The Lions drafted Van Noy 40th overall in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, but he scuffled through three seasons in Detroit, recording just 36 tackles and one sack in 30 games across three seasons. The Lions traded him to the Patriots in October 2016 in a move that allowed them to move up from the seventh to the sixth round in the next year's draft.
Now he's putting up big numbers with his new team and recently offered his thoughts on the trade that has given him a pair of titles in a three-year span.
"I’m gonna repeat what my friend said so I don’t get in trouble," Van Noy said on the podcast. "He’s like 'You went from the toilet bowl to the Super Bowl.'"
He was asked, "Is your friend also named Kyle Van Noy? Is that what this is?"
"When I got (to New England), it was like, they had a plan for me, it seemed like," Van Noy said. "Then that plan got bigger with how I played. With that being said, I didn’t know that to begin with because I’d been in Detroit, where I was kind of told 'We don’t know where to put you.' And I’m like, 'Why did you draft me?' I had my own coach telling me 'I don’t know where to put you.'"
Van Noy has 192 tackles and 10 sacks in three seasons with the Patriots and has played in all nine of the team's playoff games since he's been in New England.
Patricia said there's an interesting dynamic at play when players throughout the league move and then have newfound success. Scheme can influence those decisions, Patricia said.
"For myself, with Kyle, he was someone that we had scouted coming out of college also and thought just some of the things I did fit him pretty well from that standpoint," Patricia said. "But every year there’s guys that move around. Eli Herold was another guy for us that Bob (Quinn) and his staff did a great job of bringing in and we were able to put in some positions to make some plays. Devon Kennard would be another guy that obviously had some great production and leadership for us that maybe had improved from where he was before too. Some of that stuff happens once in a while, but certainly we try to do the best we can with the guys that we have and fit them into those schemes.”
Van Noy has one year remaining on his two-year, $10.75 million extenstion he signed with the Patriots in 2017. He's due to make $6.3 million next season.