(This will be the last Notebook for a few weeks. I will still be producing content, including the Top 25 series, but with the league on break, so too is the Notebook)
Had Alijah Vera-Tucker been a healthy(ish) player during his time with the Jets, there’s almost no way that organization - even a Woody Johnson-led one - would have let him hit the market. That is, unless Vera-Tucker forced their hand. And though we’ve haven’t had too many opportunities to talk to the Patriots' new left guard - try two times exactly - it’s pretty clear what he’s experienced in his brief time in Foxborough thus far is not something he ever felt in the Jersey swamp.
“Man, I tell you, I really enjoyed myself out here, bro,” he said at the conclusion of mandatory mini-camp. “I think just to be a part of a team where everybody expects excellence - from the walkthroughs to the meetings to the practices - I'm just feeling really lucky and blessed to be part of something like that.”
Vera-Tucker was never part of a winning season during his five years with the Jets. In fact, they were dead last in the AFC East three times and third twice, finishing ahead of the Patriots in the last round-up for Bill Belichick and the ensuing disaster that was Jerod Mayo and company. It didn’t help New York that Vera-Tucker missed 42 of a possible 85 regular-season games, including all of last season with a torn tricep.
That meant his tenure here in New England got off to a slow start, with Vera-Tucker mostly working off to the side once the Patriots' offense got into team drills. But he ramped his activity up during mini-camp and appears on track to be a full participant when training camp kicks off at the end of July. That’s important as this re-jiggered offensive line looks to build cohesion.
The 27-year-old has already drawn rave reviews from teammates and the coaching staff both publicly and privately. His athleticism and quick feet could unlock a screen game that was dormant in year one (round 3) under Josh McDaniels. But there’s plenty of power Vera-Tucker brings when the Pats try to ground and pound, which the left side of that offensive line struggled with in 2025-26.
“Alijah’s a great dude. I love him. Athletic freak. His feet are crazy,” second-year pro Jared Wilson said at the beginning of OTAs. “He’s a smart player. He’s going to be a great guy to have.”
Vera-Tucker obviously knows the Pats well from his time spent on the opposing sideline. But as he has learned more about the inner workings of a Mike Vrabel-led team, he’s noted that they’ve assembled a roster of “blue-collar” players, then concentrated on creating a level of trust and brotherhood that, again, is not something he experienced with the Jets.
“I think coming into this building the first week here, man, team meetings, and like I said, the way everybody carries themselves and the way everybody wants to get to know each other and build relationships with each other,” Vera-Tucker said of the energy in Foxborough. “I think that's very important, especially at the next level in the league…”
That was certainly an important piece of the Pats' resurgence from a year ago, and clearly Vrabel and company have decided that it will be critical for the 2026-27 team as well. It didn’t take long for Vera-Tucker to embrace that. Now, it's just about staying healthy and playing to the Pro-Bowl caliber that he’s capable of.
NO REST
Vrabel called the dead period between mini-camp and training camp “some of the most important days of the entire season.”
Will Campbell is certainly taking that to heart. He has been at Rooks Performance in Oklahoma, working out at the facility co-founded by Eagles All-Pro Lane Johnson. Among the stars in attendance have been Johnson, Tristan Wirfs of the Buccaneers, the Bills’ Dion Dawkins, and the Chiefs' Creed Humphrey.
The second-year pro was irritable when we spoke to him during OTAs, no doubt tired of hearing about his post-injury performance in the playoffs. With another left tackle (though he’s worked mostly on the right side this spring), Caleb Lomu drafted in the first round, there is more competition and, perhaps, an option for the coaches to turn to if Campbell’s slippage in play continues. But there’s no doubt, the #4 pick in the 2025 NFL draft is doing everything he can to reinforce the notion that he’s Vrabel’s left tackle now and in the future.
“I’m 22, so I’m a long way from where I’m going to be in the future,” he said. “It’s not like I’m great at everything and here’s one little thing [to work on]. I’m trying to make everything as a whole better.”
TOMMY’S TOUCH
Tom Brady didn’t exactly “open his world” to either his backups or, famously, quarterbacks on other rosters (Robert Griffin had a bunch to say about that once upon a time). But now that he is a minority owner of the Raiders, Brady apparently is more than willing to extend himself to the team’s first-round pick, number one overall, Fernando Mendoza.
"I usually like to keep the talks between Tom and me private. But I do think what he said as a quarterback is you need to be the most everything," Mendoza said. "You need to be the most competitive. You need to be the most leader - you have to have the most leadership. You need to be the toughest, mentally and physically. You've got to embody all these things and lead by example before getting the respect from your teammates, in order to lead effectively.
"That really resonated with me."
Despite having Kirk Cousins there to help, and possibly start until new head coach Klint Kubiak deems him ready, Mendoza carries an enormous amount of pressure to succeed. That’s something Brady acknowledged in a recent interview, comparing his road - 6th round pick and 4th stringer behind Drew Bledsoe - to the one rival Peyton Manning experienced.
“He's the number one overall pick,” Brady said of Manning, “Gets drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. Tremendous expectations around him. And what I appreciate and love about Peyton is that he always outperformed his expectations. It was a tremendous talent that he had to be able to do that. He was very much like me: process-oriented, disciplined, driven, accountable, and I'd say that his path is harder than the path I took.
“My path was challenging in different ways. Peyton, if he failed, everyone saw it right away, and he had to take that on, and he superseded those expectations because of his will and determination, and I love that about him. So, Fernando, whom we chose, he's got the same expectation. Now, fortunately, he has me there to help mentor him."
Mendoza was/is not as highly thought of at any point in his process as Manning was, and certainly no one is anticipating that he’ll have that kind of career. But how well he navigates the burden that comes with being the #1 pick will no doubt impact what we’re saying about him next year, five years from now, or even 25 - if Mendoza actually turns out to be worth that kind of conversation. If Brady can help, even a little, that’s a win for Vegas’ hopeful franchise quarterback.
FOUNDATIONAL PIECE
The Tennessee Titans have been a mess the last handful of years, and I’m not excluding the end of the Vrabel era in Nashville. The franchise is on its third head coach - counting interim Mike McCoy - since unceremoniously canning Vrabel, and it’s second GM. They also drafted a wide receiver 4th overall (Carnell Tate) in a draft that didn’t have a Ja’Marr Chase-type up top. But I digress…
Tennessee did get something right earlier this week, signing Jeffery Simmons to a contract extension that guarantees him $100 millon and will pay him, on average, $35.3 million, the highest AAV of any defensive lineman in football.
The 29-year-old has been one of the few dependable and disruptive players on a Titans roster that found itself devoid of talent for the last several years. Simmons was a first-team All-Pro in 2025 (and was a 2nd teamer in ‘21 and ‘22), ascending to a higher level by any metric or stat you want to use. He had a career-high 11 sacks, 21 QB Hits, 17 tackles for loss and forced three fumbles. I’m pretty sure he also decorated the office Christmas tree all by his lonesome, swept the floors and made sure all the lights were off when he left. You have to reward that type of player.
The Titans are banking that high-level play continues. In fact, there’s a belief that new head coach Robert Saleh’s defensive system will actually let Simmons shine even brighter.
“It’s kind of my first year playing in an attack defense,” Simmons said. “That’s my game. I like to play on the other side of the line of scrimmage... I love this type of defense, to be able to be on the other side of the line of scrimmage each and every play. It demands that you make plays. I love this philosophy, and think it will help me make a lot more plays in the backfield, and it will help this team for sure.”
Saleh and GM Mike Borgonzi got Simmons some help. They added the underrated John Franklin-Myers to play alongside, and drafted Auburn’s Keldric Faulk late in round one. But if they don’t deliver, Simmons has shown he can do it on his own. Just ask Layden Robinson, whose career in New England ended during the 2024 season when the Pats “braintrust” chose to start the rookie opposite the Titans star. That experiment ended pretty quickly.
ALL EYES ON SEWELL
The Lions are just a couple of years removed from having one of the best offensive lines in football. But age (Taylor Decker), injury (center Frank Ragnow retired in his 20s), and free agency have turned Penei Sewell, once the fresh-faced rookie, into the “greybeard” of the group at the ripe old age of 25.
“I know every year we talk about (how it’s) a different year, but this one kinda feels a lot different,” Sewell said. “Just because all the guys that I came in with are not here anymore. It’s just a lot of new faces. But again, with all that said, the standard’s the same, and I’m the one that’s kinda been here the longest in the room. So, it’s up to me to really hold that and to really show the guys, not just tell them.
“You gotta come out here each and every day, because nobody’s gonna follow you if you’re not really doing it yourself.”
Sewell isn’t just talking the talk, but walking the walk. He’s embraced Detroit’s makeover up front that includes first-round tackle Blake Miller, who will just so happen to slide into Sewell’s old position, playing the right side, while Sewell goes to the left.
"It'll be like riding a bike for him," Dan Campbell said. "Will there be things he'll have to (learn)? Yeah, of course there will be. But I mean, he has played left. That's muscle memory. He played a lot of left in college and for us in '21, those first few games. And he still took reps at left even over the last five years, so that'll be seamless. That'll be seamless. Sewell can do it all."
"It's just different," Sewell said. "You're switching your whole stance and everything, but it is what it is.”
Sewell played the left side at the University of Oregon and did it well enough to get himself selected 7th overall by the Lions in 2021. In his rookie season, he played half his games at his natural position after Decker got hurt. He struggled a bit in pass protection, but for the most part, Sewell has been a stud in the pros as well. He’s a three-time All-Pro.
“I’m putting my eggs in the basket of Penei Sewell in that O-line room,” Campbell said earlier this offseason. “He’s the leader.”
The Lions will need Sewell to be at his very best as the new pieces on that line come together, but Campbell is wise to put his faith in Sewell because, to this point, he’s never let him - or the team - down.