New England Patriots rumors: Chase Winovich is hurting his career

As the New England Patriots head into the offseason, it seems as though Chase Winovich could be on his way out due to attitude problems.

After his rookie season, it seemed like 2020 could be a big season for Chase Winovich. Now that the New England Patriots season is over, it’s fair to say that it was quite the disappointment.

Now to Winovich’s credit, his numbers weren’t all that bad. He tallied the same amount of sacks and also snagged his first career interception along with 49 tackles.

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But Winovich saw his snaps get decreased. Against the Bills in Week 8, he only appeared in five defensive snaps, and in Week 17 he only had six defensive snaps.

Winovich wasn’t on the field in obvious rushing scenarios. He would only come onto the field when the Patriots knew that the opponent would be passing the ball.

The issue is that Winovich didn’t take that necessary jump in his second year. His progression seems to be stalled at the moment which won’t please the coaching staff in New England.

Seeing Winovich spend most of his time on the sidelines had a lot of fans puzzled. When he is on the field he is quite impressive.

Fans might now know the reason. According to the Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard and his sources, Winovich has an attitude problem.

"Had a monster game against the Jets, which we also saw earlier in the season. In between? Just a sub-rusher role. Why? Because he can’t be counted on a down-to-down basis to Do His Job on the edge, and I’m not sure the team will ever trust him to do that — he’s almost certain to have competition at the position next year. There’s also the issue of his mouth, which is a concern internally because he rarely thinks he’s wrong and is a bit of a locker room lawyer (sounds like someone around here who writes about football). I’ve floated moving him to (inside linebacker) but that has been shot down because if of the lack of faith he will consistently do the correct things within the scheme."

Is this most likely Winovich just being himself? Yes. He’s a human being and even if that doesn’t fit the Patriot Way it shouldn’t be a problem.

But the fact that Winovich always thinks that he is right definitley could cause problems. That seems like a character trait that would annoy Bill Belichick.

Now, this seems like it could be a problem for Winovich. If this is in fact true, his time in New England could quickly come to an end.

The Patriots need players that can be relied upon. They don’t like players who just do their own thing when they are on the field. This is the same reason that caused New England to initially move on from Jamie Collins.

After his rookie season, it would have been hard to imagine that this is where we would be with Winovich. He seemed like he had the potential to be New England’s pass rusher of the future.

But now it wouldn’t even surprise me if the New England Patriots released Winovich this offseason. New England is rebuilding and planning for the future. Moving on from Winovich isn’t off the table.

So if Winovich wants to have a career in New England, he will need to change his attitude. If not he might be better off finding a new team.