The New England Patriots’ trip to Minnesota was a challenging one for Jared Wilson. The rookie offensive lineman, who had cooled off a bit after a hot start to his first NFL training camp, found himself missing time in practice and repping behind fellow left guard Ben Brown in the team’s 20-12 preseason win over the Vikings.
Monday, however, was business as usual for Wilson and the Patriots. The third-round draft pick was back with the starters, lining up between left tackle Will Campbell and center
Garrett Bradbury.
After practice, he gave some encouraging updates both on his injury status and his development over the last week.
“I’m feeling good. Body’s just a little banged up, just like everybody else’s,” the 22-year-old explained. “I just had a little tweak in the ankle. It’s fine now. Everybody tweaks their ankle. Everybody rolls their ankle, especially as an offensive lineman. Do what you got to do to get back on the field.”
Wilson’s ankle injury forced him to depart last Thursday’s joint practice with the Vikings early, even though it did not end up keeping him out of the two teams’ preseason bout two days later. Still, lining up with the second-team unit and behind the aforementioned Brown created some speculation about his future as a starter.
Those questions will be answered in due time. In the meantime, Wilson himself is not concerned about his current standing on the depth chart be he a first or a second option.
“It’s a business,” he said. “Whatever they feel is best to put the best five out there, then I’m with it. I want to win. That’s what it is.”
At the moment, it appears that having Wilson at left guard next to fellow rookie Will Campbell is what the coaching staff around Mike Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels sees as its best available combination. Listening to his top competitor, you can get a sense why that is the case.
“He’s just very smart,” said Ben Brown on Monday. “He’s very strong. He’s very athletic. He’s fast, too. He’s got all the traits that you would look for in an offensive lineman. He’s a great player.”
Despite all those positive attributes, Wilson still remains a player who has yet to prove himself against top-tier competition. While he had some positive moments in joint practices particularly versus the Washington Commanders two weeks ago, he also did not face many starter-caliber defensive linemen in his two preseason appearances.
Accordingly, a level of uncertainty remains with the 95th overall pick in this year’s draft. Then again, Wilson views his trajectory as a positive one even including his ankle ailment and brief absence from the starting lineup.
As he pointed out Monday, the game has started slowing down for him between his first and second game.
“It still looked fast, of course, but it definitely slowed down a little bit,” he noted. “I was able to see not just the man in front of me, but I was able to kind of slow it down a little bit and look at the bigger picture and see if some pressure was coming, like that. So, it definitely slowed down just a little bit.”
