FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Things can change quickly in the NFL and safety Dewey McDonald detailed how it did for him last Wednesday.

McDonald had been waived by the Colts the day before, and was at the team facility ready to return to the practice squad.

"I was basically going in to sign paperwork and then [general manager Ryan] Grigson walked in and said, 'Hold on a second, you just got claimed.' I was like, 'By who?' And he said the Patriots," McDonald recalled.

At that point, McDonald received a call from Nancy Meier, the New England Patriots' director of scouting administration.

"Nancy called me at 4:30 and my flight was at 6, so it was just like that," McDonald said.

So now he's on the other side of the heated rivalry between the teams, something he knows well from having played in last year's AFC Championship Game.

“It was a long game, especially the second half," he said. "They definitely pounded us.”

As it turns out, this isn't the first time the 6-foot, 220-pound McDonald has been eyed by the Patriots. Leading up to the 2014 draft, he said New England assistant coach Steve Belichick put him through a workout.

"It was definitely an intense workout, probably one of the hardest workouts I actually had," he said, noting he had seven overall.

McDonald's primary impact with the Colts has come on special teams, including work as a gunner on the punt coverage team. On defense, he's practiced at safety.

"[He's a] young player [25] who has some ability and has a little bit of experience in the league, so we’ll see what happens," coach Bill Belichick said. "We’ve never worked with him before, so we’ll have to see how it all fits in."