Bill Belichick raves about Tamba Hali: 'There are so many things to like about the way he plays'

Patriots coach Bill Belichick doesn't usually say a lot but he was asked about KC Chiefs LB Tamba Hali and went off on a long answer about what a great player Hali is. If Belichick appreciates effort combined with skill, then Hali is his guy.

Here's what Belichick said when asked about Tamba Hali.

"Great motor. Tremendous work ethic and effort on the field. Never takes a play off. He's going to play hard every snap. He's strong. He's 270, 275 pounds whatever it is but he has good playing strength on top of that. He has good athleticism and quickness.

"He's developed a lot of pass rushing moves. He's probably one of the best technique pass rushers in the league. He uses his hands extremely well. Kinda of like Ninkovich, Vrabel and guys we've had that have been really good hands-type rushers. He's all of that plus 275 pounds of explosive speed and power.

"He can get the edge. He can use his power. He has a good counter move to come inside. He's good at hand-to-hand combat, defeating hand placement, knocking them off, slapping them down, setting to the edge, the elbow and creating the edge. He has a great motor and a great finisher. So really it's across the board.

"This isn't like a guy who has one move. He's got probably 8, 9, 10 good pitches in addition to being strong, explosive, athletic and a guy who plays hard on every snap. He's really an impressive football player. There are so many things to like about the way he plays and the productivity.

"He's also very good on the strip sacks, great awareness around the ball. He gets a lot of sacks but he causes a lot of fumbles too because of his awareness. He has good length too where he can reach around the blocker and knock the ball out of the quarterbacks' hands. Even if he can't wrap the quarterback off, if he can knock the ball out, it's even better than a sack.

"He creates a lot of pressures. I don't know how many sacks he has but he probably has three times that number of pressures. He's definitely a factor on a lot of plays that don't show up on the stat sheet. You have to have an awareness of this guy."