The New England Patriots\u2019 2026 free agency class may lack distinct star power, but it does include several key contributors particularly on defense. Among them is safety Jaylinn Hawkins, who was tied for the team lead in interceptions last season and ranked third in defensive snaps.<\/p>\n
Despite the Patriots falling short in Super Bowl LX, Hawkins will enter next month\u2019s free agency with momentum on his side. But while that will likely dictate his asking price, his preferred landing spot is clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to remain here for sure,\u201d Hawkins told reporters at locker room cleanout on Tuesday. \u201cThis is home, man. What we built here I feel like is special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is he optimistic that the two teams will come to an agreement?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to see. I hope it does,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to see when that time comes. Obviously, it\u2019s going to come up pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hawkins first joined the Patriots on a one-year free agency contract in 2024. Originally serving as a third safety and core special teamer, he returned on another one-year pact worth $1.8 million.<\/p>\n
The former fourth-round draft pick, who played for the Falcons and Chargers before arriving in New England, lived up to the deal and then some. He took over a starting role in training camp and ended up appearing starting all 15 of the regular season games he appeared in as well as all four of the Patriots\u2019 playoff contests.<\/p>\n
Even though the Patriots ended up losing the Super Bowl to the Seahawks, Hawkins enjoyed a successful second season with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m thankful for this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the coaches for just allowing me to come in and compete. That\u2019s the biggest thing for me, allowing me to come and compete. I appreciate that more than anything, because it\u2019s an opportunity. I appreciate being around this group of guys on the backend and being around the coaches. They helped me out tremendously as well and we all stuck together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots\u2019 2026 free agency class may lack distinct star power, but it does include several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,57412,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-746977","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-free-agency","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116057663421910104","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746977","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=746977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}