Earlier this week, Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo said that veteran Dont’a Hightower had his best game of the season in Sunday’s win in Houston.
As Hightower works into midseason form after missing last year as a COVID opt-out, he had what might be considered an unremarkable stat line against the Texans, tying for third on the New England defense with five tackles.
That’s more than OK with the 9th year former first-round pick who’s simply focused on doing what’s asked of him as the “trash man” of the Patriots still developing defense.
“I’ve never been a numbers guy. You go back and look in high school and college, whatever you want to do, I’ve never been a numbers guy. I’m going to do whatever I need to do for the team,” Hightower said. “Whether it’s knocking the [crap] out of linemen or if I’m supposed to have 8 or 10 tackles a game or eight sacks, then that’s what I plan on doing. I’m just going to do my job. I’m the trash man. I just play football. I’m not a big numbers guy, I never have been.”
Trash man?
“Just doing the hard stuff. Just doing the hard stuff, bro. I never have been a big newspaper dude, or whatever. I just want to do my job and win,” Hightower said.
That’s exactly what happened on Sunday, as it has happened so many times in Hightower’s New England career including some of the team’s biggest games. If something needs doing on the Patriots defensive front, more often than not over the years Hightower has been ready, willing and able to do it.
“High’s a pretty versatile guy. He can do a lot of things for us. And does whatever we ask him to do,” Bill Belichick said of his defensive captain. “He’s a very unselfish player. He’s so versatile that he’s a guy you can ask to do a lot of things and he can handle a lot of different things, not necessarily the same every week but depending on what the priorities are: pass rush, running game, end of the line, off the ball, handle the fronts, make coverage adjustments. He’s a smart player. He has such a good grasp of the overall defense and the offense that we’re playing. How to use the tools that we have and to apply them to the situations that come up. He’s does a lot of things for us. He’s really good.”
So good that new teammate Matt Judon isn’t so sure of Hightower calling himself the “trash man,” thinking it might be beneath a man of such skill and contribution.
“If he called himself that, then he called himself that,” Judon said. “But I think High is a really good player. He does do a lot of dirty jobs for us but he makes it look good. Like how he hits players, offensive linemen, takes on blocks, winning, defeats them. He does a lot of stuff for our defense. If he wants to be the junk man, he can be the junk man.”
Actually, it’s the “trash man.”
Maybe Hightower can give Judon a moniker, too?
“If High’s giving out nicknames, let High give out all the nicknames,” Judon said. “Ask him next time he gets up here. I’m just one of 11.”
