FOXBORO — Patriots safety Jalen Mills had been conspicuously absent from the locker room since he tweeted a week ago about his lack of snaps in Week 5 against the Saints.
Mills tweeted “10 snaps damn” after ESPN’s Mike Reiss posted defensive snap counts from the loss to the Saints.
10 snaps😓 damn. https://t.co/Yb1rhn09Oy
— Jalen Mills (@greengoblin) October 11, 2023
Mills did appear in the locker room Thursday afternoon.
“Man, I’m really past that, for real,” Mills told the Herald what he was thinking while tweeting that. “Just sad. But that’s over with.”
Mills doubled his snap count in Sunday’s loss to the Raiders. He let up two catches on three targets for 30 yards on 20 snaps, per PFF.
“Happy,” Mills said when asked about playing more in Week 6.
“Hope so,” he continued when asked if he believes that will continue in the future. “I’m just here to help the team win football teams, man.”
The NFL trade deadline is less than two weeks away. The veteran safety said he’s not thinking about the Oct. 31 deadline.
“Nah, winning’s on my mind,” he said. “That’s all I want to do. I want to win football games. No trade deadline. That’s up to the coaching staff. That’s up to people in the front office. And that’s up to other teams. But my whole focus right now is winning football games.”
Mills did make it clear that he’s happy to be back playing safety. Mills played cornerback in his first two seasons with the Patriots but moved back to the middle of the field this season. With it has come the reduction in playing time, however. Mills played 468 defensive snaps in 10 games last season. He’s been on the field for just 101 snaps this season.
“It’s something that I did my last year in Philly,” Mills said about playing safety. “Then they brought me over here, but I had to move back to corner. But I do like playing safety. …
“Just being able to be aggressive. Being able to do a lot of different things, especially with my skill set. I can play in the slot. I can play nickel. I can play dime. I can play strong safety, I can play free safety. I can blitz. I can play a lot of different coverages. So, I think that’s my biggest thing is my versatility of being able to do all of those things on the back end.”
