisons to the previous #50 Mike Vrabel are apt. Ninkovich was a castoff on his last chance who turned that chance into two Super Bowl trophies.
I thought a fun way to look back would be to pull my commentary from the early days of the blog, to track Ninkovich’s progress through the eyes of your faithful blogger. I was always one who believed in Ninkovich, even if I called him Ninkopoop, which was a term of endearment.
Let’s take a look back, and if you’d like to see all the Ninkovich posts from the old blog, including media and lots of quotes from coaching and analysts about him you can CLICK HERE.
2010 : Quiet beginnings, Ninkovich was very much under the fans radar in 2009, but not the coaching staff’s.
Ninkovich has kicked around the league for a few years, but did enough in 2009 to earn him a contract extension. The Pats must like him, and he does look somewhat like a Vrabel clone (#50 aside). If he can prove sturdy against the run he could be the starting LOLB against Cincinnati.
2010: The Miami game in 2010 was Nink’s coming out party.
Rob Ninkopoop made two great plays on his interceptions. He’s one player who is really seeming to improve with each snap he gets. He might not be Mike Vrabel but he’s a smart player and has the athleticism to compete on every down.
2011: Heading into 2011 I really believed in Nink. His performance in the losing effort to the Jets in 2010 playoff loss was one of the only standouts on the team.
Rob Ninkovich doesn’t garner a lot of excitement amongst Patriots fans, but I believe he’s one of the most unsung players on the roster. Ninkovich is one defender who showed up to play in the playoffs. He was consistently generating pressure, setting the edge, and dropping into coverage (2 passes defensed). He did lose contain/miss a tackle against Ladainian Tomlinson that resulted in a big gain, but otherwise he was out there making plays when it counted most. I think he’s a lot more of a building block that many of us give him credit for. Losing him to a knee injury in the third quarter of the Jets game definitely did not help.
2012 : Here’s an excerpt from a long article I did about Ninkovich’s progression over his first two seasons with the Pats. It’s clear what his trajectory was at this point. He was ready to blossom in 2011. Check out the whole article for my most in-depth Nink analysis from the old blog.
Some will remain unconvinced, despite 2010 being the first season that Ninkovich played consistently in a defense for an NFL team. They’ll look at his mere four sacks and conclude that he’s not the answer for the pass rush problems, especially since two of them came in the meaningless game seventeen.
Well let’s take a look at Mike Vrabel’s sack numbers over his career with the Pats: 3, 4.5, 9.5, 5.5, 4.5, 4.5, 12.5, 4. Doesn’t seem like Ninkovich is that far off does it? Vrabel took a similar path to the Patriots, and it wasn’t until his third season under BB’s tutelage that he really blossomed.
Ninkovoch Defensive Snap % 2010-2011
2011 – Even Pat Kirwan was starting to notice Nink heading into the 2011 season.
I’m pumped to see Ninkopoop on there even if it is just honorable mention. Every other OLB on the list (top 10 and 5 honorable mentions) were either a high round draft pick, a high priced free agent, or both.
But not Ninkovich, he was a free agent the Pats got for nothing, and quickly signed to an extension in his first year with the team. Is he Clay Matthews or Demarcus Ware? No. But he’s yet another in a long list of examples of why the Patriots are consistently good with affordable players.
2013 – By 2013 we all knew what we had — one of the best edge players in the league and he was rewarded as such.
Congrats to Ninkovich on his contract extension through 2016! Great move for the Pats and I think it’s safe to now put him amongst the great all-time free agent signings by Bill Belichick. An afterthought signed in camp in 2009 has become one of the unsung heroes of the Patriots defense, similar to the last man to wear No. 50 Mike Vrabel.
