Center Of Future: This Patriots Rookie Long Been ‘Football Coach’s Dream’

There’s not a long list of coaches Jared Wilson has played for in his limited time on the gridiron, but his impact was still a major one.

Just ask Adrian Snow, the former head coach at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, N.C., about the New England Patriots rookie.

“He was like a football coach’s dream,” Snow told NESN.com.

His insane athleticism, mixed with a relentless pursuit for improvement and guided by a team-first mindset, helped Wilson thrive with the Titans, Snow said.

Wilson’s size, measuring approximately 6-foot-4 at 325 pounds, made him an obvious choice for left tackle at West Forsyth. But he didn’t move like a lineman.

Wilson embarrassed his offensive linemates with elite athleticism that put him more in line with the skill-position players. So much so that Snow made him run with Titans receivers and running backs at practice. It likely surprised no one on that roster to see Wilson become just the second 300-pound lineman in NFL scouting combine history to run a sub-4.85-second 40-yard dash when he put a 4.84 on the board this spring.

That combine performance sent him shooting up draft boards. His athletic ability stood out to Eliot Wolf and New England, who drafted the Georgia product in the third round.

Snow saw Wilson’s athletic prowess before anyone else, however.

The head coach winced watching back the tape of Wilson trampling opposing defenders. He saw Wilson learn the art of weight lifting and set program records.

It was what Wilson did on the basketball court, though, that made Snow do a double-take. Wilson — again, exceeding some 300 pounds — dunked a basketball in gym class his freshman year.

Immediately, Snow thought of how this freakish display of size and athleticism could impact Wilson’s college recruitment. But hardly believing his eyes, he needed to see it again.

“‘Listen, I’ll get you a chicken biscuit in the morning if you dunk again, but I don’t think you can,'” Snow recalled.

Wilson earned himself the chicken biscuit with another slam, and Snow sent the captured footage to everyone he knew.

“He dunked the basketball, and it changed the game,” Snow said.

At that point, Wilson — a soccer midfielder who also appeared to run on pillows as a light-footed big man on the basketball team — had played just one season of football. He didn’t transition to the gridiron until high school as his mother, Allie, had a vision for her behemoth of a boy.

She volunteered the rising high schooler for football when she met Snow at an open house.

Mother knows best.

Not long after Wilson started taking the lunch money of opposing edge rushers — he owes an apology to the poor souls at Glenn High School, Snow said — he had the who’s who of college football offering him. He received 15 offers with Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, runner-up North Carolina, and Ohio State, among them. Georgia offered Wilson some 10 minutes into his November 2019 workout in Athens.

“After Georgia offers, you know how it is — recruiters are like high school boys,” Snow said. “You tell them you like old girl everybody else goes, ‘Well, you know what? I like her, too.'”

An enforcer on the football field, Wilson is a protector off of it.

Snow met with Wilson after the COVID-19 pandemic suspended his senior season from the fall to the spring. Wilson could have enrolled early in Athens, but faced a difficult decision given the uncharted waters. He made it clear he wanted to finish what he started at West Forsyth and play with the teammates who meant so much to him.

Speaking to the Titans before the first game of the season, Snow made sure each of Wilson’s teammates remembered his commitment.

“That tells you about Jared Wilson,” Snow said. “I mean, he’s special. He’s special athletically, but he’s special as a person.”

Wilson stayed the course at Georgia, as well. While he considered staying home and playing at North Carolina — he would’ve snapped to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye — Wilson followed through on his commitment to the Bulldogs. He played three seasons between the edges, despite not earning the starting role until 2024.

“He didn’t cut and run when it got tough like everybody else does in this country now,” Snow said. “Everybody wants to leave. NIL is the new ‘I quit.’ Nobody wants to stay. Jared Wilson, he didn’t do it. He stayed the course.”

Wilson was at the center of it all at West Forsyth. And those who watched him up close believe he’ll be the same way in New England.