{"id":807837,"date":"2026-03-12T07:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/807837\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T07:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T07:20:21","slug":"patriots-add-ex-dolphins-tight-end-in-free-agency-98-5-the-sports-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/807837\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots add ex-Dolphins tight end in free agency – 98.5 The Sports Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New England Patriots continued to address their issues in the trenches on offense Wednesday, agreeing to a deal with tight end Julian Love. Ian Rapoport<\/a> of the NFL Network first broke the news of the Love signing, along with safety Mike Brown.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Hill is getting a three-year deal from the Patriots, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Hill, 25, signed with the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2023, and has played 45 of 51 possible games as mainly a blocking tight end. He was inline on 310 of 441 offensive snaps in 2025, with roughly an even split between the left and right side (via Pro Football Focus<\/a>). He chipped in as a pass-catcher with 27 receptions over the past two seasons and occasionally lined up in the backfield.<\/p>\n

The ex-Dolphin is merely the latest in what’s been a concerted effort by the Patriots to improve their blocking in front of quarterback Drake Maye, beyond just the offensive line. They also signed guard Alijah Vera-Tucker and fullback Reggie Gilliam on Monday.<\/p>\n

Needs remain for tackle depth in New England. But the Patriots have certainly shown a commitment to protecting their young franchise quarterback and beefing up their run game, and they’re hoping that the collective group proves to vastly improve upon a disappointing playoff run and an ugly Super Bowl performance.<\/p>\n

Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots continued to address their issues in the trenches on offense Wednesday, agreeing to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,16257,1167,249,2326,2094,6,2592,208,111578],"class_list":{"0":"post-807837","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-julian-hill","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-free-agency","16":"tag-patriots","17":"tag-patriots-offseason-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116215007713912154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807837","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=807837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}