New York Jets safety Marcus Gilchrist is not overly concerned about preparing to face Tom Brady this weekend. Why? Because Gilchrist and his teammates spent plenty of time last week preparing to face Kirk Cousins.
Gilchrist said Thursday that getting ready to face arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history is not all that different from studying for a quarterback who has thrown more interceptions (27) than touchdowns (24) in his career.
“You prepare the same way you prepare for Kirk Cousins,” Gilchrist told USA Sports. “You don’t change. It’s like turning the light switch on and off because it’s a different person. Kirk Cousins could have easily come out there (last week) and we could’ve not played sound football and not been where we were supposed to be and he could’ve looked the same way (like Brady).”
I think what Gilchrist was trying to say is that you can’t take any opponent lightly in the NFL. While that’s true, defenses almost certainly spend more time watching film on Brady than they do before playing someone like Cousins.
“We can’t allow one game to be bigger than the other,” Gilchrist added. “Do we realize the type of player we’re playing against? Yes, we do. But you don’t change. We’ve got to be 1-0 this week, regardless of who it is – Brady – regardless of who we’re playing.”
To be fair, that’s not trash talk. The Patriots may try to use it as bulletin board material, but they do that any way they can. Plus, they may have provided the Jets with a little motivation of their own with this tweet earlier in the week.
Gilchrist might pride himself on not underestimating someone like Cousins, but don’t let him fool you — he’s more worried about facing a three-time Super Bowl MVP.
