PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Hollister looking to build off what he learned as a rookie

An undrafted free agent out of Wyoming, Jacob Hollister says that his rookie season with the Patriots was 'a learning experience.' Hollister appears to be catching on at this spring's team activities.

FOXBORO – An undrafted free agent out of Wyoming, tight end Jacob Hollister calls his rookie season with the Patriots “a learning experience.”

If this spring's team activities are any indication, he's catching on.

Hollister, who caught only four passes for 42 yards in 15 regular-season games (one start), has been catching virtually everything thrown his way in organized team activities, a habit he repeated at Wednesday’s mini-camp practice on the fields behind Gillette Stadium.

“It was obviously an awesome year and I just learned a lot,” Hollister said, reflecting on his 2017 campaign, on Wednesday. “I learned from guys who are really experienced and luckily we have a lot of those guys. So it was a learning experience the whole year and I learned a lot.”

While Hollister’s playing time on offense was limited as a rookie, his role on special teams increased over the course of the year.

“We obviously have a lot of good special teams guys on this team and I learned a lot from them throughout the year,” said Hollister. “And obviously I became a guy who was part of the core at the end of the year, so that was really cool.”

Although still listed on the team's roster at his rookie size (6-foot-4, 239), Hollister said he's added about five pounds in a year's time.

"I really put on some good weight and lost some fat that I had at the end of the season," he said. "I think I just learned about my body and what I needed to do to maintain that weight.”

Hollister finds himself competing with veterans Dwayne Allen (a disappointment in his first season in New England), Will Tye (the former New York Giant and Jet was on the Patriots' practice squad last year), unrestricted free-agent addition Troy Niklas (who spent four seasons with the Arizona Cardinals), seventh-round draft pick Ryan Izzo and Shane Wimann, a rookie free agent this year, for time behind five-time Pro Bowler Rob Gronkowski.

Joining with his twin brother, wide receiver Cody, to form one of two sets of twins on the team – safety Devin and cornerback Jason McCourty are the others – Jacob redshirted as a true freshman at Nevada before transferring to Arizona Western College and earning a scholarship from Wyoming, where he caught 75 passes for 1,114 yards and 12 touchdowns in 30 games.

Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Arkansas, Cody Hollister was a member of the Patriots’ practice squad last year.

That's in the past: Over the course of his four-year career at Georgia, Sony Michel earned the reputation of being a running back who would put the ball on the ground.

Along the way, though, he picked something up.

“Ball security is very important. Ball security is job security,” Michel said. “You can’t play with the ball on the ground. The ball is the most important part of this offense, part of this team, and every football player knows that.”

After fumbling 12 times in college, the 5-foot-11, 215-pounder is looking to put the past behind him.

“Georgia is in the past for me,” said Michel. “I’m a person who focuses on the present and what’s most important to me is now. Learning how much I can learn now and applying what I can apply now and try to get better now.”

Progress, but: Head coach Bill Belichick says he sees the team making progress, but…
“We’re just trying to keep stringing days together here in the spring,” said Belichick. “We add a little bit each day. Just try and move things along. I feel like we’re getting things accomplished, but you always want to probably move a little faster than you’re moving but when you look back you can see a lot of progress and we’ve seen that. So just another day here.”
 Belichick said that each practice day in June serves as another day of preparation for July.
 “I think, look, every day is an opportunity for us to come out here and get work in and get better and get ready for training camp so that’s what we’ll all continue to do,” he said.