FOXBOROUGH – Christian Barmore has arguably been the best player so far in Patriots training camp.

The second-year defensive tackle has won many of his battles against New England's offensive linemen in 1-on-1 drills, which Barmore said is his favorite thing about training camp. Barmore's also played a role in the offensive line's struggles in 11-on-11 drills, consistently getting pressure up the middle or helping get stuffs on rushes.

Barmore was also at the center of one of the moments so far in camp. Last Tuesday, he got into a fight with center and longtime Patriots captain David Andrews. Barmore's extracurricular activities with Andrews following an 11-on-11 play got him booted from camp that day.

Nearly a week later, Barmore brushed the incident aside.

“That’s my brother,” Barmore said when asked about the incident on Monday. “You know how football is. We’re buddies. That’s my guy. Just a football thing. That’s my guy. That’s my OG. I learn every day from him. Real good player. It’s all love.”

Now with that behind him, Barmroe delved a bit more into what he likes to do on and off th -field to help improve his game. The 6-foot-5, 310-pound defensive tackle said there's one type of player he likes to study, naming one of the league's best interior pass rushers as an example.

“I like watching [the Chiefs'] Chris Jones,” Barmore said. “Guys like that. I like watching tall D-linemen. The guys that got long arms. The guys like that because it's kind of hard [to use longer arms]. I like watching tall guys.”

“I like watching tall guys, like around 6-foot-5, 6-foot-6 – guys my height. I like watching guys like that,” Barmore added.

Jones certainly isn't a bad example to follow. The Chiefs' All-Pro has recorded at least 7.5 sacks in each of the last four seasons, totaling 41.5 sacks over that span. There's also a Patriots icon that Barmore likes to watch, too.

“Richard Seymour, I love watching him,” Barmore said. “One of the best ever in the game. Learn a lot from him, still learning to this day. Always gonna learn from that man. He’s real good.”

Seymour was a good pass-rusher, but he was also strong as a run defender. At the start of camp, Barmore, who mostly played in passing situations as a rookie, said his goal was to improve as a run defender.

Even though the defense has gotten the better hand so far against the offense in the run game, Patriots practice hasn't been the most game-like situation. They still haven't allowed tackling yet in practice and Monday's practice was in shells, their sixth padless one so far in training camp.

Despite that, Barmore said he's finding ways to improve.

“To me, I think I'm getting a lot better,” Barmore said. “I'm moving my feet more. I'm playing double teams real well. I'm playing more faster and reacting way faster because I know what I'm doing more. So, it's just like that. And it's really about the eyes. I'm really reacting way more faster than how I used to.”

Barmore is expected to be one of the leaders, at least in terms of talent, for the Patriots' defense this upcoming season. The unit had a strong start to the 2021 season before it failed to force the Bills the punt in two games while also struggling against the Colts and Dolphins.

Barmore shared how he's hoping the unit will play this season.

“Really, it's about being better every day in practice and being consistent every day on defense,” Barmore said. “Especially on rough days, we're about being consistent. That's the biggest goal. We're in a good run. We've just got to keep doing what we're doing and be consistent.”

In the short picture, the Patriots' defense will look to remain consistent in joint practices with the Panthers on Tuesday and Wednesday before facing them in a preseason game on Friday.