SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 Partway through training camp in 2019, the Patriots traded for a tight end named Eric Saubert. Less than three weeks later, they cut him.<\/p>\n
Saubert\u2019s name likely is unfamiliar to most New England fans, unless they happened to watch one of the two passes he caught from Jarrett Stidham that preseason. But the 31-year-old still has strong memories of his cup of coffee in Foxboro, which taught him lessons he\u2019s applied throughout his meandering NFL career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember I was traded mid-training camp,\u201d Saubert, now with the Seahawks, said Wednesday at Seattle\u2019s Super Bowl LX hotel. \u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019m going to the New England Patriots, legendary coach in Bill Belichick, Tom Brady.\u2019 Jumping into that team and that team culture and the new offense, it was a little bit of a trial by fire, just trying to stay afloat. I remember working my ass off every night trying to grind that playbook.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut overall, man, it was a cool experience. I\u2019m thankful for that experience. I learned a lot in the brief time that I had with Coach Belichick and Tom Brady. I\u2019m not sure they\u2019d remember, but just about accountability to yourself and staying true to your process and not letting circumstances dictate how you perform on the field. I\u2019ve carried those things with me for my career, and I think it\u2019s made me a better player. So I\u2019m thankful for that stop in New England.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was one of nearly a dozen NFL stops for the well-traveled Saubert. He\u2019s spent time with 11 different franchises \u2014 more than a third of the league \u2014 since the Atlanta Falcons drafted him in the fifth round out of Drake in 2017.<\/p>\n
The Seahawks mostly use Saubert as a blocker and special teamer, but he did make one key play on his team\u2019s road to Super Bowl LX: an overtime two-point conversion that clinched a Week 16 win over the Los Angeles Rams. That win ultimately gave Seattle home-field advantage through the playoffs, and it beat the Rams again in the NFC Championship Game to set up a date with New England this Sunday at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose experiences and those stops, at the time, they feel so daunting,\u201d said Saubert, the only former Patriot on the Seahawks\u2019 roster. \u201cI remember staying up with (then-Patriots tight ends coach) Nick Caley at the facility until, like, 2 a.m. He had to drive me to the hotel. And it\u2019s like, \u2018Man, this sucks.\u2019 But you learn so much from those experiences, and it makes you a better player, and it\u2019s led me here. I\u2019m at the biggest stage in football, and I wouldn\u2019t want my career to have gone any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE, Calif. \u2014 Partway through training camp in 2019, the Patriots traded for a tight end named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[23063,105679,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,104092,95742,505,23840],"class_list":["post-731155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-eric-saubert","tag-eric-saubert-patriots","tag-football","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-seahawks","tag-patriots-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl","tag-super-bowl-60"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116018235577685077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731155","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=731155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}