New England Patriots Free Agent Grades: 2 veterans brought on board

New England Patriots free-agent signing No. 1: Trent Brown

Early last week, the Patriots were able to re-sign Trent Brown from seemingly out of nowhere. It seemed like Brown was trending towards leaving, but ultimately ending up staying put after his market didn’t develop the way he thought it would. Re-signing Brown ensures that New England won’t lose three pieces of their starting o-line from last offseason, which is a huge victory.

I previously wrote about how re-signing Brown was the only way the Pats could salvage their offseason, and lo and behold they managed to pull it off. Bringing back Brown is huge for a number of reasons. He’s obviously a tremendous talent, but it also ensures that the team only has to fill one spot on the o-line for the rest of the offseason. That’s a lot easier than filling two vacant spots to say the least.

Brown’s deal comes in at two years, $13 million, which is really good value considering the level of play Brown is capable of. it is worth noting that Brown has only played 25 games over the past three seasons, so it’s not really a sure bet that he will be able to stay healthy moving forward.

This deal sees Brown betting on himself to stay healthy before being able to land a bigger deal down the line. While the base salary sees Brown earning $13 million, he could earn as much as $22 million if he reaches all his incentives. There is also a potential opt out after this season, so Brown could end up hitting the market as early as next offseason too.

FINAL GRADE: A

Aside from Brown’s injury concerns, I cannot find one thing I dislike about this deal. When he’s on the field, Brown is one of the best tackles in the game, and they just signed him to an extremely team-friendly deal for potentially the next two seasons. Keeping Mac Jones upright is extremely important, and bringing Brown back into the fold ensures that will happen moving forward.