FOXBORO — Another day of football practice under a hot sun behind him, Patriots linebacker Jamie Collins had enough energy left to give his smile muscles a workout.

Collins took on a proud look when the Thursday morning words of the football coach who traded him in the middle of the 2016 season and brought him back last May as a free agent were repeated to him.

“He’s been great,” Bill Belichick said of Collins. “He had a great spring. He’s had a good training camp. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and he’s done it well. Glad we have him. I think he’ll help our team.”

Said Collins: “From him, man, that’s music to my ears, man. It’s an honor to get that type of response from him, and I really do appreciate it. That just makes me feel better and makes me want to come to work even more.”

Upon arriving in Cleveland in the middle of the 2016 season after Belichick traded him for third-round draft choice, Collins said he was “surprised” by the trade, didn’t understand it, but was resigned to the reality that “It’s out of my control.”

The Browns were in the midst of a 1-15 season, followed that with an 0-16 record and bounced back with a 7-8-1 mark last season after an in-season coaching change.

“Cleveland’s the past,” Collins said. “Cleveland’s the past. I’m here. I’m in New England. I’m playing back here. I’d rather focus on right now.”

Right now, it looks as if Collins will join Super Bowl LIII standouts Dont’a Hightower and Kyle Van Noy as a starting linebacker on a defense that on paper shapes up as one capable of dominance, which was the case Thursday in training camp against the Patriots’ offense.

The stars are lining up nicely for Collins to become the latest Patriots bargain acquisition who will play so well he’ll leave several organizations wondering why they didn’t pursue him after the Browns released him. Collins signed a one-year contract that reportedly can earn him as much as $5 million if incentives are reached. The deal has a base salary of $1.05 million, of which $250,000 is guaranteed.

Collins signed a four-year, $50 million deal before the 2017 season and was released midway into it, a move that saved the Browns $9.25 million against the salary cap this season.

Showing up Browns general manager John Dorsey would seem a nice cause for motivation for Collins, but he said he’s not out to prove anything to anybody.

“Just play football and be me, do what I do,” said Collins, a seventh-year pro out of Southern Miss. “Hopefully, that’s good enough.”

He pointed to a different source of motivation.

“Playing for your family, especially when you have kids,” he said. “You always have to find a why. Sometimes when it’s just you it’s hard for you to dig down, but as long as you’ve got somebody else to play for you’re good, and I do.”

What he does is play with speed for a man who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 255 pounds. His speed and footwork enabled him to finish third in the Mississippi 3A state track meet in the triple jump, to go with state titles in the shot put and discus, where strength and precise technique determine the winners. In leading the football team to the state title game, Collins rushed for more than 1,200 yards, passed for more than 1,000 yards and stood out at linebacker.

He said that the longer camp progresses, the more he can use his speed.

“Once you learn the playbook, that’s the main thing, learning the playbook, you can play as fast as you want,” Collins said. “And that’s what I harp on, trying to learn the defense, learn my guys so I can do what I do, which is play fast.”

A Pro Bowl selection after a 2015 season in which he earned Associated Press second-team All-Pro honors, Collins declined to say whether he could be on the verge of a career-best season.

“We’ll let the play speak for that,” Collins said. “That’s not my deal. I come out here every day, I put my head down, and I work. We’ll look up at the finish line and whatever it is it is.” Related Articles Jamie Collins ready for next chapter with Patriots

Even though Cleveland is a fashionable pick to do big things after an aggressive offseason, Collins is happy to be back where the finish line arrives in football’s ultimate game roughly half the time. The Patriots played in the Super Bowl in all three seasons Collins was gone.

Collins had six solo tackles and two assists in helping the Patriots to a 28-24 victory vs. the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.

“It’s always good to come back home and I’m glad to be back where I started and maybe I can finish it out here,” Collins said.