Sources: Patriots, LB Harold Landry agree to deal
Linebacker Harold Landry has reached a three-year, $43.5 million deal with the New England Patriots that includes $26 million guaranteed, sources confirmed to ESPN on Sunday amid multiple reports.
Landry will reunite with reunite with former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, who became the Patriots’ head coach this offseason. The linebacker, who played for Vrabel from 2018 to 2023, knows the New England area well, having played at Boston College.
The Patriots are implementing an aggressive defensive system under first-year defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, with Vrabel saying the goal is to play on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage. Williams had served as Titans defensive line coach under Vrabel from 2018 to 2023 and also knows Landry well.
The Titans released Landry on Friday after a trade never materialized despite the team giving his agents permission to seek one.
Landry, 28, led the team with nine sacks last season and posted 15 tackles for a loss and 15 quarterback hits in 17 starts. It was his third consecutive year with at least nine sacks, including a career-high 12 in 2021, his lone Pro Bowl season.
The Titans then signed Landry to a five-year, $87 million contract in 2022. He suffered a torn ACL during the preseason and missed all of that season. He returned in 2023 and finished second on the Titans with 10.5 sacks.
Landry was selected by the Titans in the second round (41st overall) of the 2018 NFL draft out of Boston College.
He started 79 of 98 career games in Tennessee and has 50.5 career sacks.
Also Sunday, The Patriots reached a one-year deal with two-time Pro Bowl tight end Austin Hooper that is worth $5 million and can reach a maximum value of $7 million, a source told ESPN’s Schefter.
ESPN’s Mike Reiss and Turron Davenport contributed to this report.
The Atlanta Falcons’ first major move of the offseason was to lock up their most experienced player.
The Falcons agreed with former Pro Bowl left tackle Jake Matthews on a two-year, $45 million extension, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Sunday. NFL Network was the first to report the news. The deal was negotiated by agent Ryan Williams of Athletes First.
Matthews, 33, still had another year left on his previous contract. This will likely keep one of the team’s franchise players, an 11-year veteran, in Atlanta at least through 2026. Matthews will get $38 million guaranteed, NFL Network reported.
In his previous contract, Matthews’ salary cap number would have been nearly $22 million next season. This extension is expected to give Atlanta salary cap relief. The team had been over the cap coming into the offseason.
Matthews has been with the Falcons since being drafted sixth overall by Atlanta in 2014. He has been a starter from day one, including covering the blind side for quarterback Matt Ryan when the Falcons went to the Super Bowl after the 2016 season. Matthews, a 2018 Pro Bowl selection, is the son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews.
Check out the stats from Jamien Sherwood’s breakout season that led him to a new deal with the Jets. (0:53)
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — New York Jets general manager Darren Mougey made his first significant investment on Sunday night, retaining middle linebacker Jamien Sherwood with a three-year, $45 million contract, Sherwood’s agents, Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey, told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The contract includes $30 million in fully guaranteed money.
The Jets were determined to lock up Sherwood, 25, before he became an unrestricted free agent. New coach Aaron Glenn has his starting middle linebacker. The moves casts further doubt on the future on former Pro Bowl middle linebacker C.J. Mosley, 32, who counts $12.8 million on the cap and could be released.
Sherwood is a true success story — a low-round draft pick who changed positions, rebounded from an Achilles tendon tear during his rookie campaign in 2021 and made a name for himself at middle linebacker.
He played safety at Auburn, but the Jets selected him in the fifth round with the idea of converting him to linebacker in their 4-3 front. He was the third linebacker in 2022 and 2023, coming off the field in nickel situations, but he got his big break last season when the venerable Mosley went down with a severe toe injury in Week 2.
Sherwood stepped into the Mike position, made the on-field defensive calls and established himself as a vocal team leader. He registered a team-high 154 total tackles, tied for third in the league. He also tallied 10 tackles for loss and two sacks, all while missing only 13 tackles, per Next Gen Stats.
Once he got on the field, Sherwood seldom came off. He played a team-high 1,107 snaps, counting special teams play.
On a team with big names such as Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams and Garrett Wilson, the players voted for Sherwood as their team MVP.
At 6-foot-2 and 216 pounds, Sherwood isn’t built to be a downhill linebacker. His game is about speed and sideline-to-sideline tackling ability, making him ideal in an attack-style defense.
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The New England Patriots made a big splash Sunday a day before the NFL’s legal tampering period began — the unofficial start of free agency — to bolster their defense.
According to multiple reports, the Patriots are signing Pro Bowl outside linebacker Harold Landry III to a three-year, $43.5 million deal with $26 million guaranteed. NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, who broke the news, reported Landry’s contract has a max value of $48 million.
The Patriots were viewed as a landing spot for Landry after the Tennessee Titans cut the 28-year-old a couple of days ago for salary cap reasons. Landry has strong ties to Mike Vrabel, who drafted the Boston College product in 2018.
Landry enjoyed a Pro Bowl season in 2021 when he accumulated a career-high 12 sacks and 75 tackles. He missed the entire 2022 season due to a torn ACL, but returned to have productive seasons the last two years.
Landry started all 17 games this past season, in which he totaled 71 tackles, nine sacks, 15 quarterback hits and four passes defended.
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The Patriots certainly will need Landry’s pass-rushing presence in their front seven after they finished last in the NFL in sacks in 2024.
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Reports: Patriots signing LB Harold Landry III, TE Austin Hooper
The New England Patriots signed free agent outside linebacker Harold Landry III on a three-year contract and re-signed tight end Austin Hooper to a one-year deal, according to media reports on Sunday night.
Landry, a one-time Pro Bowl selection who was recently released by the Tennessee Titans in a salary cap move, has a new contract worth $43.5 million with $26 million guaranteed, per reports.
Hooper, a two-time Pro Bowl selection, is returning to New England on a $5 million contract with a maximum value of $7 million, ESPN reported.
Both players have connections to the Patriots’ new head coach, Mike Vrabel, when he was at the helm of the Titans, as well as to other New England coaches.
Vrabel used a Titans second-round draft pick in 2018 to select Landry. The Patriots’ new defensive coordinator, Terrell Williams, was the Titans’ defensive line coach under Vrabel from 2018-23.
Hooper spent time with Vrabel at Tennessee in 2022 and with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels with Las Vegas in 2023, when McDaniels was the Raiders’ head coach.
Landry, 28, was the Titans’ longest-tenured player when he was released. He would have earned $17.5 million in base salary with a $24.05 million cap hit in 2025.
He started all 17 games last season and made 71 tackles with a team-high nine sacks as well as 15 tackles for loss, one safety, 15 quarterback hits and four pass breakups.
He has 397 career tackles in 98 regular-season games (79 starts) with 50.5 sacks, 70 tackles for loss, 102 QB hits, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.
After being voted to the Pro Bowl in 2021, Landry signed a five-year, $87 million deal in 2022 but tore his ACL in the preseason and missed the entire campaign.
Hooper, 30, caught 45 passes on 59 targets for 476 yards and three touchdowns in 17 games (eight starts) in his first season in New England.
A Pro Bowl selection in 2018 and 2019, Hooper has 409 career receptions for 4,178 yards and 28 touchdowns in 139 regular-season games (76 starts) for the Atlanta Falcons (2016-19), Cleveland Browns (2020-21), Titans (2022), Raiders (2023) and Patriots.
The Falcons selected him in the third round of the 2016 draft.
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