FOXBORO, Mass. — Despite missing five games with a left calf injury and having to fight through a stacked group of safeties, Jarrad Page provided value during his first season with New England.
Page enjoyed his time with the Patriots, who acquired him from the Chiefs in a Week 1 trade, and he was open to the idea of returning next season. Page, who will enter free agency, wouldn’t make any commitments one way or another, though.
“I just can’t make a commitment because I don’t even know the situation,” Page said. “I liked it here. It wasn’t like I came here and didn’t like it. I liked it. I had fun. I liked my teammates here, so we’ll see what happens.”
Page appreciated the opportunity to get a chance with the Patriots after he missed all of training camp in Kansas City due to a contract dispute. He showed enough talent on the field to draw interest from other teams, and if the right situation presented itself somewhere else — such as a team that didn’t have three established starting-caliber safeties on the roster — it wouldn’t exactly be shocking to see Page take up residence elsewhere.
“I like it here, but [free agency] is not really anything that I can really discuss at this point because I have no idea of what the future holds, what opportunities I’ll have, what the situation will be here,” Page said. “I definitely liked it here. We’ll see what happens.”
It was a tricky situation for Page, who didn’t practice until he was acquired by the Pats on Sept. 5. He also had to ruffle through a safety corps that included Pro Bowler Brandon Meriweather, 2009 second-round pick Patrick Chung and established veteran James Sanders.
Once Page got going, he hurt his calf in Week 6 against the Ravens and lost his momentum. He was inactive for five consecutive games and didn’t play in a sixth before finally getting back on the field for the Patriots’ prime-time game against the Jets in Week 13, so it must have felt like a continuous uphill battle.
Page finished the regular season with 13 tackles and two interceptions. He also had six stops on special teams.
“I thought things went well,” Page said. “I thought we played pretty good football all year. We just had the worst time of the year to play probably our worst game of the year. I enjoyed myself here. I think we had a pretty good year with the exception of what just happened.”
