‘Nostalgia’ Matchup On Tap For Joe Gaziano In Patriots-Jaguars Game

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Joe Gaziano did a little extra campaigning to play this week.

Gaziano doesn’t always get a chance to suit up on Sundays since he’s one of 16 players on Jacksonville’s practice squad. But with the Jaguars in London to take on the New England Patriots, the team Gaziano is very familiar with having grown up in Scituate, Mass., he wanted the opportunity to be on the field even more.

“Internally, yes. I’m making an extra push to try to give myself whatever edge if the coaches see that,” Gaziano told NESN.com.

Well, Gaziano got his wish.

The Jaguars on Saturday elected to elevate Gaziano and running back Jake Funk from the practice squad to the 53-man roster for the matchup against the Patriots. It’s the first time Gaziano, who signed with Jacksonville during the middle of training camp and stayed with the franchise after getting cut at the end of August, was elevated this season.

That sets the stage for Gaziano to make his Jaguars debut against the team he rooted for as a kid. The 28-year-old only played the Patriots once in his previous 23 career NFL games, coming during the 2022 season when he was a member of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Getting the opportunity to go up against New England holds more weight for Gaziano, especially with the thoughts of those great Patriots teams and players — he admired Richard Seymour, Rob Ninkovich, Vince Wilfork and Andre Tippett in particular — he watched flooding back to him.

“Every year that we go up against them it’s funny for me because a lot of guys will ask me like, ‘Oh, did you grow up a Patriots fan?’ I just chuckle because of course I did,” Gaziano said. “You grow up a football fan in Massachusetts it’s like going to church on Sunday, you tune in for the Pats game. It’s always funny to me and that’s how my love for the game grew was watching that era. … A lot of great history in the Patriots. And definitely going against them sparks those memories and getting to think about me as a kid, growing up in New England and just idolizing all those guys who wore the silver helmet and the silver pants.”

Gaziano didn’t stay just a Patriots fan, shaping his own football journey which led him to the NFL. After starring at Xaverian, where he was named the 2014 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year, he turned in a standout college career at Northwestern. He holds the Wildcats’ record for most career sacks (30).

But that wasn’t enough for Gaziano to hear his name called in the 2020 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound defensive lineman joined the Chargers as an undrafted free agent and played a career-high 14 games for Los Angeles in the 2021 season. Playing time has been much harder to come by since then as Gaziano played in only five games for the Chargers in 2022 and got on the field in just two games for the Atlanta Falcons last season.

Gaziano then moved on to the Jaguars after performing well during an offseason workout with the team. It also helped that Ryan Nielsen, who knew Gaziano from their one season with the Falcons, took over as Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator this season.

Gaziano is trying to make the most of the opportunity in front of him and he can certainly do that against the Patriots. He recognizes that there’s extra meaning facing New England and there’s the factor that he knows many players on the team, like David Andrews and Deatrich Wise Jr., from working out with them during the offseason when he returns to the Boston area.

Gaziano will try to balance it all, but will put most of his feelings aside for the Patriots once the game begins in an effort to do his job.

“It boils down to it’s like every other week where it’s an opponent. They have a lot of great players and our team is going to go against them and we’re going to try to get a win out of this game,” Gaziano said. “At the same time, I get to know a lot of the guys on the Patriots because I spend every offseason in Boston working out. … It adds that extra element of almost nostalgia of me as a kid growing up and learning the game of football and watching football on Sundays with my dad and the highs and lows of the wins and losses.”

Being on a practice squad isn’t the ideal version of football for players. Sometimes it’s all work and no play since coveted gamedays aren’t guaranteed.

Gaziano doesn’t seem to mind, though, as in a way he’s surpassed what he set out to do all those years ago back at Xaverian. He learned to appreciate every moment in the NFL that comes his way. And there’s no doubt Gaziano will try to hold onto Sunday’s game against the Patriots for as long as he can.

“You got to pinch yourself at some point just to realize how lucky I really am to have an opportunity and career that I’ve had,” Gaziano said. “Going on Year 5, if you would have told me the scrawny kid coming out of Xaverian who weighed maybe 245 (pounds), if you would have told him that he’s had a five-year NFL career, I would have given you a big hug.”