Cole Birdow won’t have to go very far for his first NFL opportunity.

The former Merrimack offensive lineman is making the somewhat short trip from North Andover to Foxborough after signing with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent at the conclusion of the NFL Draft on Saturday.

Birdow is 6’5,” 315lbs. and can be a versatile piece if he’s able to make a stronger impression than he already has during rookie minicamp. Birdow was a heavily recruited defensive linemen, but ended up moving over to the offensive side while playing for the Warriors.

Here’s what his former coach at Merrimack Dan Curran and current coach Mike Gennetti had to say about Birdow when we reached out to both of them on Saturday night:

Curran: “Incredibly proud of Cole and everything he has accomplished.

To say he “took the road less traveled” would be a major understatement! Cole comes from a great family and after getting a chance to know his parents during the recruiting process, I had a good feeling that he would come in with the right mindset ready to compete. Cole was a highly touted recruit, but unfortunately got stuck behind a couple talented teammates in what was a very deep defensive line room. A couple years into his career, we asked him to move to my offensive line room because we were looking to add depth there and he jumped on the opportunity and ran with it.

“When you make a move like that it’s never an easy transition, but Cole put his head down and just continued to get better and turned himself into a hell of an offensive lineman. When I sat him down to discuss the position change we talked about some of the challenges he would face in the transition, but I also told him that if he approached this opportunity with that mindset I saw in him during the recruiting process he would have a chance to play on Sundays because of some of his rare physical traits. I think at the time he thought I was crazy, so it’s pretty surreal that it has now become a reality. We also joked that his head coach and offensive line coach probably should have made the move a few years earlier!”

Gennetti: “It goes without saying how happy we are for him! He’s truly one of the most loyal, unselfish, players we’ve ever had in the program. A tremendous teammate. He moved over from the defensive line in the middle of his time at Merrimack. He’s worked incredibly hard over the past couple years on his development at the OT position. I think the biggest factor for Cole was his ability to practice everyday. He’s always available and ready to compete. From his time working with Coach Curran and this past year with Coach Kreinsen, he truly bought in and invested in the process of improvement!”