FOXBORO -- Shaun Ellis knows Albert Haynesworth better than most. And when Ellis spoke to his former college teammates the last two years, Ellis could tell that something was wrong with his friend.

“I talked to him a couple of times over the offseason a couple of the years. I could just see he was very frustrated,” said Ellis, who was with Haynesworth at the University of Tennessee. “He wasn’t happy.”

Now, after spending just over a month with Haynesworth as teammates in New England, Ellis is seeing his old friend emerge once again.

“He seems like he’s very relaxed,” Ellis said Thursday. “He’s ready to go play some ball.”

Acquired by the Patriots in a trade with Washington on July 28, the 30-year-old Haynesworth is ready to put two years of frustration in the rearview mirror and play football again. After two subpar seasons in Washington, in his words, it’s time for the “sleeping giant to awake.”

“For two years, I was kind of taken out of football a little bit,” Haynesworth said of his experience with the Redskins, which included a public feud with coach Mike Shanahan that ended with him being suspended without pay for the last four games last season.

“Now, I’m back in it and am truly enjoying the game again, and I truly enjoy coming into practice or coming into work every day. Just to be able to have the chance again to play and to show what I can do is awesome,” Haynesworth said, “Now, I’m in this system and I’m playing and practicing and stuff, and I think it’s time for ... I guess, the sleeping giant to awake and to go back out there on my field and play football again.”

“He is a giant. He is a giant,” Ellis said with a laugh when asked about his 6-foot-6, 335-pound teammate. “Albert’s a pro. Pro’s adapt to whatever they have to go through. I think he’ll be all right.”

The Patriots would gladly welcome the return of the sleeping giant: New England struggled to consistently get after the passer the last two season, and while Haynesworth might not be a pure pass rusher who is going to deliver double digits in sacks, if he’s right (both physically and mentally) he’s the sort of defensive game-changer who can occupy multiple blockers and free things up for other defenders to get after the quarterback.

While he’s spent much of the preseason on the sidelines, New England got a brief taste of what Haynesworth could do in a handful of practices in training camp, as well as the preseason finale. He was on the field against the Giants for 16 defensive snaps, and clearly tired as the evening went on. But it was obvious from that limited performance that Haynesworth still has the burst necessary to dominate the line of scrimmage, moving the pile and generally doing whatever he wanted to do against New York’s backup offensive linemen.

Despite the fact that he has just one preseason game and a limited number of practices under his belt, Haynesworth pronounced himself ready to go for Monday night’s opener in Miami.

“I’m feeling good. I talked to my coaches and they said, ‘Since they day you got in here, you’ve been improving and getting better.’ I still have work to do to get where I want to be, but it’s coming along great,” he said. “I’ve been out there practicing a lot, and getting the feel of the defense and stuff. I’m still a little bit rusty, but I had nine other years ... really, seven other years ... to help me get to the point where I think I can do it.”

There’s a reason Haynesworth talks as if he wants the two years in D.C. expunged from his record. To call Haynesworth’s two years in Washington an unmitigated disaster would be an understatement. There was the run-in with Shanahan over how he was used -- he didn’t like the 3-4 alignment Shanahan used, or the nickel defense on first and second down. (He wanted to play in passing situations in the third-down nickel defense.) There was the suspension and some off-field scrapes with the law, all set against the backdrop of a record-setting seven-year, $100 million deal.

In all, he had two disastrous seasons with Washington where he played 20 games and had  6 1/2 sacks.

“I just don’t think that was me. I never had any problems at Tennessee, and just with the stuff around there ... I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not saying that I did most of the stuff they said, but just being in that situation sucked.”

In his brief New England career, there’s been no 3-4, and no complaints. Instead, he’s been used predominantly as a defensive tackle in New England’s four-man front, lining up with Ellis, Vince Wilfork and Andre Carter. They haven’t seen much time together -- the only game-action they saw as a foursome was the preseason finale -- but Haynesworth says it’s a dream come true to work with guys he’s been following since he was a collegian.

“I’ve played with Andre in D.C. for two years and actually Shaun in college and Vince at the Pro Bowl,” he said. “But I never could have dreamed or imagined that we’d all be on the same team and be out there chasing the quarterback and looking to kill the quarterback.”

His new teammate Chad Ochocinco has referred to Foxboro as “heaven.” While Haynesworth didn’t go that far on Thursday, he talked about the world of difference between his old situation and his new one, saying the old one “sucked” and his new one was “awesome.”

Because of that, he says he’s committed to making it work.

“It makes a huge difference when you can come in and feel good about coming in the door (instead) of walking in the door and looking behind your back and all that stuff,” he said. “If you ever go to work hating your job, you’re not going to perform at your best. But if you enjoy coming to work and if you enjoy being around the people that you work with, you give it your all.”