New England Patriots: Five most important backups

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Dec 12, 2016; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots free safety Duron Harmon (30) waits for the snap against the Baltimore Ravens during the second half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Duron Harmon, Safety

Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung were ranked first and third respectively on the Patriots last season with over 1,000 snaps each, but Duron Harmon plays a very key role for this team ‘off the bench’, playing over 53 percent of the defensive snaps and nearly 28 percent of the special teams snaps.

Harmon is key not only in case of injury to one of the other safeties, but he’s so valuable to this team, they decided he was worth a four year, $17 million extension to keep around as their top backup in the secondary.

Harmon has an interception in each of the Patriots’ last two Super Bowl playoff runs, and including playoffs, he has five interceptions over the course of the past two seasons.

I won’t forget when he was drafted, everyone was scratching their heads and wondering who in the world this guy was. Four years later, he’s proven himself to be a key piece of the Patriots’ defense, one that was ranked at the top of the league in 2016.

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