The New England Patriots had an active first day of the NFL\u2019s new league as they agreed to contract terms with four external free agents while also seeing several defenders depart from last year\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n
With the dust settled, here\u2019s who was impacted the most, both positively and negatively, by their moves on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
S Craig Woodson: Last year\u2019s fourth-round pick ended his rookie season playing some of the best football among anyone on the Patriots roster. Entering year two, he will lose running mate and former University of Cal teammate Jaylinn Hawkins, but will now get to work alongside three-time first-team All-Pro Kevin Byard<\/a>. The 32-year old, who Mike Vrabel has described as having a \u201cvery calm, confident demeanor\u201d while be a key mentor for Woodson early in his career. Byard\u2019s work in the deep part of the field may also free Woodson up to play closer to the line of scrimmage at times next season.<\/p>\n ED Elijah Ponder & ED Bradyn Swinson: New England released Anfernee Jennings<\/a> on Wednesday and saw K\u2019Lavon Chaisson then sign with the Washington Commanders. Even after adding Dre\u2019Mont Jones on the first day of the legal tampering period, the Patriots have much work to do along the edge. Where the group stands now, however, thrusts second year players Elijah Ponder and Bradyn Swinson into elevated roles on the depth chart. Ponder, a favorite of outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, could especially be in the team\u2019s plans as a rotational rusher next season.<\/p>\n S Dell Pettus & LB Marte Mapu: Beyond the addition of Byard, the Patriots also signed safety Mike Brown<\/a> after the start of the league new year. Brown was with Mike Vrabel and special teams coach Tom Quinn for over a year in Tennessee where he served as a key special teamer \u2014 which included spending most of the 2023 season as the team\u2019s personnel protector on punt coverage. In New England, that role was held by Marte Mapu last season and Dell Pettus the year prior, while Brown will also challenge Pettus on the safety depth chart.<\/p>\n TE C.J. Dippre: A 2025 UDFA, Dippre started his rookie year on the practice squad before earning a spot on the 53-man roster \u2014 where he was active for just two games. Entering the offseason, Dippre slotted in as the top tight end under contract behind Hunter Henry. That was until Wednesday when the Patriots made a three-year commitment (pending guarantees) to Julian Hill<\/a>, who\u2019s primary strengths overlap with Dippre as a blocking tight end. The Patriots are now also expected to target the position in the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots had an active first day of the NFL\u2019s new league as they agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,57412,1095,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-808145","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-free-agency","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116216238009279058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808145","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=808145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}