Patriots rookie class wants to be the best in franchise history

FOXBOROUGH – There’s a large decal on the wall inside the Patriots’ main team meeting room.

It reads:

“BIGGER than me.”

The first word is in red font with uppercase letters while the next two words, in blue, sit below it in lowercase font. It was in this auditorium-style room where the Patriots 2024 draft class gathered for the first time.

At the beginning of May, before rookie minicamp, the group sat together and talked about their dreams. It was here when the Patriots 2024 draft class collectively devised a goal.

“We talked about what we want to be as rookies,” said rookie tight end Jaheim Bell. “We wanted to be the best group that they’ve ever had.”

“It was one of our earlier rookie meetings where it was just us,” rookie tackle Caedan Wallace added. “It was something we decided that we wanted to do as a class – in the history books, be one of the best ones that ever came through here.”

What transpired after that was a strong bond reinforced by the rookies’ ambition. This offseason, the first-year players continued to meet and talk about that goal as if to speak it into existence. It set the stage for the group’s first training camp bookmarked by the entire eight-player class making the Patriots 53-man roster.

They’re the first draft class to accomplish this feat in New England since 2013. Now, the group will look to live up to their expectations and be a part of positive change for this historic franchise.

“That’s any rookie class’s goal. Especially coming in here with a new head coach, we want to kind of set a standard for rookie classes and put our best foot forward as a group,” first-round pick Drake Maye said. “I think you’ll see that going forward with some of us rookies making some plays on the field.”

“That was the first day we ever got here – to be honest,” rookie quarterback Joe Milton III added. “It’s how we broke it down as a group. How we pretty much look at every day – when we’re together and breaking it down, it’s pretty much what we want to get across to everybody.”

Inside the Patriots’ rebuild

Coming off a four-win season, the Patriots franchise changed dramatically this offseason.

Owner Robert Kraft picked head coach Jerod Mayo and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf to take over for Bill Belichick. For a once dynastic franchise, with six Super Bowl banners hanging inside Gillette Stadium, getting the Patriots back on track won’t be easy.

In their first offseason, Mayo and Wolf employed a strategic ‘draft and development’ plan.

In 2023, the Patriots offense finished tied for last in the NFL in points scored. To improve the unit, the team opted to focus on the draft. Although they made a run at receiver Calvin Ridley in March, a Patriots team source explained this past spring that the team found the 2024 free-agent class weaker than typical years.

That led the team into April where Wolf used seven of his eight draft picks on offensive players.

“Selecting offense was strategic,” Wolf told MassLive. “We felt like we had bigger holes on offense than defense. In a perfect world, we would have had more picks to help both sides.”

Long before the Patriots drafted anyone, the team entered the spring with big ambition. At the NFL Combine in March, a team source told MassLive that the goal was to find “five starters” in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The first step was selecting Maye with the No. 3 overall pick. A young quarterback with a high upside, the 22-year-old is the key to turning the Patriots around. To aid his NFL transition, Wolf surrounded Maye with two receivers (Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker), two offensive linemen (Wallace and Layden Robinson), a tight end (Bell), and another quarterback (Milton).

Growing up, Wolf saw his father Ron Wolf turn the Packers into one of the NFL’s model franchises. Green Bay drafted and developed young talent while adding veterans to allow younger players to mature. For Wolf and Mayo, these rookies are part of a similar strategy.

“In terms of developing young players, you need two things,” Wolf said. “No. 1 the willingness to keep trying to improve the roster and No. 2 coaches who are passionate about coaching and developing, which I think we have here.”

“It’s very important to have players that are young and you can see the upside and the high ceilings,” Mayo added. “The balance is wanting to win now and also developing for the future. That’s my job. That’s the coaches’ job. It’s on us.”

How Patriots rookies bonded

After that first rookie meeting, Patriots first-year players continued to meet throughout the offseason.

They stayed late after practice. They worked out together in the team gym. Occasionally, a group got together to play basketball. Their goal came up several times during the offseason, almost as a reminder of what they were trying to accomplish.

“It happened multiple times,” Maye said. “There was a two-week period after the end of summer where we had to stay after as rookies and just train together and doing extra meetings. That was a time that we came together and said, ‘Hey, it’s just us in here. Get together, gel together and from there just go.’”

“Honestly, we’re just blessed as underdogs, I guess you could say, in the rookie class,” Baker added. “We got in our (minds) to become one of the best and help each other become one of the best. That’s what it became. That was one of our (first) conversations.”

When they met, the group’s agenda was split between football and off-field issues. The first NFL training camp is hard for a rookie. The days meld together as rookies earn a new playbook and get acclimated to a new team and a new area.

This draft class grew closer during these rookie meetings. Sometimes, they talked about what happened at practice or any issues that came up in the preseason. Other times, they spoke about their families or issues that came up outside of Gillette Stadium.

By the end of the summer, they felt more like friends than just teammates.

“It’s just fun and good vibes in here. We always talk to each other on the daily. When we first got here, we talked about it a little bit – what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish,” rookie guard Layden Robinson said. “After that, you have all these practices and meetings and you know what you want to accomplish.

“When we get outside the lines and that meeting room, you want to be near each other and bonding and learning about each other more. Just creating good times and good memories and having fun. That’s mostly what we’ve been doing – joking around, talking about life and family.”

Rookies aim to live up to big expectations

The first step in the Patriots rebuild hinges on this 2024 rookie class.

If Maye transforms into a legitimate starting quarterback, it’ll make life easier for Mayo and Wolf. The pair also knows there’s a delicate balance between developing a young player and rushing a rookie to the field too soon.

Maye will sit behind veteran Jacoby Brissett to start this season. It’s unclear how much playing time this class will get other than Robinson, the projected starter at right guard, and Polk, who looked like one of the Patriots’ best receivers in training camp.

As this 2024 season unfolds, the Patriots hope to work their young players into the rotation.

“You become good at football by playing football,” Mayo said when asked about developing rookies. “It’s one thing for guys to go out there and read a card, and it’s a very reactive game. Then, offensively, everyone really has to see the same picture through the same set of goggles. When I talk about developing, it’s just about going out there, working on your fundamentals, and learning the scheme. Knowing what to do is definitely a huge part of it, and then how to do it, that’s through experience on the field.”

Mayo and Wolf understand the easiest way to collect talent in the NFL is to hit on their draft picks. If all goes according to plan, the Patriots could have multiple starting pass catchers and starting offensive linemen along with Maye in this one rookie class.

The rookies understand what is at stake. After cutdown day, the class was ecstatic when everyone made the 53-man roster. They felt like that was the first step in accomplishing their goal.

“It’s pretty cool, Maye said. “It’s a testament to each of the guys for working hard and putting their nose down and getting in the playbook. It’s pretty cool for us to go through it together and experience this first year together.”

“It means a lot because what we said, it’s becoming a reality,” Bell added. “I feel like all of us, including Drake, I feel like we bring a lot of explosiveness to this offense. We can do nothing but just help this offense go and be one of the most explosive offenses in the league.”

Inside Gillette Stadium, there are no delusions when it comes to this 2024 season. For the Patriots, this year is about developing their draft picks and setting a strong foundation that will lead to a new era of success. After speaking their goals into existence this offseason, these rookies are ready to put in the work and change the future.

“That’s definitely our mindset– to be one of the best rookie classes,” cornerback Marcellus Dial said. “Someone just told me a statistic – this is the first time all rookies that were drafted that were kept (since 2013). It’s not really surprising. This rookie class is full of ballers.”

“It’s pretty cool to have all the guys being able to live out their dream,” Polk added. “After the work that we’ve all put in, we want to be a part of something special.”

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