This ‘Unicorn’ Prospect Fits Mold Mike Vrabel, Patriots Have Targeted

If there’s anyone who knows what Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots are trying to build, it’s Minnesota head football coach PJ Fleck.

The 2019 Big Ten Coach of the Year coached a pair of recent Patriots signees, Robert Spillane and Jack Gibbons, during their collegiate careers at Western Michigan and Minnesota, respectively.

Those two, Fleck said, represent what Vrabel is looking for in his players. Aireontae Ersery, who started 38 games at left tackle for the Golden Gophers, also fits that mold, Fleck insists.

“They all have that football mentality,” Fleck told NESN.com during a video interview Thursday. “When you start to see the free agents Vrabel is bringing into the organization, you can start to see who they’re also going to draft. 

“Vrabel’s connecting all these football people, these football players. These tough and athletic, football-minded people. And Aireontae is built that way.”

Ersery is projected as a late-first or early-second-round pick and has been linked to the tackle-needy Patriots during the pre-draft process. He’s enormous (6-foot-6, 331 pounds) but athletic; his 40-yard dash (5.01) was the fastest time by a 6-foot-6 and 330-pound offensive lineman since 2003. Only projected top-10 picks Armand Membou and Will Campbell had better 40 times among offensive tackles at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine.

Ersery’s athleticism was the selling point for Fleck and company when they first saw the Kansas City native at a camp in St. Louis. Fleck vividly recalled spotting Ersery and his royal blue shorts among the group of 1,000 kids. The 240-pound Ersery was small back then, relatively speaking of course, but the Golden Gophers saw the potential in the prospect later known as “Old Blue Shorts.”

“I remember looking at him like, ‘This guy’s got a lot of athleticism,'” Fleck said. “At one point we even told him, ‘Look, camp’s over. Time to go home. Camp is over.’ … Because we didn’t want anybody else seeing him. He was a really special talent.”

Others did see him — he got eight college offers, including a few from the Big 12 — but it didn’t matter. Ersery committed to Minnesota one day after he visited the campus.

Over the next five years, Ersery went from a three-star recruit to the 2024 Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year, First Team All-Big Ten selection and third-team All-American. He didn’t allow a sack against Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter, a late-November game that Fleck believes should have solidified Ersery as a first-round pick.

“The first round, that’s where the unicorns get drafted,” Fleck said. “He’s like a unicorn.”

He’s like a unicorn.

Fleck said Ersery’s development was a product of his ability to learn on the field — a trait that should catch the attention of Patriots fans. Ersery likely would be thrust into a similar situation if he landed in Foxboro, Mass.

“Aireontae was going to have to develop on the field,” Fleck said. “We knew he’d have to take some lumps, he’d have to get beat here and there. But he was so athletic that we knew the strength and the size would catch up. He was athletically talented enough in his redshirt freshman year (2021) to go out there, fail, grow, fail, grow. And he was open to doing that.”

Ersery did not miss a practice during his five seasons with the Golden Gophers, which Fleck believes confirms Ersery’s intangibles. That availability, mentally and physically, allowed him to grow and excel in an NFL-style run game and professional-level pass game.

Experts view Ersery as a well-versed tackle in outside zone schemes and just as heavy in a power-running game. His pass protection is just as legitimate, Fleck said.

“He’s pretty much seen every front, every blitz, everything you could possibly throw at him,” Fleck said. “This guy is durable. He’s reliable. He’s accountable. He loves football.”

Experts don’t project Ersery to be drafted as high as Campbell and Membou. Kelvin Banks Jr. and Josh Simmons will probably hear their names called first, too. There are questions with all of them, though, about their position fit at the next level. You’ve surely heard skepticism about Campbell’s length and perhaps about Membou’s transition from right tackle to left tackle. Simmons, meanwhile, is coming off a significant knee injury.

Similar questions and critiques have surfaced about Ersery’s fit and bend at the next level.

Fleck believes the three-time Big Ten honoree is versatile enough to play on the edge or the interior. Ultimately, however, he thinks Ersery’s length (33 1/8-inch arms, 81-inch wingspan), his ability to move well with an impressive first step, and his experience are why he should stick at left tackle.

“The great thing about Aireontae, he’s only going to get better,” Fleck said. “His best football is still ahead of him. If he gets around the right culture — mentally, physically and emotionally — around the right coaching staff, this guy’s going to flourish.”

Fleck believes Vrabel’s staff would get that out of Ersery. And he views Ersery, similar to others he has experience coaching, as exactly the type of culture-builder New England should have circled on its draft board.