GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Don't be surprised to see Martellus Bennett outside the gate by the players' parking lot at Lambeau Field this summer with his thumb out.

That's how the tight end found rides to practice last year in training camp with the New England Patriots. Yes, Bennett has a car -- just ask him about his two-and-a-half (er, three-) hour commute from Chicago to Green Bay for offseason workouts -- but instead of driving to practice by himself, he figured catching rides with a variety of teammates was the best way to assimilate into his new team.

"I didn't drive anywhere," Bennett said Tuesday during his first week of organized team activities with the Green Bay Packers. "I just stood outside and hitchhiked with a different guy every day and just rolled with him for that 15 minutes over to the stadium."

In Green Bay, where he signed a three-year, $21 million deal in free agency this offseason, Bennett hasn't resorted to hitchhiking yet. After all, the practice field is right across Oneida Street from the stadium.

"Here, it's just sitting at a different table every morning and another table at lunch," he said. "We've got some guys that get in the sauna. I'm not a huge sauna guy, but I get in there and we freestyle and we rap and we have great conversations in there. So it's just each group is a little bit different. So it's just figuring out each guy and trying to infuse myself into those situations with them whether it's talking books with some guys or talking girls with other guys, giving advice on women, or other guys, whatever it may be, there's enough [to talk about].

"I've been fortunate. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I know a little bit about a lot. I don't know a lot about anything so I do pretty well around. Just conversations about different guys about different things at different moments in time and just being here and being present. I think that's the biggest thing."

If the first week of OTA practices was any indication, then Bennett has already ingratiated himself with his teammates and coaches. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers called Bennett "a very interesting person" and said the confidence he brought to the Packers was needed. His position coach, Brian Angelichio, raved about Bennett's interactions with younger teammates, and earlier this offseason general manager Ted Thompson called Bennett a "renaissance man" who would be "a good thing, a fun thing."

And then there's the football side to Bennett, who at 6-foot-6 strikes an imposing figure on the practice field and gives Rodgers perhaps the biggest target he's ever had.

"I think he's up near about 280 [pounds]; he looks like he's about 260," Rodgers said. "He's just a very well put-together player. We're excited to have him. He can do a lot of things. He can get down the field. He can make plays in the passing game. But he can really run block as well. We're excited about having him here.

"He brings a different type of attitude. He is a very interesting person. He's got a lot of great interests. He cares about football. He cares about dominating. He brings that grit and that attitude to the field where he wants to dominate the guy over him whether he's blocking or catching passes. And I think he's going to bring some extreme confidence to the locker room, which we need."

Those who wonder how Bennett's big personality will fit in with a low-drama team like the Packers need only see how the 30-year-old thrived last season with the Patriots on the way to winning the Super Bowl.

"I feel like I may not be a team captain, but I am the captain of fun," Bennett said.

He picked the Packers in part because of Rodgers and the opportunity to win another Super Bowl and in part because of Green Bay's proximity to the home he kept in the Chicago area, where his daughter is in school, even after his tenure with the Bears ended after the 2015 season.

"I thought this team was a really good team and I played against them for so many years and I got tired of getting my ass kicked," Bennett said. "So I was like, 'Let's go play with those guys for a little bit.'"

He said he has driven home a couple of times a week since offseason workouts began on April 18.

"It's only 2 1/2 hours from here, so it's been a blessing," Bennett said.

When asked how fast he drives, he said with a smile, "I mean three hours."

And no, he's not hitchhiking.

"There's no one on the road when I get on the road, because sometimes I drive up in the mornings and there's literally no one on the road," he said. "I just make a playlist or I listen to a book. It's good because I can go through an audio book, a full book once a week. I usually do one book every two weeks but now I've been doing three books in two weeks. It's pretty cool."