Things have started to slow down for Eli Raridon, and that’s a good sign for the New England Patriots rookie tight end.
After stringing together back-to-back training camp practices with multiple catches and two red-zone touchdowns on Thursday, Raridon looked more settled in his first camp as a pro. The third-round pick said the adjustment has been helped by the people around him in the tight end room.
“It’s going well,” Raridon said Thursday about his first training camp as a pro. “I’ve got a lot of great people in the tight end room to learn from.
Hunter Henry’s been great to me. Just learning every day, trying to apply it on the field and just playing as hard as I can.”
Raridon’s first touchdown of the day came on an open play-action bootleg from quarterback Drake Maye, with the rookie waltzing into the end zone from about the 5-yard line. He later added another score while working with Tommy DeVito’s second-team offense.
The Patriots have been pushing their young players to play fast and not get bogged down by mistakes, and head coach Mike Vrabel said that kind of approach matters because coaches can clean things up afterward. Raridon said that message fits exactly what a young player needs.
“[It’s] helpful,” Raridon said of that coaching approach. “It’s a great mentality to have, and to win in this league you have to play fast.
And as a young player, it’s hard not to be thinking about a lot of stuff out there … I think we can play fast and obviously play smart but not worry too much about making a mistake. As an offense starts to come together, it’s going to get easier.”
He also said the game is beginning to feel less overwhelming, even if he still isn’t fully comfortable in the offense. Raridon described the summer as a “night-and-day difference” from his spring work.
That growth matters because the rookie enters camp with less experience than many of his peers. At Notre Dame, Raridon’s senior season produced 32 catches for 482 yards, a 15.1-yard average. But two ACL tears on the same knee early in his college career limited him to 48 career receptions and 18 starts for the Fighting Irish.
Vrabel said that kind of learning curve is part of the process for this rookie class, especially once the pace jumps from spring work to training camp.
“I think that it’s a learning curve for these guys,” Vrabel said about what he’s seen from the rookie class thus far. “I think that the spring is one thing. When you get to training camp, it’s something completely different … Eli’s learning and figuring this game out, and I think he can find a way to help us.”
Raridon said the spring reps helped him build a base, which has made it easier to recognize things and move quicker now that camp is underway.
The Patriots’ tight end group has also had to adjust after free-agency signing Julian Hill suffered a season-ending knee injury in the spring. Hill was brought in to help as a blocker, and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf also viewed him as a possible receiver in a hybrid role.
With that spot suddenly thinner, Raridon said the whole room has to carry more of the load.
“I think as a tight end room we all need to step up,” Raridon said about whether he feels he has to take on some of Hill’s responsibilities. “We all need to play our hardest and fill in that role that’s missing.”
Vrabel also addressed Caleb Lomu’s development on Thursday, saying the offensive tackle has to learn different blocking techniques because what happens at the line of scrimmage in the NFL is not the same as it is in college.
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