Patriots Hidden Rookie Season: Cornerback Duke Dawson Is One To Watch

Duke Dawson had two tackles in the preseason debut. The cornerback played 17 snaps on defense and 16 on special teams. Dawson will hopefully enter a real NFL game.

“Duke hasn’t, but we’d certainly be confident in him when that happens,” New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said of the rookie cornerback during a December press conference. “Again, some of it is just, at this point, by gameplan and experience.”

Dawson is no longer a rookie, and he is still unknown to the team.

The cornerback had a hamstring injury right before the Patriots’ 2018 regular season. Undrafted free agent J.C. Jackson and seventh-rounder Keion Crossen were given spots in press-man coverage and kicking game. Jonathan Jones, Jason McCourty and Stephon Gilmore set the pace, and stayed on the field.

Dawson finished as a redshirt and sixth man on the depth chart.

“It’s definitely a learning experience for me this year,” Dawson said in the days leading up to Super Bowl LIII. “I mean, I still prepare the same way. I still go in and write down everything as if I’m playing. But, like I said, it’s a learning curve for me. It’s a learning season. But I still go out every day and I compete hard and give those guys across from me a great look.”

“You talk about Hargreaves or Tabor or Quincy Wilson,” director of player personnel Nick Caserio told reporters the night Dawson became a Patriot. “He was in the mix and he was competitive with that group. This guy has played a lot of football against a lot of good people and in a good program. So on paper he may have started ‘X’ amount of games, but he’s played a lot of football and you can see that on a weekly basis.”

The Patriots will hope to see more of Dawson. The cornerback may be the highest draft investment made by the post-2000 Patriots to never take part in a regular-season game for the team. New England has learned more from Dawson behind closed doors. What will happen when these doors open? Let’s wait and find out.