Before going on their record-breaking free agency spending spree last spring, the New England Patriots brought another player aboard who had been released from his previous team. Harold Landry, a longtime member of the Tennessee Titans, was signed to a three-year, $43.5 million contract before free agency frenzy began.<\/p>\n
Landry did enjoy some success early in his Patriots tenure \u2014 he was voted a captain and picked up 5.5 sacks in his first seven games \u2014 but ultimately was limited down the stretch because of a nagging knee ailment. After playing 78.7% of defensive snaps over the first half of the season, he was limited to 33.8% after popping up on the injury report in Week 12.<\/p>\n
Given his injury history, minor role in the playoffs, and the fact that he is set to turn 30 this offseason, could Landry be a candidate to step away? Not according to Patriots executive vice president of player personnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got to, first and foremost, try to get healthy,\u201d Wolf told reporters at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday. \u201cAnother culture guy that came in, that really was able to deliver and act upon Coach [Mike] Vrabel\u2019s messaging to the defense. So, yeah, we would expect him back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Landry and Vrabel go back to 2018, when the former was part of the latter\u2019s first draft class with the Titans. Over the next few seasons, the outside linebacker became a core member of Tennessee\u2019s defense and an unsurprising target for Vrabel\u2019s new team in March 2025.<\/p>\n
He effectively was inserted into the Patriots\u2019 starting lineup right away, and would have remained there throughout the season if not for his injury woes. Heading into 2026, his role should therefore look similar even though it remains to be seen what the edge group as a whole will look like.<\/p>\n
While Landry is set to return, fellow starter K\u2019Lavon Chaisson is an unrestricted free agent. Even if Chaisson is retained, the Patriots would stand to benefit from an infusion of high-end talent \u2014 talent that very well could come through the draft.<\/p>\n
If they decide to go that route, Wolf explained that the Patriots would be looking for a multi-purpose player very much in the same mold as Landry.<\/p>\n
\u201cPass rush, speed and violence, explosiveness, first-step quickness, the ability to win in multiple ways \u2014 you can\u2019t just be an edge run-around-the-hoop guy at this level,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some guys in college that are able to be successful that way, but you need different things in your toolbox. I think the guys that can rush with power are maybe at more of a premium \u2014 the guys that are athletic and can rush with power. That\u2019s why everyone\u2019s looking for pass rushers in the league. It\u2019s not just going to be us. So, we\u2019ll see if we can improve that spot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before going on their record-breaking free agency spending spree last spring, the New England Patriots brought another player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,728,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-775287","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-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116131061409496371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775287","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=775287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}