Patriots’ Calvin Anderson has new outlook, thirst to compete after recovering from malaria battle

"I think my expectation is to come out and show everybody what they didn't get to see last year"

Calvin Anderson missed all but five of the Patriots’ games last season after contracting malaria during a preseason trip to Africa.

This season, the 6-foot-5, 305-pound lineman says he’s fully healthy and ready to go. The Patriots are in need of offensive line help, and Anderson is looking to show what he can do.

“I think my expectation is to come out and show everybody what they didn’t get to see last year obviously with all the setbacks I had. I had to miss a lot of the year, which was really frustrating,” he said. “So now, I’m healthy, I’m big, I’m strong. I want to show them all that I’m capable of doing.”

Anderson started a career-high seven games for the Broncos at right tackle in 2022 before joining the Patriots in 2023.

So far in this training camp, Mike Onwenu has spent most of his time working on the inside at guard, opening up a competition at right tackle. Anderson worked with the first-team on Wednesday, and Vederian Lowe worked with the first-team on Thursday.

Anderson said he feels great, perhaps even better than he had ever felt during his career. He’ll have an opportunity to show it this summer.

“Competition is a part of our game. This is what you love doing. You come on the field and you get to compete so you embrace that. It brings the best out of people when you have competition, so I’m excited about that.”

“I definitely think I’m different. Different for the better, of course, but I have so much more perspective on life, more perspective on the game, more perspective on my opportunity to play the game,”

“You just take so much less for granted. I know I said that last year, but especially now,” Anderson said. “Man, especially now being back, being back healthy, it’s hard to take things for granted when you remember being in the hospital and you didn’t know if you were going to play. It’s easier to put a smile on your face and be excited about running a hill.”