Patriots’ Trent Brown Makes Eye-Popping Comments On Contract

Don’t expect Trent Brown and the Patriots to reach a new contract agreement before NFL free agency opens in March.

The big left tackle told A to Z Sports’ Sophie Weller this week that he plans to test the market once his current deal expires after the season.

“We already had that opportunity (to reach an extension),” Brown said. “We have had plenty of opportunities to get that done. I mean, I’m not opposed to it, but we are at the end of the season. …

“It’d be kind of like, I feel like I’d be kind of doing myself a disservice to not see what other opportunities are out there, just at this point.”

Brown, who re-signed with the Patriots on a two-year contract in 2022, said he expected to land another deal with New England by now.

“It would have been done when they said it was going to get done. When I signed the last one,” the 31-year-old told Weller. “The one I signed two years ago, I was told that I would, if I had a good year then I would — we should get it fixed. It never happened.”

The Patriots did rework Brown’s contract in September to add $2 million in incentives. After that adjustment, he said he appreciated that it “still allowed (him) to be a free agent at the end of the year.”

Brown is one of the Patriots’ best offensive players when healthy and engaged, but he’s dealt with a laundry list of injuries this season and has not seen a full gameday workload since late October. He’s started just one game since the start of November and was inactive for Sunday’s Week 17 matchup in Buffalo despite being removed from New England’s injury report two days earlier.

Sunday’s DNP guaranteed Brown would finish the season with less than 65% of snaps played, preventing him from earning any of his playing-time incentives.

While it’s possible Brown and the Patriots eventually will find common ground on a new contract, it seems increasingly likely he will be playing elsewhere next season.