Patriots Reportedly Re-Sign Veteran D-Tackle Ahead Of 2022 NFL Draft

One of the last remaining New England Patriots free agents landed a new contract Wednesday.

The Patriots reportedly re-signed veteran nose tackle Carl Davis on the eve of the 2022 NFL Draft, adding depth to their D-line rotation.

ESPN’s Field Yates was the first to report Davis’s re-signing, the terms of which have not been reported.

Davis, who joined the Patriots midway through the 2020 season, played in all 17 regular-season games in 2021 (four starts), totaling 19 tackles and one sack.

“You look at our fourth-and-1 stops, our third-and-1 stops, our goal-line stops — he’s at the point of attack of a lot of those stops,” Patriots defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington said last November. “We’re glad to have him. He’s a load on the inside, for sure, and you can’t just single-block him. If you single-block him, good for us. He should be able to make the play.”

His presence allowed the Patriots to shift Davon Godchaux to different alignments along the defensive line, but Davis finished the season as Pro Football Focus’s lowest-graded New England defender and was a healthy scratch for the team’s wild-card playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.

The 30-year-old Davis rejoins Godchaux, Lawrence Guy, Christian Barmore, Deatrich Wise, Daniel Ekuale, Henry Anderson, Byron Cowart and Bill Murray on the Patriots’ D-line depth chart. Cowart and Murray did not see game action last season, and Anderson suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in Week 4.

New England could look to add to that group through this year’s draft, which kicks off Thursday night in Las Vegas.

From the Patriots’ 2022 free agent class, only linebackers Dont’a Hightower, Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy (whom the team released) remained unsigned as of Wednesday afternoon.