The Patriots made an effort to sign Nick Fairley, but with Fairley heading to the Saints, Bill Belichick and the Pats aren’t wasting any time moving onto other potential targets. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), New England is hosting free agent defensive tackle Terrance Knighton for a visit today.
Knighton, who started his career in Jacksonville, spent two seasons in Denver before heading to Washington for the 2015 campaign. The 29-year-old has been very durable in his first seven NFL seasons, appearing in 108 total regular-season games, including 96 starts.
A nose tackle, in Washington’s 3-4 scheme, Pot Roast logged 29 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 2015. Although he didn’t have quite the same impact last year that he did during his final season as a Bronco, Knighton ranked in the top half of Pro Football Focus’ list of qualified interior defenders, placing 58th out of 123 players. Predictably, PFF assigned Knighton a much grade as a run defender than as a pass rusher.
The Patriots don’t run a 3-4 base, so if they do sign Knighton, he wouldn’t play quite the same role that he did in D.C. Still, New England is in need of big bodies up front, having lost Akiem Hicks and Sealver Siliga in free agency earlier this month.
According to Rapoport (via Twitter), Washington also has interest in bringing back Knighton.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.