FOXBORO — Gabe Jacas didn’t take the most traditional path to Patriots training camp, but the rookie outside linebacker has arrived and is getting acclimated to NFL football.

Jacas, whom the Patriots selected in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft after trading up eight spots to No. 55 overall, spoke to reporters for the first time Tuesday, just three days after making his training camp practice debut on Saturday.

He wasn’t interested in discussing what kept him off of the practice field for so long.

“I mean, it doesn’t matter, and all that stuff is behind me,” Jacas said. “Whatever happened in the past is the past, and just trying to look forward and focus on the future.”

Jacas didn’t sign his rookie contract until the first day of training camp on July 25. He missed the offseason workout program and wasn’t in the Patriots’ facility for organized team activities or minicamp after undergoing a procedure on his knee this offseason. He then began camp on the non-football injury list.

The Patriots would not allow Jacas to participate during the spring because they wouldn’t give him the standard “participation agreement” for rookies who have not signed their rookie contracts.

Jacas’s rookie deal reportedly includes an injury waiver on his left knee that runs through 2028. The injury guarantees on his contract do not cover his left knee, since it was a pre-existing injury.

Jacas said Tuesday that he’s “100%” and that his knee injury shouldn’t limit him long-term.

“The knee is good, and I’m out here now, so that’s all I can say,” Jacas said.

The Illinois product doesn’t feel like he’s too far behind, despite his absence, since he was able to stay in his playbook when he was working out and training away from the team.

Jacas was limited during his training camp debut on Saturday then has ramped up his participation to team drills over the last two days.

Jacas could be a major part of the Patriots’ defense this season if he can get caught up, since the team is shallow at outside linebacker. With prospective starter Harold Landry III still on the physically unable to perform list, Jacas is playing behind Dre’Mont Jones and Elijah Ponder. The team also has outside linebackers Jesse Luketa, Bradyn Swinson and rookies Quintayvious Hutchins and Xavier Holmes on the roster.

“We’ve got some time to make up. We’ve got to make up for lost time, I think, a little bit, with Gabe,” head coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday. “I’d say he’s working hard. I think he’s into it. He’s trying to learn. He’s focused. A lot of these things are new for him, and I think he has done a good job of controlling what he can control.

“I see him in there meeting with Smitty [outside linebackers coach Mike Smith] a lot – and again, there’s a return to play. He’ll have a few more reps than he did yesterday and – these situations he has to just understand, and it’s good to see him get acclimated to the special team stuff. So, I think it’s going well. I think we’re off to a good start, and hopefully he can continue to keep adding things and figure out where he can help us defensively and really, special teams.”

Jacas immediately made a highlight play when he made his practice debut Saturday, knocking Smith over on his rear end during an individual drill.

The rookie described his game as “very physical, very violent” and “explosive.”

Gabe Jacas is off to a hot start pic.twitter.com/wHCwQDlMJF

— Matt Dolloff (@RealMattDolloff) August 1, 2026

“That wasn’t my intention, but when you’re just getting off the ball, violent, stuff like that happens,” Jacas said. “That’s what happens when you’re a coach like Mike Smith, who is a very good coach.”

Jones, who described his rookie teammate as “eager,” seemed to enjoy the moment.

“Knock over your position coach, man. Get ready for the game,” Jones said. “Get ready for practice, man. You gotta do what you gotta do. I would have did it too, if I needed to.”

Jones and the rest of the Patriots’ defenders and coaches are working to get Jacas game-ready after the rookie missed months of practice time.

For Jones, that means going over the minutiae with Jacas.

“Just the timing of his hands. What O-linemen like to do, what O-linemen like to shoot, how they like to shoot, how to have your hands ready, because sometimes O-linemen like to punch you to throw off your timing when you’re running, hanging off the ball,” Jones said. “So, a bunch of different technical things. Nothing like dramatic, like, ‘Here, this is how you fit a run.’ It’s more like small-detail-type things.”

Vrabel has been putting in individual time with Jacas in punt drills.

As a rookie, Jacas could be asked to play on the punt protection team, where, in Vrabel’s words, the outside linebacker will need to be “an offensive lineman, and then they have to kind of be a linebacker.”

“You can tell Vrabel’s a very hands-on coach, and I’m just appreciative that he could just take me to the side and teach me a couple of techniques and just be a better punt protector so I can be better for the team,” Jacas said.

Vrabel has been messing with Jacas behind the scenes, giving him a hard time during team meetings, which is customary for rookies.

Jacas laughed it off.

“Just catching me up and bring me up front of the room. Just tell them my name, school, signing bonus, NIL, and just having to come up with a song or joke,” Jacas said. “I’m not the best jokester, but I try my best.”

Jacas did a magic trick when asked to tell the team a joke.

He left off his media session with a message to the region.

“Just want to let all the Patriots fans know that I’m behind everybody, and you’re gonna get the best player out of me each and every game, and just anything I can do to help a team win, I’m gonna do it, whatever it takes,” Jacas said.

All will be forgotten about the start of Jacas’s career the moment he makes an impact on the field. With a shallow positional group, that could come sooner than later.