FOXBOROUGH — Mike Vrabel’s penchant for jumping into drills for hands-on instruction during padded practices is well documented.

But his outside linebackers coach, Mike Smith, hopped into one on Thursday afternoon for a different reason.

With newly claimed edge rusher Caleb Murphy practicing with the Patriots in pads for the first time, Smith, a former linebacker in his own right, wanted to break the ice with his new player.

“It’s a superstitious thing,” Smith smiled. “Anybody new to the room. I get this crash mat out and act like we’re doing this tackle drill, so we’re going to work on our wrap and roll... Have a couple guys do it first and then Caleb got up and he got a rep. I said, ‘Ah, that just doesn’t look right. Let me kind of show you. Get right here.’

“Then I just form tac

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