Rookie LB Ja'Whaun Bentley flashes familiar, physical style in preseason opener

FOXBOROUGH — Ten years ago this week, a rookie thumper for the Patriots named Jerod Mayo introduced himself to the NFL with a flourish in his first preseason game, delivering a hit so hard on Baltimore running back Ray Rice that Rice’s helmet popped off.

On Thursday, there was no such signature, thunderous moment for Ja’Whaun Bentley — the rookie linebacker out of Purdue did deliver a pair of tackles for loss in the preseason opener against the Redskins. But there was a lot of Mayo in his game on Thursday night, right down to Bentley's No. 51.

Asked after the game if he welcomed a Mayo comparison — or if he “didn’t want to go there quite yet” — he waited a beat and flashed a small smile.


“There we go,” said the 21-year-old.

Despite the mild protestation, in truth, it was hard to look at Bentley (6-foot-2, 260 pounds) Thursday night and not see a little bit of Mayo (6-foot-1, 250). A middle linebacker with a thirst for contact — like Mayo — Bentley was running with what appeared to be a reasonable facsimile of the No. 1 defense early in his career. He was making the calls in the huddle. And he was a sideline-to-sideline presence, leading the team with six tackles on the evening, as well as a pair of tackles for loss and one quarterback hit.

After the game, while many of his young teammates loudly enjoyed the postgame glow from their first win, Bentley delivered a quiet assessment of his game, displaying the same sort of preternatural postgame focus we saw from Mayo as a rookie.

“I was just eager to be out there,” Bentley said of his reaction to his first preseason action. “I wasn’t really counting the minutes or counting the reps. I just wanted to make sure with the opportunity I had to put my best foot forward. That was my main goal.”

All in all, a good start for the Purdue product, who drew a thumbs-up from Bill Belichick when it came to working with the green dot on the back of his helmet.

“Ja'Whaun's a smart kid, so the mental (part of the game) has never been an issue with him. We used multiple signal callers tonight, as we have in practice, but doing it in the game is a little bit different,” said Belichick.

“As the Mike linebacker, you have to get used to making the calls, period,” Bentley said of working with the sideline on the correct calls. “It wasn’t anything new. But it was a great opportunity.”

Bentley was the fourth linebacker on the field behind Dont’a Hightower, Elandon Roberts and Kyle Van Noy, and was guiding the defense through the middle portion of the game. He nailed running back Rob Kelley for a 1-yard loss and added a 3-yard TFL on running back Byron Marshall, both coming late in the second quarter.

“Being in the kind of practices we have, going against our guys … at the end of the day, football is football,” he said. “You go out there and you have to beat the man across from you. I felt like us as a defense, and me in my first game, I feel like I did well as far as adjusting, so to speak.”

Bentley needs to be able to keep adjusting, as his play Thursday likely thrust him directly into a positional battle with the likes of Roberts, who also had a good evening. But Bentley, the only three-year captain in the history of Purdue football, certainly made a strong opening statement. Now, with his new digits, he appears ready to take it to the next level.

“I feel like us, as a defense, we’re constantly getting better, day by day,” Bentley said. “It’s a process that we all enjoy. I feel like (tonight) we put our best foot forward. Of course, there are some kinks we have to work out, but it was a good opportunity for us to go against another team in a different colored uniform.”