He’s in a hurry to make an impact

One side sees Green’s total - along with the team’s 31 sacks last season - as a check-engine light on the pass rush, and that side would have a strong case. They’d point to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had an AFC-high 51 sacks in the regular season, then ripped off nine more in the playoffs on their way to winning the Super Bowl. They’d also point to 2007, when the Giants stunned the Patriots in Super Bowl. New York led the NFL with 53 sacks, and the biggest shock to the Patriots’ system in the Super Bowl was that the Giants sacked Tom Brady five times.

The other side of the discussion would say the numbers aren’t as telling as the things you have to observe - hurries, pressures, disruptions, and uncomfortable quarterbacks. They’d point you to the film room.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re rushing the passer good,’’ Adalius Thomas said earlier in camp, “and you look at tape and it doesn’t look like you were rushing the passer at all but you got a sack. So, it just really depends on who you ask.’’

Bill Belichick’s in the second school of thought. He won three Super Bowls as a head coach and none of those teams had a player with more than 10 sacks.

“That statistic,’’ the coach said, “is a little overrated.’’

Part of the reason Green dipped from 7 1/2 sacks in 2006 and 6 1/2 in 2007 was injuries, though he downplayed them yesterday. Green dealt with offseason shoulder issues and an ankle injury that nagged him most of the year.

Still, Green played 14 games, and Belichick said numbers don’t show how much the defensive end contributed.

“Jarvis has been consistently a good pass rusher for us,’’ Belichick said. “He’s done a lot of different things for us. He’s rushed outside at end. He’s rushed inside over the guard or center. He’s been involved in both our regular and substituted defenses. He’s a versatile player who can do a lot of different things on all three downs for us.’’

That being said, having his coach’s support doesn’t mean Green’s not trying to boost his sack total in his eighth season.

“For me, if I can’t get to the quarterback, I can’t do anything during the game, then I haven’t done my part for that game or that week,’’ Green said. “If I don’t go out there and make plays when I’m out there on third down or pass rush or whenever I’m playing defense, I’m not doing my job.’’

Green’s been one of the most reliable -and movable - pieces on the defensive line, one of the Patriots’ longest tenured units. The relationship he’s fostered in nearly a decade with Richard Seymour, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, and Mike Wright, is so tight, Green said, “We can go to each other’s home and be comfortable. My clothes on my back is his clothes on his back. It’s just a bond, we’ve been here for so long.’’

But the Patriots finished 14th in the league in sacks a year ago - the first time since 2005 they didn’t finish in the top 10 - and the fact that Green, Seymour, and Wilfork are all in the final year of their contracts only adds to the desire to make this year a better season than last year.

“We’ve been here for a long time together,’’ Green said. “We know we’ve got to play strong this year . . . [There’s] a lot to prove to ourselves as players. The way we finished wasn’t the way we wanted to finish last year. This is a new year, so we get another chance to go out there and prove we can be a better defensive line.’’

Just a few weeks ago, in an interview with a paper near his hometown in Louisiana, Green was quoted as saying he wouldn’t mind ending his career in New Orleans. At 30 years old, and one of the few players at training camp with multiple Super Bowl rings, he said yesterday those words “never came out of my mouth.’’

“I’ve been here seven years, it’s been great,’’ he said. “A lot of championships we’ve won around here. It’s been great chemistry with the players. This is home for me. My wife and kids are up here year round. So I would love to be here.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.