FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – At 6:07 p.m. on Sunday, August 30, the New England Patriots posted the list of players who made the initial 53-man roster.
That's when Quintayvious Hutchins, a 2026 seventh-round pick out of Boston College, had learned he made the team after a summer of tough competition at the edge position.
"I don't think I had that moment," Hutchins told Patriots Wire exclusively when asked about the moment he knew he had made it. "It was more of me just going on social media, seeing the 53-man roster, and was like, 'damn, like I really made it.' All the hard work paid off."
Earlier that same day, Hutchins shared a series of photos from the preseason on his Instagram page, which many thought might be him revealing the news that he made it.
However, that was not the case as he hadn't been told at that time.
"Yeah, it was just a random post," he said.
But it felt like a full circle for the rookie edge defender, whose move from college was only 25.6 miles down the road.
"It feels good. Coming from BC... I've been in the New England area for six years now, so it feels good," he said. "I just wake up every day and keep my head up and fight."
On Tuesday, which marked the team's first practice following the roster moves, Hutchins went out to the field wearing a No. 0 jersey, serving as a member of the scout team to mimic pass rusher Demarcus Lawrence in preparation for the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1. He had a huge smile on his face as he walked through the locker room on the way outside, making it clear that he is beyond excited for any opportunity he receives, whether it be on the scout team during the week or during games.
And that was one of the main things that impressed Mike Vrabel about Hutchins.
"Well, I think he continued to be coachable. I think that was something that he really improved on, was to take the coaching and to understand where he needed to improve," Vrabel said. "I think that just looking at special teams, I think that was something that he improved at. To be a rookie playing on the punt team, to go down there, make a nice tackle in open field and cover kicks. To do all these things, that was really different from the practices to the first game.
"But then I felt like he improved from the first game to the third game. I think it was eye-opening for some of these guys, on special teams, from practices to the first game. I think that’s the best thing that I could say is that they got better through each of those games."
Throughout the summer, Hutchins was spotted at times doing some one-on-one work with Vrabel, which was something that he did not take for granted.
"It means a lot. It means that he cares," Hutchins explained. "He cares about his players and he cares about everybody getting a chance to make it."
And as for what fans can expect to see from Hutchins this season, his answer was simple: "execution and hard work."
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This article originally appeared on Patriots Wire: Quintayvious Hutchins’ ‘damn, I really made it’ moment came online
