FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots’ new defensive tackle’s name is pronounced Ricky Jean (zhan) François (fran-SWAH), and there is no hyphen. He’ll need a new nameplate on his locker.
The New England media got pronunciation out of the way first when meeting Jean François at his locker Thursday afternoon. François, who signed with the Patriots on Tuesday, was more concerned about learning the playbook.
“I was just happy that a team picked me up,” Jean François said Thursday. “I was just sitting out, chilling out, just packing my stuff up, leaving Green Bay and going home, and I got the call. I was like, ‘Time to come up here and learn a new playbook.'”
Jean François had a few solid analogies for learning the new defensive system.
“As you can see, I walked in with (Alan) Branch and LG (Lawrence Guy), and I’ve just been learning from them,” Jean François said. “Just trying to get things a little easier, because each team is a little different learning the terminology. It’s almost like, you know English, but somebody’s telling you French, and you’ve got to learn French now.
“It’s ongoing. The biggest thing now is now I just gotta learn that playbook. That’s just the biggest thing, because anything can happen. They can throw me in the fire, and if I don’t know that playbook, I don’t want to mess up something that they already have going. The playbook is my best friend right now. That’s my wife, my girlfriend, that’s my everything.”
The Patriots really might need him to play against the Denver Broncos on Sunday night. Malcom Brown didn’t practice again Thursday with an ankle injury, leaving Branch, Guy and Jean François as the Patriots’ only 300-plus pound defensive tackles.
Jean François is entering an ideal situation to dive deep into his new playbook, however. The Patriots are traveling to Denver on Saturday and then staying in Colorado Springs for the week after their Week 10 game before heading to Mexico City on Saturday to take on the Oakland Raiders in Week 11. Without any other distractions, Jean François will have plenty of time to learn a new language with his best friend, wife and girlfriend.
