Patriots rookie outside linebacker Gabe Jacas made his NFL practice debut Saturday.<\/p>\n
After starting training camp on the active\/non-football injury list, Jacas passed his physical and returned to the practice field.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll get Gabe back today,\u201d Mike Vrabel said Saturday morning. \u201cHe\u2019ll be out there in a limited role. We\u2019ve talked to you about the return to play protocol that we have, and so now he gets handed over to the coaches, and that\u2019ll be in a limited role. He won\u2019t be involved in the team reps, but hopefully Monday, we\u2019ll see him back out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beginning of Jacas\u2019 Patriots career has been turbulent after being drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft this spring.<\/p>\n
After missing the offseason workout program following a knee procedure, Jacas was one of the last draft picks in the league to sign his rookie contract \u2014 a deal that included an uncommon injury waiver.<\/p>\n
Since signing his contract last Saturday, Jacas has been focused on his return-to-play rehab. Vrabel shared the rookie did not enjoy being sidelined, which quickly became evident during his first practice when he bulldozed outside linebackers coach Mike Smith during an individual drill.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loves football. He\u2019s been itching to get back,\u201d Vrabel said. \u201cHe texts me all the time. He texts me late at night, \u2018Hey, am I going to practice tomorrow?\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018No, just like I told you at 6:30 last night or tonight that you\u2019re not going to practice tomorrow. You don\u2019t have to text me at 10:00 and ask again. The answer is still no, not yet.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want that. You want guys that are looking for ways in as opposed to looking for ways out. I think he just wants to get out there, get acclimated and be with his teammates. That is all he wants to do. He just wants to play football.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Patriots will be off on Sunday before returning to the practice fields on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patriots rookie outside linebacker Gabe Jacas made his NFL practice debut Saturday. After starting training camp on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[161703,23433,349,99],"class_list":["post-799086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-new-england-patriots-injuries","tag-new-england-patriots-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}