Josh Uche’s breakout success over the second half of this season has included remarkable production, and it’s now getting New England’s third-year edge rusher some national attention.
Following his three-sack performance in the Patriots’ Monday night win over the Cardinals in Arizona, Uche has been named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week. All told, Uche had five tackles with his three sacks as he made the night tough on Cardinals backup Colt McCoy in the 27-13 New England win.
The hat trick performance was Uche’s second three-sack game of the season and increased his career-high total for the year to 10. Notably all 10 of Uche’s sacks have come since Week 8, most in the NFL over that span.
Asked about Uche’s increased production of late, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick noted that the young linebacker has been able to stay healthy and on the field more consistently in 2022.
“I think the biggest thing for Josh this year has just really been his availability,” Belichick said last week. “Josh is a good athlete. He has good speed off the edge and good pass rush techniques. But you build that through timing, consistency and running games with your teammates and so forth. He's done that since he's been here, but this year he's been able to do it on a more consistent basis in practice, in training camp, and really build that continuity – as opposed to kind of being in and out of things. Sometimes not fully being available for some of the roles that this year he's really been available for really almost on a daily basis. So I think that's helped him as much as anything, just his consistency and the continuity he's been able to establish on the practice field which has carried over into the games, which has carried over into higher production and more opportunities.”
Uche had one sack in nine games played as a rookie second-round pick out of Michigan in 2020 and three sacks in 12 games a year ago. He is now second on the Patriots with 10 sacks in 11 games played in 2022.
This is the second Defensive Player of the Week award for the Patriots, with Matthew Judon having earned the honor back in Week 5 for his pair of sacks and forced fumble to help beat the Lions.
