Patriots Rumors: Trent Brown Won't Get Contract Extension Before 2024 NFL Free Agency

The contract of New England Patriots offensive tackle Trent Brown will void on Monday unless he receives an extension from the team, per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, an unlikely outcome that has him set to hit free agency on March 13.

He will have a dead cap hit of $2 million from his previous deal, according to Fowler.

Brown made it pretty clear during the season that he didn't envision himself signing an extension.

"We already had that opportunity," he told Sophie Weller of A To Z NFL when asked if he saw himself returning to the Pats. "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."

A number of reports throughout the season suggested that the Patriots had a hard time motivating Brown, or that he was regularly late to meetings and had discussed plans to play for an NFC team in the New England locker room this past season.

Brown told Dakota Randall of NESN in January that he didn't appreciate what he described as "bulls–t" and inaccurate reporting.

"It's been a rough year," he said. "This has been a year like no other that I've had in my NFL career as far as the amount of anonymous sources that have come forward to spew complete lies about my character. It's been tough to even go in the building every day knowing that there's somebody that I probably look at every day, or smiles in my face every day, that is running a smear campaign."

Brown, 30, struggled with injuries throughout the season and the Patriots eventually went with a rotation at left tackle after the Week 11 bye. Given both that fact and the conversations that surrounded him throughout the season, a return to New England would have been a major shocker.

But he'll be one of the top offensive lineman options on the market this offseason, so it shouldn't be long before he finds a new home.