Strange already connects with Mac
Surprise first-rounder follows the Jordan rules generating motivation from imaginary slights
FOXBORO — Less than 24 hours after the Patriots drafted him in the first round, rookie offensive lineman Cole Strange step foot in New England for the first time.
A Tennessee native, Strange flew in midday Friday. He shook new hands and met new faces in Foxboro. And yet the feeling Strange kept describing during his introductory press conference at Gillette Stadium was a sense of belonging.
“I’ve only been here for a few hours,” Strange said, “and I already love it here.”
At 6-foot-5 and 307 pounds, Strange spoke from a makeshift stage on the stadium turf, initially flanked by Patriots owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft. After a few opening remarks, the Krafts departed, leaving Strange to field questions about his fit with the team and inside the league. Strange believes he can play anywhere across the offensive line, though he projects as the Patriots’ new starting left guard after blocking there for five years at Chattanooga.
Strange also revealed Mac Jones texted him Friday morning to make dinner plans later that night.
“Honestly, it just felt like I was home, honestly,” Strange said. “(Jones) just texted me and was like, ‘Hey man, just wanted to reach out and say what’s up.’ I was like, ‘Thank you. I’m fired up to be a Patriot.’ We just texted back and forth, and he was asking me how long I was going to stay. I was like, ‘I don’t have a clue. They just told me to come out here.’”
By drafting Strange, Robert Kraft said the team “solidified the middle” of its offensive line. Preventing interior pressure from reaching Jones, a pocket passer, will be a top priority for Patriots offense that had a major hole in its starting line entering the draft. The Patriots let left guard Ted Karras walk in free agency, didn’t sign a replacement and then traded right guard Shaq Mason to Tampa Bay, believing backup Mike Onwenu could fill one spot.
In Strange, they have a potential Week 1 starter who’s under contract for up to five years.
“He’s long, he’s athletic, he’s physically tough. He’s an aggressive player,” Bill Belichick said after the first round. “I think he has a good combination of skills, run and pass, movement, length, strength, again, all of which will hopefully get better, like they will with any player coming from college to the National Football League. But I think he has a good skill set, and he’s a smart player that makes a lot of good decisions on the interior line there, timing, when to come off, and combo blocks, things like that.”
The downsides are Strange will soon turn 24, and was widely viewed as a second or third-round talent entering the draft. The Patriots were reportedly worried about the Buccaneers taking Strange with the 33rd overall pick at the top of the second round, or the Jets, Vikings or Bears nabbing him a few picks later.
Had Strange landed in Chicago, a story he told Friday would have resonated instantly with fans.
While watching “The Last Dance” documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls,
Strange realized that, like Jordan, he creates imaginary slights in his head to generate extra motivation on game days.
“It’s something I’d kind of done, but I’d really never put it into words,” Strange told reporters Friday. “He talked about how he would make up these narratives just to get him upset or angry so he’d play with a little bit more fire. I was like, I feel like I’ve been doing that, but I’ve never conscientiously put a tag on it.” Narratives such as? “The pettiest thing that you can think of that shouldn’t bother you at all,” he said. “You just go down the rabbit hole of feeding that wolf and saying, ‘you know what, I’m going to let this bother me.’”
But for now, Strange is all smiles. Even with slights aplenty across the league at large and a fanbase stunned by his selection, he feels at home, and that’s what matters to him in the precious few moments before the real work begins.
“I’m really just blown away,” Strange said. “I know for a fact that I’m going to enjoy it here, and we’re going to have a lot of fun.”