{"id":984507,"date":"2026-08-27T10:27:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/984507\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:27:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:27:19","slug":"why-patriots-position-coach-provides-good-news-about-highly-regarded-rookie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/984507\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Patriots position coach provides good news about highly regarded rookie"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOXBORO \u2014 The injury<\/a> and contract squabbles<\/a> that kept Gabe Jacas away from the Patriots this spring didn\u2019t leave outside linebackers coach Mike Smith with any sort of ill will towards the rookie.<\/p>\n

Just the opposite, in fact.<\/p>\n

Smith is impressed with how far Jacas has progressed<\/a> in training camp after missing all of the offseason workout program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest stages of a young man\u2019s career,\u201d Smith said this week. \u201cReally, anybody, any player that misses a whole spring and all the different things that we\u2019re adding and changing after a season and just working on your technique, your footwork, your hands, (anybody is) going to struggle. But for a rookie, it\u2019s very tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m shocked kind of where he\u2019s at and where he\u2019s progressing right now just on the defensive standpoint and learning, because you\u2019re talking about a guy that didn\u2019t come close to doing as much that we\u2019re asking him to do right now. You\u2019re adding all the dropping concepts and the way we teach rush and setting edge, alignments and understanding for him. I mean, it\u2019s impressive where he\u2019s at, and he\u2019s got a long ways to go. I mean, a long ways to go, and he should have a long ways to go. But it, I think it says a lot about him of where he\u2019s at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith is betting on Jacas to have a successful NFL career because of his makeup.<\/p>\n

The Patriots traded up to select the 6-foot-4, 261-pound edge defender 55th overall in the 2026 NFL Draft out of Illinois.<\/p>\n

Jacas registered 11 sacks, 43 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles as a senior with the Illini in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a gambler, but I kind of look at maybe anything in life as gambling,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou got a kid that\u2019s big like him, that\u2019s athletic like him, that\u2019s meaner than a wet mule, and he loves football. I\u2019m not gonna say he\u2019s gonna be Jason Taylor or LT (Lawrence Taylor) or any of that stuff, but it\u2019s gonna be very hard for him to fail.\u201c<\/p>\n

Smith joked that he believes Jacas is \u201cactually about 45 years old\u201d because he\u2019s an \u201cold soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacas is constantly in his playbook as he masters the basics of the Patriots\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kid\u2019s going to be a special player,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI don\u2019t think many coaches say that right off the bat, when a guy\u2019s been here for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also expressed confidence if the Patriots need to enter the season with Jacas as the primary backup<\/a> behind Dre\u2019Mont Jones and Elijah Ponder on the edge.<\/p>\n

Harold Landry III would start, if healthy, but he\u2019s still on the physically unable to perform list after suffering a knee injury \u2014 one he continued to play through \u2014 midway through last season. No one else in the Patriots\u2019 outside linebacker room has emerged this summer. Veteran Jesse Luketa, 2025 fifth-round pick Bradyn Swinson, third-year pro Amari Gainer and rookies Quintayvious Hutchins and Xavier Holmes are still battling for roles and roster spots.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there going to be some learning moments and some things that \u2014 yeah, I\u2019ve never in all my years coaching and playing NFL, I\u2019ve never seen a kid come out and just figure it out Day 1,\u201d Smith said of Jacas. \u201cEven if they\u2019ve had all spring and all this other stuff, they\u2019re such a huge part of development and just taking time and making mistakes. You can\u2019t learn until you make a mistake, and so yeah, there\u2019s going to be some times, but I feel comfortable because I know who the man is and the time that he\u2019s going to put in it, and the effort that he\u2019s going to put in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacas has had some growing pains through two preseason games, but head coach Mike Vrabel has been hard on the rookie to fix mistakes quickly.<\/p>\n

Smith has also seen Ponder take a major leap from Year 1 to Year 2. Ponder has been starting across from Jones since practice began in the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FOXBORO \u2014 The injury and contract squabbles that kept Gabe Jacas away from the Patriots this spring didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":984508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[4955,833,839,7,838,1167,249,2326,2094,6,15,835,61050,208,107497,43714,112574,19972,112575,834,61051,61052,80497,724,837,505],"class_list":["post-984507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-drake-maye","tag-eliot-wolf","tag-football","tag-mike-vrabel","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-news","tag-nfl-patriots","tag-patriots","tag-patriots-2026","tag-patriots-free-agency","tag-patriots-free-agents","tag-patriots-game","tag-patriots-moves","tag-patriots-news","tag-patriots-schedule","tag-patriots-stats","tag-patriots-trades","tag-pats","tag-robert-kraft","tag-super-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117167000373308711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984507","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=984507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/984508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}