{"id":90787,"date":"2025-05-30T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/90787\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T14:08:10","slug":"under-the-radar-rookie-already-impressing-patriots-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/90787\/","title":{"rendered":"Under-The-Radar Rookie Already Impressing Patriots Veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Woodson has already earned some respect in and around One Patriot Place.<\/p>\n

Woodson, who spent six seasons at California before being taken in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft, brings a different background to the table than many of his fellow rookies. The Patriots probably reached for him based on the consensus boards<\/a>, but his leadership and on-field versatility are some of the most impressive traits in the entire class.<\/p>\n

Patriots vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden was complimentary of the rookie<\/a> in the immediate aftermath of the draft. NBC Sports Boston\u2019s Phil Perry came away from rookie minicamp<\/a> most impressed with the 24-year-old.<\/p>\n

Jabrill Peppers proved to be the latest notable name impressed with what he\u2019s seen<\/a> out of Woodson, per Mark Daniels of MassLive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like him \u2014 smart, savvy,\u201d Peppers said. \u201cHe\u2019s done a great job soaking up what the coaches want him to do, different techniques. College ball is a little different than in the league, especially in the Pac-12. So, you know, he\u2019s definitely done a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Peppers is notoriously tough to please<\/a> on the practice fields, so any compliments coming from the veteran are to be taken seriously. New England has a particularly packed defensive backfield, with Woodson joining the likes of Peppers, Kyle Dugger, Marcus Epps, Jaylinn Hawkins, Dell Pettus and Marte Mape as potential difference makers.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far from a guarantee that the rookie will crack that rotation early, but so far, so good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Craig Woodson has already earned some respect in and around One Patriot Place. Woodson, who spent six seasons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[1846,7,7899,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-90787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-craig-woodson","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jabrill-peppers","11":"tag-new-england","12":"tag-new-england-patriots","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114597180579294509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90787","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=90787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}