FOXBORO \u2013 Patriots veteran wide receiver Mack Hollins only knows one mode.<\/p>\n
Whether it\u2019s a random practice in the dog days of training camp, a primetime game on \u201cSunday Night Football\u201d or in the weight room, Hollins will be the loudest player talking the most trash.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s \u2013 I grew up with three boys in the house. You always were competing, and sometimes the loudest guy meant he won,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cBut I expect the same thing from like, the defense. If they\u2019re whooping our ass, I expect you to talk bad to me, because when I\u2019m up, I\u2019m gonna do the same. Because I think everybody here is a high-level athlete. You competed your whole life. Don\u2019t feel like you can\u2019t be the same athlete and you can\u2019t be aggressive. What got you to this level \u2013 just because you\u2019re here, like compete within the rules that doesn\u2019t hurt the team, but compete and have fun with this game. It\u2019s a game at the end of the day. Don\u2019t forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Patriots wide receiver DeMario Douglas said he\u2019s never had a teammate talk as much trash as Hollins, and that the ninth-year veteran is like this \u201c24\/7 \u2013 lifting, probably sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Douglas also said that Hollins, who\u2019s made some highlight toe-tapping touchdown catches in training camp, can back it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh man, that brings energy,\u201d Douglas said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s gonna get in a DB\u2019s head to where they get out of character. But Mack\u2019s gonna keep his composure. Mack is a dawg. I feel like he\u2019s gonna bring that dawg out of the whole (wide receiver) room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollins said he feels like he has crossed the line before, but only in practice, because \u201cat the end of day, those are your teammates.\u201d In games, the gloves really come off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we work for,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cWe work to the competition on Sundays or Mondays or Thursdays. Don\u2019t change what was working for you during the week, just because it\u2019s gameday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patriots tight end Hunter Henry, who\u2019s much more mild-mannered on and off the field, is excited to see Hollins in a game that counts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMack\u2019s great, man,\u201d Henry said. \u201cObviously, everybody can hear him talking out here, brings a juice and a level that\u2019s very consistent, I think, that you got to respect because he brings it every day. And you got to raise your level to that. And so it\u2019s a lot of fun going out there competing with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see it on an actual game day too, and be able to bring that out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
One veteran Patriots defender was less verbose about Hollins\u2019 practice trash talk exploits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t pay Mack no mind,\u201d outside linebacker K\u2019Lavon Chaisson said smilling.<\/p>\n
Hollins, 31, spent the early portion of his career with the Eagles and Dolphins as a core special teamer and a part-time offensive player. That flipped in 2022 when Hollins played under current Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on the Raiders, when he started 16 games and had a career-year, catching 57 passes for 690 yards with four touchdowns. Over the past two seasons with the Falcons and Bills, Hollins has started 16 games and caught 49 passes for 629 yards with five touchdowns \u2013 all last season in Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Hollins signed a two-year, $8.4 million contract with the Patriots this offseason. It includes $3.5 million in fully guaranteed money, so he was a roster lock as soon as he signed. He hasn\u2019t done anything in training camp to lose that status, regularly making plays on the first- and second-team units.<\/p>\n
Based on training camp reps, Stefon Diggs and DeMario Douglas will be two of the Patriots\u2019 three starting wide receivers, with the other spot coming down between Hollins and Boutte.<\/p>\n
Despite being eight years into his NFL career, Hollins said he\u2019s still trying to become the best version of himself as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the day I stop chasing is the day I hang it up,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cI think that\u2019s when you just have no business playing this game anymore if you don\u2019t want to get better. If you think once you arrive, it\u2019s probably your time to leave. As cliche as that may sound, because you\u2019re not hungry for it anymore. And this is a dangerous game. And if you\u2019re not willing to try to get better every day, and you\u2019re just kind of going through the motions, that\u2019s a good way to leave on a note that you don\u2019t want to leave on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollins already had one career year under McDaniels, and it appears like he\u2019s developed chemistry with quarterback Drake Maye as a pass-catcher the young QB can count on in contested and gotta-have-it situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2013 Patriots veteran wide receiver Mack Hollins only knows one mode. Whether it\u2019s a random practice in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[80,833,839,7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,15,835,832,208,836,834,831,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-316080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-2025-nfl-draft","9":"tag-drake-maye","10":"tag-eliot-wolf","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-mike-vrabel","13":"tag-new-england","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-nfl-draft","19":"tag-nfl-news","20":"tag-nfl-rumors","21":"tag-patriots","22":"tag-patriots-2025","23":"tag-patriots-news","24":"tag-patriots-rumors","25":"tag-robert-kraft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}