Joe Pizzo didn’t make it a point to stay awake for the entire first round of the NFL Draft on April 28.
Chattanooga’s offensive coordinator was eager to hear a team call Cole Strange’s name. But everything he heard in the lead-up to the draft was that it would most likely happen Friday night when the second round began. So he didn’t think much of it when he dozed off Thursday night. Then he woke up to his phone buzzing like crazy with congratulatory text messages. It took him a second to realize what was going on.
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“Then it hit me,” he said. “Cole got picked in the first round.”
Bill Belichick caught the NFL world off guard, taking Strange with the No. 29 pick in the first round. After trading back eight spots, Belichick plugged a hole on the Patriots’ offensive line. And he did it with a player perfectly suited to thrive in New England.
No, Strange didn’t go to a Power 5 school. Sure, some draft analysts had him as a third-round pick. But those who saw Strange’s rise from under-recruited defensive end to mauling offensive lineman drafted in the first round insist he belongs.
“On the surface, is it surprising to see this guy from Chattanooga get drafted in the first round that wasn’t really expected to go in the first round?” said Anthony Hobgood, who trained Strange at EXOS performance center in Pensacola, Fla. “Having talked to a lot of scouts and then working with him for a few months and getting to the see the type of individual that he was, his athletic capabilities, what he can do — it didn’t surprise me at all.”
Hobgood learned long ago how little it matters where a player went to school. He trained Jahri Evans (Bloomsburg), Terron Armstead (Arkansas Pine-Bluff) and Akiem Hicks (Regina), who have combined for 10 Pro Bowl selections.
“The NFL is full of players from schools you’ve never heard of,” Hobgood said.
Hobgood watched Strange train side by side with Boston College guard Zion Johnson, who got drafted No. 17 by the Chargers. Johnson was more talkative, but otherwise, Hobgood said the two were strikingly similar in terms of athleticism and tenacity during drills. As unassuming as Strange is as a person, Hobgood described him as a “freak” of an athlete. The NFL Scouting Combine backed that up. There, Strange broad jumped 10 feet, just 1 inch shy of the record for an offensive lineman (Tristan Wirfs, 2020).
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“That is what skill players do,” Hobgood said. “Some skill players don’t even broad jump 10 feet. So a 10-foot broad jump is what cornerbacks and receivers do. This 300-pound guy broad jumped 10 feet. It shows you it’s just a great representation of how explosive he is. He was just the total package of a player.”
Strange also had 31 reps on the bench press (tied for second most among O-linemen), ran a 5.03-second 40-yard dash (15th of 50 who ran) and a 7.44-second three-cone drill (sixth). As Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh said, “There aren’t many humans doing that.”
Kent Platte measures relative athletic scores, which are a composite of a player’s athletic testing times relative to a player’s size. Strange had the seventh-highest relative athletic score of any guard since 1987. The Patriots didn’t just draft a guard. They drafted a rare athlete for the position.
#1 IOL https://t.co/RRKLKRB7la pic.twitter.com/0hjxfwUr9b
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) April 13, 2022
“This is a really big, strong, tough, athletic guy,” Groh said. “If you value toughness, which we do, you value guys like Cole Strange.”
They also drafted a person who is lauded by his coaches and trainers for his work ethic and reliability.
Hobgood remembered a particularly cold morning when temperatures dipped to 30 degrees with winds gusting up to 20 mph in the Florida panhandle. The EXOS athletes were doing speed work outside. Others scrambled for hoodies, but Strange strolled onto the field in shorts and a T-shirt, unfazed. He was routinely at least 20 minutes early for workouts, and Hobgood often found him reading, waiting for drills to start. Sometimes, athletes lose focus or effort as the program wears on, but Strange was going harder with each passing day.
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“When you think of the old NFL Films (footage) of the offensive linemen that have short sleeves and long hair and steam coming out of their mouth, and they’re playing up in Green Bay in the playoffs and they’re just real gritty,” Hobgood said, “they’ve got blood on their arm and don’t even care, that’s the type of player Cole is.”
This is consistent with what his coaches said, going back to Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tenn. Farragut coach Eddie Courtney had to pull Strange out of drills his junior year because he didn’t want him hurting teammates. Strange did everything with all-out intensity through the whistle, and not everybody on the roster could handle it. Strange was an all-state selection as a senior, playing edge rusher and tight end. He had 103 tackles (18 for loss), 7.5 sacks and five passes defended that season.
“He gets his hands on you, it’s over,” Courtney said.
Still, Strange didn’t get much attention from recruiters. Tennessee was right down the road, but the Volunteers didn’t give him the time of day. Air Force was his biggest offer, and Strange was prepared to take it until the last minute. He decided he wanted to stay closer to home.
“He doesn’t talk much about that,” Courtney said. “He didn’t want to go too far just in case his dad and brother needed him. That’s why Chattanooga stood out to him.”
Chattanooga has stuck with him through the process. He was the Mocs’ type of recruit. Even though he was only a two-star, his athleticism was obvious. He was still growing into his body, but smaller schools have to project what a player could become more often than bigger schools. Recruits aren’t coming to Chattanooga as finished products.
And Strange certainly didn’t. After two 100-plus tackle seasons at Farragut, Strange got hurt his first year on campus and redshirted. Then Chattanooga’s staff decided Strange’s skill set would fit best on the offensive line. Rusty Wright was part of the staff that recruited Strange, but he left for two years before returning as Chattanooga’s head coach in 2019. He saw right away how naturally blocking came to Strange.
“He was still a little raw, but he had taken that defensive mentality and moved it over to the offensive line,” Wright said. “He was aggressive and nasty and trying to hurt people, really. You could tell that was going to be a good fit for him.”
What impressed Wright most was a game early in Strange’s career. Chattanooga lost its top two centers in the game and didn’t have a third. Nobody on the roster had ever snapped the ball in a live game. Wright took a timeout so Strange could take a few practice reps. Chattanooga was trailing by two scores when Strange entered the game but came back to win with Strange playing mistake-free at center.
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“He didn’t bat an eye,” Wright said. “He didn’t flinch. He said, ‘Just put me in there, we’ll figure it out and go from there.’”
Strange had the same matter-of-fact mindset when Chattanooga went without an offensive line coach during the spring 2021 season. He didn’t complain or look to transfer to a bigger school. He just took charge.
That’s what those who know Strange have come to expect from him. He’s not going to complain or make excuses. He’s just going to work. It’s not difficult to see why he would appeal to Belichick and his staff. Belichick says he looks for players who are smart, tough and dependable.
Strange graduated in December 2020 and was working on a master’s degree. He can play three spots on the offensive line. Smarts won’t be an issue. His toughness was on display at the Senior Bowl when he chased down a defensive back who had intercepted a pass and brought him to the ground. He hardly ever missed a snap of practice in college and was never late to a weight-room session.
This is a guy who still calls Courtney every time he’s back in Knoxville, asking to have Farragut’s weight room open. He’ll spend no less than an hour and a half getting his lift in. He would show up at Farragut’s turf practice field at 1 p.m., the hottest time of day in the dead of Tennessee summer, to get his speed and agility work in.
“That’s just his mentality,” Courtney said. “He’s always been that way.”
When it came time for draft night, of course Strange didn’t want any fuss. He spent the night with his dad and brother watching the draft. Courtney kept nagging him about what he would do when he got the call. He suggested Strange at least go get himself a steak or something. But he knows Strange well enough to know he wouldn’t spend long celebrating.
“All he was doing was waiting on the call,” Courtney said, “and then he was finding out whatever he needed to do to get there and get to work.”
(Top photo: Michael Dwyer / Associated Press)