FOXBORO -- Bill Belichick will head into the 2012 season with the most schematically diverse secondary of his coaching career.

While Belichick has worked with some versatile defensive backs over the years, currently on the New England roster, he has more multifaceted DB’s than ever. Sterling Moore played both defensive back positions before settling in at corner last season as a rookie. After entering the league as a corner in 2010 and landing a second-team All-Pro berth as a rookie, Devin McCourty started the 2011 season at corner and struggled before spending large chunks of time at free safety in the regular-season finale and in the postseason.

And this offseason, the Patriots acquired three versatile defensive backs: Free-agent pickup Steve Gregory played several positions in college and with the Chargers, while second-round pick Tavon Wilson did the same as a collegian at Illinois. And while veteran free agent Will Allen is more of a straight corner -- he’s got great numbers in the slot over the last few seasons -- he’s displayed enough versatility at that spot to make him attractive to the Patriots on a number of levels.

All this doesn’t even include safety Pat Chung, who has frequently played the “star” position, which requires a safety to frequently come down into the box and act as a corner against slot receivers and tight ends. (Corner Kyle Arrington has also shown an ability to work at the same position, as well on the outside.)

While the Patriots have other corners and safeties on the roster who don't have the same level of positional versatility -- including corner Ras-I Dowling and safeties Josh Barrett and Sergio Brown -- in this era of spread offenses and wide-open passing attacks, it’s good to have defensive backs that can do multiple things, especially with the Patriots spending so much time in sub packages. (The coach estimated that New England was in sub packages more than half the time in 2011.)

According to McCourty, one of the biggest positives is being able to gain a working knowledge of multiple positions.

“It gives us knowledge. Guys are out there and they know what’s going on, not just at their position, but they know what’s going on on the field,” McCourty said. “If a guy has a quick lapse and forgets something, another guy is reminding him.”

McCourty said the time at safety helped him become a better football player.

“I think the biggest thing here for every player is that the more you do, it gives you more value and gives you a different perspective on the game,” McCourty said of his experience last season. “Just being able to look at the field from a different view, a different angle. Just being able to see things differently.

“It actually gave me a chance to learn more of the defense, being at safety last year. You’re the quarterback of the defense. I learned a lot.”

While the others are key, McCourty remains the most important -- and most intriguing -- part of the puzzle. The Rutgers product excelled as a rookie corner, but struggled out of the gate in 2011. Part of that is likely a combination of a dip in confidence (he wasn’t the same guy after being left in single coverage for most of the first two games against Brandon Marshall and Vincent Jackson) and a shoulder injury that dogged him for the better part of the season.

Whether it was because of injuries to others or a personnel decision, he saw his first action at safety in the regular-season finale against the Bills, and appeared to get his mojo back. Part of that could be because of the confidence he gained because of some solid appearances at the position. He wasn’t an All-Pro at safety, but his work late in the year and into the postseason with Chung in third-down and other passing situations showed the coaching staff had plenty of confidence in him at the spot.

Keeping in that that it’s too early to set any sort of personnel decisions in stone, it was interesting to see that in the most recent organized team activity session at Gillette on Thursday, McCourty appeared to work exclusively at corner. He said that he’s been able to use the OTA sessions to work on a “vast amount of things” with his teammates.

“[It’s about] progressing,” he said. “You can come out here and we get a chance to just compete every day. We’re not game planning. There’s no team we have to play. I’m just trying to take advantage of that time right now, come out and work on my craft and everything that we do here as a defense, and just try and improve each day.”

Going forward, he said he’s open to either corner or safety in 2012.

“It doesn’t matter -- I like to try and think of myself as a football player,” he said. “Whatever helps this team out, whatever I can do to help the team right now and improve and get better, I’m willing to do.

“I’m really just working at whatever coach tells me to do,” McCourty added. “Whatever position it is -- corner, safety, nickel, dime, anything -- I’ll do it. I’ll get comfortable with anything and go out there and play.”