{"id":807622,"date":"2026-03-12T04:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/807622\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T04:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:45:18","slug":"what-signing-julian-hill-mike-brown-means-for-the-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/807622\/","title":{"rendered":"What signing Julian Hill, Mike Brown means for the Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots\u2019 roster movement continued after the start of the league new year, this time with a pair of depth signings as they agreed to a three-year deal with tight end Julian Hill and one-year contract with safety Mike Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break down what the moves mean for the team from a big-picture perspective.<\/p>\n

Valued skillset: New England\u2019s tight end depth was thin behind veteran Hunter Henry, as just 2025 UDFA C.J. Dippre and Marshall Long are under contract. Hill, who is coming off a season in which he played a season-high 55% of the Miami Dolphins\u2019 offensive snaps, provides another veteran option to the group and brings a needed skillset as their primary blocking tight end. It\u2019s another addition to help improve New England\u2019s run game in 2026.<\/p>\n

More needed: Even with Hill signing a three-year deal and likely set to serve as the team\u2019s blocking tight end, more is needed at the position as he has just 33 career receptions to his name and Hunter Henry enters his age 32 season. Tight end remains a spot where New England needs to get younger and more athletic, perhaps finding Drake Maye a new explosive target in the passing game. Head coach Mike Vrabel, unprompted, noted the strength of this year\u2019s draft class at the NFL Combine last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust looking across the board, I think there\u2019s volume at the tight end class,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether they\u2019re premium players or what people would say are first-round picks, I just know that when you go and you evaluate other teams and you get ready to play for them, there\u2019s a bunch of fourth and fifth round tight ends that end up starting, playing and contributing. So, wherever that value is, I just think that there are some names there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, myself, personally, have to do a better job of evaluating that position that I can then give input to the rest of the personnel staff and kind of the vision that we have for that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheme shift? In Mike McDaniel\u2019s zone run game in Miami, Hill was often put in motion and was responsible for edge defenders. That usage is similar to that of recently added fullback Reggie Gilliam, who shined in getting to the second level from the opposite side of formations in Buffalo\u2019s zone run schemes.<\/p>\n

Josh McDaniels is typically known for his downhill run game, but the Patriots were extremely efficient on outside zone last season. These recent additions \u2014 as well as the signing of athletic guard Alijah-Vera Tucker \u2014 could signal that is something the Patriots will lean into further in 2026.<\/p>\n

Safety depth: Earlier on Wednesday, the Patriots agreed to a one-year deal with All-Pro safety Kevin Byard. The 32-year veteran will now join Craig Woodson atop the safety depth chart, but depth behind them remained thin with just Dell Pettus, John Saunders Jr., and Brenden Schooler on the roster. Brown will now provide another layer of depth with 38 career games of experience across his four year career.<\/p>\n

Special teams value: Throughout his career, Brown\u2019s largest contributions have been on special teams. Over the last two seasons for the Titans, he has played 78% of their special teams snaps while being a regular across five units \u2014 kick coverage, kick return, punt coverage, punt return, and field goal block. Now in New England, Brown\u2019s easiest path towards playing time will again be on special teams.<\/p>\n

Added familiarity: After Brown spent the majority of his rookie season as a UDFA with the Browns, Mike Vrabel\u2019s Tennessee Titans signed the safety off of Cleveland\u2019s practice squad. Brown has gone on to spend the last three seasons with the Titans \u2014 agreeing to a one-year contract extension last offseason \u2014 which included playing for Vrabel in 2023 and backing up Byard for six games that same season (before the veteran was traded).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots\u2019 roster movement continued after the start of the league new year, this time with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,52640,57412,728,13788,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-807622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england-patriots-analysis","10":"tag-new-england-patriots-free-agency","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-roster","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-salary-cap","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116214387436551266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807622","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=807622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}