Pats Sign Baker, Re-Sign Hochstein

The Matt Cassel/Mike Vrabel trade to Kansas City was the big news of the week, but the New England Patriots have continued making roster changes in the meantime, scooping up tight end Chris Baker and offensive lineman Russ Hochstein in two separate deals announced yesterday.

Free agent TE Chris Baker now joins the Patriots after spending all of his previous seven years in the league with the New York Jets, coming to New York in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft out of Michigan State. The tight end has 51 starts, 145 receptions for 1,505 yards and 12 touchdowns so far in his career, and he will likely play a crucial part of New England’s passing game. The Pats have been low on tight ends for the last year, and though current names on the team’s TE roster include Tyson DeVree, David Thomas and Benjamin Watson, both Thomas and Watson are on their way toward free agency.

OL Russ Hochstein, on the other hand, is no new face to the Patriots, and he solidified his future in New England by re-signing with the team. Hochstein has been with the Patriots since 2002, and the 6-foot-4-inch, 305-pound offensive lineman first came to the team after being traded from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was drafted into the NFL from the University of Nebraska in the fifth round of the 2001 NFL Draft.

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