Steelers defensive coordinator says Patriots do things ‘on the edge of being legal’

The Pittsburgh Steelers have become the latest team to voice concerns about the formations used on offense by the New England Patriots.

Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler told the Steelers’ “Coordinators’ Corner” show that the Patriots sometimes skirt the edge of legality in what they do.

“I don’t think they’re doing anything special,” Butler said of the New England offense, via Phil Perry of CSN New England. “I think sometimes they do things outside the box sometimes, you know, that might be on the edge of being legal or not legal.

“They’ve done a couple of things in the past … putting an offensive tackle out as ineligible but he’s not really. And so sometimes the emphasis by the NFL in terms of what they call and what they don’t call, they use that a little bit. And they’ve been accused of doing a lot of things. But the thing we’ve got to do is ignore that and play, and hopefully we can give them something they haven’t seen from us.”

Two seasons ago, the Patriots used controversial offensive formations that the Baltimore Ravens complained about, which got them a sharp retort from Tom Brady. Now that that’s been dredged up again, it will be interesting if Brady has anything new to say about it.