FOXBORO, Mass. — During the regular season, each New England Patriots player has his own locker.
Plenty of room for a helmet, pads and gear. Bench with storage underneath. Comfy chair. Not a bad setup.
But in the spring and summer, when the roster swells to 90 players and space is limited, rookies and lower-level veterans are forced to double up, piling in together in one cramped corner of the locker room.
When safety Brenden Schooler and defensive lineman DaMarcus Mitchell began their first Patriots training camp as undrafted free agents, they were assigned the same stall. They shared it throughout the summer as they strived to make an impression on Bill Belichick and his coaching staff.
On Tuesday, the two locker mates became connected in a different way. When the Patriots unveiled their initial 53-man roster, Schooler and Mitchell were the only UDFAs to make the cut.
“We reached out to each other around 6 o’clock (Tuesday) night,” a beaming Schooler told NESN.com on Wednesday. “(Mitchell) was like, ‘Well?’ And I was like, ‘I’m still here, man.’ He goes, ‘So am I.’ We saw each other this morning and gave each other a big hug, and it was all smiles when we got to see each other. … It was awesome.”
Schooler, an uber-athletic special teamer who played at four high schools and three colleges before arriving in New England, said he “couldn’t really stop smiling” when he got word that he’d made the team.
“I was just happy not to hear any phone calls from 4 p.m. or earlier,” the 25-year-old said. “Getting to have that, getting to share the experience with my family, getting to tell people that all the hard work’s paid off. The hard work starts now, but it’s been nothing short of awesome, and I’m just really happy about it.”
Over the course of training camp and the preseason, it became increasingly clear that the Patriots were grooming Schooler for a Nate Ebner-esque role in the kicking game. He’d worked closely with mainstays Matthew Slater and Cody Davis since the spring and had earned spots on most of New England’s top special teams units.
Still, he knew cracking the 53 was no guarantee, so he spent most of cutdown day trying to keep his mind occupied.
“I came in here, got some treatment, got some food,” Schooler said. “Went back to the hotel, worked on my car a little bit, tried to stay busy, do laundry. Just try to take my mind out off of it and not think about it too much, because whatever’s happening was going to happen. There was nothing I could really do about it at that point. But once that last hour-and-a-half came in, that’s when I just sat down.
“I was on the phone with my brother (Colin, a former linebacker at Texas Tech and Arizona), and we were just talking the whole time — cracking jokes, talking about old times and just updating, seeing what was happening. And then once 4 o’clock happened, it was just like, ‘Well, we made it, dude.’ It was a little stressful, but I had my people in my corner, which is all I could ask for.”
It was stressful for Mitchell, too. The former Purdue edge rusher also had carved out a significant role on special teams and had delivered a few standout moments as a pass rusher, as well — most notably his end-zone strip-sack of Carolina’s P.J. Walker in the second preseason game — but entered Tuesday fully expecting to be cut.
“I didn’t think this was going to happen,” Mitchell told The Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang. “I’m going to be 100% honest with you. I didn’t think I was going to make the team. I thought I was going to be put on the practice squad, if I’m going to be honest.”
Many viewed UDFA D-lineman and training camp standout LaBryan Ray as the more likely roster candidate, but the Patriots chose Mitchell, potentially for his kicking game contributions. Ray was waived, then landed on the practice squad.
Like Schooler, Mitchell took an unconventional route to Foxboro, playing running back at Southwest Mississippi Community College before transferring to Purdue and switching to defense. Schooler played both safety and wide receiver during his stints at Oregon, Arizona and Texas.
It’s unlikely either will have a significant defensive role to start the season, though Mitchell, who had 4 1/2 sacks and seven tackles for loss in the Big Ten a year ago, has higher odds of contributing in that area. Both should see frequent action on special teams, though, as the Patriots’ punt and kickoff coverage units look to rebound from an uncharacteristically shaky 2021 campaign.
Assuming both remain on the roster — which can and will change as the season progresses — Schooler and Mitchell’s first taste of regular-season NFL action will come next Sunday against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium.
“I mean, I’ll soak it up,” Schooler said of his impending debut. “I’ll look around and I’ll be like, ‘Wow, this is really happening right now.’ But after that little moment I get to have with myself, I’ll walk back in and just focus on what my job is and move forward.”
