Patriots: 3 former Pats New England can bring back this offseason

2. Troy Hill

If you look around the NFL, you’ll find plenty of former Patriots. However, that list shrinks ten fold when you narrow it down to former team members who also just so happen to be hitting free agency this offseason. That’s why this particular list doesn’t have a ton of positional versatility.

With that being said, however, cornerback could still be a point of emphasis for New England this offseason for the reasons listed previously, and Rams star Troy Hill, who was actually claimed off waivers by the Patriots during the latter stages of the 2015 season but was released five days later, would be a perfect replacement for Gilmore.

Rams star Troy Hill was one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL this past season. Is he bound for the Patriots?

After failing to lock down a starting role over the first five seasons of his career, Hill burst onto the scene in a huge way on the Rams’ league-best defense in 2020. The 29-year-old started all 16 games and played 95% of the defensive snaps, shattering his previous career-high of 49% by a wide margin.

For the season, Hill recorded 77 tackles, 10 passes defended, three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns (which led the league), and two fumble recoveries, earning an elite 75.7 coverage grade from PFF in the process. If you asked us, a one-two punch of Jackson and Hill, with the highly underrated Jonathan Jones holding down the fort as the third stringer, would easily give the Patriots one of the best cornerback tandems in the league.

If those numbers fail to convince fans that Hill would be a home run signing, then nothing will.