The Sports Xchange

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — There is little question that the New England Patriots’ defensive backfield will be one of the big stories for the team this season, second only to quarterback Tom Brady’s suspension and the evolution of Deflategate.

Cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner are gone after serving as the one-year backbone of the Super Bowl-winning pass defense. Former starters and key contributors like slotman Kyle Arrington and Alfonzo Dennard also departed this spring.

What’s left is a lot of questions about the Patriots’ pass defense in a pass-happy league.

The centerpiece of the secondary will be safety Devin McCourty, fresh off his new $50 million contract. The former first-round pick and rookie Pro Bowl corner is now entrenched in the middle at free safety. Or is he?

Some have theorized that if free-agent additions like Bradley Fletcher and Robert McClain fail, or if undrafted rookie Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler isn’t up to a full-time role in his second season, McCourty might be asked to move back to the outside.

“Devin’s not really excited about that chatter,” McCourty said in response to a fan question earlier this week on CSNNE.com. “Hopefully, that’s not what happens. We got a lot of guys working hard at the cornerback position and hopefully they’ll get it done. I feel like I found a home at safety and that’s where I would definitely like to stay.”

The New England defensive captain backed off those comments just a bit after New England’s Thursday OTA workout.

“It’s up the coaches,” McCourty said, a bit more diplomatically. “I want to play safety, but it’s out of my control. Whatever the coaches decide is what it’ll have to be.”

That decision, though, is a ways off. Right now, McCourty and the rest of the players in the defensive backfield are trying to build something new, something that can be successful in a different way than what occurred last fall with the All-Pro Revis and physical beast Browner getting things done.

“That’s what’s good about this time of the year, we’re just running defenses and guys are playing positions and going out there competing. That helps us as we go into the season,” McCourty said. “It’s heavy, this time of the year, it’s always highly competitive.

“Even last year, you bring in a bunch of new guys that were great players, it was still really competitive. Everyone wants to play. I think that’s the great thing about having top-notch athletes, everyone wants to play.”

Clearly, McCourty wants to stay at safety. And head coach Bill Belichick clearly hopes that guys like Fletcher, McClain and Butler prove to be reliable options at cornerback.

And how that all plays out in the back end could be as important to the Patriots’ hopes of repeating as anything that goes on with Brady and the offense in 2015.

–Quarterback Tom Brady is among the Patriots appearing in the new “Entourage” movie. The group includes stars like tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Julian Edelman as well as others, like running back Jonas Gray.

With so many of his players appearing in the big screen translation of the hit HBO show, will head coach Bill Belichick be going to see “Entourage?”

“Right now, we’ll go watch movies of practice,” Belichick said in a way that only he can.

–Running back Jonas Gray had an interesting 2014, to say the least.

He opened the year on the practice squad in New England. He started two games in the middle of the season, the second of which was a 201-yard, four-touchdown performance in Indianapolis that landed him on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

But after reportedly oversleeping the following week and missing practice, Gray was active but did not play the Sunday after his breakout game. He then closed out the year as a healthy scratch in three of the final four games, including Super Bowl XLIX.

Now, the second-year player is ready to chalk it all up as a learning experience and hopes for good things in a New England backfield that has plenty of roles up for grabs behind projected starter LeGarrette Blount.

“Every day is an opportunity to get better, to do something. Every day I’m working out to just be a better pro, doing whatever I can to stay focused and do whatever I can to help the team,” Gray said. “I try not to focus on last year. I did take some things away from it, but I know this is a new year, a clean slate. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”