Patriots rookie Kyle Williams’ ‘welcome to the NFL’ moment didn’t come until the second game of preseason – and it was a rude introduction, courtesy of the Minnesota Vikings.
“I think the ‘welcome to the NFL moment’ was when I got hit and they pulled me out,” he said at his locker this week, with a chuckle.
Williams had just caught a pass from Patriots backup quarterback Josh Dobbs in the second quarter of the game in Minnesota when linebacker Austin Keys laid him out. The tackle sent took Williams to the medical tent and had him out of commission for a week.
“The hit was hard enough to where it rung me. I haven’t been hit like that in college,” he said. “The physicality of that kind of, shocked me a little bit. But it was nothing crazy, where I was like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ I was able to bounce back and get going.”
The onramp from NCAA to the NFL is steep, and an utter grind. For the 2025 draft class, preparation for Week 1 starts well before training camp.
“It’s been a long process, to be honest. I didn’t really have a break,” second-round pick TreVeyon Henderson told WEEI this week. “I didn’t have time to decompress after the [college] season. Only had a couple weeks off – or not even a couple weeks off, just a couple days, and then I’m right back into training. But I’m thankful. I’m thankful to be in this position that I am now.”
Henderson, who absolutely dazzled in his preseason appearances, said he’s only just now caught his breath.
“I just remember in training camp, feeling like a robot. You wake up at six in the morning. You don’t get out until 9 p.m. You don’t really have time to decompress. More so here, being in the league, you have more time to decompress and spend some time by yourself and I know that’s helped me out a lot,” he said.
Henderson is one of a handful of rookies on offense who have the chance to make an immediate impact. But the stakes are the highest for No. 4 overall pick Will Campbell. The left tackle has taken just about every possible snap with the starters through the summer, and he’s trying to embrace his nerves before Sunday.
“Anybody who plays the game, who cares about the game, gets nervous before a game,” he said.
Fans and media may bemoan the Patriots’ recent draft history, but that certainly wasn’t the case during most of the 2000’s. Campbell found a mentor from the 2001 draft class in former offensive tackle Matt Light. The two Patriots appeared on the ‘Dudes on Dudes’ podcast, but Campbell said Light had been texting him since he got to New England.
“That’s the first time we got to meet face-to-face, [he’s] just a good dude, played a long time here,” Campbell said. “He gave me a lot of advice. We talked for, probably, two hours. Just a super good dude. I’m very glad that he’s a resource.”
He’s been flanked by fellow rookie Jared Wilson on Drake Maye’s blind side. Wilson played starting left guard through big chunks of preseason – although his spot hasn’t been publicly cemented. He and Campbell aren’t just side-by-side in practice, but also sit next to each other in meetings and talk constantly, going over film, Wilson told WEEI. Wilson graded himself as having come “very far” since the start of the summer.
“You’ve got to, pretty quick, especially being in here, walking in here Day 1. You quickly realize that it’s a lot different from college,” he said.
Through the whirlwind summer, the group has grown close, Henderson said. He’s credited the Patriots and head coach Mike Vrabel with knitting the young players together and encouraging them to get to know one another’s stories, away from the football field. When asked to describe his class in one word, Wilson smiled and said, “Exciting.” He also noted how humbly Henderson carries himself, even in the light of having scored the first touchdown of the preseason.
That’s a quality prevalent among much of the draft class. They’re largely unabashed about their untested status, but have put their trust in the coaching staff and veterans to guide them to the right places.
“Now that I’m here, sometimes it still feels surreal. But the guys I have around me, they show me the ropes, and they just show me this is what comes with it,” Williams said.
Getting hit by a 230-pound linebacker at game speed may have been the baptism by fire for a rookie like Williams. But Sunday, the real season begins, and it can’t come soon enough for a draft class ready to prove themselves.
“Time is crunching down and that blood starts to boil,” Williams said. “You just get fired up.”
“We like to put on shows,” he added. “We don’t like to let people down.”