Caleb Lomu is a dude.
That much might have been apparent on draft night, when his first impression with Patriots fans came in the form of this video:
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/CSwipdWQHF
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But he confirmed it on Thursday afternoon, when he received the official first-round draft pick treatment with an on-field jersey presentation from Robert and Jonathan Kraft.
Sporting a floral tie and a fresh Patriots hat, Lomu looked like he was donning a suit for the first time in his life -- which is what you'd hope and expect from an offensive lineman taken in the first round of the draft. And though he presented himself well as a newlywed and a young man of faith, you couldn't help but get the sense that there was at least a little bit of Tommy Boy lurking under the surface. (There was a hint of a Rob Gronkowski cadence to his speech.)
At the very least, Lomu appears to march to the beat of his own drum.
And while you can't glean too much from an introductory press conference for a 21-year-old, here's everything -- both important and not-so-important -- that we learned.
• Willing to play anywhere
The most pressing bit of information regarding Lomu is where he's willing to play on the O-line, which presumably already has five starters in place at the moment.
The short answer? Anywhere.
Lomu played left tackle at Utah, but he expressed no expected issues with moving over to the right side. (This requires an assumption or two, but Will Campbell will presumably man the left side for the foreseeable future, while veteran Morgan Moses may be entering his final NFL season as the Patriots' right tackle.)
"I just feel myself as a tackle, just in general, left or right side. I just happened to play left in college, and that's kind of what I got comfortable to, just playing those three years at left tackle at Utah," Lomu said. "My first year there, I was kind of a swing tackle. And so I feel comfortable at left, but also been working out at right these past couple months. So I feel just as good on the right side as well. So either tackle position, I'm happy to play and feel comfortable playing."
And with that much established, the questions went a step further: Would Lomu be willing to play on the interior?
"Yeah, any position that they need me at, I'm willing to play and would love to play," he said. "Any position that I can contribute to, to help the team, I'm going to do that."
While a part of that response comes from a rookie having the right attitude, Lomu also admitted that it may be his best bet to actually get onto the field as a rookie.
"Just to get on the field and get some playing time, that's the goal," he said. "And whatever position that they need me to play to be able to get on the field and play I'm willing to do."
Lomu also noted that he's only played skill positions during his "glory days" as a flag football player, but has played some tight end in tackle football. That being said, the coaching staff might want to prepare for the rookie trying to showcase his throwing arm on the practice field.
"I can throw the ball pretty good. I'll get out and show that on the field whenever I can if I get a ball," he said. "I'm a big man, but I still think I can move pretty well. So any opportunity I get to do something else -- my job's to block, and I'll do that every single time. But if they give me an opportunity to do something else, I'm always ready for that."
As for his main job, Lomu said that he was quickly welcomed to the team by Campbell and some other teammates after being drafted and that he's been a part of some O-line meetings on Zoom.
• How he plays his best
Lomu may have been the sixth offensive tackle taken in this year's draft, but he was firmly in that top group of players at his position. (The seventh tackle wasn't taken until the third round, 40 picks after Lomu went off the board.) As would be expected with any first-round tackle, Lomu's got some great college tape.
Based on that tape, Lomu was asked how he was able to play the position at such a high level.
The answer? Preparation.
"My game's just been always trying to be fluid out there and calm, collected. That's just how I feel I play best when I'm calm, my mind's working. I'm able to think faster, react quicker to everything. And so that's just how I play my game," he explained. "That's preparation, leading up the week before, and also just pregame, getting my mind right, just knowing when I go out there, I'm calm, I know what I know, and I'm prepared to go out there. I know everything else will come with it, as long as I just play confident and play free. I know that's when I play my best ball, and so that's always just how I've played from when I started playing football, and that's how I'll keep playing coming into the NFL."
And despite entering the league as a highly touted first-round tackle, Lomu knows his NFL education is in its nascent stage.
"Coming in as a rookie, I'm gonna be a sponge. Learn everything that I can, talk with the vets, see their routine that they have," Lomu said. "It feels a lot different from college with mental and physical [challenges]. It's a way longer season. And so having that routine is very important. So cling on to a vet and getting as much advice and information that I can get. Coming in, I know nothing. So I'm coming in, learning as much as I can, on the field and off the field as well. And so that's my main goal, short term, just coming in and learn as much as I can."
And Lomu's long-term goal?
"The Super Bowl is my biggest goal that I want for me and the team," Lomu shared. "That's what I've always wanted since I was a kid, and this is a type of team that has done it. I know we can do it and will do it. And so I'm very confident in this team to get back to where they were, and very excited to be part of that."
• First impressions of Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye
Lomu hasn't yet been on the field with head coach Mike Vrabel running the show (rookie minicamp begins this weekend), but he anticipates some high-energy sessions.
"With Coach Vrabel, it's been amazing. You know, the energy that that guy brings to this team, you can kind of just feel it. I haven't been here yet, but I can already feel it, and you can see it just out on the field," Lomu said. "The energy that he brings, that's what you want in the head coach, and it's what you want for a team. That's why I believe they went so far last year. So everything's been awesome with him."
As for the starting quarterback, Lomu said he envisions a long and prosperous future in New England with Drake Maye.
"He actually texted me as well after draft night. That was awesome to see," Lomu said. "Young quarterback, which, you know, I love the energy that he brings to the team, the talent that he has. I'm excited to be able to protect for him and play with him. He's such a young guy with so much, you know, left of him, and experience and talent. And so I'm excited to be able to play for that for many years. You know, he's young, and so he'll be here for a long time. I plan on staying here for a long time as well. And so very excited to get that [going]."
• About that dance ...
Not everything has to be serious at a rookie's introduction to the media, so Lomu was asked about what went into that now-viral dancing clip from draft night. It turns out that Lomu was just freestyling.
"So that was an interesting moment. I was at the Combine. You know, the media stuff that they were doing there, they put me up on the stage along with a lot of other people. They had all the cameras just like this, and they go, 'All right, for 10 seconds, just do whatever, and we're gonna film you,'" Lomu explained. "And so I was saying, like, 'What should I do?' And they're like, just do whatever you want. And I didn't just do it once. They made me do that, like, four different times. They made me walk from the back of the stage up to the front doing the exact same thing."
And though the clip went viral, Lomu doesn't feel it was his best work.
"You know, that moment. I hated it. Hated that moment," he said. "But I was like, 'OK, I'm up here. I'm just gonna do whatever my body does.' And so that's where -- there is really no backstory to that. That's really just what I was feeling in the moment. And so, of course, they decided to use that as the dance that they posted."
Lomu's final self-analysis?
"It was not my best work," he admitted, "but it was -- it was something."
• Fateful signs from the universe
Perhaps you believe in the randomness of the universe. Or perhaps you believe everything is written in the stars.
For Lomu, there were two fateful signs that indicated he ended up where he belongs.
The first came ahead of the draft, when his wife hung up a map of the U.S., inviting family members to place a sticky note where they believed Lomu would get drafted.
"My wife actually chose New England," he said. "She was the only one who put her name up on the Patriots. And so that was a sign right there of where I was going to go."
Lomu said his wife was the first person to see the caller ID on his phone showing a Massachusetts number calling on draft night, too.
"She always talked about the Patriots being one of her top spots that she wanted to go, and she guessed it spot on," Lomu said. "So she was very excited. You can see it in her reaction when we got the call."
The other sign from the universe came after Lomu had booked his flight to New England for this introductory press conference. By sheer coincidence, Lomu's uncle -- a pilot for American Airlines -- had been assigned for the rookie's flight from Arizona.
"He texted my mom about two days ago, and he was like, 'Hey, what flight is Caleb on? I just got assigned to this last-minute flight to Boston.' So it ended up being the exact same flight," Lomu said.
Lomu said his uncle made sure to embarrass him a bit during the flight, making him walk up to the front of the aircraft after making an announcement to the whole cabin.
"Proud uncle is what he was saying," Lomu shared. "So it was awesome."