Patriots S Adrian Phillips Earns AFC Defensive Player of the Week Honors for Week Eight

Since joining the New England Patriots prior to the 2020 season, safety Adrian Phillips continues to be one of the team’s most reliable defenders. His keen awareness of the field, as well as his ability to make plays in the right place, at the right time, is the direct result of skill, dedication and design.

On Wednesday, Phillips was honored for exhibiting all of those qualities during the Patriots 27-24 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

Phillips was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week by the NFL for his performance in Week Eight. It is the first Player of the Week honor for Phillips and the first Defensive Player of the Week honor for a Patriots player since Kyle Van Noy earned the distinction in Week Four of the 2019 season.

It is the second Player of the Week honor for the Patriots in 2021. Kicker Nick Folk was named Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance in the win at Houston on Oct. 10.

On Sunday, the 29-year-old ex-Charger intercepted two passes from Bolts’ quarterback Justin Herbert, returning the second of which for a 26-yard touchdown with 10:40 remaining in the fourth quarter. It was the first interception-returned for a touchdown in Phillips’ career. He also intercepted a pass in the second quarter with 1:06 left in the first half and returned the ball 12 yards to the Chargers’ 40-yard line, which helped the Patriots get in position for a field goal. In addition to earning his first pick-six, Phillips’ also logged his first career game with two interceptions. Needless to say, Phillips was integral to New England’s victory over Los Angeles on Sunday.

After the game, he spoke about the experience he had competing against the Chargers.

“I love it out here, and every time that we get to play them, you kind of... Everybody always wants to kind of stick it to their former team,” Phillips said. “This is a great organization that we played against today, and just to be able to go out there and play against them and end up having the game that I had, it was sweet. I loved it. Yeah, it was sweet.”

Phillips, who played the first six seasons of his career with the Chargers, has compiled 24 tackles on the season thus far, with three pass defended and three interceptions for the Patriots. Still, his greatest asset remains his versatility. He has nicely settled into the ‘Star’ role in the Pats defense. As such, he is primarily used as a hybrid box safety, capable of playing outside linebacker in most defensive schemes. However, he is also far from limited to that role; capable of aligning along the defensive line, at slot corner and even outside-wide.

Phillips is at his best when playing in the box. He is a strong tackler with decent speed, and is most effective when playing closer to the line of scrimmage. As such, he is the ideal defensive back to cover a tight end, or a running back out of the back field. On Sunday, his prowess in defending such players made him the ideal candidate to draw both running back Austin Ekeler and tight end Jared Cook in man coverage on Sunday. It was his intuition and field positioning that allowed him to read a miscommunication between Herbert and Cook, allowing him to make the pick and find the lane for the touchdown.

Phillips is currently playing in the final season of the two-year contract he signed as a free agent in spring 2020. Phillips is on the Patriots’ books with a $4.2 million salary cap hit for the season. With the Pats having slightly north of $2.6 million in current available cap space, an in-season extension for Phillips (which New England is generally averse to doing) is unlikely. However, when coupled with their lack of activity at the Trade Deadline, one would think that re-signing Adrian Phillips will be a top priority for the team at the conclusion of the 2021 season.