{"id":291516,"date":"2025-08-16T01:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/291516\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T01:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T01:26:12","slug":"ben-brown-increasingly-factoring-into-patriots-o-line-mix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/291516\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Brown increasingly factoring into Patriots\u2019 O-line mix"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite having started 10 games for the New England Patriots last season, Ben Brown seemingly found himself buried on the depth chart entering training camp. The first few practices of the summer did little to change his outlook, but with the introduction of full pads also came a re-introduction to the 27-year-old.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">By the second week of camp, Brown had moved into the No. 2 center spot behind Garrett Bradbury. The offseason addition missing time due to an undisclosed ailment then allowed Brown to return to the starting lineup, albeit only briefly. On Thursday, for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-training-camp\/106619\/patriots-training-camp-recap-joint-practice-vikings-thursday\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patriots\u2019 second joint practice<\/a> with the Minnesota Vikings, he was back with the first unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The difference was that he played a new role: Brown was the first-team left guard, taking over a spot previously occupied by rookie Jared Wilson. With the youngster nursing an injury of his own, Brown spent the entire day with the starting group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It was yet more proof of Brown increasingly factoring into the Patriots\u2019 mix up front.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBen has been good ever since last year,\u201d said right guard Mike Onwenu after Thursday\u2019s practice. \u201cHe\u2019s been a good player. Plug-and-play, pretty much. He\u2019s been good at center. I think guard is pretty new for him, but he\u2019s still getting those reps and working through it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A rookie free agent in 2022, Brown spent time in Cincinnati, Seattle, Arizona and Las Vegas before coming to New England last October. Joining the Patriots\u2019 active roster off the Raiders\u2019 practice squad, he made his starting debut just three days after his arrival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Brown went on to start a total of 10 games in his first season with the club, playing all possible 667 offensive snaps along the way before being sent to injured reserve with a concussion. He was re-signed by the Patriots as an exclusive rights free agent in March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Since then, he steadily worked his way into the rotation up front. While it remains to be seen whether or not he will realistically push either Wilson or Bradbury for a starting role, he currently seems like a fairly safe bet to make the 53-man roster as a top backup at both guard and center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWe all know the positions; him as a center, he knows everything across the line,\u201d said Onwenu. \u201cIt\u2019s good for him to get those reps.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite having started 10 games for the New England Patriots last season, Ben Brown seemingly found himself buried&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,728,20133,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-291516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-roster","13":"tag-new-england-patriots-training-camp","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115035844499908360","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}