FOXBORO, Mass. — Michael Bennett missed the first three days of New England Patriots training camp for what the team called “personal reasons.”
After making his camp debut on Day 4, the veteran defensive end thanked Patriots coach Bill Belichick for excusing his late arrival.
“I had a personal reason,” Bennett said after Sunday’s practice outside Gillette Stadium. “I didn’t retire. Everybody said I retired. I was laughing at home. I didn’t retire. No, I just had a family issue that I had to go take care of. I was lucky Coach Belichick — it’s nice when you have a coach that sees you as a human, sees you as a human being, not just a number and you’re able to go talk to him, tell him what’s going on, and you’re able to go take care of it.
“That just makes you want to play harder for a coach — when he believes in you and lets you take care of your family first.
Bennett said he flew in Sunday morning from Hawaii, where he makes his home in the offseason, and “just came right to practice.”
“It’s important — just the game,” he said. “You want to prove to your teammates that you love the game. I grew up and this game has been a part of my life for over 20 years, so every time I step on the field and I’ve got teammates who believe in me, I just want to come out and show them that in every single moment, I’m going to try to go as hard as I can.
“When you’re on a new team and you have to build new relationships, the only type of way to build new relationships is to show everyone the type of work ethic you’ve got, what you believe in, and how you carry yourself. Then the relationship grows from there, especially when you’ve been in the league for a long time and you have to come to a new team. It’s always good. You know you’ve got great leadership all over, and I’m just trying to learn from these guys.”
As for the red-eye flight he took to arrive in time for practice, Bennett added: “I didn’t get much sleep. It’s hard to sleep on the plane.”
Bennett, who came over from the Philadelphia Eagles in an offseason trade, did not run with the first-team defense in 11-on-11 drills but made his reps count. Primarily lining up inside, the 33-year-old dominated various reserve offensive lineman to disrupt several plays in the backfield.
His workload is likely to increase as camp progresses.
“I just work as hard as I can every day, honestly,” Bennett said. “I think it’s easy. It’s practice. You’ve been playing this game, you know how to condition yourself. It’s not easy to make it to 11 and 12 years in the NFL at defensive line, so when you are able to do that, you just continually work hard in the offseason and you get a lot of young guys around you. When you’ve got great teammates, they help push you, so it’s good.”
The Patriots will rely on Bennett to bring juice to a defense that lost top pass rusher Trey Flowers to the Detroit Lions in free agency. The former Seattle Seahawks star was productive during his lone season in Philly, finishing with nine sacks, 15 tackles for loss and 30 quarterback hits in 2018.
