Mike Vrabel quietly spent the 2024 season with the Cleveland Browns as a coaching and personnel consultant while between head coaching jobs, working mostly with the offensive line. It was only a matter of time until the now-head coach of the New England Patriots recruited a former Browns draft pick to Foxboro.
Browns fans were thinking more along the lines of Joel Bitonio. With all due respect to Vrabel, no one had James Hudson III on their 2026 Bingo card.
Hudson, Cleveland’s former swing tackle who’s now famous for all the wrong reasons, is headed to New England on a one-year deal, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network. Hudson was around during Vrabel’s lone season in Cleveland in 2024 before leaving for the New York Giants as a 2025 free agent.
Hudson served as a valuable swing tackle for the Browns and started 17 games over his four years in Cleveland. The 2021 fourth-round draft pick was inconsistent at best, though, and Browns fans hardly batted an eye after he landed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Giants last spring.Â
He actually opened the 2025 season as the Giants’ placeholder at left tackle for injured starter Andrew Thomas, but that didn’t last long after his viral meltdown in a Week 2 game against the Dallas Cowboys.
James Hudson’s Giants meltdown only confirmed what Browns fans knew about his dependability
Hudson’s now best known for becoming the NFL’s first player since at least the millennium to commit four penalties on the same drive, and it was ugly as it sounds. He was flagged twice for unnecessary roughness and another two times for false starts. One play included a blatant swipe at the head of a Cowboys pass rusher that may have been grounds for an ejection had he made better contact.
It got worse when he reached the sideline, as Giants expert Matt Sidney of GMEN HQ recounted:
"Once Hudson hit the sideline, it was helmet off and all gas, no breaks. He was caught on camera screaming at anyone and everyone in his vicinity, with (head coach Brian Daboll) receiving the bulk of the feedback."
The Giants wound up benching Hudson after that drive and he was relegated to special teams work for the rest of the season. Details on his one-year contract with the Patriots were not immediately known, but the max value likely be in the neighborhood of $1.2 million, slightly above the league’s veteran minimum for 2026.Â
Hudson’s 2024 season, with Vrabel in town, got cut short by a season-ending shoulder injury. He wound up starting three games at left tackle for the Browns that year, and played 222 total offensive snaps. Vrabel’s Patriots recently lost swing tackle Vederian Lowe in free agency, so it’s possible Hudson catches on in Foxboro in a key reserve role.
Cleveland notably lacks depth at offensive tackle, particularly on the left side. Browns fans are probably thinking the same thing, though, after seeing Hudson’s name resurface during NFL free agency: Good luck, New England.