FOXBORO, Mass. — There are two ways to look at the young career of New England Patriots defensive end Ufomba Kamalu.

Kamalu is in his third NFL stop after a two-year stint with the Houston Texans and a brief stay with the Arizona Cardinals. He came to the Patriots as a man without a position and spent nearly two months on New England’s practice squad. So, it’s easy to say he just might be a tweener: At 6-foot-6, 300 pounds, not quite fast enough to play on the edge nor strong enough to line up inside.

Or maybe there’s still untapped potential there, and it took pairing him with the right team and coach to unleash him. That the Patriots signed Kamalu off their practice squad and played him over other young defenders like Derek Rivers and Keionta Davis shows the Patriots must see something there.

Kamalu has a unique background. He was born in California but was raised in Nigeria. He played soccer growing up and took up football on the fly after moving to Fayetteville, Ga., (Atlanta has direct flights to Nigeria) in high school at the behest of his father, a retired Cal Poly professor.

Kamalu started receiving interest from bigtime schools as a senior in high school but played a year at Butler (Kansas) Community College before transferring to the University of Miami. He started nine games as a senior in 2015 but ultimately went undrafted and signed with the Texans in 2016.