{"id":815544,"date":"2026-03-16T16:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/815544\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T16:30:23","slug":"instant-grades-for-patriots-free-agency-signing-mike-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/815544\/","title":{"rendered":"Instant grades for Patriots free agency signing Mike Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The New England Patriots made some investment in their safety group last week. Besides signing All-Pro Kevin Byard to a one-year deal, they also brought in another ex-Titan, Mike Brown, on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-free-agency-rumors-signings-updates-transactions\/124147\/mike-brown-contract-details-analysis-salary-cap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deal that spans only the 2026 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Instant grades: Patriots sign S Mike Brown<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bernd Buchmasser: Brown\u2019s defensive exposure has been limited throughout his career, but he projects to compete for a core special teams role. Getting a player like that at a cost-efficient contract is certainly not the worst way to spend your resources. | Grade: C<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Matt St. Jean: Add Mike Brown to the list of former Mike Vrabel players rejoining their head coach. Brown should be fighting for a depth role at safety and a starting role on special teams, where he joins players like Dell Pettus and Brenden Schooler. | Grade: C+<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pat Lane: Another familiar face for the Patriots and Mike Vrabel. He\u2019s probably not going to play a ton, but he\u2019s a decent depth option who can also play special teams. Vrabel obviously wants guys that he\u2019s familiar with and can trust on the back end of the roster, and Smith fits that bill. | Grade: C<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What do you think about the Patriots signing Mike Brown? Do you like the move? Do you not? And how would you grade it? Please head down to the comment section to discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots made some investment in their safety group last week. Besides signing All-Pro Kevin Byard&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,57412,1095,728,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-815544","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-free-agency","10":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-roster","12":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116239810141201476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815544","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=815544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}