There are the cliché happy-to-be-here sentiments of a new player with a new team, and then there are the seemingly genuine feelings that Patriots free agent cornerback addition Terrance Mitchell expressed to the New England media in a Zoom call Thursday morning.
“Best feeling ever being here, for real,” Mitchell said with a smile.
Mitchell called his new home “the great land of New England” with all the “history behind it, the 13 colonies, I remember that stuff from elementary school.”
But the football history in Foxborough was what was important to the former Cowboys 2015 seventh-round pick out of Oregon who’s now a veteran of seven NFL seasons.
“When you think about as a kid, the NBA you have Phil Jackson, the Lakers, the Celtics, the Bulls. When you think about the NFL, dynasties like the Patriots, man there’s no other,” Mitchell said. “So I think every kid growing up in this era, seeing the Patriots and being able to play for them is just like, crazy. That’s self-explanatory right there. The Pats, that’s the team for real.”
Having bounced around over his career with five different teams, Mitchell has started 51 of the 83 games he’s played, including 19 of 20 over the last two seasons in Cleveland and Houston, respectively. Though he had just one of his eight career interceptions over the last two seasons, he did notch six forced fumbles in that span, including one against Damien Harris last fall.
“Just gaining more understanding of thyself. Experience is key, you know what I mean,” Mitchell said of the last two years as a full-time starter. “Early on in my career when they used to talk about experience I didn’t really quite understand the way I do now. Just a lot of the experiences that I’ve been going through these last two years is helping me grow to where I’m at now.”
That kind of experience with various teams in various schemes should only assist the veteran as he competes for a job in New England where there are certainly starting spots and depth roles up for grabs in the back end of the defense.
“I’m like an encyclopedia now,” Mitchell said. “So I got just a whole bunch of things. It’s all good. It’s definitely helpful. Different terminology in places, but it definitely helps a little bit here and little bit there. It’s like, hey I remember that!”
Now entrenched in the early stages of the voluntary offseason program at Gillette Stadium, the real competition for playing time will pick up in OTAs, mini-camp and training camp in the coming months. For now, Mitchell really just is happy to be here. And that’s not a bad thing.
“It’s beautiful,” Mitchell said of learning his new playbook. “It’s like you are at the toy store getting a whole bunch of toys. It’s fun.”
