New England Patriots Free Agency: What’s Next?
By Hal Bent
LB Jonathan Casillas, LB Preston Brown, LB NaVorro Bowman, LB Jerrell Freeman
Casillas is visiting with the Patriots and is a familiar name. He arrived via trade in 2014 and was a key contributor with his pass coverage skills during their run to the Super Bowl 49 victory. Casillas parlayed that strong play on a national platform to pick-up a three-year deal from the Giants. Casillas finished the year on injured reserve but is a known quantity to Belichick and makes sense as a free agent target.
Brown is well-known to the Patriots having spent his last four seasons in Buffalo. Buffalo has been a solid feeder system to the Patriots in recent years and Brown would be a perfect fit in the middle of the defense. He would not come cheap but putting him and Van Noy inside and letting Hightower slide outside would give the defense a big boost against the run and slowing short passing attacks.
Bowman is 30-years old and has had injury issues missing all of 2014 and 12 games in 2016. San Francisco released him and he was picked up by Oakland during the season but Bowman is testing the free agent market and Oakland has signed Tahir Whitehead in his place. Bowman is versatile and can cover, blitz and is a sideline-to-sideline tackling machine. His price tag is a big factor that may prevent him from coming cross country to Foxboro.
Freeman is another veteran (32-years old) and has two games remaining on a PED suspension. Freeman was cut by the Bears, so he would not count in calculating compensatory picks which factors into the Patriots’ potential interest. He is talented–and potentially cheap–which explains why he should be on the New England shopping list.