By Danny Picard
CSNNE.com Staff ReporterFollow @dannypicard
One player that Belichick seemed extremely pleased with on Thursday night was linebacker Dane Fletcher, who seemed to be everywhere as a starting middle linebacker against the Jaguars.
Fletcher was running the defense and had five tackles in the absence of Jerod Mayo to start the game, something Belichick said Fletcher wouldnt have been able to do in his rookie year last season, thanks to his improved reaction time.
Well I think Danes made a big jump from his first year to his second year, said Belichick. Similar to our other first-year players... they're way ahead of where they were last year. It looks like Danes had a very good offseason. He looks good physically, and hes certainly a lot more confident and is reacting quicker, better than he did definitely at this time last year.
Although he played a lot of games over the course of the season, and by the end of the year, he was still doing a real good job for us.
I think those are things that he really wasnt that comfortable doing last year, added Belichick about Fletcher leading the defense. Somebody else would have been telling him. This year, hes telling other people. With that understanding and that confidence, allows a player to become more aggressive and to react quicker, because theres just less thinking involved, and hes just more sure of what hes doing.
Danny Picard is on Twitter at http:twitter.comDannyPicard.